Property Chains and Estate Agents are annoying

For the first time for as long as i can remember i am stuck in a property chain. its not an overly long chain, but what would have been a 4-5 week sale has now taken a 6 weeks already with no clear completion date yet. I’m thinking at the rate things are moving at it will probably take 9-10 weeks in total.

i can totally sympathise with some of the motivated sellers that i deal with when they have been in a chain and it falls through. All the stress related to waiting for things to happen and not hearing much from the estate agents or solicitors, then you get a call and they tell you that its all fallen through. joe bloggs at the bottom of the chain has been refused a mortgage or he has decide to buy another property.

my current situation is actually that of my parents, but as i’m managing the sales process for them it all comes down to me. my parents are selling their house and buying another proeprty in Nottingham. they found their ideal property about 6 weeks ago, but had no buyer for there own property yet. rather that risk losing their new found home or have me incur expensive bridging finance fees they decide to drop the price of their home by 10k. 3 days later they had an offer on their property and everything was underway or so i was led to believe from the agents. 10 days later… yes 10 days later they confirm the sale and they inform us that solicitors have been instructed.

10 days to confirm a sale and to inform solicitors is just not good enough for the 1.75% rip off fees they charge. This will amount to £1750 + vat for my parents as they offered them a capped fee. this is still extortionate for the ammount of work and the turnaround time. this together with the kick back from their “recommended” solicitors. yes thats right, most estate agents also recommend a very good local firm of solicitors that will do the conveyancing. “very good” usually translates to “they will pay us the best fee”. these solicitors firms usually do high volume conveyancing and are quite rubbish as they pay peanuts to legal executive to do most of the bulk of the work.

with this fantastic team of overpaid estate agent and under paid / underperforming solicitor at each link of the chain its no wonder these things take ages and sometimes fall apart.

my parents are selling their house to an elderly couple who are selling to a company. they have also sold through agents and will then be constrained by the same usual time delays. fortunately for both of us the bottom of the chain is a company who should know what they are doing. the chain is short but still is taking longgggg…..

its no wonder that people are always seeking alternative ways to sell a house and that a million cash for houses companies have sprung up in the last few years.