Is it unusual for cash buyers to wait 10 weeks for a survey?

[LastnightaDJsavedmylife73]

Do you think it’s odd that our buyers have waited 10 weeks to have a survey?

We accepted their offer on June 30th, they’re cash buyers. We said we would allow the sale to go through quickly, even if it meant moving in to rented or staying with family. We had an offer accepted on a house on August 5th, it’s vacant, owned by a professional landlord.

All a long we’ve been clear we wanted to work to a Sept 30th/Oct 1st completion date as this is the date our current fix term ends. Our buyers have been moving at a snails pace despite a desire to move asap.

Finally, they’ve confirmed a survey for next week, week 11! Our purchase in the meantime has had a survey, searches are underway and have started to come back and our solicitor is reviewing the contract, all in 4 weeks!

Our house was built in 1904 and so the survey is bound to throw up some issues. There is nothing major, we renovated in 2022, but who knows. We of course don’t mind them having a survey, we just wish it had been earlier in the process.

We will now go on to a standard variable rate and pay more because they’ve dragged their heals. Absolutely fuming.

Yes. Very slow. Suggests to me they might have had a survey on another property and you became choice 2. A friend had exactly this and then the buyer chose the other property. It’s a buyers market and they do keep vendors hanging on. Does the EA not know why the buyer has delayed? Story friend was told was that they weren’t having a survey but changed their minds. They were really looking for another house.

No.

Yes I do think it’s unusual. Almost like they’re trying to stall. I’ve heard of cash buyers doing this cos they’re not really cash buyers and are trying to sell a house. Do you have proof of funds for your buyer?

That's a long time. Presumably the EA has been chasing and checked they are viable? What reasons have you been given?

To be fair…. It’s been the summer holidays and now kids back at school?

@Savvysix1984 Yes they are stalling the sale, but why? I’ve been aware of buyers saying they are “divorced” and the vendors seem to assume they have got money from a house sale and are cash buyers. They might have some money, but is it enough? Behind the backs of everyone, they cannot get the mortgage they want. There’s half truths and incorrect assumptions made.

The agent had seen proof of funds

They don’t have kids.

My DPs parents are cash buyers and have offered on an empty property. I was questioning at the weekend why they haven’t got the survey booked yet - 2 weeks after their offer was accepted.
11 weeks seems totally ridiculous.

Perhaps it wasn't their original intention to have a survey? But have now decided they will. It's bloody annoying either way!

We've bought with cash from the sale of our previous property five times and haven't had a survey on any of them (all houses at least 150 years old). If we'd planned to have one we would have said so at the outset and I'd have been too embarrassed to wait till the eleventh hour - or tenth week! - to announce we were having one.

We've also sold to one set of buyers who didn't have a survey on ours (victorian house) and I was convinced they'd change their minds and book one late in the process. They didn't. Our last sale took six weeks for our buyers to book a full structural (400 year old house) and I thought that was bad enough!

In that case… they’ve been hedging their bets hoping to find better or worried about their own buyer

are they selling?

now concluded that they can’t do the wheels are in motion

Our buyers decided on a survey after about 4 months IIRC. Our house was almost 100 years old but nothing scary came up afaik.

The EA have been chasing generally. They said they hadn’t mentioned a survey as the buyer may well have not wanted one, but then they said they were arranging. The EA say they’re old school, don’t do online banking etc so this has slowed things down.

Annoying but glad there were no surprises!

Yes we thought they’d decided not to bother, and so we’re quite annoyed they’ve left it so late. We hope this wasn’t intentional so they can try and use any issues as bargaining tools late in the process. They won’t get far, we will pull out and go back on the market.

They are leaving it until the last possible minute so that when they get the survey, they can nitpick and beat you down on price. By leaving it so close to the deadline, they are hoping it will force you to agree.

Care to expand? Genuinely interested why you think this. Good to hear a different perspective.

This is our fear, however, it won’t work. We discounted the house by 10k before they offered and then we gave them another 5k off. We absolutely want to move, but we won’t be victims of a shakedown. We would never behave that way & won’t put up with that from someone else.

It can depend on how many surveyors there are in the area. Back in the spring in the area where I sold a house it was about a 2 week wait to get surveys booked (4 if you wanted the really big survey). Now apparently there's a 6 week wait (or 10 for the big one) because there are only a handful of surveyors and there's now a backlog of work.... So if they were a bit slow to instruct they could have been caught up in a waiting list.

To be fair, your mortgage debt isn"t really their problem, I think that is a fair observation to make?

To be fair I never said it was. I just said amongst other things their slowness to move on this will cost us extra money, and delay things further as we can’t now move until end of October earliest. I think it is fair to be pis*ed off about that, especially when they pitched up as cash buyers who wanted to move asap.

Long way from a true buyers market, prices are still way too high, but they may have other properties in mind, I think a request for a price reduction is almost inevitable in this climateTBH.

We’ve already given then a price reduction on offer. We won’t be offering further.

I think ours was about 2 months on from our offer being accepted, when we were buying a few years ago. 10 weeks is annoying. But I’m not sure I’d read much into it beyond that. They’ve paid for a survey so must be reasonably keen.
I didn’t want to bother doing one (knew the house) but it was requested by the bank even though they were doing their own and also recommended by solicitors.

Ok, that is a fair point.