Found our dream home! Help

[Labmum321]

Our house has been on the market for 9 weeks. We put it on for £10k more than we actually want for it in the hopes that someone knocks us down to what we want. It’s had 5 viewers but no offers. Feedback has been really positive. We’ve been in no rush to sell because the market is slow and so next to no houses have come on the market that have been right for us just yet. We even said if there’s no offers by the end of November we will just take it down as it’s becoming a pain now. We said at the start if the right house came along we would reduce ours for a quick sale.

Fast forward to now. The PERFECT house came along yesterday. We viewed last night. It ticks every box we had and the asking price is the top end of our budget, in the perfect location for us as it’s on the estate most of my family live. Its had 3 viewings so far and its only been on the market 1 day so I know its bound to get snapped up.

Ideally, we’d offer full asking price and would love the vendors to accept this offer, take it off the market and give us x amount of weeks to sell. At the viewing, they told us they were in a similar boat to us, they saw a house that had just come on the market, they viewed it and loved it, they put their house on the market that same day, their offer was accepted before their house was on the market and now they just need a buyer and said they don’t think it’s be on for long.

Realistically, one of the other viewers could be proceedable and it’s taken off the market this morning so we don’t want to reduce ours asap if that house is gone!

The viewings were all last night after the office closed so we won’t know what’s happening until this morning.

What would you do? I know if it was me I’d just go with whoever is the most proceedable and I wouldn’t blame them for doing that.

Should I ring up and offer full asking price straight away and tell them how serious we are and how much we love it etc? Or would it be pointless? Or not jump the gun with figures yet because these other viewers may not be proceedable either?

We had a couple offer on a previous house of ours. It was the asking price and they were super keen, the wife even sent me a gushing card saying how much she loved the house which at the time I found a little strange. However they weren’t proceedable. We said if they should become proceedable we would sell to them, but obviously couldn’t take it off the market in the meantime until they were, as their property could take forever to sell and we wanted to move. Luckily they did sell theirs and they were our buyer in the end, but until properties have offers and the conveyancing can start it’s all a bit hypothetical. Obviously had someone offered more than them, I would have taken the keenness of this couple as a very big advantage, so maybe their card did work. So many house buyers and offers are totally fickle, superficial and not seriously meant, so even if it sells, there’s a good chance it may fall through so maybe let them know of your continued interest so they have you as a possible back up buyer.

Ooh good luck, OP. It's a hair-raising process, this. I hope you get a buyer asap.

It's complete and utter agony OP, I totally sympathise. We were in that position literally a week ago... our dream house got an offer last Weds and just two days later we got an offer on ours making us proceedable... but it was too late (I'm basically praying every day the current sale falls through 😂).

I really really hope it works out for you, it sounds like the vendor does too. 🤞🏼 (and as much as friends try to be helpful with "what will be will be", it's the last thing you want to hear!)

It’s gone. They went with cash buyers who are first time buyers too. I am still gutted even though I saw it coming. 😟

We’re going to ring our EA later and take ours off the market. Maybe try again early spring next year or wait until our fixed rate is coming to an end in 4 years.

Thanks for all your comments and coming along for the ride. We have closure now at least and we’re not sat in limbo.

You never know, it might fall through. 1 in 3 house purchases do. If you keep yours on the market, you might be able to sell. Then you’d be in a strong position to offer again if your dream house or an equivilant one re appears on the market.

@Labmum321 sorry to hear you’ve missed it. well in my experience the housing market always goes dead in the run up to Xmas and for the first few months after anyway. We’ve always put our previous houses on the market just before Easter as that’s when everyone appears out of hibernation with enthusiastic ideas of house moves. You’ll probably find more choice of property appearing then. Also if anything does go pear shaped with this sale in the meantime, good chance they might be relaunching their property in the Springtime too. Often sales fizzle out especially with the volatile mortgage rates at the moment.

We’ve literally just had a phone call from our EA, some first time buyers want to come and view tomorrow at 1. We’ll go ahead with it and see if it leads anywhere, just in case this house falls through with the cash buyers. I doubt it as it’s a beautiful home but who knows!

Ah I'm sorry it didn't work out. Cash buyers usually means a lower offer than full asking, bear that in mind if you do get an offer as you might be able to go higher than another cash buyer if it falls through.

@Labmum321 if you don’t mind keeping yours on the market over the winter, you have nothing to lose by doing that. You may even benefit by there being less choice for possible buyers of yours over the winter season. That sale could well fall through for many reasons, or you may be in a sold & enviable position for when the new stock does appear in early Spring. Good luck!

That is very true. Thank you for the advice. It has been really helpful! We might just keep it on. It’s so stressful and your constantly wondering is it the right time?! Is this a sign?! We were going to take it off the market when DH got home from work at 2, so to receive that phone call saying we have a viewer so quickly after we made that decision, before 2pm, was a bit spooky. I think it’s a sign to keep it on.

I had almost the exact same situation this time last year, OP. We went on the market beginning of Nov in a rush (planning to wait until the new year) because we found THE house. We weren't proceedable in time, by a matter of days. So disappointed. We had first time buyers ourselves, and kept looking - in February the house came back on the market and we snapped it up. Living in it now! House buying can take several twists and turns, you might get a second crack at this house or you might find something even better. Good luck either way.

@MovingToPlan not the same as it's rental but when we moved back from EU we ended up renting a house that I wouldn't have 100% picked due to lack of supply- 8 months after moving in perfect house in ideal location came up - list it as we couldn't move in quick enough and would have ended up paying for 2 and a half months on both- 5 weeks later agent called me and asked if I was still interested as it had fallen through - still in it now

Keep it on. The house we currently live in fell through twice before we got it.

First time couldn't get the mortgage and second time they got a job offer abroad and went for that.

Good luck with the viewing.

Maybe we should start a "Let's hope the current buyer falls through" support group 😆 Good luck with your viewing today! 🍀

Thank you

They haven’t even changed it to Sold STC on Rightmove yet! I need closure haha.

My daughter works in a EA and they go SSTC after the survey!

My son's changed to SSTC once he provided proof of funds Inc his mortgage in principle and the identification checks had been done.

Good luck. We had similar happen and the cash buyer did fall through! But by then we’d found another house we liked even more :)

We’ve had two cash buyers fall through OP, so you never know!

Thank you. I hope so! The viewers today seemed to like it but not confident that they loved it. We will see Monday when the EA is open.

good heavens OP… that won’t happens for weeks

Our EA just called. The Saturday viewers loved it. They want to book a second viewing as they were too excited on Saturday and forgot to ask some questions apparently. They’ve got an appointment with their financial advisor later today to work out what they can actually offer and asked what we would sell it for as it’s up for ‘Offers in excess of’!

It looks promising but still a bit like argh well our house is gone now! If we get an offer from this one, should we ring the dream house EA again and say hey we’re proceedable now so keep us in mind if anything happens with your cash buyer ?!

Yes that wouldn’t hurt to let the EA know you are waiting in the wings should that sale fall through for any reason.

@Labmum321 Definitely. That's what we've done. Then manifest like you've never manifested before.

Ohhhh I am really hoping the stars align!!

The house is around the corner from both of my sisters and they live opposite each other. I have 2 close cousins that live on the next street and my mum lives on the street after that. I grew up there but was essentially priced out to a cheaper, neighbouring town which happened to all of my friends too. This is the first one within budget in that area that meets all of our requirements. If the sale goes through with the cash buyer I don’t think I’ll ever get over it and I have to drive past it every time I visit my family which is all the time! Yes I am being dramatic but I really, really want it.