Help please - Need to sell 2 to buy 1

Diving_Moleman

I'm new to the board so apologies if any of this has been covered before.

My girlfriend and I wish to set up home together. We both have mortgaged properties of our own and due to a combination of factors, including time, kids, location and pets (not necessarily in that order) it would be preferable for us to sell both properties at the same time as buying a property together.

We would rather not have to sell one (the first to go) and then move temporarily into the other house before the buying one/selling one in the normal way. The new property will be more expensive than the individual price of each current house, so we can't buy until we sell both and don't really fancy the hassle of letting one (although could be persuaded).

My questions are as follows:

1) How easy is this likely to be? If someone put an offer in for my property but I found out it was dependant on them selling TWO properties, it would put me off, two chains, twice the liklihood of something getting delayed or going wrong, etc.

2) Is it genenerally considered it is less cost/hassle to market/sell before HIPS come into play later this year?

3) Having two properties to sell, does this improve our negiotiating position in relation to estate agent and conveyancing fees?

If anyone has any thoughts on or experiences of my predicament I would be very grateful to hear from you.

Many thanks,
Moleman

lynzpower

Id sell one first while living in the other one.

Once thats sold and everythings tied up, you can then put the remaining house on the market, and look to buy another once you are in process.

If you were selling two and buying one all at the same time, i have to say I wouldnt sell to you, too much could go wrong.

Besides the stress of the whole thing :eek: could you really handle it!

prudryden

lynzpower wrote:

Id sell one first while living in the other one.

Once thats sold and everythings tied up, you can then put the remaining house on the market, and look to buy another once you are in process.

If you were selling two and buying one all at the same time, i have to say I wouldnt sell to you, too much could go wrong.

Besides the stress of the whole thing :eek: could you really handle it!

Agree! This way you have a safety net. Festina lente! (Go quickly, slowly.)

Diving_Moleman

Thank you both for your comments much appreciated.:T

Everyone else, please keep your thoughts coming. Even if we all agree this is the only viable way forward, at least it will give some comfort to my girlfriend to know a number of options have been considered, albeit dismissed, before taking that route.

Thanks again,

Moleman

Triker

Hi, I'm kind of in the same position as yourself, my house is on the market at mo, hoping to sell, pay off debts, do up Hubby's house we live in then sell in order to find 'our' house.

As it's impossible to predict how slowly or quickly these things can happen we've decided to take this softly softly approach.

If I had my (unrealistic) way we'd be looking at potentials for 'our' house now but experience has taught me to hold off until a least some areas are completed and there is money in the bank.

Good luck and keep posting so we know how you get on.

By the way all this talk of a (maybe) housing market crash doesn't help, makes me v. nervous.

Cazza

Hi!

I've had clients in the past who have been in exactly the same situation. They were able to get Offers accepted on properties they liked and did have acceptable Offers made on the properties they were selling.

BUT... it was very hard work! As I'm sure you know, keeping one chain happy when you're moving is difficult, two is near impossible. I was working with my clients for nearly 2 years in order to get things sorted, they were very open with everyone that made Offers on their properties and the Offers they put in to other people. In the end, however, it was all too much. When the sale fell through on one property just before the others were due to complete, they chose to pull out of their purchase and let the sale they did have go ahead.

I would recommend trying to use the two insturctions as a bargaining tool with an Estate Agent, and certainly put both properties on the market at the same time, but doing it all at the same time may be too much, and is it worth risking a good Offer on one of the properties just because it doesn't fit in with the other?! You never know where the next Offer might be!

Gorgeous_George

An option may be to sell both houses at auction and hope that the reserve is met on both. You could put both houses in a single lot with one reserve to avoid the risk of one selling and the other not selling. The price would reflect the reduced market for such properties.

Selling separately sounds awkward and is likely to fail. As well as not selling to you, I also wouldn't wish to buy either property with these added difficulties.

You could also try selling both properties to investors but the price would reflect the reduced market for such properties.

I'd prefer lynzpower's, more traditional method which is stress enough for mere mortals like myself.

Best wishes



GG

Diving_Moleman

Thanks again to everyone who has posted their thoughts.

We saw two great properties at the weekend, so crunch time is now approaching where we need to sit down and work out the approach we are going to take to this.

I am minded to go with the majority view held on here but I would welcome any further thoughts anyone has before making a final decision.