Seller’s Guide

Advice and industry knowledge to help you take control and sell your home.

Checking the Chain

It is at this point that you may inevitably have to deal with an estate agent somewhere along the line. This is NOT a bad thing. Estate agents will want what you are looking for A COMPLETE CHAIN!

The process behind checking a chain of sale is not a difficult one but it is absolutely imperative that it is done correctly.

Your buyer may want to update you on this (as the purchaser would normally be going through the agent who would update you ). However there is no harm in asking for the contact details of their purchaser or the agent (if applicable) they are selling through to obtain the necessary information.

The idea being that you want as much information about the chain as possible to make an informed decision AND to make sure it is complete.

Some pieces of information are vital whereas others are optional. You will want to know as much as you can from every purchaser involved in the chain. The following are vital:

• Is the purchaser in a proceedable position or not? (they may have a buyer who does not have a buyer)
• Name and address and contact details

The following are not completely necessary by will aid you more than you know.

• The solicitor/conveyancer they are using
• The timeframe within which they would like to move (completion)
• How they are arranging the finance to pay (e.g mortgage or other means such as cash or bridging finance)

It is not entirely your responsibility to chase your buyers buyer (they may have an agent to do this. It is also likely that your buyer may not want to give out this information.) Be particularly careful with this as it is not necessarily your buyers decision. Estate agents in this instance are restricted and protected by the data protection act. So you may only want to get this information if all people in the chain agree to do so. This does have advantages and disadvantages in the way that it may solidify the chain if all parties co-operate well and can diplomatically progress the sale.

It may have disadvantages in that if the stress of moving causes friction between buyers and sellers throughout the chain it may lead to problems.

IT IS VITAL DURING THE SALES PROCESS THAT YOU REMAIN AS CALM AND DIPLOMATIC AS POSSIBLE AT ALL TIMES!!

And remember why you are doing this..

WHEN IT GOES THROUGH YOU MAY HAVE SAVED THOUSANDS OF POUNDS!!

Chains are complete from top to bottom when the bottom buyer has nothing to sell and the top seller is not buying on.

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