Moving from our first house to the next step up the property ladder - questions!

Gra76

We outright own our current property which was recently valued at £140k.

We're currently looking around for other properties to move to. We've seen one we like. It's local and has everything we want from it (which is rare so we're quite keen on it already having been searching online for months). It's just gone on the market for £275k.

We've only ever been FTB'ers so we don't really know how it works from this point onwards.

Am I right in thinking that we do things in this order:

1 - Get our current house on the market asap so that we're more likely to be taken seriously by the sellers and the estate agent marketing the property.
2 - Get a mortgage in principle offer.
3 - Get an appointment to view the property we like through the estate agent.
4 - Make an offer on the property we want - assuming it's all it's cracked up to be when we view it.
5 - Come back to this forum and ask more questions once we get that far!

Also - while I'm thinking about it. Here's a question for you. I'm sure there's a very easy and obvious answer too....

If everything went to plan and we got a mortgage sorted out and everything went through, I'd be looking at overpaying as much as possible while the interest rates are still low. Would I be better getting a term over say 30 years and overpaying more on it, or get the typical 25 year term and overpay a bit less? If everything goes to plan I'd be looking at a mortgage of around 150k to start with as I'd be inclined to keep £15k of the selling price of our property to go towards stamp duty, estate agent fees and other associated costs.

It'll be the first time we'll have been part of a chain, so we're not quite 100% sure of the correct way to go about things. Thanks in advance.

The_J

I wouldn't bother with an agreement in principle until you are very serious about making an offer. Otherwise it's an unnecessary credit score.

It's possibly not important to get your place on the market yet but given the climate I'd advise it.

Gra76

Would it be jumping the gun to request a viewing before we had ours up for sale? This property is the first one in a long time that I've had any serious enthusiasm for and I'm quite keen to view it to make sure it's as good as it looks/sounds on the advert.

The_J

No not a problem at all. Some estate agents are pickier than others but it is certainly your right to see any property and put in any offer you like and by law that offer must be passed to the vendor.

Thrugelmir

The_J wrote: »

and put in any offer you like and by law that offer must be passed to the vendor.

Not if the vendor has given instructions to the EA. Being proceedable is one I always request.

star4876

Sorry to sound miserable but an offer on a house from somebody who still has their own house to sell before they can commit, is basically as good as no offer at all.

The market is pretty bad at the moment unless you're willing to lose money or drastically lower your expectations, so I wouldn't even bother looking at properties or putting offers in on anywhere until you've at least accepted an offer on your own house.

Good luck!

The_J

Thrugelmir wrote: »

Not if the vendor has given instructions to the EA. Being proceedable is one I always request.

What is "proceedable"? Too many variables. Better to get all offers with the estate agents opinion on the type of buyer and potential for issues.

Gra76

star4876 wrote: »

Sorry to sound miserable but an offer on a house from somebody who still has their own house to sell before they can commit, is basically as good as no offer at all.

The market is pretty bad at the moment unless you're willing to lose money or drastically lower your expectations, so I wouldn't even bother looking at properties or putting offers in on anywhere until you've at least accepted an offer on your own house.

Good luck!

I don't have any problems with selling at a figure lower than the market value in order to get our current property sold. I think I'm quite realistic about the current property market. Properties aren't shifting. Not unless they're priced to sell and even then they're not exactly selling like hotcakes.

I know what smaller houses on plots two thirds the size of ours on my street have sold for in the past year (all for £125k+) and I'd be willing to let it go for a figure slightly above that if it meant it sold the property quicker. I could market it above the £140k valuation in the hope of getting an offer of circa £140k, but I'm well aware I'm unlikely to ever get a viewing, never mind a sale at that figure.

I'd take £130k+ without blinking and to be perfectly honest £125k would make me think twice about it. If I could knock some money off the £275k property we're looking at it wouldn't be an issue as we've budgeted for a mortgage in the region of £150k anyway just to be sure we could afford to sell for less. Anything lower than that will be a bonus.

The house we're looking at is going to be the last house we move into. The house our 3 young kids grow up in, so I'm willing to make financial sacrifices to get the right house rather than hold out for the asking price which in reality is not going to be offered anyway. A short term loss financially will be a long-term gain for my family as far as I'm concerned.

Dave_Ham

Or another choice and this would potentially tick all of your boxes would be

Raise finance on your existing property as a "let to buy" and then use this money as your deposit on the new place.

You would effectively make yourself chain free and the most desirable of any suitors..

getmore4less

£275 is at the upper end of the no mans land over £250k.

Get a look at the house and sellet then do some research on actual selling prices, this could be a case of offers need to be max £250k and an unrealistic/unmotivated seller so you could be wasting time

hcb42

Gra76 wrote: »

1 - Get our current house on the market asap so that we're more likely to be taken seriously by the sellers and the estate agent marketing the property.
2 - Get a mortgage in principle offer.
3 - Get an appointment to view the property we like through the estate agent.
3a - accept an offer on our own property
4 - Make an offer on the property we want - assuming it's all it's cracked up to be when we view it.
5 - Come back to this forum and ask more questions once we get that far!

.

Key step missed there Absolutely no sense in offering on another house if you cannot proceed on that offer.

also no point in getting a thirty year term unless you like prolonging the agony, get the shortest term you can if you plan to pay it off asap or a slightly longer one than your intentions and then overpay that.