Had many colleagues move in California. ISTR the contracts were all that you have to vacate in exactly 30 days of having the offer accepted. It's quite common to move into a furnished apartment for a short time with your stuff in storage, because chains are never synchonised (and as such, don't exist).
And doing away with chains is an absolutely necessary (though not, sadly, sufficient) condition for speeding up sales in England.
My experience was 35 years ago, not sure how it's changed since then (if at all).
Over there, both the buyer and seller have an agent, who actually does a lot of work for you (unlike UK agents). When you've chosen a house, you negotiate through your agent, as do they. Once the price is agreed, and other terms (such as date of settlement, whether you want any repairs done or whether you want the house fumigated, remembering that these are wooden houses in termite country), you sign the contract. This will have terms of payment too, such as a deposit, 20% after a month, etc. I can't now remember whether the inspection came before or after, but it was also subject to title and lien search, and to availability of mortgage. And the deposits were not refundable IIRC.
Between them, the two agents also chose a title company, who probably did the title search, and who registered the new title after exchange. Funds for the purchase were also deposited with the title company, who then disbursed them after settlement day.
Each agent then got 3% of the purchase price; if you think 6% is high, remember that in the UK agents don't do much to assist the sale. When buying in the US, my agent would phone me with a list of 20 more properties to view and take me to them herself.
Note also that gazumping etc is not possible with this system. Once you've signed, both sides are committed to the sale.
Indeed it might. You have probably missed one of my original comments
"(2) Way before usenet, so I didn't know about the ringback number."
Chris
"Usenet ... was established in 1980" (Wikipedia)
Yeah? So what. You were unlikely to be able to connect to it.
Hahaha and if the other party fails to pony up the cash on the day, whatcha going to do about it?
Reality is , after 6 entry dates from buyer, one called off with 48 hours to go, absolutely nothing can do about it.
Speculators wander about making long entry date offers and then seek investors to make the buy, if they don`t get the money they just dinnae complete and nothing happens, Scottish system is little differnt in practice.
Nice gaff that:)...
That'd cost well over a mill here in Cambridge and you wouldn't get the nice countryside around either..
With a sensible system (as in the US), you can sue them for breach of contract. As well as keeping any deposits they may have made.
Agreed, the problem being that with so much tied up in the price of a house and the tendency for prices to rise there is some risk in selling first and hoping the right property turns up before the price rises out of reach.
Agreed. And I sympathise. But I don't get why it's entirely the seller's problem.
The house has been off the market for 3 months. It went back on yesterday and there's a viewing tomorrow.
You can't buy anything else without leaving a deposit, hell, not even a pair of glasses.
Like job offers, some people make offers on multiple properties just to 'reserve their place'.
I'll put money on him proceeding to buy one of the others.
Yes. Get all the paperwork sorted before you market it it and once the offer is made and accepted then get your solicitor to be pro-active rather than reactive and also get an early exchange of contract with a longer time to completion.
See above, early exchange and a delayed completion - gives you the opportunity to vary dates to suit both parties if desired and also the purchaser would be penalised if they pull out.
For those who mention the Scottish system - its not what it purports to be and the deal is not struck until the exchange of missives - similar to exchange of contracts.
I've just gone through the buying and selling phase in Scotland with missives exchanged last week and the completion being the day after. The property was put on the market last October and an offer made and accepted within a week. We were happy to wait till this time and so were the rest of the chain. Problem was a useless solicitor acting for a first time buyer who two weeks before everything was due to happen suddenly decided to look at the paperwork again and told the buyer they needed a damp survey (they didn't).
A 'friendly' word in the purchasers ears that suggested they get a move on or they'd loose the property or get it for a higher price meant that thigs went back to where they should have been and all ended well.
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