Stressed about making our buyers wait

[AlexisP90]

We have an offer on our house from first time buyers. Very excited to move in obviously.
Through the whole process we made it very clear we hadn't found anywhere yet.

We accepted the offer 6th Jan. We have been looking but not yet found somewhere. We are relocating 50 miles away and every spare moment going to viewings. It's obviously a huge decision and we are trying our best to move the process forward.
One potential house we may put an offer on but... im not 100% still.

Spoke to solicitor today who said it would be unlikely that we would exchange before the stamp duty break now even if we find a house chain free tomorrow.

if they pull out that's OK. We'll, it's not. It's stressful but I would understand.

I just.. feel bad. How long is acceptable for them to wait?

You want to do right by the buyers and be fair but at the same time want to do right by your family.

Rents are insane and then there is having to pay off a mortgage with fees, get another one and then not being able to port the original one... its just so hard.

I think if you are actively doing all that you can, that's all you can do!

Fingers crossed things move for you soon x

We got some very keen and excited first time buyers when we moved last year. It took us a while to find an onward purchase. We took the attitude that we had to wait to find the right house for us, and we weren’t going to be rushed into taking second best just to keep our buyers happy. If they wanted our house they had to wait. If they decided to pull out then so be it. We’d had loads of interest so we knew we could easily replace them.

You have to put your own interests first when buying and selling. Ok it’s no nice to let people down, but that’s the way it goes sometimes.

Ultimately it all worked out for us though.

We were transparent with all buyers that we would not be moving unless we found something we were 100% on as this is our long term move. We also would not consider rental as it is approx 3 times our mortgage and very few in our area. Luckily selling our house has never been an issue, it is the onward purchase that has proved difficult. We were pressured a lot at the back end of last year to find something else as our vendor hadn't found but actually we have ended up with a buyer in a much better position chain wise so that has helped us I believe with our offer.

"We took the attitude that we had to wait to find the right house for us, and we weren’t going to be rushed into taking second best just to keep our buyers happy. If they wanted our house they had to wait. If they decided to pull out then so be it. We’d had loads of interest so we knew we could easily replace them.
You have to put your own interests first when buying and selling. Ok it’s no nice to let people down, but that’s the way it goes sometimes."

Completely agree with this.

It depends on a number of things.

How keen the buyer is and how long they’re prepared to wait.
How urgent it is that you move. You mention 50 miles away, so is it for a job, or just because you like the location and can wfh. Or to support family.

Of course you should buy something you really want, but that also depends on whether your ideal house exists in your price bracket.

I understand that you don’t want to rent, with the issues that would bring, but I suppose, in the end, it comes down to whether to really want/need to move.

Last year I relocated 200 miles- when we accepted an offer, we took a week of annual leave and got an airbnb where we were moving to and looked at upwards of 35 properties. We knew it would be harder to be able to view places if we just waited for weekends.

Would that be a possibility for you, or at least one of you?

Moving to be closer to family. I mean there isn't an immediate rush our end but we do want to get moving and settled. We have a nearly 3 year old so as little disruption to hin as possible (and with school applications next jan)

We have some more viewings this weekend then if we still haven't found anywhere we will get a hotel or air bnb for a week and battle through more

The issue isn't really that we are fussy. Just little coming up in the area for our must haves - which really is only 3 bed, garden and downstairs loo!

Thanks for the replies. We will keep going and just be honest with our buyers. Ultimately I guess we have to be prepared to lose them - which we have to be. I don't want to rush and regret it

If I were then I'd still be viewing other properties tbh

If you want to sell now then sell now and move to rented with things in storage - we did it and worked well as made us cash buyers with no chain and we earned interest on the sale price which covered our rent ... We went to a long term Airbnb.

Downstairs loos aren’t particularly difficult to add if you find a house that is otherwise perfect.

We relocated in august (military moving back nearer to family). We had a property to sell in order to buy, well my buyers just pulled out after 6 months. Just trying to figure out if we can continue with the sale or not. If I could go back I honestly would have rented. It's the most stressful thing I've ever done. If we can't afford to continue with the house purchase we will be renting, reselling the property and then looking to buy once that's completed.

It's hard to know what your buyers are thinking and in a position to do. They might move to the property so much and have extra money you don't realise, so wait. On the other hand, they might be looking to save that money or just not have it.

One thing you could do in the meantime is make sure you've got any supporting paperwork to hand for any enquiries raised (think about what was raised when you brought, guarantees, anything like subsidence, obvious issues with property, then if you find somewhere in the next month and can't completed in time, you go into rental. If they've asked near the asking price, this would be worth considering as part of the moving process.

If you found a buyer quite quickly, say within a month, then you might find another one quite quickly.

This is great advice thank you!

Will definitely be getting the paperwork ready for the questions. Great idea