I am wondering why people put offers on properties that they are not intending to buy.

First time buyer: Why would they go quiet after having an offer accepted. Why can they not just say they are waiting or they are held back by some issue with the mortgage or simply say no we don't want the house now.

Second time buyer: You cannot put an offer on the house you want until you have an offer on your property and the offer has some kind of guarantee.

Estate agents: Why do you not still sell the property like it has no offer on it instead of telling potencial buyers that the property has an offer on it convincing the potencial buyer that the property is sold.

Also:

How long does it take a first time buyer to get a mortgage, confirm solicitors?

Cheers

weeks, some FTBers cant get the mortgage they think they can because they have offered above what banks will lend them....

Hi Niksims,

It may be different now but a while back we found a flat, the offer was accepted and the seller pulled out.

It was very difficult. The building society offering the "top" mortgages from the newspaper were very hard to get through to on the telephone. It took me a few days to get through and then had to make an appointment to got through the application with them on the phone another few days later.

With my high st bank (the one have any account with ) it took 10 days to get an appointment to come into their office and even discuss it.

We went with the BS as their rate and terms were better. Went into a nightmare of forms, identification etc. This took a solid week and I sent it "signature required" but they still lost my application.

The BS had chnaged their system to one where each application then went through a credit check and approval before they would process it further. This took more than a week.

Then it took them more than 2 weeks to arrange a survey. I was on the phone to them constantly during the first month as they kept us in limbo and didn't feed back any information as to what was happening.

The first time buyers you are talking about here may be in the same nightmare. It was so exhausting. The FTB's you speak about may assume that you know how awful it is or expect you to ask if an update needed.

Which is why, especially FTBs, you are supposed to get a mortgage in principle before you go to viewings.
So you know how much you can borrow, what sort of mortgage you'd be getting and who will be lending it.

I must say it is a bizarre system in England.

Here in Oz, an offer must be in writing; in fact the offer is the actual contract of sale. The buyer fills in his side and the offere amount. All the seller has to do is fill in his side and sign and it's a sale, to settle at some future date (usually 30-60 days).

*The contract may go back and forth a few times as the price/terms get negotiated and amended.

*The contract may have "subject to" clauses. eg subject to obtaining finance etc.

The problem with getting an agreement beforehand (which we did several times) was that the banks/building societies withdraw their offers and changed rates and requirments. That's happened to us several times and we've had to start from scratch again and again.

An agreement in principle meant nothing each time and it was the same nightmare. They all had time limits and all ran out on us.

I can't have a monthly standard appointment to go and meet with a range of banks and buildings societies in the hope that we can actually find a place we can afford. This would take days and I would not be physically able to (disabled).

When we find a property and an offer is accepted we need to find the best mortgage that week or month - unless we have one with a valid time limit.

Hopefully this will change in the current market.