Would you put your house on the market in december

[Brieandjam]

The market has really softened or even stagnated in my town. Supply has increased significantly but because we are upgrading to a hopefully forever home, we are choosing carefully and slowly. A house came up that we both liked, put in an offer 3 weeks ago (at about 7% under asking) , came back last week saying it is accepted and we are given the month of december to sell our house.
Aibu in thinking that it is a bit mean? Christmas is the busiest month especially for families with kids, which is my tsrget market. I need a week (at least) to get the house ready. So that will bring us to 7th dec. School breaks up on 16th. Can people really be bothered with house hunting in Dec? My house is in a nice location but isnt that special.
I am thinking January would be better, but what do i tell the vendor?

It’s not mean, but they shouldn’t have accepted if you’re not proceedable.

In your shoes yes if you want the house you've offered on.

You're lucky they accepted your offer when your house isn't even on the market! Don't offer if you don't want to sell yet.

I am willing to put my house up for sale, be it december or january, but expect to be given reasonable time to sell. As it is, if i dont sell in december, the deal is off the table

The vendor is being more than reasonable. Really they've made a mistake in accepting your offer.

They have no other offer and took 2+ weeks to get back to us

Seems fair. Why should they hang around waiting.

Whenever I've been buying or selling I've never been allowed to entertain the idea of offering on a property until mine has been sold. I also wouldn't ever accept an offer and take my house off the market for someone who's not proceed-able, it's just not the done thing so I don't think they are being unfair at all. If anything I'd say they are being more fair then anyone I've ever heard of in this situation.

Okay.. seems like they are doing whst is reasonable. If the grace period is in january, i wont be worried.

well yes,you’re not proceedable. If you want the house get it on the market and at a price to shift it.

So they're holding it for you for a month? Sounds very fair to me, and certainly doesn't cost you anything as the alternative is they flat reject you until you're sold.

Just get it on, nothing is shifting if it's not even listed! They might well flex the deadline depending on how it's going at that point.

Before reading your post I would have said wait till January. But based on your vendor accepting your offer, I'd list ASAP so as not to lose the house you want. Even if you haven't sold by end of December, you may then sell beginning of January, and are they going to find a new buyer within days come January? Just price your house realistically and you may just find a buyer, Christmas or not.

Where I live (south east England) people aren’t allowed to view anything until they’ve got a firm offer on their property.

The reasonable amount of time to sell is usually before you put offers in, so I think they've been more than reasonable!

They've been very reasonable. Just get on with getting it on the market - it can be done within days once you decide to go ahead. There will be people out there looking - we were looking last December and viewed anything vaguely suitable in the two weeks before Christmas!

I don’t understand to be fair if you put the offer in three weeks ago you didn’t at that point immediately start contacting agents and getting the house ready, Especially if you knew it was a weeks worth of work. . So if they said yes you were good to sign and go. They already accepted a week ago and you’ve still not started. It should be on the market already and your first viewers through the door.

im guessing they think you’re not serious buyers, but they will give you a shot , and the inactivity will prove them right, they will be watching via the agents to see if it’s on tne market.

I don’t really understand why your house isn’t ready to market if you’re already submitting offers. What did you expect to happen?

We were in a similar situation. Offered on a house when ours was

Oops...
Not on the market. Given December to get it sold.
We managed it

Yes. I'm sure I've read that the period between Christmas and New Year is one of the busiest in terms of traffic to sites like Right Move and Zoopla when people are stuck at home with time on their hands.

Just get the photos done before the Christmas decorations go up.

This is like another world to me, last time I sold(about three years ago) I didn’t even let anyone view who wasn’t proceedable (I.e under offer or cash buyer) and was treated the same for places we were viewing. Them accepting your offer at all when you haven’t sold sounds extremely flexible.

Totally accepting that i am not without fault. When we did not hear in 2 days. We thought we stood no chance. And have made commitments for December.

Ok, if you’re not willing then you need to go back to them and say you are not willing, you will loose it but it’s not fair on them not to. I can’t perceive why you made an offer thinking you’d put your house on the market nearly two months later, that’s unbelievable

If they come back to us sooner, in november, we would have put it on the market then..i am just wary that it will be nearly mid December if we do start now.