When to sell when to buy TIMING advice

lynzpower

Hi all

Right I currently have a 2 bed gardenflat ( shared ownership - mortgage solely by me) and me and my OH have decided that we want to move to a one bed garden flat. Mainly to reduce outgoings, but moving to a cheaper area and so forth ( must have a garden partners dog needs to come and live with us)

I reckon my flat will find a buyer very quickly ( doesnt everyone say that?!!) but everyone we know loves the flat, and gardens are rarities where we are in inner london ( e3) Prices are still staying pretty solid, plus we have some transport improvements what with the olympics coming up ( so they tell me) (not sure what difference this makes in fairness)

Just wondering about the timing of it really. Do we put my flat on the market say, Now, and then search madly for something else ( what if we cant find anything we like, we really dont want to rent for very long if at all, dead money and all that) or do we find somewhere we like then sell ours immiediately once we've put an offer in ?

Dont want to nark up people in our chains all over the place, and I was a FTB last time, so really not sure what to do for the best?

Ian_W

Age old problem I'm afraid. Put yours on the market, get an offer and can't find anywhere you like = PROBLEM. Find a home you want without yours on the market, make an offer, not taken seriously as you can't proceed until you get an offer on yours which isn't even for sale yet = PROBLEM.

IMO you've got to try and do the 2 together. Put yours up for sale and at the same time actively hunt for a flat you would want to buy. It's a bit of a juggling act and between viewings on yours and viewing those for sale there's not a lot of time left for other hobbies!! However, if your place sells as quickly as you expect then it should only be frenetic for a short while.

BoL.

lynzpower

As I thought. I just dont know how so many people find "thier dream home" as SO many people apprarently do, in potentially such a short space of time

mummytofour

Im in the middle of selling my shared ownership house. Within 2 days of having the place on the market I had a buyer, shared ownership is like no other, its a bloody pain in the bum! Im on week 17 of the sale, so be warned you could be in for a long sale, I am VERY lucky that our sellers have waited for us so long!

Something else you need to be aware of, your home will not sell at the price that the EA value the place at, the propety is valued by a valuer, who basically works out what the house is worth based on other propeties in the area and their selling prices, this is often a lot lower that an EA valuation.

In my case for selling this house, it was on the market at the beg of last yr but I could not find anything so pulled the house of the market.

I then found in aug I was pg, so set about putting the place on the market again ( and looking at places also) it took until 4th oct for house to be valued, partly my fault as needed to pay for valuation, then I had to wait for surveyer to visit and send valuation to HA, by which time I had found a house! I offered on the house and the offer was agreed, however the house was advertised until I had a buyer for mine at which point the house I waned was marked as sold.

S/O places sell so quickly I think I did the right thing and would advice the same for you.

Good luck, I hope you dont get ripped off....

lynzpower

Oooh thanks mummytofour

Ive been really unsure what to do to be honest . Part of me thinks, Ooooh I might make a profit here, and the other part of me thinks, well probably not but I might as well move somewhere cheaper full stop.

Why did the sale take ages? it took me 6 months to buy it ( but then everything was new and for example they didnt have the management company in place or know what the service charge was the day before exchange!) but i wonder whether if I give the HA notice that im gonna sell then...maybe they might get thier lifes together- she hopes

Is it OK if I PM you mummy of four in case theres anything you can help with?

silvercar

We found a buyer on day 1, then took 3 weeks to find a house. At which point we were almost pulling out, there just wasn't a house that we liked in the area we want to move too.

Anyway we are now in the reverse situation, our buyer is desparate to exchange and someone further up the chain is holding everyone up. Our buyer has now asked us to consider exchanging on our sale with a delayed completion - upto 6 months he's offered. We are worried, if our purchase falls through there is nothing else on the market we like. If prices move up at all when a house does come on the market we won't be able to afford it if we have already exchanged with our buyer at today's price.

JennyW_2

hmmm, it is tricky. Our house got an offer in 2 1/2 weeks - totally threw us as the EA had said that the average house takes between 8 and 12 weeks to find a buyer. However we are lucky in that we accepted the offer (from a FTB) on the condition of completing end of June (due to personal circumstances) and this was agreed plus we are purchasing an empty property from my in-laws so in theory it should be short/painfree chain . If I had known it would've been this quick then I'd of waited, but of course we cant predict the future.

I'm in Surrey and demand outweighs supply - there just aren't enough properties and everything goes really quickly.

I'd put yours on the market now and see what happens. Good luck