does my house need to be for sale before i can offer on another??

bikingbarney

Hi all this is probably a stupid question but here goes...

We have seen a house we like and would like to buy it, our house isnt currently on the market as we were not even thinking of moving until this house came up in the right area.

The estate agent has told me that in order to place an offer on this house mine needs to be up for sale and under offer to be "proceedable"

Is this correct or are the estate agents telling me porkies.

my reasoning is that the house we are looking at is in need of a lot of work, i have a budget in mind to buy it and do not want to go above that.

however if i put mine up for sale now and get an offer and then the people selling this other house do not except my max offer i then have to pull out of selling mine as there is nothing in the price range suitable!!

would the esate agent be expecting their fees then even though we havent sold??

please help!!

cheers

steve

anoneemouse

It does sound odd to me.

Someone at some point has to be the person who puts their house up for sale last - so I don't understand the estate agents reasoning.

I am keeping an eye open for a suitable house to buy myself and will be putting my house on the market if and when I have found the house I am buying. My reasoning is that my house is a very saleable one and I am very particular in my specifications about what my next house is to be like.

Therefore I will find that next house that matches my requirements first and then and only then does my existing house go on the market.

I would imagine that people have to "play their cards differently" according to whether their existing house is particularly saleable or not. If my existing house was a dump that no-one much would want then I would have to work the other way round and sell mine first. I can do things the way round I am because my house is one that I anticipate a lot of people wanting.

From this, then my query would be as to whether this estate agent has seen your existing house and decided it is going to be a "hard to sell" one and that that is the reason he is telling you that you need to sell yours first.

It is not possible to tell from your post whether your existing house is a hard to sell one or one that would readily sell. Which category does your existing house come into (truthfully)?

bikingbarney

Truthfull my house has just been renovated top to bottom, the estate agent actually raved about how good a condition its in and went all gooey eyed over the kitchen being a big selling point!!

houses by me are selling within the week

the one we are looking to buy needs doing top to bottom, kitchen ,boiler etc etc.

The house two doors down from the one we are looking at has been on the market for over a year and hasnt moved......

anoneemouse

Well in that case I dont understand at all why the estate agent is taking the attitude he is.

Maybe this is down to the vendor of the house you want being a bit "particular" then thinking that they also have a very desirable house (rightly or wrongly in their case) and believing they have leeway to only look at "proceedable" buyers.

From what you say about the state of this house then I would imagine this vendor is deluding themselves and, at some point, reality will hit home and they will have to take whatever buyer they can get and count themselves lucky (depending, of course, on how much they have allowed off the standard asking price for a house of that type in that location to allow for all the work needing doing on it).

Maybe your best move is to check how long this house has been on the market for. There is a widget that it is possible to get for the Rightmove website if your browser is the Firefox one. I do not remember what the widget is actually called at the moment, but I made sure I installed it on my Firefox browser and now I get a little bit of "potted history" coming up about any property I look up on the Rightmove website.

Perhaps it would be worth you looking this widget up and installing it and then you can check for yourself how long this house has been on the market and work out where to go from there.

The other possibility is that the estate agent is playing some sort of game to get this house for himself or a mate of his and is trying to put buyers off it of course. I would think though that, if that were the case, then himself or his mate would have gone for the other house that has been up for sale for a year.

Most likely explanation is a "particular" vendor with delusions about how easy to sell his house is.

paint

If you put an offer in, the Estate Agent is legally obliged to put it to his Client. Having said that, if I were the Client, I'd not accept an offer from you as you're not in a proceedable position.

The toolbar for tracking Rightmove changes is called property bee. I echo the recommendation (it's invaluable... and free, or you can make a voluntary donation). Install firefox first, then property-bee.

http://www.property-bee.com/downloads.php

http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/new/

bikingbarney

Thanks for the reply.

The house has been empty for 6 months, it belonged to an old boy who moved in with his son, this old boy needs to gointo a care home now so they need to sell thehouse to afford the fees.

this is it here............

http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-18301275.html?premiumA=true

the estate agent was banding the figure of 150k ad even mentioned 145 k to me yesterday when i said about how much work needs doing!!

He was honest and said thst 2 other couples had veiwed it but said it needs to much doing to it.


This is the one that has been on for a long time ....................

http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-27755401.html


as you can see its in much better condtion and has a big conservatory on the back.

what do you think!!

hazyjo

It's very rare someone would accept an offer from someone not proceedable. What if it took you a year to sell? Okay, it probably won't, but you can't guarantee that. They could be missing out on other offers.

I too live in an area where property sells quickly We've had two buyers (the first sale fell through) and both offers came within 2-4 weeks of it being on the market. Yet we lost a house we loved cos we'd found the house before finding a buyer the first time round - we missed it by days, then we found the house we're buying now and had to wait for a buyer first.

It's the normal way of doing things. I would never accept an offer from someone who's not got a buyer for their property yet. What I might do is give them say a two week period to find a buyer and not let anyone view mine - but only if they made a brilliant offer, probably at or near the asking price. If they'd not sold in that time, it'd be available for viewings again.

Put your house on the market and try and get a buyer asap. The second you do, great, offer immediately on the house you love. If it sells and you don't have a buyer, you should be able to end your contract with the EA. Most don't charge for that - but double check before you sign anything! Also bear in mind you might be able to negotiate on their fee.

How much under the asking price are you thinking of going? Is it way over your budget then? If not, can't see why you'd not be able to agree a price.

Jx

tyllwyd

You can make an offer on a house at any time, but unless you are proceedable even if the vendor is happy with the amount you have offered they will probabably want to continue marketing the house in case someone in a better position comes along.

It might be that you put your house on the market but don't manage to sell your own house in time to be able to buy the other one - that's the way it is, I'm afraid. Whether you have to pay Estate Agents fees will depend on the deal you sign up to with the Estate Agent (watch out for a clause that says you have to pay if they find a 'willing ready and able buyer').

Blackpool_Saver

I wouldn't allow anyone to view unless they had an offer on theirs never mind not even on the market !!!!

Jowo_2

Like Blackpool_Saver, I regard anyone viewing properties without an offer on their own as a complete time waster and not only would I not entertain an offer from them, I'd be annoyed if the estate agent showed them round in the first place.

The arguments you outline below, while they are logical ones, demonstrates that your impulse is to put the risk onto the seller because if you don't get your selling price, then you'd have to withdraw your offer.

If you are proceedable, and therefore have an idea what equity you bring to the table, this risk is reduced and you save the estate agent, seller and solictors a lot of time and money.

bikingbarney wrote: »

my reasoning is that the house we are looking at is in need of a lot of work, i have a budget in mind to buy it and do not want to go above that.

however if i put mine up for sale now and get an offer and then the people selling this other house do not except my max offer i then have to pull out of selling mine as there is nothing in the price range suitable!!

hcb42

I wouldn't entertain such an offer, it is nothing more than an indication of what you might be willing to pay, until you can proceed with the offer.

sometimes I wish the system in England was a bit more like Scotland and there would be less timewasting!