House buying/selling advice

Barny1979

Could someone advise me please, what the likely steps are for me. I have a house, looking to move due to vicinity to work. I'm viewing houses at the moment, but I haven't got my house on the market.

What happens if I find a house I like and then can't sell mine in time? Does the completion date rumble on or does the deal collapse?

Mortgage-wise, I have had a meeting and affordability for the new property if I see one, shouldn't be a prob.

The_Drama_Llama

Most sellers won't entertain an offer from you until you have had an offer on your property. Probably best to stop looking at places to buy and get yours up on the market.

andy208833

Put yours on the market first, keep an eye on the area you want to move too but don't get carried away, look seroiusly once you accept an offer on your house.

Personally i wouldn't accept an offer from someone unless they were in a position to proceed.

In the past i have accepted an offer and completed without having somewhere to go because what i wanted wasn't available. I moved in with in-laws (or you could rent on short term lease) until we found something and were consequently in a position to move very quickly when the house we wanted did come onto the market.

luminated

Good advice from Andy and I would add that many sellers, and/or their EA's, will not agree to arrange a viewing, with you, unless you are at least on the market, or even unless you have a sale agreed.

Greatgimp

Sell yours first before viewing.
1 It puts you in a better position regarding price haggling
2 If you find the perfect house, it'll dog you off cos nobody will treat you as in a position to buy.
Sell yours before viewing!

sonastin

In the current market in most areas of the country, it can take a while to sell a house. Don't take advice from anyone who hasn't been involved in the housing market in the last 3 years or so - the rules of the game have definitely changed.

If (and this is quite a big if) a vendor accepts your offer on their property and then you put your house on the market, they are likely to be waiting months for you to get a buyer- possibly even years. Which is why most vendors won't take your offer seriously. Also, you might not have as much money to spend as you think. Estate Agents still seem to be over-optimisitc with asking prices and a lot of people end up reducing their price after they've been on the market for a while. And even when you get an offer, it is likely to be below the price that you are asking. If you're not offered enough for your house, you'll have to reduce your offer on the house you're trying to buy. But if the vendor knows that you are keen, they'll expect you to find the difference from somewhere else. If you wait until you've got an offer, you can do the sums and make an offer accordingly. You won't have already shown your hand.

There is no harm in looking at what is for sale - and possibly doing a few viewings - while your house is on the market. It is quite annoying having to clean up your house so that someone who can't proceed yet can view it but most vendors know that sometimes those people are the ones who come back once they are proceedable. Don't let yourself get carried away and fall in love with the "perfect" property until you have sold though. Chances are it will still be on the market when you have sold yours but there is a possibility that it won't be available. There is nothing you can do about it until you have sold (unless you can afford to keep 2 houses?) so don't put yourself in the position where it breaks your heart to lose out.

PasturesNew

Houses are like boyfriends/girlfriends.... don't start messing around with the next one until you've got rid of the first one.

sonastin

PasturesNew wrote: »

Houses are like boyfriends/girlfriends.... don't start messing around with the next one until you've got rid of the first one.

:rotfl:

And if you're planning on having an overlap between the 2, make sure you've got a real good plan in place because the fall out if it goes wrong could mean you lose both