Stressed out by sale of house. Buyer pressure ! What to do ?

[Ozster]

We accepted an offer on our house in January with the intention that we would go into rented to take our time to look for a nice house within catchment.

The sale was held up because of buyers (first time buyers) issue with mortage but I didn't pressure as we were not in a rush.

In April I was looking for places to rent but found the perfect house for us and got an offer accepted.

Now the buyers are pressuring me !

I don't want to lose the buyers but also I can't move into rented.

What do I do ? Please help, I'm losing sleep !

They have waited 3 months in total but it was them who were holding it all up in he beginning.

It is you who has changed the agreement, - you had always said you would move into rented. It’s a bit irrelevant about how long it was taking.

Do you know why they are pressurising you? Is it for a specific reason, or they are just ready now and keen to move in?

@ThroughThickAndThin01

They are just keen to move in as they are living with family atm.

If your house is an 'easy sale' then in the current market it shouldn't take you long to find new buyers. Don't be pressured by them. Explain there's been a change and you now have found somewhere to buy and would hope they'd wait but understand if they want to pull out. Can you give them a timescale for your purchase? I'd think they'd not want to lose the money they have spent so far and also potentially, when looking for somewhere else, end up paying more for somewhere. Again as long as you're happy to sell your place again I'd just tell them how it is, also saying how you waited for them.

We moved into an Airbnb for a few weeks when we were in the same situation.

Storage for a month or so of stuff isn’t that expensive (£250 for us for 4 werks) and it was like a mini holiday. As it’s Airbnb no utilities etc to sort out.

@sbplanet wasn't the cost of an Airbnb really high ?

Why can't you move in to rental (or Airbnb for a month or so) if that was your original intention? If you lose these buyers you may lose your ongoing purchase and you are back to the beginning.

If you were going to go into rented, why can't you now? What has changed to make that impossible? I wouldn't be happy if I was the buyer, if suddenly a no chain property I was buying became a chain! We are going to rent after selling our place. We told the buyers this and sold it as chain free.

We found ourselves in the same position when buying and selling after the initial house we were buying fell through. In the end we stayed in a holiday home for 6 weeks and had the removals company keep our belongings in storage until we could complete on our new house. It was actually a really nice break after all the stress of selling.

You are making yourself stressed.
Honestly move into a rental.
Get a date for completion agreed with your vendors and complete with your buyers asap.

I prefer having a slight gap between houses as it means you can organise for tradesmen cleaners etc to turn up and then move in a couple of days later rather than hassle of same day moving a lot of the storage places round here do first month for £1 (outer london).

Consider taking a holiday in the time too.

You agreed to move into rented as the condition of sale, now you’ve changed your mind, how long are you asking them to wait?

Oh gosh you're one of those vendors who says they'll rent and then gets your buyer tied up in a chain. Of course you're allowed to buy a place instead if you so desire, but don't kid yourself that it's your buyers that are causing the pressure. It's you who've caused it and created added pressures for them. What you should do is keep to the agreement, sell, and get a short-term let to tide you over.

Like others who have posted here, we plan to rent while waiting for our purchase to go through. We did not sell as ‘chain free’ but by doing this, we take some of the pressure out of the chain. It’s not without risk - we could sell, move into rented and then our purchase could fall through, but we think it’s a risk worth taking. If you sold with the understanding that you were ‘chain free’ I think you should look for somewhere short term to tide you over until your sale is completed.

Is there a potential 3rd option here? Could you work out how much it will cost you to rent short term and put your stuff in storage and offer that as a discount to the buyers to wait for x amount of time (add at least 1 month to however long you think x will be).

That way you avoid the hassle of moving twice but accommodate the change in your circumstances (which isn't a fault of theirs). Do remember that as FTBs they are incurring additional costs for all the delay and that notice may get complicated for them.

Appreciate that they originally caused delays, but if they hadn't done then you would already have been in rented and/or perhaps wouldn't have found the house you now hope to buy.

Honestly op it’s cheaper for you to put your stuff in storage and move to an air b n b for a few weeks than it is to loose the sale and the house you wish to buy. I’d think carefully.

If it is an easy house to sell and your local market is good, the buyers will need to wait. If you've changed your mind re renting, that is your prerogative. We bought from people who did similar. What made us v cross was their trying to blame their change of mind on the estate agents, the world etc. Just be straight and upfront.

With the stamp duty deadline looming I think people are likely to get stressed and put pressure on. You’ve changed the goalposts so it’s understandable they’re stressing.