Long story short, we have been looking for some more space to accommodate the growing kids. The drawback of an intermediate link house was the open outdoor space is limited. Hence we have been on the lookout for either a corner or semi-d within our reach. Although we have a plot of land that can be built onto, but the current situation is not suitable.
So we have been looking around in a few areas but found that we wouldn't want to uproot the kids plus it going to be far away from our familiar support system. Hence when we knew someone in the vicinity is selling at a reasonable price, we grabbed at the chance and put in our offer.
As the process goes on, it was smooth sailing. We have gone through 2/3 of the buying process then we decided to put out our home for sale. Offers came in and we accepted one which was quite reasonable for us.
then we hit a snag, apparently the current owner of the house we bought has debts larger than what our loan repayment would cover, hence the registered owner has to fork out quite a substantial amount to settle the difference. This has been dragging for more than a month up to a point of where the buyer of our house has also reached the point where we were when we sold the house and it looks like they gonna settle their transaction first.
If thats the case, than we might be homeless once the process of us selling the house is complete when the buying process of our new house has been stuck in limbo. even with the owner handing vacant possesion by this month, we still need to do some major touchup on the new property before moving in.
Point to note when buying subsale :-
- Don't leave all the search work to your lawyer, they might screw it up as ours did .. this situation would have been detected during the due diligence and we can opt out from the deal
- Be wary of houses selling below market price ... quick sale indicates some underlying problem to the owner (especially financial issues with the lender)
- The S&P Agreement is more towards protecting the buyer than the seller, the buyer would bear all the costs if the delay is by them but if the seller drags their feet, than they are protected. I wish I could claim the costs of Late Delivery plus the cost of rental in the case of us moving out from our home once the transaction is completed.
At this point of time, all we could do is to leave it up to the guy up there ....