Offering on a different house, what to do?

[RokaandRoll]

Our house purchase has been going really slowly due to our vendors dragging their feet finding a property to purchase and then that purchase going very slowly - whereas we've been ready on our side for several months now.

In the meantime another house appeared on Rightmove that we really love - we viewed it today and would prefer to buy it over the original house (which would still be our second choice).

We're struggling to know what to do. Should we switch to the other house? We would feel terrible letting our vendors down but on the other hand we can't buy a house to be polite. If we do decide to switch do we make an offer on the dream house, see if it's accepted, then inform our solicitors and the estate agent of the original house? Or do we pull out of second choice house first, then offer on dream house?

We are taking the weekend to think things over. We're cash buyers so no mortgage to consider.

do we make an offer on the dream house, see if it's accepted, then inform our solicitors and the estate agent of the original house?

This is the only sensible thing to do if the house you're currently under offer on is still a genuine second choice.

Definitely offer first. We have had an offer accepted since October with no progress from our vendor. We've just offered on a different house, it's just been dragging on with no progress at all! You can only wait so long but we've not spent money yet thank goodness!

We’re in a similar position, but we were the ones ‘dragging our feet’ (nothing on the market & the 6 houses we did offer on we lost out to cash buyers). We have finally found somewhere & now just going through the motions.
Selfishly, I would appreciate if our buyers told us their plan so we didn’t spend further money on anything in the meantime, but I also get why you wouldn’t until you had an offer accepted.. I wouldn’t necessarily expect you to pull out of the sale until an offer had been accepted on the second property, but maybe that’s not the done thing 😂

do we make an offer on the dream house, see if it's accepted, then inform our solicitors and the estate agent of the original house?

Absolutely. I wouldn't feel any guilt, either. You are cash buyers and your vendors have dragged their feet and now their purchase is going slowly? If they had been that keen to sell they could have cracked on with you and moved in with friends, family or rented. There is always the risk if you are slow that you lose your buyer. It sounds like you have wasted months on them already and still don't have a moving date.

I'd feel no hesitation in telling them 'We've found somewhere else and are pulling out of buying your house as we still have no completion date from you, or any real idea when we might be able to move in'.

we had the same thing seller really stretched it out finding a property to buy meanwhile a better house came up we offered got accepted on offer empty house too so no chain and we were cash buyers so told first seller no longer interested and now live in the second one we looked at very happily,

We pulled out of our first house purchase after waiting five months for our sellers to find somewhere. As you say, you can’t buy a house to be polite! So offer on the dream house - and no, don’t pull out until you know if it’s accepted, because that’s just too big a risk for you

Just go for it.

I wouldn’t tell your sellers your plan, it might make things difficult if you stick with this house.

We were the sellers dragging our feet we had made it clear that we would not be moving into rental and thought it entirely reasonable that our first buyers found somewhere else.

I was in this situation. I didn't even go to see the other house because I didn't want to let our vendors down/ thought they'd find out.

Cut to the day of exchange and the vendors pulled out, costing us thousands. They had no thought of us at all, which is perfectly legal of course but shitty. It was two days before completion, we were all packed up and ready to go, we'd given up our jobs as we were moving 250 miles away. Our buyer was about to move out of her rental- she was left with nowhere to go.

Yes of course. You can't live somewhere because you felt awkward about letting someone down...

Offer on the new house. If accepted, pull out of the first
If offer not accepted, stay with the first.

But ask yourself, if you loved the first house so much, wouldn't you just wait for it to go through? Clearly it is not the one and only and there are other houses out there you like as much or more, so your answer probably is....move on.

Go with your heart, make an offer on your favourite and see if it’s accepted first. If the house owners that you’ve offered on really wanted to move they could rent somewhere just to keep the chain moving, I would have done this for a cash sale.

They aren't thinking about you so put yourself first.
Offer first though just in case they don't accept.

Offer on the first choice house first & see if you can reach agreement on price & check that they are keen to move quickly.

You will feel guilty about the original house - well we did in a similar situation- but as you said, you can’t buy a house to be polite if you’ve seen one you like better.