House Sellers: WWYD?

Is the offer what you wanted?

How long did it take you to get the offer?

Is the offer a good one? Are you likely to achieve it again?

I would probably move into rented depending on how you've found the selling process so far.

We are the buyers but I am interested to see it from the other side as we are now getting impatient. We have agreed to every date thrown at us by the seller but things have to come to an end. We paid a couple of grand under the asking price and are ready to go (apart from giving notice on our rented house)

We really want the house and we are hoping that she will agree to our dates and move elsewhere if necessary but she might refuse to do this so we will have no choice but to walk away

As the house prices are rising they could probably get more than we paid but they had the house on for x price and then reduced it by 10K only a month after.

Where in the country are you? (as an agent, don't believe the hype the daily fail and the other say about house prices... a house is only worth what someone is willing to pay for it)

if I were the seller I'd not want to go through the effort of finding another buyer on a property.

You've not exchanged contracts right? There's nothing to stop you being quite vocal to the agent your buying through and letting them know that you're going to start looking again for other properties, that might encourage them to move a bit quicker.

I did suggest that to the estate agent, at one point but it was met with "She would understand if you chose not to continue" According to our estate agents she has found a house but the owner of that house has not found anywhere yet so we are waiting for them. Our seller is unwilling to start any of the process of surveys etc until their seller finds somewhere because apparently this is now her 3rd house after 2 fell through since we started the process 4 months ago.

I think it depends on how badly you want the house, that's the difficulty with chains, there's not much you can do to speed things up.

I'd keep an eye on whats on the market, still view things that you genuinely are interested in and see what happens - the same could happen on another house you find, so if you love this property and are in a position to wait it out (speak to mortgage broker re: getting extension on the offer) then do it.

If I were selling, I would, without doubt move into rented if I hadn't found anywhere else. I think it is ridiculous that they are putting you in this situation!?

Cant get an extension so we are fast approaching the end of the line. We desperately want the house but getting a new mortgage will take even longer and if the others are in a position to move not sure if they will want us holding everything up (although you would think as we have been patient for what will be 6 months they would be patient with us)

We dont want to let it go unless we have to but we will be left with little choice which is the most frustrating thing.

If I was in your situation I'd do as Muppet says - tell the agents to inform them that you are starting to look for other properties.

Keep your offer on the table but start searching in earnest again now.

If I was your seller, I would be moving out and renting if it was an offer I was happy with.

We also find it ridiculous but as we are not selling I am not sure if it was the norm to move into rented if you had a solid buyer but you were unable to secure things at your end. I did ask the estate agents if she could move into rented or with someone else but it seems she is unwilling to do so. This was at a time when we had given notice on our house and if we hadnt been able to retract it we would have been homeless!! We have learnt our lesson and are not giving notice until we have an exchange in place.

We want to exchange by 16th April for a completion date 16th May which is the latest possible date we can do things.

We have made the decision to wait it out until our offer is no longer valid and then we will get a new mortgage with a longer fixed term interest rate and take our time looking for somewhere else. It does cost us more money but we would prefer to not feel rushed into buying somewhere because we are running out of time.

I think this is a tricky one, if I was selling my house I suppose I would consider how much interest I had received when my house was initially on the market. I can understand her not moving into rented and then into a house she purchases, this is an added cost for her and she doesnt know how long that could be for, she probably feels very settled in her home (albeit she is selling it) and doesnt want to feel like she's in a halfway house until she can buy somewhere new. Pleus she would probably have to arrange for some of her furniture to go into storage and if she has any pets then she needs to take them into consideration too.

So I can understand her point of view, but I realise how frustrating it must be for you.

I'd go so far as to ask the agent to send you some details of similar properties in the same area and then make appointments to see them - it might put a bit of a rocket up their bums. I know some chains can drag on - but if they need to put some pressure on the other people, then it might help.

Having said that, I'm a bit too stubborn for my own good and if I got told that my buyers were dropping out, I'd be inclined to shrug my shoulders and say, oh well - their loss and they can't have liked the house that much then, especially if I hadn't yet found a property to buy. I'm afraid I wouldn't be spending my hard-earned money on a rented property just to suit the buyers - sorry!!

To be fair I would feel the same but our problem is our mortgage offer. We can't extend it. If we could extend it by a month or two we wouldn't mind waiting to give them more time because we do want this house.

Renting would be annoying but we are hoping that she might realise that it is her only option other than finding new buyers who may not be first time buyers so they could have a chain behind them delaying it further.

I suppose it all depends how desperate she is to sell and how desperately she wants to continue with the house she is buying as that could be delayed if she had to start all over again.

I think as we are fast approaching 5 months I am beginning to feel more and more impatient because we can't do anything until we have exchanged.

Like I said - I'm a stubborn and stroppy moo so I wouldn't go by my behaviour!! Lol. try asking the agents to send you details and explain the situation again. Ask if she would be prepared to complete without having bought a place herself and see what happens. i do sympathise really - apologies if my post came across as harsh xx

Seems to me they don't want to move. I would start looking else where.

There is alway the possibility to to buy the property and let them rent it. But all parties would have to be in agreement, and of course the rent would have to cover your mortgage, insurance and a little bit more for the tax man as it would be seen as an income. But bare in mind if anything went wrong with the property you would have to fix it but you would anyway if you lived there.

To be honest I think they have got cold feet and maybe not wanting to move.

No its fine, I do wonder what sellers would do and if they would rent. As a buyer I think they should, as sellers they may feel differently.

I told the estate agents we are willing to wait, we cant face looking for anything else for a bit and I dont really want to lie to them. We will be giving them a deadline in a week or two as we have no other option. We will wait until the date of exchange and if that hasnt happened despite telling them the deadline then we have no choice but to pull out. There may be an option of hanging in until we have a new mortgage in place but there is no telling how long that will take. Not sure if they would be happy to wait for that..

We suspect they no longer want to move and are hoping for us to pull out so it saves them having to do it, hence why we are hanging in until we have no other option.

On reading the first post this was my initial thought too. Sounds to me like she's stalling because she doesn't actually want to move.

I used to work in conveyancing - I've seen before where the purchase goes through and then the buyers effectively rent the house to the vendor with a contract and a moving out date - that way the purchase goes through, the house is yours, the vendor has time to go find somewhere to live. It's all above board, the vendor would pay you a deposit etc ... not ideal, but an option?

I would consider it but my main worry is being responsible for the house if something went wrong (or she did something to it) The money would have to cover the mortgage and insurance which wouldnt be cheap (mortgage in itself is about £750) so I really dont think she would be willing to pay that much. Her next house is a cash purchase and I get the impression she is downsizing so she would be better off finding a smaller cheaper house to rent in the short term.

2 weeks later and we are still no nearer to sorting this whole situation!!

Either her or her seller will surely have to consider moving into rented if things continue or else this could go on forever!!!

We are hanging on as we desperately want this house and if we have no reapply for a mortgage then she will just have to wait. We will have waited 6 months by then for this to sort itself out but it does mean her potentially losing out on the house she wants to buy if her seller is not willing to wait for her.

Not sure what to do if things are not progressing and we are in a second mortgage, we cant risk waiting too long or else we run into the same position and end up needing a 3rd mortgage.

Blimey your situation is the complete reverse of mine! My buyers were pushing for me to move into rented when I hadn't found a property within a week of accepting their offer! I had said I was willing to move into rented if they made a good offer straight away (they didn't) and was willing to move into rented if I didn't find something soon. I was actually sorted within two weeks and it has ended up being the buyer being a bit slow with things.

Like others have said I would consider that they have decided they don't want to move. I would be asking the EA if the house that they want to buy but that's hasn't found somewhere to move to would be willing to move into rented? The EAs must want their money so push them to get it sorted or they'll not get any money for the hosue selling. My EA was fairly pushy with me to get me to move.

That is a good point although they seem a bit useless. When we made an offer I kept having to chase to find out what was happening!

If I had the money I would offer another 2K just to get her to move into rented as I am getting that fed up. Unfortunately I don't have a spare 2K to chuck at her

I don't really understand how long she expects us to wait really. I am concerned about telling the EA to send me properties incase the seller decides she doesn't want us enough as buyers. I feel like we are bending iver backwards to appease her but shouldn't it be the other way around if she wants to sell?

Chains are a nightmare.

I would call the EA regularly (daily) for an update, if you make yourself sound keen they will put the pressure on her to move, they won't get paid until she does.

If she decides to pull out of the chain sadly there isn't much that you can do, we finally moved house with our third buyer a year after we put our flat on the market.

It does sound like she wants it all her way. From what you have told us you have been very patient and understanding. If l was you then l would be tempted to ask the EA to send you other properties, point out you have been waiting a while and about your mortgage deal expiring. I would also set a date by which things will need to have moved forward by so time isn't just drifting along.

From our point of view I think we have been. We have agreed to every date thrown at us, we havent demanded anything and I havent spoken to the EA in weeks since I have been liasing with my solicitor for the most part. The only time I got stroppy was when we had given our notice but suddenly the end of March turned into "6-8 weeks from the end of February" Thankfully we could retract it so we were back to being all nice and patient but I have to admit it is wearing a bit thin now.

We have agreed with the solicitor to give them a deadline to exchange and complete otherwise we will have to reapply for a new mortgage and delay them further. We havent issued it yet, at the moment we are just trying to glean bits of information out of them and suggest that we are becoming a little bit impatient now. If we had to sell we would have either had to push the buyer back or move into rented so thankfully we are not in that position.

I would be tempted to ask the EA to send us stuff but if they go back to the seller and say that we are not interested anymore then she might just say "ok well tell them I dont want to deal with them anymore" We are so desperate for this house that we do not want to rock the boat in any way but it is backfiring on us...

Don't forget the potential additional costs of having to reapply. We had to pay all of the valuation fees again when ours ran out. On the plus side we got a slightly better deal!

I am sure the EA will be diplomatic and professional about your situation and (ideally), you are not being unreasonable as it has been going on for a long time. It is within their interest to get the sale moving, l am guessing they have invested a fair amount of time and effort in it. I know how contrary some sellers can be! Ours started off saying they weren't in a chain (turns out they kind of were), they wanted to move ASAP (kind of did but only if it suited the tenants who were living in the house?!) and things went on for far too long. We probably could have turned it round in a month or so especially as we weren't in a chain but thanks to the seller and their lazy solicitor it took 3 months from the offer being made to us getting the keys.

It is just very frustrating as no other house compares.

I have to ring the solicitor this week to see how things are going but I am guessing things will be the same or I would have heard by now. 3 weeks until the date we want to exchange by and I am not hopeful. I might give the estate agents a ring and see what the thoughts are on the other seller moving into rented accommodation. He might not want to as he hasn't been in this situation for very long. I am very dubious though how our seller has lost 2 properties in 3 months yet there was never any mention of this until last minute...

Well things have finally come to an end. Seller has pulled out as it is too stressful for her trying to buy somewhere.