How long will byers typically wait until we find a property?

[bookmarket]

We accepted an offer 6 weeks ago. They have no property to sell. I am feeling quite anxious about it all. We're looking frantically for something to buy but there's only been 3-4 properties a week to look at and some of those are clutching at straws just so we are seeing things. It took us a few weeks of looking to learn what our acceptable compromises are, so I suppose we have been looking hard for the past 3 weeks. Every week the estate agent calls I feel sick. Every buyer will be different, and I know no-one can answer my question.

I guess I am looking for the experience of others. I think in my heart I am fully expecting them to get fed up and pull out.

Honestly, you've let it go on too long already. Once you've sold your house you're pretty obliged to get on with moving, it's really bad form to keep everybody else in any chain waiting until everything lines up to suit you. If you want to sell the house, you need to try to accommodate your buyers and not just your own circumstances.

Most of the time estate agents or sellers won't let you view properties unless you have an offer on your property.

Quote "We plan on moving next year. We already study the property sites and drive by homes to gauge the area so we know what areas we may be interested in, plot size/house size, layout etc. we always know there are compromises to be made so we’re studying to know in advance what is acceptable or not"

Yes, I did look on Right Move in the months leading up to ours going on the market. We had 3 areas in mind, all with quite different types of housing. You can only do so much logical thinking about what you want. Once you start looking at actual houses, you get the feel for what is right and what is a non-negotiable. We also thought we would be prepared to do work on a property but the ones we have seen have needed so much money spending on them. They might take low offers in time but not when first on the market. We priced our house fairly and it sold fast. I think we're waiting for other sellers to realise they are not going to get 2021/2022 prices for their houses.

It depends how keen they are to have your house and how desperate they are to move. They might be prepared to wait a long time if they really love your house.
However if there are lots of close alternatives available, they may ultimately go for one of those instead.

The main thing to remember is to make sure you do what is right for you. Don’t be rushed into buying a house that isn’t quite right just to keep the buyers happy. If you do lose your buyers, just remarket and find new buyers.

I do have sympathy for the buyers. I really do. It's crap buying and selling in England and much of it seems to come down to the luck of timing. It would be much easier if the conveyancing part could be sped up.

There's every possibility they will start looking for a different property soon. Was it made clear to them when you accepted their offer that you did not have a property lined up and that it may take you months to find one.

I'm always amazed by the couples on Location Location who are so picky and seem to view hundreds of houses but then they're always in rental or with family. It is difficult because not only do you get pressure from buyers but also your agent "how did your viewing go?" as they don't get any money till you complete. And actually when spending so much, people want to go somewhere they like rather than a shack down the road.
I agree with pps re renting, wouldn't want to do it again.

It must be great to have Kirsty and Phil's production team leafletting properties in the areas that they want to buy. No wonder they eventually find one or two they are keen on.

there's only been 3-4 properties a week to look at

surely this means you've already viewed 15 properties? Personally think that's loads to have discounted them all, our most recent move (2019-20) we already knew the backbone of what we were looking for and so the viewings were really just to get a feel for that particular house, offered on the 3rd or 4th one we saw. I'd be driven demented if DH wanted to view 3 or 4 a week.

If you are not porting your mortgage, I too would suggest renting. We did that with our last sale/purchase and it made life so much easier, it essentially made us no chain which was useful when negotiating. The house we bought was basically unhabitable, so we stayed in rental an extra 3 months while we sorted out the roof and got hot water. It really does take the stress away. Just don't tell the letting agent you are doing it as a stopgap as they might be less willing to rent when they know its only going to be 6 or so months.

If you want to keep this buyer, I’d rent too.

As your buyer, I’d still be looking, in case something better comes up or I get fed up waiting for you.

Of course it’s a pain, but then the whole process is. In this area, most agents won’t accept a viewing unless you’re under offer.

Well if they’ve got any sense the buyers are still looking, so you’ve basically got as long as they take to find a better property. If you’ve got a great house to sell at a reasonable price they’ll hang on longer, if not they won’t.

There is no need to cling onto this buyer. You say the house sold fast, so it will likely sell fast again.

If they are happy to wait until you have found your perfect house, then great. If not then let them pull out if they want to and put back on the market.

Moving house is a massive decision. So you need to do what is best for you, not whatever keeps your buyers happy.

We broke our last chain by going into rental for 6 months (2021). We rented something smaller & cheaper and put two thirds of our stuff in storage which was surprisingly cheap. It was the best thing we did as the house we bought and live in now was definitely the right one, and we got an excellent deal due to our cash position/no chain.

With regards to the housing market, it’s pretty stagnant atm, and if it moves anywhere in the next year or 18 months it’ll probably be downwards so I wouldn’t worry too much. More expensive to buy the wrong house and have to move again in my opinion. We bought the wrong house previously as it was the best of the bunch available back then and it was a huge mistake. Famous last words and all that, but I can’t see a property boom appearing in the next year or so.

You have a cash buyer??! Why aren't you biting their hands off?

as your buyer I would be pissed off and would (and have in the past) pull out.

What's the point in looking at anything before you've sold! No point falling in love with something that you can't put an offer in to secure. I wasn't happy when my house was on the market in 2023 and I had people inconveniencing me to view the house when they hadn't had an offer and one hadn't even put their home on the market yet! For all l know they might have tatty houses or live in an area where other factors might have meant that their properties were a difficult sell.

I have been in this position. I was looking to move 3 hours away and found it difficult to find time to view things at weekends only whilst working in week. I ended up selling 5 times and all the buyers pulling out when I couldnt find what I wanted in their time frame. I was adamant I didn't want to waste money renting! I realised the situation had got ridiculous so went to stay with a relative. Thought it would be for 6 weeks whilst my sale and purchase went through but the chain fell through and I ended up with relative for 6 months and paying storage fees for 6 months!! Got there in the end though! Much happier so worth the stress! Phew!

We once waited 9 months and then offered elsewhere. It’s not just the property you find, it’s the other people im the chain above

Ok so we put our house on the market in June 2023, it was a difficult market due to uncertain interest rates and it took til Oct 31st to get an offer, we needed to move, the main road out front had got too busy and noisy for us, the neighbours were banging doors from very early in the morning etc and we had a Snicket down the side of our house that was causing us issues. All in all the house we'd lived in for 16 years has become somewhere we couldn't live despite being in a nice area and we knew the road and Snicket might make it harder sell.

We struck lucky because we had first time buyers offer us the asking price. We had kept a favourites list on Rightmove and if course properties came and went but one of the ones we really liked was left so we we viewed a few avd knew that was the one and put the offer in on Nov 3rd.

It got to mid December and our sellers had still not offered on anything and the estate agent for our new home was trying to help them find something but they wanted to stay in the same area but get a bigger house but they wouldn't up the budget enough to be able to do that.
I also found out that he's sat on the sellers survey to buy time and the estate agent told him it was unfair to delay the process and to sort it and send it. And like someone said on an earlier comment, you really start thinking that they don't want to sell!

The progress of the buying and selling was going swimmingly and by Christmas we were ok a position to potentially exchange by end of Jan at the latest and yet in Jan my sellers still hadn't offered on anywhere and my buyers were a mum and son sat in rented accommodation that wanted to understably get in and stop paying rent as soon as everything was ready to complete. This was a sale we could not afford to lose because they could have called it off and found any number of chain free properties.

We then got to a stage where he kept wavering about moving himself and his partner and kids into rented property after our solicitor suggested breaking the chain. It was becoming hell because one minute he was agreeable with it and then he wasn't keen. I saw a smaller detached house in the same area that was chain free and in the end I threatened to pull out and buy that house if he didn't agree to break the chain and move out! It was getting to the end of January, we were going away to SE Asia for a fortnight and it had been agreed by all parties up to this point to complete a week or two after we got back. So I needed to know what was happening and whether I needed to start a ball rolling on a new property before we went away! I said that if he risks me losing my buyers, we both lose out anyway because I could be months getting another buyer plus, we were too far down the line for him to have not even offered on anywhere and we certainly didn't have the time to wait for him to not only find a place out potentially get stuck in an onward chain for god knows how long - my buyers were getting ready to give their landlord notice!

So in the end they did break the chain, god knows when they actually bought a place or if they even have yet because they still use our address for important things they shouldn't be doing like banking, kids schools and doctors! And just to put the cherry on the cake he turned recently wanting to know if we'd saved 16 months of mail for him!

You need to get a house as soon as you can because you either risk losing the sale and maybe the sale after that if you just can't commit to anything when viewing 3 or 4 holes a week, or you have the ball ache of renting and your post being a nightmare to you and your buyers. We didn't keep post after all this time and I complained to Santander about them using our address for their banking when we own the place and have a mortgage with Santander for it.

I recently moved. It took us a month after accepting our buyer's offer to find a house we liked and have an offer accepted. We were lucky as it was a short chain.

The people we bought from also took the same time to find their onward purchase. I didn't feel they communicated well though. I'd have felt much more at ease if they had checked in every week or so via the estate agent to say yes still keen on selling to us /looking at houses etc. Our buyers were very patient but I think it helped that we did communicate regularly. They also had flexible renting terms where they just gave a month of notice.

There is point putting your house on the market if you don’t know whether there is actually a house you want to buy.

I viewed my current house before my old one was on the market. I loved it and so put my old house up for sale. Within 2 weeks I had accepted an offer, and also had an offer accepted on my new house. If the seller had refused to let me view before I was SSTC, then she would have lost out on the sale to me.

Refusing viewing from buyers who aren’t SSTC is cutting your nose off to spite your face, and reduces your chances of sellling.

That only works in a slow market where you don’t have an influx of buyers ready and willing to offer on your house. When we sold, we had multiple offers on ours (all above asking price) on the first day of viewings. Lots of houses around here sell in a week or two. Why would I let non-proceedable buyers view my house when there is a ton of others who can move quickly? In some areas the markets move so quickly, nobody has the time to wait for buyers who haven’t got their properties on the market.

You do understand that two weeks is exceptionally rare! Houses are not selling that quick where I live, it was even worse when my old house was on marker because less people were buying and the market had a lot of choice - it still does now because I still get the Rightmove emails.

At the end of the day all I would have accepted an offer in principle but it would have stayed on the market as per the recommendation of the agent but that's not beneficial to me particularly and would not have reserved the house for them just your house could easily have been sold before you had the ability to put a proper offer in.

I did let these people view my house but it was difficult to feel any hope about it because uts exceptionally unlikely to get an offer in two weeks.

Buyers '

We were in your position. We sold to a FTB and had a property agreed but the vendor hadn't found anywhere to buy. We waited 6 weeks and the vendor pulled out. We were worried about our buyers and totally get about the phone calls from the EA and the worry what they were going to say. 2 weeks later we had an offer accepted on another house with no chain. I think every buyer is different and you are really just guessing what their strategy is for buying. It also depends what else is on the market, as we were not convinced our first vendor wouldn't pull out so kept looking but actually in that time nothing came up we wanted to view until after he pulled out. Equally I was watching out for houses being listed similar to ours and not much came up to make our buyers offer elsewhere either.

If you are viewing 3-4 a week then that's quite good in this climate. We were getting about 1 property worth viewing every 3-4 weeks. If we were lucky two would come up. There isn't much you can do about it if you don't want to go into rented, you just have to hope your buyer saying they will wait is true and keep in touch with them.