Offer accepted but vendor hasn’t found a place. Any advice

[Helpiamconfused]

Hi everyone, I have an offer accepted for a nice 3 bed house that I really love. Problem is vendor still searching.

I am a first time buyer so no experience on house purchases.

Estate agent is surely working for vendor so I can’t rely on their advice.

Have you been in my position. What did u do?

Should I apply for mortgage or not?

Should I begin searches?

Should I do survey?

Any advice is very welcome.

Thanks all

How long since you had your offer accepted? If it’s only been a couple of weeks then I’d probably give them another week/two then start making it clear to them that you have a deadline in your head of how long you are willing to wait (obviously this isn’t to completion, but it’s no good you sat hovering about wondering when things might move for 6 months just in case they find somewhere). I would also keep looking at other houses- you never know you might find something you prefer or which you can proceed with straight away.

You are the start of the chain, so it could be a while. Your vendors have to find somewhere, then their vendors, then their vendors, until the end of the chain. Hopefully it will end up being short.

We were your vendors. Yiu cant really start putting in offers until you've had one accepted on your house. That is normal. They will probably have been keeping an eye on the market. It's hard at the moment as there doesnt seem to be a lot about.

We didn't find anywhere but wanted to keep our buyers so moved in with family and completed quickly. If your sellers are serious then they will be very anxious about all of this too. It's very difficult - theywont want to rush it and buy somewhere out of panic, but they also will need to find somewhere relatively quickly. Keep communicating every couple of weeks to keep an eye on things. It's up to you how patient and flexible you want to be, but it's worrhbearing in mind that who ever you buy from will probably be in the same position, so unless you feel they're not that bothered it's probably worth sticking with them.
Good luck. X

This is a bit of a chicken and egg situation.

Your vendors might be in a position where without having their property under offer they wont be taken seriously when offering on their next property.
This is definitely the case in our area as property moves really fast.

Depending on how long it has been I would give them a month or so then start pushing a little - I would do the stuff that doesn't cost much money but makes you look serious.
It's not just your vendors though the chain needs to complete so whoever they buy from needs to also find their next property etc

Ultimately - they will always be able to sell their house again if you pull out and depending on how long it was on the market before you offered will make a big difference about how willing they are to pander to you

Our buyers were really good about waiting for us to find somewhere. They were ftb. But we kept in touch and let them know we were still looking. They knew what we were looking for and that it didn't come up often.

He got his mortgage in place - and was ready to go with survey etc as soon as we'd offered on somewhere. It took over a year from him offering for our place so he must have had to get a mortgage extension. We did. It wasn't an issue and we didn't pay for any further fees for the mortgage.

I think the thing was we all kept in touch.

Thanks everyone. You all have been kind.

@Panda368 ideally, I will like to complete in 6 months max. So I will give them 2 more months.

The thing is they have said clearly the will remain in the house until they find a place. So, there is no much pushing I can do.

If only brand new builds aren’t priced too high....

I have taken the advice here. No searches and survey until the chain begins to move. Mortgage is the one I am thinking deeply about, but maybe I should also not apply for mortgage yet, and if I do, it must be a no application fee mortgage

Wow you all are patient! I've got a buyer, I immediately called the agents about houses that I had shortlisted, travelled 70 miles to view, one other trip to confitm, and had offer accepted all within a week. No way can I wait around indefinitely - we are moving for my daughter's school so have to be in by summer. Myself and my seller are also hoping that the stamp duty extension will be confirmed which puts a definite end date.
I have children and dogs and will go into rental if I have to - I don't think people should put their house on the market unless they are willing to do this. I have been burned before by sellers dragging their feet for months or pulling out days before exchange. That's why the buying process is awful in this country. Make offers binding on both sides unless there is a real issue - and changing your mind isn't one of them.

We put an offer in 11 weeks ago on a house our seller still not found anywhere, our buyers house is completed and we need to be moved ready for school by summer. I have tried everything we are struggling to find a rental because of pets we are starting to think we may have to pull out

@Midlifephoenix, I agree with you. The buying process is strange. Gosh.

To think I can spend money on mortgage fees, survey, searches, and vendor pulls off at last minute and I lose all my money. Why why why is that allowed in 21st century. The system needs to be reviewed honestly.

Home buying is so stressful because you are taking on a huge debt. Money is scarce. As a first time buyer, beyond deposit, I do not have huge sums to splash on fees and not get something tangible back in return. I am really loathing the whole process. If not that I see 7000 pounds a year in rent as money down the drain, honestly, the stress and anxiety and uncertainty of it all is killing me

Hello,
I've made an offer on the house almost 5 month ago and my morgage offer expires in a month,but the vendor is not ready. Ive paid my fees to morgage advisor and solicitor and I've never been told by either of my solicitor or morgage advisor that my vendor is not ready to sell this property including the agency that advertised the house. To extend my morgage offer is not an option at this point. My question to you would be how is this possible that I make an offer on the house that's been advertised for sale I pay my fees to proceed with sale, but my vendor is not ready .I mean how is this even legal? Who's gonna cover the fees that I've paid for to proceed on the house that's not even ready to be sold. I've been told that I'm stuck in chain,but its been 5 months, I've asked if they can move out ,but I've been told- no . The vendor is aware that only one month left and I'm no longer interested . My solicitor seems to be unbothered as she says we still have time. Every time I ask for updates I get the same answer- doing checks. What the hell do I do? I mean I've spent money so I can proceed, but its not my fault that the vendor is not ready. Please help.

This has been ABSOLUTE HELL for us.

@Ingaingaingainga in short there is nothing you can do. We are in a similar situation but it’s not been quite as long for us. It really doesn’t seem fair that this can happen does it?

I'm waiting for replay from my solicitor about buying different house or start looking into new properties again and there's no way I'm paying my fees again ,cos like I said it's not my fault that they still not ready. Shouldn't put the house on the market.

Same boat here. Luckily mine let me to proceed with mortgage paperwork (I'm worried about rates increasing) but won't let me start any solicitor work. We offered in late Oct, so we will start looking at back up houses in Jan if they don't find something.

When you say won't let you , you mean ur morgage broker? I've emailed everyone asking who failed to tell me that this house is for sale ,but can't be sold and only god knows when I can buy this house. Ive explained that I've received emails, applications and my own mortgage advisor saying if I wish to proceed I have to pay fees same with solicitors so I didn't even think twice and payed and was ready within a month. Anyways... I was promised now that on the first week of new year they ll be ready. Ive emailed the agency that advertised the house to explain themselves, but she's saying yeah that's the process, but I did tell her that we will come back to this conversation if they won't be ready after new year as promised as this is nonsense. The rates has increased already by 0.25% . If I ll have to seek legal advice, cos like I said there's no way this can be legal and I sure something can be done as this just toying with my time and money.

@Helpiamconfused I'd push forward with the mortgage application. Normally fees can be added to the mortgage and repaid penalty free within a set time frame. The only charge you'll have is valuation if your lender charges.

Hold the legals until they find (although you will need to instruct for lender).

I'd also Starr discussing life insurance, income protection, etc now too because medical underwriting is being heavily impacted by the fact GPs are overwhelmed right now.

*start

Hi everyone,

We've just had an offer accepted and we're in the same position as the OP. This conversation has been very helpful! And lots of great advice. The housing market is indeed horrendous and stressful. I really hope this conversation continues as this is the kind of thing that helps make things like that easier.
I would really love to hear from the OP and everyone who commented that they're going through the same thing. How did you get on? What your experience has been like so far? We're a bit worried that the seller keeps us hanging for too long or push us to pay any fees. We're not planning to but at the same time we don't want to lose this property and we certainly don't have time to go back to the process of viewing and putting on offers again.

I would make it clear to your vendor how committed you are to the purchase and that the only reason you're holding off on proceeding is as you're worried they may pull out if they're unable to find somewhere. It's perfectly reasonable to not want to spend money in this situation, just important your vendors know how much you want the property. Good luck!

I was recently in this situation. We went ahead with the mortgage application asap. Rates are changing and deals are being pulled so we wanted to lock in a good product. Searches were commissioned when we had sufficient assurances from the estate agent that the vendors were seriously looking. We held off on the survey until they had an offer accepted.

We've been waiting five mo this for our vendors to find something. They are very choosy and I'm starting to doubt whether they will ever sell.

Hi OP!

So, this is normal. The vendor usually can’t stert househunting until they have a completed chain (you) below them.

But, there is a risk they won’t find something they like and will change their mind about selling. So make sure you do not much money until the seller has found a place, had their offer accepted, and also started to spend money. We stupidly pushed ahead with it all at top speed to show our seller we were serious. Spent £3k on survey legal fees etc. Seller changed her mind 🤬

You should do your survey around the same time the seller pays for a survey on the property they are buying.

Good luck! And never forget, no matter how nice the estate agent is, they work only for the seller and it is literally their job to get as much moneybout of you as possible.

Hi,

Great to see some advice on here and other people in the same situation. We are FTB's and had an offer accepted on a house at the end of March, and we're waiting for the seller to now find somewhere. It's really difficult to know how long to wait and we've been trying to look out for other properties just in case, however, there is nothing really coming onto the market which is suitable and then when one did come on the other day it was sold the next day with an offer over the asking price before we even got chance to see it, so that viewing got cancelled. It's very stressful!

We went ahead to get a mortgage offer accepted and have a 6 month deadline. We have told the solicitor to not go ahead with any searches and we have not paid them any money (which they also agreed to, surprisingly!) until they've found somewhere. It's a difficult situation to be in as we really want this house but also want to complete before the mortgage expires as we're worried rates will go up again, and also we're not happy in our rented accommodation.

We will need to ask if they're happy to move in with family or rent if they don't find anywhere. Have 3 month deadline in my head so there would still be 3 months to complete before the mortgage expires. Do you think this sounds reasonable?

Hope it all works out for you 🙂

It's certainly reasonable to ask, but it depends how difficult it will be for the vendors to rent/move out. A lot of people don't have family they can move in with and rental properties are scarce at the moment. If they have pets, it will be even harder.

It will really boil down to how keen they are to keep you as a buyer or how much you want that particular property whether you decide to hold on.

Good luck!

We had an offer accepted early Jan. Their buyer had pulled out, so they had already had an offer accepted. We were clear that our offer was dependent on a fair and prompt timeline, and were assured that because they already had a purchase lined up things would progress smoothly.

We cracked on with searches, surveys and mortgage. Their solicitors sent us exchange papers, everything signed, sorted and good to go. Then they told us that THEIR vendor hadn't actually found anywhere yet. Honestly, I want to throw them all down a well. How f*ing selfish can you be! They've just got us lined up nicely on the assumption we'll now sit around and wait for the chain to sort itself out. 4.5months in and they have still not found anywhere and it's highly unlikely we'll complete within our mortgage deadline.

This is the 4th house in our 2 year house buying ordeal (ftb and not fussy, just a lot of shitty selling tactics atm). So my advice would be TRUST NO ONE. The market isnt fit for purpose, protect yourself.

For those saying you want to ask if the seller will move in with family or rental - why should you believe them if they say they would do that? I'm a FTB in rental and this process has been so stressful and I feel like I can't trust anyone's (seller, estate agent) word.

Asking because I am in a similar position (have an offer accepted but have yet to do any survey/mortgage application because I'm not sure they will actually sell), and the seller mentioned they would be open to moving into rental as they have been looking for a bit more than 2 months with no luck. But being open to something and actually doing it are very different. I mentioned something to the estate agent about getting the moving into rental commitment in writing/some kind of formal agreement so that survey/mortgage fees would be reimbursed if they decided NOT to go into rental within an agreed upon time period, but they said that this is not done here (I'm not from the UK). Fair enough - wishful thinking on my part, but if they are not comfortable doing that, surely I should not trust that they will move into rental, right?