Advice please. Am I best to sell my house cash, rent a place & pay cash for another ?

agrinnall

I've done this a couple of times, and would again. The downside is that you have the hassle of moving twice (and you may have to put things into storage until you have your own place again) but the two big advantages are that you have the money for a new place in the bank, which is a big plus for anyone looking to sell to you, and you do away with the stress of having sale and purchase take place on the same day.

Better_Days

We are selling our house (hope to exchange in the next day or so) and moving into rented. While we are in rented we will be looking around for the right property to buy. A proportion of people looking to move house do do this sucessfully.

On the downside you do have to move twice. On the upside once you are in rented you are a chain free 'cash' buyer and so are more attractive to vendors. The EA told us that one of the reasons we got a good offer for our property is that we are breaking the chain and going into rented. This easily covers the extra cost of renting.

We couldn't afford to be that fussy about our rental as we have 2 cats and 2 dogs, but the place we have found will be fine short term. We did say to the EA and solicitor that we would need longer than usual between exchange and completion if we hadn't already found somewhere to rent. With regard to the rental, the thing to do is not sign up for your rental contract until you exchange. Otherwise, as you have identified, you could end up with your own house and a rental!

It has certainly been less stressful than trying to tie up a sale and a purchase at the same time. For this move I didn't want to settle for a property that would just 'do', and that we could find in a short time period once we had accepted an offer on ours. This way round gives us more flexibility when looking for a property. Of course, we take the gamble that house prices wont go through the roof in this area over the next 6 months or so.

Sarinee

Thank you tim123456789, agrinnall and Better Days for your comments and advice. Better Days, the advice about you saying to you saying to the EA and solicitor that you would need longer than usual between exchange and completion if we hadn't already found somewhere to rent.'is something I will make a note about :-)

If anyone has any more advice re this subject including renting a property in between properties please also make a comment as it is good for me to get all angles and info......and there are probably others also reading this.:)

yoyoegg

If you do sell to go into rented, then you'll likely be signing up for a minimum of 6 months to start with, with very limited options to vacate early.

So if you do see a 'dream house', you could be buying and also pay for rent on a place you're not occupying.

Sarinee

yoyoegg, thank you, yes I am aware of that, I mentioned it on my original post, also I may have to rent for another 6 months if things take a while to happen....like finding a house.

So what are my other options, if any ? what would anyone else do ?

hcb42

I have just done this, and now in the rented bit. The main reason for us was we are not committed to living long term in the area where our jobs are - so renting for a while until we know what the life plan is....

With regards to finding a rental, we were actively viewing for a couple of weeks before the exchange date, always having a couple in reserve as we did not want to commit to any monies for deposits or agency fees until we knew we had exchanged. Once we had, we found a house to rent and sorted it out very quickly.

The upside was the sale was concluded very easily, and it puts us in a strong position for the next purchase, hopefully cash buyer and no chain. The negatives are of course moving twice, which is more of a headache than a massive expense and the fact that as we are renting, decor is not quite to our taste, needing to seek permission for things such as getting a water meter installed and the like. All in all the positives outweigh the downsides though.

(and the quality of the rental market is seriously depressing (East Midlands)!!!! I viewed more houses to rent, than I probably would have had to view to buy!)

Sarinee

Thanks hcb42, I will remember not to part with any monies until I know the exchange has taken place if I go down this road.

I am in The Midlands too although not in the East and believe me some of the houses I've seen to buy are pretty rough inside so expect I will experience the same as you if I view houses up for rental.

tim123456789

hcb42 wrote: »

I have just done this, and now in the rented bit. The main reason for us was we are not committed to living long term in the area where our jobs are - so renting for a while until we know what the life plan is....

With regards to finding a rental, we were actively viewing for a couple of weeks before the exchange date, always having a couple in reserve as we did not want to commit to any monies for deposits or agency fees until we knew we had exchanged. Once we had, we found a house to rent and sorted it out very quickly.

The upside was the sale was concluded very easily, and it puts us in a strong position for the next purchase, hopefully cash buyer and no chain. The negatives are of course moving twice, which is more of a headache than a massive expense

And you can make this easier by packing up all the things that yop "have to keep" but don't actually use, separately and not unpacking them

Sarinee

tim123456789, Good point, I will have to make sure I try to do that :-)