Sold house but cant find anywhere

[Housenotselling]

We have recently sold our house and put an offer in for one we liked but they have now decided they are not selling. There is nothing else we like up for sale and I'm worried how long the buyers will wait. We are already the 3rd house in the chain and not much is coming on the market now. I'm thinking of saying to my buyers dont pay for any searches etc until I find somewhere but what do you think, is that normal or will it put them off and if they start the process now will they just have to wait for my purchase to catch up? I cannot go onto rented so it literally needs to complete at the same time. Ant thoughts appreciate, I've never done buying and selling before so it's all new to me.

Why can't you rent?

Main reason because we are tied into our mortgage deal an it would cost thousands to it out of it.

Other reasons are that I'm not willing to pay out all this money for renting and I dont want to disrupt the kids and have the stress and cost of moving twice.

The buyers won't hang around forever. It's not a good time of the year for property to come onto the market. You either have to accept something that may not be your first choice, rent, or gamble on your buyers patience until something does come up, but that could become a lengthy process, especially if you lose them.

We had this issue. Our buyers were very patient but eventually the chain collapsed. As our house went under offer very quickly we have now taken it off the market until we find something we like - the photos etc are done so we can put it on again very quickly.

We are buying & selling atm. This was my fear too, not finding anywhere we loved. We are also relocating which added to the difficulty of our search, we where also looking for a very specific type of property, luckily for us we found an ideal property with no onward chain.

Don’t give up hope of finding the one, I was constantly on RM checking if anything new had come on, on all the local EA books etc.

I presume you are all trying to move to benefit from the stamp duty holiday, I think you could be cutting it fine tbh. Having said that I wouldn’t be surprised if the stamp duty holiday will be extended, gov haven’t said it’s a no, just no plans, but they u turn on everything so it would seem.

Unless you really need to move, don’t buy somewhere just for the sake of it, I have known a couples that have done that to keep their chain going and it has usually resulted in moving again quite soon, one our our friends ended up getting divorced.

Good luck OP, I really hope you find a lovely home, personally
I don’t fancy moving again ever, bloody stressful at every stage!

We have just moved.

We were so lucky that something came on the market in August just before we went away for a week. Our house was unsold at the time but due a second viewing.

We viewed the house the day before heading off for a week and fell in love. It all hung on our second viewing. Luckily they made an offer and we were then able to offer on the one we wanted.

Thank fortune for that because since then not one single house has come on the market I would've wanted... and I do check Rightmove a lot cos I'm nosy.

In your position I'd give it a couple of weeks after Christmas then withdraw and try again when things pick up.

Keep in contact with estate agents. We had the sane situation and bought our house when it came back to market after their sale fell through. I don't think it was advertised again, we were allowed to view and offered on it straight away as they knew we were ready to go and what we were looking for.

I know you said you were not keen on renting but this my story.
Similar position to you, sold no house to buy.
We rented (in the area we wished to buy so no uprooting of schools etc).
Put us in a very good position to buy ( no chain).
Of course, the week after we move in, perfect house comes up.
We got the house ( more than us were after it but our position put us as favourites even though we didn’t put the highest offer in).
So we only rented 6 months and it certainly wasn’t dead money.
Was a small pain moving twice and with little ones, but we have fond memories looking back at that time.
Good luck OP.

We did what @HeartZone suggested. Rented for six months. Meant we could pounce on a house that was so much nicer than any other we'd seen, and our offer was accepted because we could move immediately, no chain, even though other higher offers came in for the house. I also loved our rental house and made friends with a neighbour there who ended up being one of my closest friends during the toddler years.

We have sold and are renting. We had our offer accepted on the house we are buying a couple of weeks before completing on our sale - I am not sure I would have liked the uncertainty of moving into rented with nothing on the horizon but as it is we have had to lock in the rental until the end of April so there is likely to be an overlap.
Re your mortgage - usually lenders let you port within 3-6 months, have you spoken to them?

It isn't ideal but often it is the only way to get the property that you want/need. It also meant that we were able to offer under asking price which is covering our rental costs.

I was in your situation a few weeks ago (early repayment charge and all) and my advice is to seriously re-consider renting. It's not just a matter of waiting for the right house to come onto the market - you need to be the one to nab it. The reason there's nothing good available at moment is that there's still huge demand from people in exactly your position (got a buyer but nowhere to go) and so the competition is really fierce - we made (good) offers on 3 houses and missed out on them all. Being prepared to break the chain puts you in a much more attractive position.

Our mortgage provider (Nationwide) will refund the early repayment charge if we buy somewhere within 6 months of selling. Our sale hasn't gone through yet and we have finally found somewhere to buy, so the conveyancing can overlap and we therefore have more than 6 months of leeway to get it all through.

If your seller has dropped out then I think you should tell your buyers so that they can put a hold on getting searches etc. It's unfair and unkind if you to keep quiet because it suits you. It could cost them a lot of time and money.

My sons sellers dropped out two days after he had had their house surveyed with a full survey. The surveys had mostly been done too. It cost him almost a months salary. Things happen and sales fall through but keeping quiet when you know your seller has dropped out is not ok.

Hopefully you will find something quickly. It's such a stressful process.

Same as @PowerslidePanda we went into rented, paid the ££££ early redemption penalty and have 6 months to complete on a purchase then they will refund the penalty. Worked brilliantly for us as we can't move until February but didn't want to risk losing our buyers so we are renting 3-4 months. It's a bit risky if you haven't found anywhere as I would say you need to allow a good 3 months to do the conveyancing/survey/mortgage application but it was the only way we could see it going through.

We sold and now staying with family.

In a similar position. I can’t rent because it is too expensive in this area. Some estate agents are saying more property will come on in the new year but my buyers want to get the survey done then and I am not convinced I will find anything in time. All that is on at the moment needs a lot of work. Some vendors understandably are not doing viewings at the moment. Feel very disheartened but at the same time don’t feel I should put an offer in on a house just to avoid disappointing my buyers.

We sold ours, our purchase fell through and we moved in with family.

I think the best thing to do is just to be completely honest with your buyers, so they can make their decisions accordingly. At the end of the day, I suppose it depends if you want to lose the sale even less than you want to rent. You just have to wait to see what happens and then make the decision accordingly.

We have had a huge upheaval, moving miles away and then put all of our possessions into storage. There is nothing on the market at the moment but I'm quite excited for early next year. We are in a fantastic position with no chain now and won't feel rushed like we did when we first got our offer.

We didn't expect it to work out like this, but to be honest I wish we'd decided to move in with family from the off, rather than offering in a house that wasn't quite right. We pulled out for an unrelated legal reason in the end. The last few weeks have been hard but knowing we can buy when one comes up is a nice feeling. We also had to pay an early redemption change, but overall it got us to where we are now, even though it stung a bit at the time! Good luck.

I live in a very small village. A lot of the houses never go on right move. If you have a relatively small target area get on the local Facebook group and ask if anyone is planning to get something on the market in the next few months. Pop notes through the doors on the streets you like asking the same thing.