Should I go back on market?

[9millioncansofbeans]

Writing this was such frustration and sadness.

I accepted an offer on my property 3rd august and I had an offer accepted on a property 5th august. Closed chain- first time buyer buying mine and I’m buying chain free.

I had my formal mortgage offer 21st august ans survey done 28th august.

No survey was booked in on my property so I began chasing the agents 28th august. I have at least 6 emails with my question why no survey had been done until they eventually took me seriously mid September and called the buyer who claimed she didn’t realise she had to book an appointment for mortgage.

Mortgage valuation happened 2nd October and I’m told she’s still awaiting her final mortgage offer.

We’re ready to exchange and have been for 3 weeks but awaiting her mortgage offer.

I worry I’m going to lose the place I’m buying. I’m frustrated the agents left it so long to chase her.

Are mortgage decisions genuinely taking that long atm?

I called the agent yesterday but he’s not called me back yet. I was going to email today and attach screen shots of every email I’ve send to him chasing. Say how disappointed I am and worried that she still doesn’t have an offer and maybe say If she doesn’t get the offer within a week I am going back to market.

What do you think? I obviously don’t want to go back to market and hope she’s genuinely just still waiting and gets the offer but I’m worried

How odd that she did not realise she needed a formal mortgage offer! Sounds very strange.

Oh and our mortgage approval took only 2 weeks including the valuation which was done on-site .

Can you escalate it to the estate agent branch manager / owner and kick off a bit? I would also not be happy about how relaxed they seem to be. Mortgages are taking longer at the moment but I agree it's a bit worrying the buyer didn't realise she needed to apply for one.

Shouldn't take that long, someone id dropping the ball but you have no idea who that might be. I'd definitely be emailing the agent and letting them know you'll be re-marketing come the end of next week. It at least puts some pressure on them to start chasing a bit harder.

Timescales will depend on the bank she's using and her situation. Our mortgage took 6 weeks but we are self employed and they tend to take longer. If you know the bank you should be able to find out their estimated timescales on their website.

Did she book a survey in the end or not? I assume you've seen a decision in principle so you know she's not making it all up ?

As you sold 3 months ago (and presumably had it on the market for a time prior to that), I assume you're free to switch estate agents?

I would give a time scale and say you need them to ask for proof that she's going through the mortgage application, and that it needs to be back by X date otherwise you'll withdraw and re-market the house with another agent. Put all this in writing, to the branch manager, in an email, with evidence of your other emails. Keep your vendors in the loop and so they know you are doing everything you can do hurry along the sale.

My mortgage is taking for ever for no good reason! Our financials are simple and we have a decent uncomplicated deposit. The valuation has held it all up!

The agent has dropped the ball. They should not have let your prospective purchaser even view your property without checking she had finance in place.

Once she made her offer, didn’t your solicitor get in touch with hers to accept ? What has your solicitor been doing to progress this?

@cloudchaos my buyer is self employed so that is really reassuring actually.

I’ve spoken to my agent this morning who said he has spoken to the buyers broker and the mortgage application has been escalated but there are no problems with it it’s just taking longer than usual. He has also apparently spoken to person I am buying from to reassure them and reports they are satisfied.

So I feel a little more reassured but still frustrating that 3 months in and we’re waiting on mortgage offers

So have the searches been done? Had anything been done? If it's no then I would let them know they have a week or it goes back on the market

It all sounds a bit haphazard. Your buyer needs to have done:

• local searches
• survey
• mortgage application

Just as you need to have done for your purchase.

But what sounds really odd is most estate agents are desperate for their fees so they are very diligent ensuring the sale is on track. I'df escalate to the most senior manager in the branch. Is all your buying searches, surveys and mortgage application done then?

Yes everything has been done - we’ve been ready to exchange for 3 weeks. Just awaiting their mortgage offer which is frustrating but I’m reassured now that there are no issues just she applied for mortgsge late and is self employed so it’s taking longer

Glad to read your final post. Our chain is very similar. Everyone ready to go apart from the bottom of chain waiting for mortgage offer. This took many many weeks longer than everyone else and there was lots of frustration and panic (sounds exactly like you describe above) - however it did come through this week - and it was a genuine case of having to wait for the back to process.

Thank you @Talia78. Good luck with your move!

Our first time buyers at the bottom of the chain have held the sale up by 6 weeks (everyone else ready) because of their mortgage company being so slow.

Definitely the norm at the moment!

It might just be taking that long..our mortgage offer took 7 weeks to come through if our vendor had been so pushy it would've caused so much extra stress. I was already stressing so much over it, its not something she has control over at this point

My sister in law is moving at the moment. It took 6 weeks for their mortgage offer to come through due to delays with covid. She's on a Facebook first time buyers group and says it's full of people saying the same thing.

If you sack off your buyer now it's going to take even longer to move so not sure what the point would be!

We had buyers once who decided to inform us 3 days before exchange that they hadn't yet finalised their mortgage offer. We kicked off massively, gave them short shrift and told them if we didn't see evidence of progress within 1 day we'd put it back on the market and would not consider selling it to them. The buyers were upset and said we were stressing them out, they'd simply forgotten

Just wanted to throw in my reassurance too - I had the same chain as you and we were held up by about 6 additional weeks by how slow my buyer was getting her mortgage application in and then by how slow her bank were processing it.

Your estate agent sound rubbish - I'll admit I got great satisfaction leaving a bad review for mine after it had all gone through 🙈 they also had no urgency chasing things, and felt the buyer should have a free pass on how long she took to do anything as she was a key worker (the fact I am too, and everything I needed to do was done weeks before, meant I had absolutely no interest or sympathy in this at all)

We are currently 7wks from having our offer accepted, 6wks from applying for our mortgage and still waiting for the offer! Grrr. It was approved subject to valuation within days, they tried to book the valuation for the following week but the vendors were self isolating, fair enough but frustrating. After the 14 days they booked the valuation in which couldnt take place for another 3 wks, then the valuation came back lower. Cant resolve that yet, even though we have the extra money, as had to wait a week for an appointment Mortgage applications aren't always much fun right now, we are borrowing well within affordability, good credit records, no problems other than the valuation, existing customers porting and it's been slooooooooow!

Hopefully your buyer's mortgage will come through ok, just maybe not super fast!

Our mortgage offer took 6 or 7 weeks in august/ sept. Maybe 8. The valuation had been done straight away.

I THEN found out that our solicitor hadn’t sent off for searches, because they weren’t going to do that until after the mortgage approval. If they’d just asked me I’d have said to do it straight away, I’d rather lose a few hundred on the searches than lose the house!

My solicitors were parroting “we’re just waiting for the mortgage approval” the whole time.

So it’s stupid and annoying the valuation wasn’t booked, not unusual for mortgage to take ages at the moment. But do check that they have ALL the other legal paperwork including all searches back.

I have just done my mortgage application with Nationwide. It took about 2 weeks to get an initial appointment - another week to get the full appointment and it will take 6 weeks to get full approval. I have approval in principle now and the searches have begun and surveys - may full survey and their valuation survey are booked in next week.

I understand that there is a b it of a backlog with mortgage applications. But there's nothing I can do to speed things up.