Making an Offer (not sold own property yet)

fcorry2008

Over the past month I've done my house up ready to sell and had one valuation done this week, got a second valuer coming on Wednesday. We've started looking at houses to buy but I've resisted viewing anything as I felt it better to sell our own house first to avoid any disappointment.

We've now found a 5 bed detached no chain repossession property on sale from the vendor at a great price in the location we want to live. The property ticks all the right boxes, has a garage and decent sized garden and would be a great future investment. The price the property is listed at, is a bargain in terms of its size, it would normally be well out of our price range and we'd be looking at a 3 bedroom semi in the same area for the money.

The downside and reason its cheap (aside from it being a repossession) is that it needs modernising throughout, a new boiler installing and potentially an electrical rewire. The internal state of the house is the obvious reason people are not touching it, but from the outside it appears modern and of solid build. My friend is an electrician who would do the rewire at a good rate, leaving me to sort the boiler and to tidy up the house to make it immediately liveable. We'd then modernise the house as we go along in stages, I have a stable salary / job and this is how we did up our current home. My mother is familiar with renovating properties owning 3 of her own which she purchased cheap and renovated. She has offered to cover the boiler and electrical wiring and will assist in doing the niceties to make the property liveable for my family and I.

In my favour I have excellent credit rating / history, stable employment, I already have mortgage approval to cover the purchase price (based on my house sale), money set aside to cover the fees, a home that should sell if priced right.

My questions are:

. Can I make an offer on the property without my own having been sold?
. If my offer is accepted can I ask for the property to be taken off the making to secure it, whilst mine sells? I'd hate someone else to come along who's in a better position and take the opportunity from under our feet.
. How much leeway might I have in making an offer bearing in mind the property is already pretty cheap? Potentially would £20,000 lower then the asking price still be considered.

I'm viewing the property on Tuesday and if it turns out to be a good buy, I'd really like to get an idea if I have any realistic chance of having an offer accepted and securing the home.

Thanks for helping, its been about 10 years since I last purchased a house so I'm looking for some direction from people who know what there doing.

gauly

I believe they aren't allowed to take a repossession off the market until contracts are exchanged. They generally want the sale to go through very quickly so your chances of having your offer accepted are about zero.

InkZ

Without having a sale agreed on your own place you aren't in a position to make an offer. On a repo I would give you 0% change of having it accepted as the bank will want someone who is ready to proceed.

The best advice I can give you is to not start looking until you have a sale agreed.

daisymay2008

Its unlikely any seller would take an offer off someone who isn't proceedable seriously, i think as it's a repossesion then the chance would be zero as it's the bank that are selling it

my advice is not to view any properties until you have sold your own, in any event you would always be in a much stronger position when you are proceedable

fcorry2008

InkZ wrote: »

Without having a sale agreed on your own place you aren't in a position to make an offer. On a repo I would give you 0% change of having it accepted as the bank will want someone who is ready to proceed.

The best advice I can give you is to not start looking until you have a sale agreed.

Thanks I'm aware the properties been on the market a while. I thought it would actually be the opposite way around, i.e. that they might just be happy that they've found a person who's in a financially viable position to buy.

daisymay2008

fcorry2008 wrote: »

Thanks I'm aware the properties been on the market a while. I thought it would actually be the opposite way around, i.e. that they might just be happy that they've found a person who's in a financially viable position to buy.

But your not until you sell your house

kingstreet

I agree with the others on the issue of position to proceed. I can't see any offer being accepted as they would have to continue to market the property until you are in a position to go ahead. Acceptance would achieve nothing for you, or for them.

When you can proceed, an offer will be considered according to the lender's requirement to achieve the best possible price. Whether 20k below the asking price would be acceptable, no-one knows.

You've covered the usual issues in your opening post. The only thing you haven't mentioned is how you'd deal with the likely retention. Have you got the money to make up the difference if your lender decides to hold back £10k until essential repairs are done?

Seanymph

Didn't the estate agent ask you for your circumstances when you arranged the viewing?

fcorry2008

Seanymph wrote: »

Didn't the estate agent ask you for your circumstances when you arranged the viewing?

We'll actually this is the strange thing. The advice given on this thread, i.e. to sell my house first, is what I understood to be correct from the very off, but when I phoned up the second estate agent to get a valuation done, they asked me if I had looked at any properties to buy yet. I told them I've held off as I didn't think it was worth looking if I couldn't make an offer. The lady replied that plenty of people make offers which are accepted, even if they haven't sold there property. This is the same estate agent I've arranged the viewing with, albeit a different branch.

Someone else on this forum has pm'd me to suggest getting one of those 7 day, cash for your house agents to buy my house. I was lead to believe that this isn't a good way to sell your home and I'm only making a low amount on what I paid for the house, between 10 - 15K.

PasturesNew

fcorry2008 wrote: »

Someone else on this forum has pm'd me to suggest getting one of those 7 day, cash for your house agents to buy my house. I was lead to believe that this isn't a good way to sell your home and I'm only making a low amount on what I paid for the house, between 10 - 15K.

I'd suggest anybody PMing you with such a suggestion is touting for business/spamming you. If it's such a great idea they'd have posted it here.

fcorry2008

PasturesNew wrote: »

I'd suggest anybody PMing you with such a suggestion is touting for business/spamming you. If it's such a great idea they'd have posted it here.

I agree, they were offering their service and I didn't reply to their pm, hence why I'm posting here.