Buyers - how long do you give vendors to find a new place before losing patience?

[Gingka]

You don’t want to rush them but also don’t want them to take ages. What is the sweet spot in your opinion? Thank you!

Most buyers find giving vendors around 6 to 8 weeks to find a new place is the sweet spot - long enough to be fair, but not so long you lose patience or miss out!

How long is a piece of string? It depends how much you want the house and how easy it is to find a similar one.

If it was a house I absolutely loved, and nothing else on the market came close, then I’d be prepared to wait 6 months or more.

If it was a ten a penny kind of house, then I’d start looking at alternatives after 2 or 3
weeks.

Would also presumably depend if you are a cash buyer or there is a chain below you. If the former it's entirely in your hands, if the latter you will to a degree he dictated to by those in the chain below you.

I'm guessing that if they were serious about moving, they'd be very au fait with the market, and have places in mind to offer on very quickly. I mean, in their position you'd be on Rightmove every night as soon as you put yours on the market!

I just bought, was in rented and buying an empty property, so no chain. I had a mortgage in principle when offer accepted 5th May. Applied for mortgage and refused! Broker did find another, actually better, mortgage, but that obviously took weeks to get sorted. Finally got keys on 18th August after a long 3.5 months!

I have bought twice, no chain either time, and it was stressful, I cant imagine the stress of being in a chain!

I sold three weeks ago - I was being chased by the EA from around 10 day mark and the buyers around 2 weeks. I did find a house at the end of week 3. This is my second round after the chain broke at the end of August and was lucky to sell again within 2 weeks. I did feel however that to keep my buyer and the FTB - I was not in a position to faff around. The market is very fragile - I am not sure whether the chain would have stood for months of uncertainty. I am buying a house that it is actually better than one lost when the chain broke at six months - a cloud in the horizon.

I would ask for an update after 2 weeks. Just basic information like how many viewings have they had and any offers placed. Do again at week 4. If your not getting any indication that they are really on it, by the week 4 update, you need to think about adding boundaries to your offer.

We pulled out after 3 months of waiting for the vendor to find somewhere

We must’ve been the most laid back of buyers our offer was accepted in April of last year. They originally found a house then they pulled out of that one and started searching again. It was painfully slow process and we eventually moved in mid December. Selling our own home was a quick process after moving into our new home the turnaround was 6 weeks.

As @Doris86 says - this is very much an 'it depends' situation.

How ever long you want. I have just been in this situation and I guess how long would it take for you to get a new vendor? I mean there's nothing to stop you saying you'll keep the house on the market until they have a buyer and are ready to move forward, but any buyer is likely to have to sell unless you find a first time buyer, so you need to factor in the time it would take to start again, followed by the time your next buyer might need to sell.