Lying about lack of chain

[housebuyingistheworst]

As you can gather from my name, my property search has been going as smoothly as dancing in stilettos on a swamp. I've seen three nice properties recently, but the owners are still living in them. Different agents. All vendors are supposedly moving in with their kids/into rented which then magically became "their daughter's house". Is it just me, or are baby boomers becoming more boomerangy than millennials? or are the estate agents lying, as usual? I won't put an offer in because at this point empty properties are least likely to cause me massive problems, but I wonder if anyone else has experienced a bogus non chain purchase. Once you've spent hundreds of pounds you're unlikely to just pull out due to a sudden appearance of a hidden chain.

I also find it strange that so many people who aren't quite senile decide to move in with their kids.

I find your comments disgusting OP. No matter how frustrated you might be with house-buying there is no need to be so insulting.

so far the nicest houses I've seen happened to be vacant (probate).

Why didn't you buy one of them then?
Probate properties aren't necessarily an easier transaction simply because the house is empty when you view it though.

We were in exactly this position when we moved, making it clear that we were prepared to complete and move in temporarily with adult DC if necessary. We were actively buying but not concerned with synchronising the sale and purchase. In the end our buyers needed more time and our purchase was ready to proceed before the sale.

If you don't have a house to sell then you can always make your offer subject to exchange/completion on x date. My recent purchase was done like this as vendor was moving into a retirement home and the Homes Group she was buying her next house from wanted full completion on 31st October so thats what we all worked for.. You just need to be strong from the start and willing to walk away if they don't agree.

make your offer subject to exchange/completion on x date

Problem is there is not much you can do to force this, unless as a buyer you really are prepared to walk away quite far down the line, after probably spending several hundred, if not a couple of thousand pounds. Few people are in my experience.