BlkKnight

Bit of an awkward one this. So I shall start at the beginning.

Alison & I are looking to buy a house together.

I have sold my flat (subject to contract) & intend to move into her rented accommodation while we look for our home.

Scott my friend is also looking to sell his house & buy something bigger.

He has now found a property - but the vendors insist they will only accept his offers IF he has got a strong offer on his property.

Scott has offered us his house (at a good price), which fulfills all our criteria - on the basis that we put in an offer immediately.

We did agreed to this and put in an offer, and have got solicitors talking etc - no money has yet changed hands.

Yesterday the the vendor of Scott is buying his property from declined his offer, saying they had another buyer lined up with no chain.

So, the current situation is Scott has no house lined up to buy, the market is currently dead for properties he desires. We have committed to buy his house @ current market value.


I've said I'm happy to hold on for a couple of 3/4 weeks for him to find somewhere, but you can bet your bottom pound he does not.

My main concerns are:
- are we likely to find something better in the mean time.
- are prices likely to deviate in the near future?

What would you do?

OllyK

I would say there is a good chance he will take his off the market. You then need to consider if you still want to buy. Some will say the market is about to crash (and have been saying so for years) and so you're best to hold off. Personally, I'd get on the ladder asap, but try not to mortgage yourself to the hilt. If prices to crash, you can ride it out, and you can bet that in 10 years the prices will be higher than they are now anyway, so overall you'll be better off.

BlkKnight

We are definitely going to buy - it's just a question of when & where.

C_B_B

I'd keeping looking but leave the offer you've made on the table.

Best get the solicitors to stop doing anymore work on the purchase for the time being as well.