Vendor hasn’t found property yet

[littleroundgrape]

We’re FTB no rental and completely new to this ridiculous house buying business.

Our first offer was accepted on a property in December, and the buyer pulled their property off the market 6 weeks later. They were elderly and quite honestly by the end we had the impression their children instigated the move whereas they wanted to stay put.

First week this February we successfully offered on another property. We were told the sellers had properties earmarked, were putting an offer in on one, had instructed a solicitor and wanted our solicitor details.

After the previous disappointment, this sounded very promising and we paid a £500 upfront fee to instruct a solicitor. Our mortgage offer is also in place till August.

We’re now March. The sellers haven’t found anywhere, we call every week and no new updates. A week ago the estate agent said they were looking at “other options” to get the sale moving, but this came to nothing.

Our eldest starts primary school this September so it is our aim to be in a property prior to this date.

We really don’t want to start incurring more fees when the seller hasn’t even found a property yet.

What advice would you give to a pair of newbies - what should our next steps be?

I would make your position clear to the estate agents snd keep viewing other properties. Dont instruct your solicitor to progress any further.

Agree with the poster above. That said, it seems like an increasingly common situation as there hasn't been a huge amount out there recently as people have opted to stay put unless they have to.

Can I ask why you paid £500 upfront ?

Tell them you need to be in by X date, so they’ll need to rent somewhere, or you’ll find somewhere else 🤷🏻‍♀️

I'm guessing for searches etc? We had to put some money on account for this last time we bought.

Yes exactly this. Get shirty, get pushy or honestly it won't happen.

Not sure how much pressure you can really apply, I know we are in England, but people are not going to buy a house to accommodate the buyer’s timing. Some people seem to find half a dozen houses to offer on instantly, others will make couple of offers over a year. Depends on location, budget and requirements

There is absolutely nothing on the market . The advice on here is always not to let people view who haven’t sold ( I disagree with this ) which means they are only now getting going , the rental market is also tight , if you pressure them you could lose out . Sadly this is the stupid system here

We've had an offer on ours but there's hardly anything going on the market around here, we deliberately put ours on the market this month as we were told march was traditionally the busiest month. Hope it picks up fast before our buyer gets fed up.

We are the vendors in a similar sounding situation to yours. We want to move and are desperately trying to find something but as others have pointed out, the market is very slow so it’s not easy. Frustrating for both sides!

TBH it’s all fairly new OP, if you put pressure on the Vendor, they will more than likely pull out. More properties are coming on the market now. Perhaps have a date in mind that you are prepared to wait for the vendors to find a suitable property to purchase. Good luck I hope it works out well for you.

Hiya, yes we was told £500 and send the paperwork back (proofs of ID, mortgage, deposit and source etc) to engage and already had the full quote which it was part of. Is this not usual way of doing things?

I'd be asking them to find somewhere to rent and giving a date I needed to complete by, otherwise I'd pull out.

I know it's difficult, but vendors can't expect you to sit there month after month expecting them to find somewhere to buy (possibly in a chain) when you are a FTB and just need to get in.

It’s just been a month, it’s completely unreasonable to expect one to find a suitable house that quick in this market where barely anything decent was coming up until maybe a month ago, if that.

I think you need to give them more time a couple of weeks is not much time when there may be limited housing stock - how long did you spend looking before you offered on this house ? I’m guessing more than a month so allow them to do same

My friend sold her house 18 months ago and can't find a house to move to .. their buyers are still hanging on so don't bank on them moving .

We are moving next week and weren't leaving unless we got the house we wanted so maybe they are in this position too..

I would ask them .. moving is so tricky because you have to buy something that is for sale and that isn't always what you want !

None of us looking are going to rent so that a FTB can get in our house sorry. We would loose tons of money if mortgage rates or house prices rose before we found somewhere, plus the stress of moving a family with kids or pets. Also no short term lets around here. Maybe if I had a mansion to sell, but a FTB house like ours doesn't cost enough to warrant a rent move, it's more likely another buyer will come along if needed. It's further up in the chain I would be panicking. I understand it's very frustrating but just as you needed to find the right place, so do we. Fingers crossed that your buyer finds something soon.

Yep it takes time.

I have only ever brought empty houses and it’s a much quicker process.

Keep looking you may find something else more readily available.

If they find a property then the next sellers will need somewhere unless there is a break in the chain.

you have along way to go!

It comes down to how much you want the house. If you can’t or won’t hang on for it then l would give a deadline for them to move out -whether it’s to a purchased property, rented or family. If they don’t meet the deadline then pull out. It really depends on where you live; the market started to liven up where l live in the past month

House buying in England is a nightmare. Last time l nearly lost the will to live! We were stuck in a long chain -both geographically and the number of properties. We were in the middle but some joker further up the chain kept on asking why wouldn’t go into rented 🤣. Well, because we have been good to go for ages and we’ve found a property. They should have gone into rented as they couldn’t find anywhere apparently. House buying and selling turns lots of people into dicks

It's only been a month! I don't think that is an unreasonably long time.

And you have a long time until your mortgage runs out. If you get much closer to that then you can ask them to go into rented but I think you need to be patient for a bit longer before starting to panic.

Difficult one,

In your situation I would continue to look, recognising that Estate Agents are currently forcing Vendors to agree a sale before they can view most properties,

With so little coming to market your Vendor may struggle to find something within your time frame.

If you need to move really quickly ask if they’re willing to rent or find another property.
The market is weird at the moment and it’s unrealistic to expect them to have found a house so quickly.
Our property was sold in July & we only found a property in February. Not for lack of trying, we offered on 6 properties & there isn’t much on the market that fit what we need, and we weren’t about to but any old house to keep our buyers happy (although we would have understood if they’d pulled out).

A month in the grand scheme of things isn’t a long time for them to still be looking for a property.

Yep, don't worry, that's totally normal for local-type solicitors. The call-centre mass-market kind of solicitors often don't ask for payment up front so anyone who questions has probably just used those.

We have had to pay a few hundred up front to the solicitors too

You shouldn’t be spending any money with solicitors or anything else until the chain is complete. The usual thing to do is to appoint a solicitor, i.e say we intend to use you, but don’t do any chargeable work until you hear from us that the chain is complete.