Has anyone had to stop their sale because they couldnt find anything to buy?

[MrsPuddle]

I sold my house very quickly but cannot find what I want in London. I am really worried I will have to abandon this and ditch my buyer [ if they dont walk away]. How often does this happen? or do people just compromise in the end?

It’s really difficult but I would always find a house I wanted then put my house on the market at a very reasonable price for a quick sale especially if the house is always going to sell very easily and quickly. Easier said than done though.

Or you could sell and then rent until you find something but this comes with risks. It depends on how often the house you want comes on the market. There is compromise and compromise!

This happened to my parents so they opted to rent so as not to let down the buyers - could you do this? It doesn't have to be forever, they signed up for six months and found their home after four but paid to the end of the contract with the landlady to be fair to her (particularly as they have a cat). If it's a good sale I would stick with it and find a short-term and flexible solution if you can - more difficult if you have children I appreciate - but it can be done.

@LindaDawn that’s what we’ve done twice (once during lockdown) but always get my head bitten off when I suggest that on here 😄

Sell and rent is a fair option too.

We did, we had advised our buyers not to do anything with regard to survey etc until we found something. This was last year, we put it back on this year, sold immediately, still took a little while to find something.

When I was moving (2022), you couldn't even arrange a viewing until you had accepted an offer on your own house ('in a position to proceed') so there was no hope of finding a house then putting your own on the market.

Think it’s a very different market today to the sellers market of 2022. Family member was viewing houses in 2022 with an open day of approx 28 couples, all who were proceedable and it wasn’t a great area or house!! Today you could see a house you like but if sellers won’t let you view just put your house on the market and liase with the estate agent.

Yes, we put our house on the market in 2019, sold it very quickly but couldn't find anything we liked enough to put an offer in. We were very open about this with our buyers and they found another property before getting surveys etc on ours.

It took us another 3 years to find something and we ended up putting an offer in, threw ours on the market and luckily sold at asking price within a few weeks. I'm so glad we didn't sell and rent because we would have been paying rent all that time!

Yes in 2021.

We were upfront with our buyers and told them not to survey etc until we found something so they didn't waste money.

I don't regret it for a second. Yes I was gutted for the couple who were buying ours, but I wasn't prepared to rent for an unknown possibly very lengthy period of time.

I would sell and rent. Put furniture into storage. The interest on your equity might cover a few months rent and you will be in a good position to proceed when your dream house comes on the market as you will be the end of a chain.

We couldn’t find anything to buy last time we sold so we were preparing to move into rented rather than lose our buyers.

Then luckily the house we are now in suddenly came on the market and we snatched it up. They accepted quite a low offer because we were almost at the point of Exchange on our own property & they wanted a quick sale.

We were in the same position as we got on offer on our house and then the sellers of the house we were buying decided they weren't moving. What position is your buyer in? We were lucky as ours were renting and agreed they would wait for us to find somewhere - it took us about 6 months and I was getting worried they would walk away but they didn't - but prices were going up so they had locked in a good deal. We ended up selling low and buying high but we needed to move and it was what it was.

Our dream buyers recently pulled out because we were taking too long (4 months). Apparently they want a chain free property now. We were gazumped on one house we really liked. It's so difficult because prior to listing, there were a few houses we were very interested in but in no position at all to offer so didn't even bother viewing. They were sat around for a good while and only sold within a week or so of us accepting an offer. There is now nothing at all on the market that we can afford. I'm not sure if house prices are creeping up again but we've re-listed at the same price as before.

We went into rental. There wasn't anything suitable on the market and we had to go through with our sale as it was a work relocation. This bought us time, meant we were chain-free so a better prospect as a buyer and could buy a house that needed work doing as we stayed in the rental whilst this happened.

It was expensive and stressful but well worth it in the long run.

Not if you are a UK taxpayer, you'll be likely paying 40% tax on the interest

I'm considering how it might work if I try and move next year, I've been stalking RM for over a year and all the places I like seem massively overpriced (they need a lot of work done to them). Not sure how realistic some sellers are, but I do see lots of reductions.
In one year of 'looking' I've only seen 1 place I would have offered on. It's a major thing for me to move, and I don't want to move again for a very long time.
I have a young DC and a dog, I can't imagine going into rented, I'm not sure I could cope with dealing with all that on my own. Rentals are so expensive and so competitive so it's not always the simple fix people say it is.

In your situation @badgerpatrol I would be stalking the Rightmove Sold prices as keenly as the ones for sale. The sold prices get updated every month though they are always about 3 months out of date.

The ones that sell should give you a realistic picture of what people will pay for various properties in your area. It’s surprising sometimes the amount people will pay for the properties with good selling points - like flats in London with a nice outdoor space for example, attract a premium. Properties in catchment for good schools will attract a premium.

On the other hand, sometimes it’s surprising to see how much under asking price some properties sell for. To know this, you have to have been stalking both the For Sale prices and the Sold prices so it’s research over several months but it does make you an expert on the housing market in your local area.

it took us ages to find something to buy- we were looking all the time our old property was on the market (about three months), and then took another six months after that to find something we wanted to buy.
We were incredibly fortunate that our buyers really wanted the property, and were renting from family at the time so could wait. It was a rising market as well, so as per PP I’m sure it helped that our buyers had locked in a good price too. However our buyers had given us a six month grace period to find something and we were on the verge of moving into a rental when a house came back onto the market because the sale had fallen through, and we very quickly viewed and made an offer that day. We were literally just about to sign the lease to go into a rental though, as we didn’t want to lose our buyers.
I feel for you, it’s incredibly stressful when you can’t find anything to buy, and so time consuming constantly trawling Rightmove. The next time we moved we made our house immaculate to encourage lots of interest, offered on a place we liked, then put our house on the market priced really sensibly to encourage a quick offer. It’s tricky though, as I know estate agents aren’t always keen for you to do it this way around.

@RidingMyBike this is exactly our situation. Just about to move into a crappy rental, but hope it will all be worth it as you say.

Where I lice (North East) it is still like this. We couldn't view the more popular houses until we had sold. The house we're buying we only got because we'd sold and were part way down that process. Its a tough market to upside here at the moment!

It also depends on mortgage company , some allow a six month period between properties but for many redemption penalties and risk of losing a good fixed rate deal need to be factored in

Good luck @MySocksAreDotty! Going into crappy rental wasn't much fun (how I hated that house!) but it did work out for us and now I'm sitting in my lovely house which we could never have bought if we hadn't rented first. As we were moving area the rental also meant we got to know the new area better - we ended up buying in a location we wouldn't have thought about before!

We had a garage with the rental so used that to store a lot of furniture and boxes of things we didn't need immediately which saved money on paying for storage.

We were upfront with viewers and said we had not seen anything yet and then one said he was living at home and happy to save for a few months, no rush. So we went with him over higher offers. We are very lucky and I still feel stressed though!

If you still want to move and are being realistic about costs for the properties/features you want would proceed with the good buyer and rent.

would only risk losing the buyer for things like: your reasons for moving were not strong, you’ve changed your mind, you’d be fine staying put for a lot more time in your current home, you’d be fine not getting a selected property for reasons to do with the chain.

Totally agree. It’s very unsettling too and makes you very vulnerable to sudden price increases and as you say sellers will have the upper hand mostly, as they know you will be getting more desparate. Also on your own it’s scarey.