Buyer dilemma

[Alexalee]

We have had our house up for sale for a week. Today a woman came round and lived the house and offered full asking, all good so far.

Here's the bad bit. Her house isn't on the market yet as previously she had searched and found nothing to move to.
Would I be unreasonable to accept her offer but say that until her house is under offer then it will remain on the open market and available to other buyers?

Only other thought I had was have her pay a bond to be kept with her solicitor of say 5% of the asking price that if she failed to complete on our house she would forfeit to us. Would any of you sign up to this arrangement? Or should I just say no and she can come back when her house is under offer.

Bit of a ramble but hope it makes sense

Don’t get involved in bonds. Can you stay on the market a bit longer to see if anyone in a better position comes along? You could be waiting a while for her… or accept and keep yours on the market for a month to give her a chance to get moving?

I’d say keep your house up for sale a little longer, see if you get any higher bidders with less hassle

She is not in a position to move so why on earth would you contemplate accepting an offer from her??? The estate agent should have highlighted her position to you before the viewing. Keep it on the market and only agree a sale with someone who demonstrates they are able to move forward immediately.

She can't buy your house, and if you keep it up for sale you've not accepted her offer. Let her come back to you when she is proceedable, but don't commit to her before then.

I could have been in her position, but since the interest rates went up, I've stopped looking. It's complicated why, but it's where I'm at.

I agree it's not ideal, but for me at least, it's currently unavoidable.

I'd be disappointed if you said you were leaving it on the market, but I'd understand. I'd tell you my weird situation & then leave it up to you.

I wouldn't pay a 5% 'fine' for not being able to complete. Life's shit enough without losing 5% I can I'll afford through more fault of my own.

it's also massively unfair, unless you'll (attempt to) do that with any offer you get? Any sale can fall through!!

I could potentially be in a position to buy & move more quickly than a lot of people,

having a house under offer is no guarantee it will all go through.

Say you accept her offer subject to her getting a buyer but in the meantime the property will stay on the market as she is not in a proceedable position.

She could put things in motion quickly I suppose.

We viewed this house whilst waiting for EA’s to come and value ours.
Ours was up for sale within a week and had an offer on with 12 hours of being listed.

Is she pretty much ready to have hers up for sale do you know?

I wouldn’t bother with the bond.

I'm surprised the estate agent even let her put an offer in if she was not in a proceed-able position. There's literally no point putting an offer in on a house if you haven't got a buyer for yours. I took my mum to look at a house a few weeks ago, her house wasn't on the market but I wanted to push her to put it on the market as she wouldn't have done if she hadn't seen this lovely house but she waited until she had a buyer before making an offer on it, it took a few weeks and we were just lucky it was still on the market by the time she was able to. Just say that's nice thanks for the offer, please come back when you are in a position to proceed?

This happened when we sold my nanas house. We accepted the offer but said it would go back on market after 4 weeks if they hadn’t found a buyer. They found a buyer and it all went through.

We bought our current property without having sold. The seller gave us 3 weeks to sell our place and we went with the same estate agent. Worked out very well and it was a smooth process. I don't see it as being that risky to accept her offer on a similar basis. You could accept an offer from someone that has sold and their house sale sells through. It happens all the time.

Got it.
No bond.
I will say thanks for the offer and I will accept when you have sold but obviously leave it up for sale until she's under offer
Thanks

Don't say you'll accept when she's sold.. what happens if she takes 6 months to get under offer and your house is worth 5k more at that point?
I would just say thanks for the offer and you'd be happy to revisit offers once she's able to proceed.

@AdInfinitum12 Surely if OP’s house hasn’t sold in 6 months, it’s not worth 5% more than her current asking price?? If anything it’s worth less than what is on for now

You don't know what can happen in 6 months, no matter how unlikely. When the stamp duty holiday during covid happened prices shot up overnight and things were selling within hours/days, including houses that were previously on the market for a while. My point was don't commit to accepting an offer today when someone has no indication of when they'd even be proceeding.

Any estate agent worth their salt would tell you to disregard her offer completely. It means nothing as she hasn’t sold her own property yet. Go with someone who can proceed.

Keep yours on the market Until she sells. She might sell, she might not, no one knows. If someone else comes along first, they win, first come with complete chain, first served.

have you found something?