mortgage offer only lasts 6 months - Sellers being slow. What is normal for this situation?

[Branleuse]

Put an offer on a house back in september. Went to best and final offers two days after viewing at open house. We offered well over asking price and had nothing to sell, so they chose us. Very excited. We love the house, and the first one weve seen that ticks nearly all the boxes.
Anyway, finally manage to get a second viewing after a few months. Noticed that they havent started to pack anything, so assumed they would get a wiggle on maybe after xmas.
We got an email maybe a month ago after asking for an update saying that they still havent found anywhere to rent, and what is the latest date we can give them for exchange!?!
When you get a mortgage offer its for 6 months. I believe that if we dont complete in this time, we have to reapply - any extension is usually only a few weeks. This would surely mean we lose thousands and have to pay to reapply and for searches all over again. Im kind of amazed that people would put their house up for sale without having anything in mind as to where to go, especially since they rushed us so much? Is this normal? What do people do? Just keep shelling out for new mortgages and searches? Ive heard people say it took a year or 18 months to get their house etc. Are these cash buyers?

I feel like we are being mucked around. I want this house so much, but am I missing something? How do people wait around so long with the whole mortgage offer thing? After they said they hadnt found anywhere to rent (in 4 months) they said they would put an offer on a new build which would make it quick, but now apparently theyve put an offer on a house with a chain ffs.
Is it that much of a sellers market that we are at their mercy? Weve started browsing other properties, and see properties that could work, but nothing that hits the spot like that one

Same situation here with the same timings too. I presume we will just need to redo our mortgage application when it runs out whether it’s for the same house or another. I think I’ve heard of people having them extended but not indefinitely and especially not if rates are going up.

I keep commenting on the threads on here where people ask about viewing houses without selling up first and so so many people come on and say they wouldn’t allow someone to view without selling first but this is exactly what’s happening. All over the country there are people sitting waiting for their sellers to find a property. It’s a total stalemate situation.

This is the most stressful, horrible thing I’ve ever been through.

It's worth ringing your bank or broker and seeing if you can get an extension. If it runs out on its own you will have to reapply and you will be offered a higher interest rate as the base rate has just increased.

Tell them when you need to exchange by and be honest that you need to complete by the end of this month.

Is everything done and are the solicitors ready to exchange - if so then crack on and exchange.

I wouldn’t have packed anything until after exchange so that’s not odd.

I had to reapply for my mortgage after the offer expired due to endless issues buying a chain free property. At that time rates were going down so actually got a better rate (albeit mainly cancelled out by the fee), but guessing that is not the case at the moment.

It’s tricky as even if you picked a different house, wouldn’t you need to reapply. I’d be giving the sellers an ultimatum as there is time for them to move to rented.

I think we would have to pay out for new searches etc, but id hope the actual mortgage offer would remain if it was under budget?

Ultimatums do not work. It is a sellers market and if the OP doesn’t want to wait for their house someone else will take it off their hands and new buyers will give them more time to find something as the clock is reset.

@Hotelhelp

Ultimatums do not work. It is a sellers market and if the OP doesn’t want to wait for their house someone else will take it off their hands and new buyers will give them more time to find something as the clock is reset.

Thats what I think. I feel like we are in a powerless situation, but i am just kind of amazed that someone would do that. Surely they know that fucking people about will cost them a lot of money? We didnt approach them, they put their house up for sale. I just assumed that meant they were motivated to sell it

Tell the EA your mortgage offer is about to expire and you need an exchange date, or the seller needs to pull out.

And yep you'll need to start the whole process again on a new house so the EA should be doing everything to encourage them to exchange.

I don't think you would have to redo searches for a new mortgage offer on the same house?

I feel like this is just a question for your solicitor, they'll have seen this loads of times.

This happened to us ,offer accepted in august, we withdrew our offer a couple of weeks ago when we found somewhere else, also in that time my DH turned 50, which apparently is significant in mortgage terms, we now have much less favourable terms. Fucking raging tbh! Still, our new house is loads nicer and has none of the compromises we had to make for the first house.

My advice would be to do nothing OP. If another house comes onto the market that you like - go and view it (not happening here!) but keep your hat in the ring with the current property until there’s some movement either way. Nothing to be gained by walking away and then seeing the house you love back up for sale in twenty minutes time.

This could potentially happen to me, as my mortgage offer expires at the end of this month. I called the bank and they've already said no extensions, I'll have to reapply for a whole new mortgage if it goes over by a day.

Inevitably that would mean my mortgage repayments would be much more expensive as there's been 2 BOE base rate increases since my offer was accepted back in July 2021.

I was due to exchange on Friday just gone, but vendor didn't do what they were supposed to. I'd LOVE to be able to walk away (don't get me wrong, the house is 90% of the way towards my ideal, and I can't wait to live there), however I absolutely can't be the one to end this process, as there's nothing else on the market in my budget for my requirements.

Hang in there OP, hopefully it will a case of alls well that ends well for you and me both.

We offered in September and our sellers haven't found anything yet- we didn't apply for a mortgage for this very reason but my buyers did, they offered on my house in August and their mortgage offer just ran out. It is gutting but we are starting to look around again as we have lost hope on this house and don't want to lose our buyers. Unfortunately there isn't anything else we love as much just yet. The market is really poor.

This has just happened to me. My mortgage broker couldn’t get the mortgage extended, so I’ll have to take out a new mortgage at a higher interest rate. I phoned my solicitor for advice, but he just said he couldn’t advise on mortgages or the application process at all.

Being at the bottom of a chain is no fun. I’ve been inadvertently shat on by everyone above me. But it’s such a sellers’ market here that if I pulled out, my sellers would be able to sell the property tomorrow at a higher price.

they say its a sellers market, but surely if this keeps happening they arent going to be able to sell to people who arent ready-to-go cash buyers? Its one thing getting offers to buy, but surely its another thing to actually be able to go the whole process. After all, the transaction takes two

The trouble is all the people and EA not allowing you to look if you haven’t sold. This discourages people from selling because they are afraid of not finding anything also it leaves buyers dangling when sellers can’t find anything . We really want to move but I think ours would sell pretty quickly and we only want to move if we find what we want , we are lucky as we don’t have a mortgage and could move without selling this one first but it’s still ridiculous. Also frankly even the most awful houses seem to attract enormous attention around here , over 10 offers not unusual at the moment, so people feel massively pressured, anecdotally we have been told that sales are falling through because sellers can’t move rather than because buyers are pulling out. There is also nothing to rent at all and if you have s dog or even children forget it .

Completely agree with the above.