House sale - what would you do?

You need to get this completed as soon as possible before the stamp duty "holiday" ends in April. Go for the person best able to complete quickly, which seems like the man who has offered full asking price. Good luck.

No. Get on to your estate agent and let them sort it out. That's what you pay them for.

Good luck Luckygirl.

It's all so difficult isn't it, people tell lies and the EA have a hard job to prove they are proceedable. My first buyer said he was in rented and had cash - he wasn't, he lived in a £750K house which he still had to sell, wasn't even under offer. I'd jumped through hoops to accommodate him, my son took a day off work for his second viewing as I was away visiting my aunt, I was furious. He withdrew once the EA proved he didn't have the funds. Second EA had to pursue my 'cash' buyer for three weeks to prove his funds, it turned out his ex wife in Sweden had the cash, he wasn't getting any of it, he withdrew.

I wouldn't come off the market until the person can prove their funds.

my advice would be, if purple bricks are anywhere in the chain , pull out. my parents have finally moved but it was PB and their legal stuff that slowed everything down and dragged their feet.

My dd when house hunting in the summer was told by 3 different estate agents that people are viewing many houses at a time and putting offers on multiple properties so they have time to pick and choose. It’s all to beat the stamp duty scheme that government put in place until March, then they are pulling out at last minute and causing havoc along the way leaving people in situation you’ve found yourself in. I’d say go with your gut and don’t worry about others as they clearly are playing around. Good luck.

Depending on the asking price for the Bungalow, a lot of buyers are now rushing to complete their purchase before the Stamp duty holiday expires at the end of March, and the price increases to as it was before.
A Cash buyer who has been checked out regarding having the funds available, would more than lightly be able to complete quicker than someone who is relying on third party funding.
Your Solicitor should be able to make these checks on your behalf. It may also be worth asking if the cash buyer is relying on the funds from the completion of his previous property to fund buying yours, or his Cash buyer status is simply due to the fact that he doesn’t require a mortgage in order to buy your bungalow. Good Luck,

Good luck. My daughter is also in the process of selling and buying at the movement and it’s all very stressful at the bat of times isn’t it! Stay safe and hope you’re feeling better soon.

nipsmum

This doesn't happen in Scotland. If you submit an offer to the lawyer dealing with the property and its accepted by the seller the house is yours no matter what happens. Its so much more simple than the English system.

Except when the seller then sits on the offer for the best part of a year. My friends were stuck as they were bound by their offer but the seller was presumably hoping someone else would step in with a higher bid.

What a minefield it all is!

Agent is still trying to check out potential buyer's financial status - he can't get an answer from their agent.

We are in England and a few years ago made an offer on a house, they said they had a lot of interest and decided to go for sealed bids with the proviso that the purchaser had to provide evidence that they could complete in a month. Is that still a thing that can be done?

Not sure what he means Luckygirl - surely your EA took the potential buyer's financial status when he was allowed to view?

nipsmum

This doesn't happen in Scotland. If you submit an offer to the lawyer dealing with the property and its accepted by the seller the house is yours no matter what happens. Its so much more simple than the English system.

But Lucky is in England!

Kamiso or when the seller takes it off the market and it sells to a friend of his 3 weeks later for less than we had offered....well he didn't have fees to pay that way!! We've sold our house three times in the past five years ,its a lovely house and sells quickly every time and we've felt like shit at letting buyers down but we cant move into a rental with cats so we need somewhere to go .One guy accepted our offer before his FIL told us he was just "trialling the market" so he knew what his ex wife was due from the sale and the third one is still in the house he was "desperate to sell" that had been on the market for over 4 years before we offered...he wanted us to turn up at his door with a suitcase full of cash .Honestly you couldn't make it up.
I hope your sale goes through quickly this time and you can move on.Its been a very tough time for you and you deserve a break

nipsmum

This doesn't happen in Scotland. If you submit an offer to the lawyer dealing with the property and its accepted by the seller the house is yours no matter what happens. Its so much more simple than the English system.

I agree that is much fairer,much simpler and takes away a lot of the stress unlike the English system which seems to thrive on causing stress....?

It is driving me nuts!

The property I wanted has just received a cash offer and the builder cannot refuse it. So here I am with a buyer for here, who (if I accept the offer) wants to move quickly and I may have nowhere to move to. The builder has another property which he is prepared to earmark for me, but won't be finished till April.

What a muddle.

Kamiso

nipsmum

This doesn't happen in Scotland. If you submit an offer to the lawyer dealing with the property and its accepted by the seller the house is yours no matter what happens. Its so much more simple than the English system.

Except when the seller then sits on the offer for the best part of a year. My friends were stuck as they were bound by their offer but the seller was presumably hoping someone else would step in with a higher bid.

In Australia when an offer is accepted it becomes binding after a short period of time - usually 14 days.
The offer we have just had accepted was only subject to us having a Building and Pest inspection carried out and being satisfactory to us. That was to be done within 14 days of us signing the contact. On signing we paid a deposit of 10% of the purchase price. Once the inspection was carried out and the result acceptable the contract became binding. At the time of the offer a date is agreed on for settlement (completion) and everyone knows when it will be finalized. This can be any time which is decided by the parties involved but is usually 60 or 90 days. In our case as the vendor has already bought and we were keen to settle so we did not have to find another rental we agreed on about 45 days. The majority of offers would be conditional on the purchaser having finance approved although mostly this is pre approved to an amount now but still has to be confirmed by the lender.
If a purchaser pulls out after the contract becomes binding they would loose their deposit.

It is highly unlikely that a sale would not go ahead once an offer is accepted so everyone knows the timeline and can plan accordingly.

'Cash Offer/buyer' has mixed message. It pften does not mean that the would-be buyer has the cash amount in the bank to pay over. It often means that the would-be purchaser will not require any mortgage AFTER they have sold their existing property.

Estate Agents should really determine the position of the purchaser BEFORE they permit them to view any properties.

Oh dear Luckygirl what stress! I agree with the other posters who recommend that you make your EA earn his fee, it is in his interest too remember, that is how he makes a living! I would also recommend that you try to detach yourself emotionally from your buyers, don't just go with them because you like them, hard I know, but people aren't always what they seem. I do really hope you get this resolved soon, I have been through this many times and it is unbelievably stressful.

Hi, just been through something similar, we accepted an offer on the provision we would keep viewing the property, this kept everyone on their toes, also a cash buyer is a god send but might offer a lower price offset by no chain. Your estate agent should be advising you as they should know how far along the chain everyone is,

Break it down into steps luckygirl.

It’s not long until Saturday. The EA is still trying to get confirmation of the potential buyers true financial situation. It would also be good to know more about others in the chain too. If you want the other viewings to go ahead then it’s reasonable to do so. I think in your position I would if the EA hasn’t been able to clarify finances while insisting they also give you accurate information about Saturday’s viewers. It is reasonable to ask.

When we moved here our last home was sold before this one could complete. We understood the reasons and weren’t concerned. Furniture went into storage, we stayed with our son until we could access our bungalow. It was his idea, we had searched for and found a serviced flat we could rent on a weekly basis. We took clothes and boxes of paperwork plus things like a kettle and cleaning things ready for the next stage of the move. The rest was packed and stored.

Odd though it was it worked well and we look back on that time of being homeless with a smile. Could you do something similar if you need to? It’s important your next home is right for you so perhaps worth the wait for the builder.

None of this might seem sensible to you, so please ignore if that’s the case. The last thing I want to do is confuse you more. Wishing you well whatever you decide.

We have juts been through this process eventually succeeding on the third buyer. What I would be very aware of is the huge delays in the system at the moment caused by the Stamp Duty holiday. Some people are in very long mortgage queues even if they have an offer in principle when they come to get that firmed up and then to get the money released there are severe delays - some mortgage companies are worse than others. Our buyer was with the Co-Op which was absolutely dire and on STOP rather than SLOW. LA searches and surveys are also bogged down in long queues. I would ask a lot of questions of any buyer about how likely they are to complete and in what timescale and then I wouldnt believe a word they say.

An estate agent should have proof of ready cash before an offer can be accepted, but if a potential buyer were required to prove cash status before any viewing, it could mean a potential buyer having to reveal their financial status to many estate agents while looking at various properties. I certainly would not like to reveal personal financial details until I found a property on which I’d like to make an offer.

Luckygirl

It is driving me nuts!

The property I wanted has just received a cash offer and the builder cannot refuse it. So here I am with a buyer for here, who (if I accept the offer) wants to move quickly and I may have nowhere to move to. The builder has another property which he is prepared to earmark for me, but won't be finished till April.

What a muddle.

Can you not accept the offer and rent while you’re waiting for the new house to be finished. At least with the money in the bank you’d be in a position to act quickly.

I feel your pain Luckygirl. We are in a similar position. We have a buyer for our house, they have a buyer for theirs, and we are buying in Scotland. We live in Lincolnshire.
Our problem is our own Solicitors. We need them to issue a letter to help expedite removal of a Restriction (on the Land Registry) to our property - and they refuse to do so. All the Vendors and buyers are retired, with no Mortgage - but each sale depends on the one before it. Take the definite offer, with proof that the funds are available, and set a date with your Solicitors by which completion MUST be agreed. Get a non-returnable deposit, too - as was previously suggested. Good Luck. I hope it all works out. We are at the end of our tether with ours! I will be putting in a formal complaint to our Solicitor once things have either been completed, or the sale falls through, whichever happens first!

When we were moving, the buyer dropped out at the last minute. We had reached the point of exchanging with seller of our future house and I was desperate to buy it.

I promise I'm not exaggerating when I say I instructed Estate Agent to relist to CASH Buyer only and to obtain proof that money was sitting in future buyers bank account.

The following day we had a viewing with cash buyer and everything was completed within 10 days. Job done!

Cash buyers are the best ?