- You may have to pay more than you planned to buy the property you want. This may depend on how ‘hot’ the market is. If you do not have a property to sell, you are more attractive to a seller, so make sure that they know your situation.
- You may be gazumped or gazundered. Gazumped is where the seller agrees to sell at a particular price, but later asks for a higher price. Gazundered is where a buyer agrees to pay a particular price but then offers a lower price later. You could just walk away from such offers or agree to pay more/accept less. The choice is yours.
- Don’t become too emotionally attached to a property before you buy it. By all means be enthusiastic, but if you are too keen, you have effectively weakened your negotiating position. Emotional attachment can also blind you to problems – was the smell of fresh bread covering up the smell of the sewage works next door?
- It may take longer to buy/sell than you had expected. Try to find out any time pressures your buyer/seller has. Your solicitor may be able to apply pressure, or you may have to consider a more innovative solution. For example, you are desperate to move in on 1 September, but your seller wants to move out on 1 October. One solution might be for one or other of you to stay in a hotel for a month – perhaps with the cost split between you.
- You have a property to sell and one to buy and are struggling to get the completion dates to match. You may end up with the choice of having no home for a short period (a hotel or staying with relatives or friends may be the solution) or two homes to finance (when a bridging loan from your bank or a specialist lender may be required). If your move is associated with a job change, can your employer help?
- A chain may be involved, where a number of sales/buys are involved. If any part of the chain breaks down, the whole chain is at risk. Again, innovative solutions may be required.
- After valuation, the property value may be less than you are paying, or the survey could reveal problems with the property. Is the seller negotiable on price? Even if this had appeared not to be the case, any problem may mean that any other buyer would experience the same issue, so a lower value may be acceptable. If repairs are needed, how much will they cost and what is the lender’s view? In some cases, lenders will require remedial work to be done before completion; in others, part of the mortgage may be held back until the work is completed (a retention) or an undertaking required that the work will be completed satisfactorily by a certain date.
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The home buying process
04: What can go wrong - and how to minimise the risks
With luck, your property transaction will run smoothly. But it pays to be aware of what can go wrong and to have some idea of how to resolve problems:
Your home may be repossessed if you do not keep up repayments on your mortgage.
There may be a fee for mortgage advice. The precise amount will depend on your circumstances and/or amount of borrowing. We will notify you of any costs before any advice is provided.
