Vetting a potential buyer - help!

[naiveseller101]

I made the mistake with my original buyer of being naive, knowing nothing about house selling and using purplebricks - I didn't ask the buyer any questions and now they've had to pull out so many months into the sale due to things I would have foreseen had I asked questions! Urgh!

Now after going back on the market I've had a new offer! But I obviously need to vet them properly. They are a mainly cash buyer (require a small mortgage) chain free and full time employed.

My last buyers said they were chain free but this wasn't true. Just lies after lies....

What questions should I be asking and what proof should I ask for before accepting the offer?

I also want to put to them that at the offer they've made I want to complete within 3 weeks, they've made a low offer and I've discussed with them that I need it to happen very fast already. Is this fair?

TIA!!

I pity your buyer

About to embark on a very significant transaction with someone who someone who needs utterly naive and inexperienced

seems

3 weeks is completely unrealistic. We accepted an offer on our house in September, still waiting to exchange and that is with FTB and no forward chain.

@Sethy38 😂😂 yes I don't have a hell of a lot of experience in the house buying/selling industry, hence asking for some advice, and why I have a solicitor. Pretty sure most people who sell a house don't have a great deal of experience. Maybe I should take a work experience role in an estate agents, or start a diploma in property before advertising my house for sale. Will I be sufficiently qualified to then sell my house?

If anything I've been too laidback and patient with my previous buyers - made it a really easy ride for them to continue to lie and stall the sale up until the point of exchange when the lies couldn't carry on. Feel really sorry for myself!

What lies though? I feel like you don’t understand the responsibility your EA and solicitor should have.

The fact you want to complete in 3 weeks and think it’s reasonable would indicate you are entering in this relationship with wholly unrealistic expectation

Hence me feeling sorry for your buyers

And no - you don’t need to have done work experience in an estate agents to know this!

* Contracts and all required docs on my house are ready to go (obvs need name changing)*

The problem is that you are entirely inexperienced and naive about the estate agent role which you have decided to assume in addition to that of seller. You have unrealistic expectations which are likely to cause problems between you and the buyer and you and your solicitor. Are you buying somewhere new as well and do you need a mortgage for it? Why not ask how long it will take to get the mortgage valuation done before you decide the entire transaction should be done in 3 weeks...

@ThePricklySheep 'no chain' they had a chain, in fact multiple related sales.

'Waiting on mortgage offer, all proceeding just delayed due to surveyors etc' the truth - declined by multiple lenders and appealing refusals/applying to new lenders.

(No - do you realise that the contracts which you have ready to go are first drafts for negotiation? And that your buyer and their lender need to perform searches and surveys to be able to negotiate them?)

Ahh. You think the contracts being ready means you’re all ready to go.

You’ve forgotten that surveys will need to be done, then if they come in ok and if there is no renegotiating on price, then mortgage needs sorting out. And there’s searches. And a billion queries about who owns the left hand boundary and where your windows guarantee is.

And then repeat for the houses below.

@EuroTrashed for the millionth time the 3 weeks thing was a side thought. I had my mortgage offer on new place within a week including full survey - during last lockdown so can see it's doable just obviously depends on lender etc. I'm not holding anyone to that. I literally just want to make sure my agent and solicitor asks the correct questions, as I feel I've been a pushover during the process with first buyer that's all. Case closed.

Hahahahahhaaa are you judge Judy now? She doesn’t do residential conveyancing FYI. bangs gavel

[quote naiveseller101]@ThePricklySheep 'no chain' they had a chain, in fact multiple related sales.

'Waiting on mortgage offer, all proceeding just delayed due to surveyors etc' the truth - declined by multiple lenders and appealing refusals/applying to new lenders.

[/quote]
Your estate agent should speak to their EA to ascertain their position wrt selling status (chain etc).
They also should ask to see mortgage agreement in principle. This isn’t up to you.

@RoganJosh I never said that I'm aware there are searches, queries etc but as have already been through the query process with previous buyers on my very straightforward, nothing scary to find sale I thought it wouldn't take so long to produce documents/answers their solicitors will request.

There's no chain below.

@ThePricklySheep ok but when someone says they have no chain, then they don't have an EA for my EA to speak to do they.

@EuroTrashed bless you x

Your EA is purple bricks! What do you think they will do? They're cheap for a reason!

It's not for your solicitor to advise you about your seller being any good, that's for your EA to do! Which you don't really have.

Our mortgage offer took 4 days. Our chain took 18 weeks to complete!

I think you need to question whether it's purple bricks lying to you rather than your buyers..

[quote naiveseller101]@ThePricklySheep ok but when someone says they have no chain, then they don't have an EA for my EA to speak to do they. [/quote]
Then your EA needs to see proof of funds.

We bought a new build and the developer asked for completion in 4 weeks. We pushed back and said 6, which they agreed. We made it (just), but it still required me to nag our solicitor almost daily to move things along, and as previously noted it's easier on a new build which has recently been inspected to meet housing regs.

@ImaginaryCat yeah property I'm selling is a year old, still under warranties, recently inspected etc hence my thoughts.

@ThePricklySheep according to everyone else on this thread it's completely ludicrous for the EA to ask for proof of funds!

I've just checked. When PB verified our offer, we had to get our agent to send a AIP and our id.
No one is saying you don't have to prove anything, just not to you directly but to your agent

The other thing to note is that when our developer tried putting that time restriction on us, it really pissed me off and made me want to pull out. I didn't like feeling pressured, and he worded it almost like a threat (complete in 4 weeks or I'll put it back on the market and you'll lose your holding deposit).
So I know it's a side point of your initial query, but be careful about creating bad feeling and losing your buyer.