Estate agent pressure.

[Shotinthedark2022]

Hi mumsnetters.Looking for a bit of advice from anyone that has been in my situation.I have sold sstc,and as yet havn't managed to find an onward purchase.My estate agent phoned me yesterday to say my buyers are wanting to exchange(this has come out of the blue) as i thought they were o.k for me to find something.He asked if i would go into rented.I have two dogs that are elderly.I have rung round to try and find somewhere,but landlords do not take dogs..so that's that.I have looked at storage as well,but again finding somewhere with my dogs is a problem as family can't put me up.I spoke to my solicitor,and she said don't worry about it keep looking for a property.The buyers solicitor hasn't mentioned dates yet.I do think my estate agent is putting the pressure on.I have had a sleepless night,and feel so stressed about the whole thing.The estate agent said they will probably pull out,as the ones buying their property are wanting to move in to their property.What do i do??I feel like i am pushed into a corner.

Well of course the buyers want to know what sort of timelines are involved. They are not going to be able to sit there forever whilst you find somewhere. It's a very reasonable question to ask whether you would move into rental accommodation. It would allow the chain to complete and give you time to find somewhere. It might work in your favour if property prices fall you will be in a good position to snap something up.

There are landlords out there who will accept pets. You may have to agree to extra clean on leaving, repair any damage, pay a small premium.

If you are close to exchange then you are pretty much a long way down the selling route. It would be unfair to keep them waiting indefinitely - they will have spent lots of money to get to this point, as Will others in the chain.

How long since you sold OP? I highly doubt your buyers are putting pressure on you for the fun of it.

How long since you accepted their offer? Even if you find something today its going to take at least another 3 months to get to completion and more if a chain further up is involved! You cant expect them to wait for ever.

Your estate agent is wanting to get this sale over the line, as the housing market is facing a crash. The longer you leave it, the more chance your buyer will want you to drop the price. Have you considered an exchange and a delayed completion date? Although by the sounds of it, you are going to want to be delaying it for a few months, which I can't see any buyer wishing to do.

I feel sorry for your buyers if (this has come out of the blue). Its reasonable to ask someone to wait for you to find a suitable property but it is totally unreasonable to expect them to wait indefinitely.

Others have asked, how long have you kept them hanging? Your poor buyers will probably be looking at having to reapply for higher rate mortgage along with the continued uncertainty in the market.

Of course the estate agent would like you to go into rented, it keeps the deal going and they get their commission.

however it is right that buyers won’t wait forever.

Our EA tried this with us, we decided that if our buyers couldn’t wait we would back out of the sale. Luckily for us, we found our perfect home and everything went through fine. We did not want to go into rented and then have to move again, just too much expense and hassle. We didn’t have pets but it’s still a struggle to find somewhere to rent. Good luck OP, I hope it all works out ok for you.

Give the way the housing market is heading, you’d be insane to not do everything you can to vacate asap and get contracts exchanged.

We were in this situation recently - only we were the ones in the middle of a similar sounding chain waiting for our seller to find an onward purchase.

It got to the point when our seller needed to make a decision about whether they would move into rental (and break the chain) or the whole chain would fall apart as there just wasn't enough time left for our seller to tie in an onward purchase before ours and our buyers' mortgage offers ran out and neither of us can afford to go ahead on current rates.

It may feel like pressure to you, but ultimately it comes down to practicalities.

We lost our buyers because they got fed up with waiting as we tried and tried but couldn’t find an onward property in our search area and moving to that area for schools was our whole reason for selling. We understood their decision. We couldn’t afford to go into rented (cost would have been double the mortgage payments and would have had to take 12 month contract for school application).

Our agent knew this and so once those buyers dropped out we went back on the market and they found us a new buyer fairly swiftly. That was July. Luckily an onward property came up for us around the same time and we are about to exchange now.

It sounds as though renting just isn’t feasible for you. If you desperately need to move / don’t think you’ll easily get another buyer then keep ringing different lettings agents and make a nuisance of yourself to see if they know of any agents who’d be ok with the dogs - I thought there were stricter rules about not discriminating because of pets now?

It very much depends on how long it is since you agreed the sale. Once you sell, you really need to get moving in a timely manner, you can't expect people to wait until you're ready.

OP I know this is usually considered poor form on MN, but I don't understand why you say this has come out of the blue. You had a thread on your buyers wanting to exchange almost a month ago.

www.mumsnet.com/talk/property/4633420-shall-i-stayor-shall-i-go-now?reply=

Not necessarily. If you are porting a mortgage you only have 6 months to find an onward purchase otherwise you would be liable for fees and lose your rate. That is what I will be facing next year if I decide to relocate, I have a fix for 5 years at 2.35% that I would lose.

You can't expect your buyers (and the chain behind them ) to wait indefinitely.

Oh those poor buyers are really being strung along.

Awful behaviour from the OP.

Agreed. You just know the OP is going to pull out of the sale. Which is completely their choice, but the poor buyers have been strung along for months when it's clear the OP has no intention of selling.

You sold four months ago?! Damn right your buyers want to know what's going on! Most sales are completed in that time frame!

I suspect that's why the OP left the information out of their first post. Anything to try and make the EA / buyers looks like the bad guys, when in reality the OP has been the one dragging their feet.