Is Buying/Selling House actually real?

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I am currently supporting my 75 year old mother in the sale of her house. An offer was accepted in late March of this year and the people that are buying it have FTB's purchasing theirs. My mum placed an offer on a property just around the corner from me which was accepted and everything was chugging away nicely. Then the sh*t hits the proverbial fan. The couple that are selling their house to my mum are in the midst of a very messy separation, he basically left his wife in the house and buggered off up north and has left her to deal with everything but will then no doubt turn up when his half of the money appears. She had made an offer on another property which was leasehold but then in the middle of May that all fell through. She then managed to find another leasehold property which she had an offer accepted on. Cue the FTB's into the fray.......this was the point where they started turning the screw, being demanding on the phone to the Estate Agents, ringing and emailing every day without fail, laying the law down with a date that they wanted to exchange. It was even suggested that my mother could move out and move in with me in the meantime, so effectively make herself homeless in order that they could move in! All whilst the leasehold process was in it's early phases with my mums vendor. That was the point where the bubble burst, my mums vendor has now pulled out altogether stating that she couldn't cope with the stress of it all, like she was the only one going through the ringer. I had done my utmost to reassure her that there was no pressure and that the process could carry on at it's own pace and that the FTB's would have to wait and that they were being totally and utterly unreasonable with their attitude, this did absolutely nothing she still pulled out. We have spent one whole year of our lives with this situation in one guise or another and it is quite frankly boring! My mums sale is still ongoing so that end of the chain is still in tact. We looked at another property yesterday and really liked it, put in an offer which this morning was rejected, we have now gone in at the full asking price but the sellers are waivering a bit. I don't get it you either want to sell your house or you don't it is as simple as that. It seems to me that there are a lot of people out there that are absolute time wasters who aren't at all serious about selling their house but will put the people that are serious about it through the absolute ringer in the meantime. I'm close to just giving up completely on it all, it's actually impossible.

Can I assume that your mum is mortgage free and those buying from her are not?

If course they will turn the screw in the financial environment we are currently in. If mortgage offers expire and they have to add 0.5% to their rate, coupled with the crippling anxiety of a falling market, folks will panic.

Perhaps you and your mum need to adjust their expectations. We viewed 5 houses in April and May owned by people who were older than 65. One couple had already moved out. Two couples said they would move into caravans they already owned in order to facilitate a quick and successful sale. These people appear to have taken good advice from EAs: if you want a quick sale from FTBs in a falling market, bite their hand off and bend over backwards to make that happen before they have the time to change their minds. The longer a purchase takes, the greater chance there is of cold feet happening.

With respect to the offer and the sellers being on the fence, perhaps they are worried about their own affordability or job security with a recession looming.

I think your mum needs to do a round of interviewing EAs and she needs to pick one with the best sales strategy, which doesn't involve putting it on the market at current market rate, bunging it on Rightmove and hoping for the best.

And, as tough as this is for you, you need to take a reality check. This is the market we are in and a vast number of sales are falling through. 1 in 6 houses in May accepted 10% under the asking price, so ask yourself if EAs are overpricing to get your mum's business. A more realistic strategy would be to go on at significantly under and hope it generates a mass of interest which will see her eventually getting the asking price she needs.

Does the house need work doing to it? Rewiring, kitchens, bathrooms, carpets, landscaping? Hopefully those will have been priced into any asking price, because almost nobody wants to take those on at the moment because they are horrifically expensive.

Everything that @KievLoverTwo has said. There is some solid advice there.

OP, to quote you "It was even suggested that my mother could move out and move in with me in the meantime, so effectively make herself homeless in order that they could move in!" Your mother would not be made homeless, she would be living with you, these sorts of statements are disrespectful to people genuinely facing homelessness. I think you're being over dramatic. Your Mothers belongings could go into storage until she was able to organise her onward purchase. This is quite a common thing to do, and I've done it to secure a sale. In fact it's less stressful than trying to hold a chain together, particularly at the moment.

Absolutely ok for someone who needs a mortgage to want to hurry things along! Mortgage offers expire and in the current climate no one wants to renew when they had a far better rate from earlier in the year!

I can see the ftb's point. Either their mortgage offer will be expiring, they will be being pressurised into extending rental lease or both.

We completed our sale before purchase, moved in with FIL for a month while awaiting our onward purchase to compete - that is an absolutely standard expectation sometimes, especially when they've been messed about for a year now.

We looked at another property yesterday and really liked it, put in an offer which this morning was rejected, we have now gone in at the full asking price but the sellers are waivering a bit

Can I ask a stupid question? When your mum's putting her offers in, is she having discussions about what a pain in the arse it is to sell a house at the moment? Because, irrespective of how sympathetic those sellers may seem, the LAST thing they need to hear is that she's been messed around left right and centre by buyers. That makes her a liability as a purchaser, and, particularly in the market as it stands right now, they do not want to hear that. That could be why her offer hasn't been accepted. She's far better off just saying her house is sold STC and everything's proceeding as expected.

The best mortgage rate we were offered on a decision in principle from a lender this year expired in THREE months.

Things are getting far, far worse in terms of mortgages and buyers need to be keenly aware of this. For those who NEED to move, speed is of the utmost essence.