When you house-hunt, are you swayed by length of chains and completion dates?

[faraday]

Wish we'd known more about it when we were looking (and offering!). I mean, surely a house with no chain is going to be worth a lot more than one in a 10 long chain where the sale has just fallen through? which is what would have had to have happened din order for a house to be in a chain at all, wouldn't it? IF indeed you get to know that at all? Though surely you'd need to be told by the EA 'If you offer on this house be aware that completion date has been set on 'x''. IS that what EAs mean by 'very committed vendor'?

We offered on a house where the owners hadn't begun looking. We're first time buyers. They've now had an offer accepted and have thus committed US to a 4 long chain. That to us, effectively 'lowers' the value of what we offered for their house, does it not? In that it isn't just the house, it's the circumstances: length of settlement, financial position of the buyers etc that all comes into play as the 'risk' varies with each one.

Yes, that's why first time buyers or cash buyers are sought after, and why houses are often advertised as 'no upward chain' - these are the chain ends and therefore have added value!
But as first time buyers, presumably you DO have flexibility? If so, you might as well jsut wait and hope that it all comes off. If not, you could tell your vendors taht if they don't ocmplete by X then you will withdraw your offer. Then they will have to decide whether they want to proceed with the sale and go into rented or not.

I don't think it would affect the value I would place on the house, but it would probably affect how likely I would be to make an offer on it and how committed to the purchase I would be (if a long chain seemed apparent, I would probably keep viewing other properties if they popped up).

If I was selling my house and there were 2 potential buyers, one in a long chain and one chain free, I would probably think about accepting a lower offer from the chain free buyers, but not a significantly lower offer. Though depends how desperate you are to move I guess.

Yes, interesting.

Sadly our 1st time buyer/cashed up status seems to hold no sway here at all- or perhaps it's fair to say the EA hasn't schooled the vendor up sufficiently that perhaps they SHOULDN'T treat us quite so flippantly: In fact, the EA suggested to US that the vendors, if pressured towards exchange, wouldn't worry about losing us as buyers as 'they'd get 14K more for it if they were to put it back on the market now'..well, perhaps BUT the house they've had an offer accepted on could equally well go up £14K too (same catchment) if THAT vendor decided to play that game as well! Hope the EA has made THAT clear!

Sorry but no it wouldn't add value to me. End of chain properties are of course important but what is a few months delay in getting a chain through against years in the house of your choice?

At the end of the day most house moves are chains, its rare that they're not. It can be a pita. Our chain, if it ever gets going is going to be a complete nightmare. We're selling to 1st time buyers, we're buying from divorce couple (split in chain). Mrs from this house is buying from another divorce couple (another split in chain). As it stands at the moment our buyers have said that every month they're not in the house they get to save more deposit and lower their mortgage repayments. I think it will be us going into rental to hold our buyers if it comes to it but chains are part of the agonising process.