Move to better location or not?

[sadheartmum]

Family of 5, 3 bed semi, 1 bathroom. Could extend here to get 4th bedroom and extend the box room so DD could get dressing table/floor space needed as she gets bigger. Plus en-suite if we also did loft conversion. Niceish road but area not the best. Would love to move to 4 bed as wouldn’t have the distruption of building work as we have no family locally that we could go to to use their bathroom etc while work being carried out, can’t afford a 4 bed where we are.

Have seen another 3 bed semi in a much better location overall and in catchment area for better secondary schools. Was advised by various people to go for it and do building work there rather than in current home (we either need to move or extend as it’s so stressful waiting for the bathroom and getting ready for work/school every morning, plus 2 DS share a tiny room), Anyway, loved the house when we viewed it, it does need modernising which we are/were willing to do BUT the back garden is TINY, more of a courtyard. The front garden is massive. Would you move for the location/school catchment and forsake the garden? I’ve lived in the area 20+ years and have a teenager so know about the schools in the area and have watched the Ofsted reports/GCSE results so don’t think they’ll be much change due to the area I’m in.

Asking for advice really. The house is underpriced for the location but it would appear that it could be due to lack of garden. Other houses on that road have gone for about £125k more than this one which we could never afford. Would you move?

Over a week and the vendors haven’t said yes or no to my offer. They want more viewings but when I asked the agent why and if it was because they want more money (I offered the asking price) they said it’s not that and it’s a strange one. I’m at a loss, the only thing I can think of is that they don’t want to sell to me. I’m disappointed and saddened to be honest as I wasn’t rude or disrespectful when I viewed the property. The agent told me they hadn’t received any other offers so they were as puzzled as me. Nothing I can do if my face doesn’t fit. It never crossed my mind that that might come into the vendor’s decision.

We’ve had some viewings for my house, one offer and the agent seems to think I’ll have other offers this week. I feel stuck as to what to do now, I had planned to accept the first offer on my property as it was over the asking price but I also don’t want to mess people around if I’m no longer selling due to not getting the house I want. Think I’ve said previously that there aren’t any other properties in the area I can afford. I’m a mixture of gutted and annoyed. Haven’t a clue what to do now 😟

Sorry to hear that OP.

Looking at the size of the garden and the ages of your DC, I was posting to say go for it, until I saw your update.

It sounds really odd to think you haven't got the house because your face doesn't fit; what do you think the issue could be? Surely vendor wants to sell, you want to buy, match is made, and transaction proceeds to completion.

A more suitable house will come along if this one doesn't go your way.

Any point in asking the EA to chase it for you at the end of this week? Tell the vendors you've had offers for your house and you'd like to know before you start looking elsewhere. (I know, but...)
Maybe they think the EA has undervalued their house if neighbouring properties fetch higher prices and they're waiting to see if they get better offers?

I'm pretty sure it will be because you haven't sold yours. We had the same issue, and our offer was only accepted once we had an offer on ours.

Put all of your effort into selling yours now, big declutter, make front look appealing, maybe take of the market and relaunch a week later?

Good luck

Yes I expect they are holding out for an offer from someone who's already sold... But then why wouldn't your agents and/or the vendors just say so?

Why not just accept the offer on yours and let your vendors know you've done so? I know you don't want to let your buyers down, but I would bet money that it is literally the best thing you can do to help their purchase along.

The EA has advised me to continue having viewings on my property. The house went online at the weekend, someone knocked on the door within 30 mins asking to view it as they work during the week. They’ve offered over the asking price but need to prove they have the funds to the EA. The EA said they’ve never known a property generate so much interest in a short period of time, there’s 8 viewings booked for today so I don’t think I’ll have a problem selling mine as it is. But that’s part of the problem, I’ll feel bad wasting the viewers time if I don’t sell.

The EA has said that the vendor on the other house wants viewings for another 2 weeks. He’s had other viewings and mine is the only offer. He’s not asking for more money, well he hasn’t said that to the EA.

I have a horrible feeling it could be racism, it probably sounds totally unreasonable to you but since I received the feedback I can’t think of why else they haven’t accepted my offer. I’m with the same EA so they know I’m able to proceed and 99% likely to have sold mine by end of the week. It’s an awful feeling but that’s how it’s made me feel.

Then the other side of my gets angry as I think the house is a complete shed the state it’s in. I’ll have to do so much work to it to get it to what I’m used to (which I’m willing to do) and tell them I’m no longer interested BUT the location is better.

I'm finding this difficult to process.

Two radically different scenarios. One, it is racism in which case that is categorically awful and I wouldn't even know where to start.

Second, the vendor is not accepting your offer for precisely the same reason as you've not accepted the offer from your own buyer. They're not really cast iron offers from proceedable buyers yet. Why are you expecting your vendor to accept your offer when you haven't accepted one yourself? Your vendor doesn't have any evidence that you're about to get a good offer from a proceedable buyer. If this is what the problem is, there's still plenty of potential for it to all fall into place.

Your estate agent also sounds a bit dodgy to me... The most interest they've ever had?? Random 2 week windows? It just sounds made up to me. It doesn't mean it won't work out, but I would treat what they say with much more cynicism.

There is always a risk that the agent is spinning tales because they want the house to go to their friend, or one of their other customers. This particularly can happen if you are buying and selling with different agents.

Sorry I don’t think I made myself very clear. When I originally saw the house and offered I wasn’t on the market so I totally understand that I wasn’t in a position for them to accept. Since then I’m on the market. They’ve been on the market 2-3 weeks now, I’ve only been on since the weekend, so the offer I received was from the buyer when viewing, they had to wait until Monday to go to the EA to make the offer direct to them. I couldn’t accept a verbal offer from someone who I know nothing about. Once the proper offer came through yesterday, I accepted. The EA contacted the vendors but they still have the same opinion.

I just can’t understand that if mine is now SSTC and the vendor isn’t asking for more money, they don’t have an upward chain as their mum is going into a home. I’ve offered the asking price but they’re not saying yes or no but want further viewings. It’s like being in limbo. Unless they’re so emotionally attached to the property and want the “right” people to live in it.

It’s all new to me so maybe this is how it is

I think you may be right about the vendors being emotionally attached and just not ready to let go. They may not have expected a full asking price offer and are now thinking someone will offer even more...

People are weird!

I can believe that racism could be an issue. I remember viewing a property with DH and the vendors openly said that they had an offer they weren't accepting because it was from pakis and they couldn't do that to the neighbors.

OP I hope you find something better.

Ah ok, yes that does sound like they may not be ready to move. A significant percentage of houses just get withdrawn from the market even after offers are accepted, because people decide to stay. It's more likely to be about them than you.

One option is for you to book a viewing for other houses with the same agent. It will send the message that you are serious about moving and will not sit around forever waiting on those vendors. It might concentrate their minds that your offer is valuable. I know you said there's nothing else available but maybe widen your search area. You'll probably think this is messing people around too much. I would argue it's helping out your buyers. However it might be a bit early to play that card - it's only been a few days, it might spook them at this early stage. And it depends what you've said to the agent.

No matter how chill you are about moving it's always so stressful.