How To Manage A Property Chain – Keep Your Sanity

If you've ever been involved in one, you'll know exactly what we are talking about. For anyone else the advice is simple; brace yourselves.

Put simply, housing chains can be the enemy of any property sale. Everything might be absolutely perfect at your end, and even of the person that you are buying from or selling to. However, all it takes is a person several stretches down the chain to experience difficulties, and the plights of umpteen buyers and sellers is thrown into complete and utter disarray.

These difficulties can be completely varied as well. For example, on some occasions it might just be that one person cannot sell their home, meaning that the whole chain is delayed as a result. Of course, there are also occasions where someone might change their mind, and this is again where chains become even more frustrating.

For as long as the world spins around, chains are going to exist. There are ways to manage them from your perspective though, and at least prepare yourself for the worst-case scenarios. Today's post will now take a look at how to do this.

Choose your offers wisely

First and foremost, if you have several offers on the table, it goes without saying that you should be choosing those that don't have chains associated with them.

At times, this might feel as though you are taking a financial hit. It's worth mentioning that chains and the delays they cause can do this themselves though, so weigh up your options and go from there.

Consider short-term options

You might not have any other option; you might be involved in a property chain and that's the end of a matter. However, you can help things move along a little quicker by having flexibility in your own approach.

For example, if everyone is waiting on you to complete the chain, perhaps consider some short-term accommodation. Sure, you might have to consider these options when moving house on two separate occasions, but the alternative is perhaps the whole chain collapsing and starting from zero again.

...Or insist on short-term options for other parties

At the same time, there's nothing stopping you from insisting on such an approach from other parties. Again, there comes a time where delays get too much for some people, and it can result in a whole chain collapsing.

When you make your offer, or receive an offer on your own property, have a clear moving deadline in mind. This might just persuade the person to arrange interim accommodation, just so they can meet your dates and ultimately keep the chain alive.

New build homes can provide a lot of answers

As a final point, if you want to avoid a property chain at all cost, new builds can be an answer. Granted, they are expensive and perhaps aren't quite as perfect as they initially seem, but they don't have upward chains associated with them. It immediately means that an extra layer of stress has been eradicated from the transaction, and this is sufficient for a lot of buyers.