Part Exchange

mark474732

Ive noticed a lot of agents boards with 'part exchange considered' written on them. I understand how PE works when exchanging with a builder for a new build or something but how does it work for a resale property to another resale property?
Confused!
thanks

ScouseIrish

Not sure how it works but I’m very wary of part exchanges of this type. We looked around a lovely house and were offered part exchange to get the ball moving. The seller was the head of an estate agency and talked about how the house had served him well for years – he insisted that his circumstances had changed, kids had left home and that he was looking to downsize. Our existing house apparently looked ideal (he took the liberty of getting our address off his estate agent database and looked for our house on rightmove). It seemed like such a good deal and would get us moving a lot quicker than we expected. We were ready to jump at it but something felt wrong. As we dug a little further (checking on houseprices.com), we realised he had only bought it 15months previously. Despite UK house prices dropping since he bought it, he had priced it himself and he wanted £25,000 more than he paid for it and had done nothing to it. Also, due to it nature of part-exchanges, it’s unlikely that one seller is willing to drop the house price without the other seller having to do the same. His was up for £247,000, ours for £95,000 so he was quids in if he had managed to convince us.

So my advice would be to look at the house objectively (as if it isn’t part exchange) and don’t let the idea of moving quickly sway you into making a decision.