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?

Yes but you might not have to have weeks of viewings. You may only be on market a week, get and offer etc.. then back to enjoying Xmas.

Apparently Boxing Day is the busiest for Rightmove traffic!

Yes, if given the choice, we want to do it just before or just after christmas.. but the deal is off comes 1st jan.. then we will be marketing thr house without an guaranteed onward purchase.

The alternative is to tell the vendors that you'd like your offer to sit on the table, and they are free to carry on marketing. Once yours is under offer, they accept your offer and you all progress - but if they get a better offer in the mean time (seems unlikely?) you accept that you loose out.

What about going with the agents selling the house you want, and make any termination clause dependant on the house you want being available?

They are being perfectly reasonable.
They are giving you a choice of, sell your house by the 1st jan or loose theirs. Perfectly fine as why should they wait around.
I personally would leave mine on the market, and you sound reluctant to meet their request.

Have you told them of your reservation of selling before the 1st jan, so they can have a plan B when you haven't sold.

ChristmasCakeAndStilton, loves your name.
I appreciate the vendor is being fair, and on the contrary, we seem to be the troublemaker. We have gone back to them saying we will get the house ready soonest we can, as and when we are ready to put it on market, if their house is still available, we will start the grace period then.

That’s how the housing market works OP. If you put in offers without an offer on your own you’re not considered proceedable thus your offers may be declined. This vendor hasn’t declined but specified a time limit.

We put our house up for sale in December. We made sure not to put Christmas decorations up before the estate agent had taken photos, just incase it was hanging around for a while, but as it happens it only took us 5 days to sell it.

At least the buyers knew there was space for the Christmas tree!

You're vendor is being very reasonable but you need to get yours on asap. It won't be tolerated for very long if you drag your heels.

You can put it on the market but not be available for viewings for x days over Christmas itself. That isn't a problem - nobody will be viewing Christmas Day or Boxing Day. We viewed one on Christmas Eve last year!

This.

Just to clarify, whilst all this is going on. The house is still on the market and available, so i have not hindered the vendor in any way

You’re hindering them by having accepted their offer but not following the conditions of their acceptance.

Just let them know you’re not marketing until Jan and then they know where they are.

Make sure you check with your own estate agent when they'll be in the office! If that's the situation, you don't want them shutting for two weeks over Christmas (I know several businesses that do this - no idea about estate agents! But worth checking.) Good luck!

I wouldn't stress about the deadline too much either. They don't have another offer, so that's why they've gone for yours. If they had a better offer, they'd take it!

@Mirabai i have not accepted their offer along with their terms and conditions. Thats is why i am ssking on here if that is reasonable and if not , how do i counteroffer

Thank you @chocolatemonster1 , that makes sense

You said: came back last week saying it is accepted and we are given the month of december to sell our house.

So they think they’ve accepted your offer? It’s a week later with no word, do they know you’re not happy with it?

Offered 3+weeks ago, came bsck last friday saying accepted, grace period details came this tuesday

So you need to tell them asap.

You were viewing houses without your own house even being on the market?!

You seriously have this the wrong way round.

@cosypeppermint we made it clear right from the beginning. The market now is not like what it was

So, genuine question, what happen if my house is on the market and i dont find an onward purchase?

I would hate to be under the pressure to find something soon as someone is waiting, and let that pressure impact my judgement..

If they haven't taken theirs off the market @Brieandjam then I don't think they've really and truly accepted your offer they've just really indicated that once you're proceedable they'd accept the price that you'd offered.This could all change either in your favour or not when you're under offer.

I don't know how much experience you have buying or selling property in the UK (sorry if this is way off the mark and you've bought and sold 100 houses here) but it's the norm to not have an onward purchase sorted before you sell.

If you really want this house in particular could you look at instructing the same estate agent as the sellers of the house you want to buy. It will give them an incentive to work extra hard on your house to get two sales on their books.

And in answer to your last question )whether you agree with the system or not and assuming you're in England not Scotland) you're not legally obliged to sell your house until you've exchanged contracts and deposits so if you can't find an onward purchase you may pull out.