Making a offer before your house is sold...

Lewigreg081281

Hi,

We've seen a really nice house which we want to go for however we haven't yet put our property on the market as we where waiting until after xmas.

During the couple of weeks before xmas we spotted a great property which has just come on the market. It's exactly what we want, i know we've done it the wrong way round and should of waited before viewing.

The house we've seen is great though it's currently owned by a elderly couple who are downsizing. We've had a couple of viewings and they don't seem in a rush to sell as it sounds like they are waiting for their next property to be finished. They've said the can move in with family if need be in the meantime if it does sell.

How does it work if we where to put a offer in? can we do this? I was thinking of having another viewing and just having a chat with them and making a good offer providing they take it off the market until ours is sold - can this be done?

We would be 100% capable of getting the mortgage on the the new property so i'd ask the bank for proof to show them we are serious.

We are currently with RBS and have had our mortgage 5 years. Are there any good deals about at the moment? We won't however have a massive deposit as some seem to be asking 40% from what i've found.

In terms of our current property we are not going to make a great deal on it and are more than likely going to break even or maybe a 5k profit. The prices stay steady on the development (we have a apartment), it's a well sought after area and they do sell very quickly.

Another option we may have is my father is currently on about investing in a property to rent out and has mentioned ours would be ideal. They also fetch good renting rates in. How do buy to let mortgages work what sort of deals deposits etc would he be looking at?

Sorry for all the questions.

Thanks

Lew

Thrugelmir

Lewigreg081281 wrote: »

I was thinking of having another viewing and just having a chat with them and making a good offer providing they take it off the market until ours is sold - can this be done?

If you were the vendor would you agree to such an offer? The onus is on you to sell your property before they withdraw theirs from the market.

Yorkie1

I'd be very surprised if they accepted your offer and took their house off the market until you had accepted an offer on your place. There is no way of knowing how long yours will take to sell and they would be advised not to compromise their own position on your account.

I think the best you can hope for is to let them know that you are definitely interested in offering / make an offer, but will not be in a position to proceed until you've sold yours, and for them to agree to keep you in mind if it's still on the market when you're ready.

hcb42

I wouldnt even entertain an offer from you, or take my house off the market until yours was sold and surveys/activity was underway by your buyer....!

bigadaj

One thing you could do is to set up a contract with a penalty clause should either party not complete, however this would necessarily be time limited so you would then be committed to selling your house within a period, say six months. The penalty would also have to be significant given the likely house price, say £10,000. Not ideal but this would give the vendor confidence and a mechanism for comeback on either side.

Catslovelycats

HOw can you make an offer when you don't know what you'll get for yours?

opinions4u

It's very simple.

The estate agent shouldn't even pass your offer on to the vendor as you don't have the means to fulfil it.

Get a buyer for your property, then find the "dream house".

somethingcorporate

bigadaj wrote: »

One thing you could do is to set up a contract with a penalty clause should either party not complete, however this would necessarily be time limited so you would then be committed to selling your house within a period, say six months. The penalty would also have to be significant given the likely house price, say £10,000. Not ideal but this would give the vendor confidence and a mechanism for comeback on either side.

This is a brilliant idea, except for the fact you cannot have financial penalties in contracts, which makes it a terrible idea. :rotfl:

I wouldn't take an offer from anyone that is not in a proceed-able position. You're living in a complete dreamworld if you think anyone would. Sell your house first (which will be hard enough) before making offers on others, you just annoy sellers otherwise. The number of times we were shown around houses that have both EAs and sellers moaning about how many non-proceedable people waste their time by looking around houses they could not seriously offer on until they had sold their own house.

opinions4u

This is a brilliant idea, except for the fact you cannot have financial penalties in contracts, which makes it a terrible idea.

So how come a house buyer has to pay a financial penalty if they pull out of the transaction after exchanging contracts?

Meeper

I wouldn't even have had you round as a viewer, to be perfectly honest. Stop wasting everyone's time.