Found house, haven't sold mine

rca779

As per the thread title, we have found the perfect house we want to move to. The problem is that we haven't sold ours yet. Our house has only been on the market for a couple of weeks. We have had 3 viewings and have 2 more booked in for the weekend, but so far haven't received any offers.

I made an initial offer on the house we want, but this was turned down mainly because we haven't sold ours yet.

We really don't want to miss out on this house, but the estate agent has said that even if we offered the full asking price, it is unlikely that this will be accepted because of our selling situation.

Any advice as to what to do next?

Gra76

There's only really two options.

1 - Wait till you sell your house.
2 - Rent out your house if you can afford to have 2 mortgages on the go.

We've been on the market since November. Went looking at a few houses when we first went on the market and earmarked about half a dozen that we'd go back to view again once we'd sold. As of this morning there is only 1 of them that is still available, and it isn't one of the ones my wife was particularly bothered about so it might as well not count. We'll be looking again only once we've sold.

If you can't afford two mortgages then it leaves you with only the first option.

BigAunty

You are considered a time-waster or tyre kicker until such time you are in a position to proceed - your offer isn't worth the breath you used to make it unless you have a buyer for your place. I used to instruct my estate agents not to allow people to view who were not in a position to proceed, otherwise it's just browsing or window shopping.

Dan-Dan

rca779 wrote: »

As per the thread title, we have found the perfect house we want to move to. The problem is that we haven't sold ours yet. Our house has only been on the market for a couple of weeks. We have had 3 viewings and have 2 more booked in for the weekend, but so far haven't received any offers.

I made an initial offer on the house we want, but this was turned down mainly because we haven't sold ours yet.

We really don't want to miss out on this house, but the estate agent has said that even if we offered the full asking price, it is unlikely that this will be accepted because of our selling situation.

Any advice as to what to do next?

Suggestion - if possible , place your property with the same EA as the house your interested in , and then be flexible on the price

mrsmchapman

Basically you need to sell, nobody is realistically going to accept any offer from you and your not proceedable. I found a house I liked and I marketed with the same agent, I sold in two weeks and so the agent sold 2 properties in 3 weeks. Just an idea, maybe you could multi agent?!

Dukesy

BigAunty wrote: »

You are considered a time-waster or tyre kicker until such time you are in a position to proceed - your offer isn't worth the breath you used to make it unless you have a buyer for your place.

This. I would never accept an offer from anyone who wasn't in a position to proceed immediately. You see too many examples of people accepting offers only to find that their 'buyers' are then unable to proceed for months as their place just isn't selling.

I used to instruct my estate agents not to allow people to view who were not in a position to proceed, otherwise it's just browsing or window shopping.

Actually, I don't really agree with this. We viewed our current house before we sold ours. The moment you accept an offer, the clock starts ticking, and it was great for us to be able to call the vendor's EA and make an offer ten minutes after we'd accepted the offer on the house we were selling, rather than have to worry about trying to find somewhere else to live having already started the selling process in earnest and having a massive uncertainty about being able to find somewhere suitable to move on to.

cajef

rca779 wrote: »

I made an initial offer on the house we want, but this was turned down mainly because we haven't sold ours yet.

What makes you think that anyone is going to accept an offer from someone that is not in a position to proceed, in todays market it may be months before you get a sale for your property and in the meantime they may have missed opportunities to sell.

GlynD

I'd be inlclined to wait until your own house is sold before you even look at other properties.

phoebe1989seb

Dan-Dan wrote: »

Suggestion - if possible , place your property with the same EA as the house your interested in , and then be flexible on the price

Last time we sold (2011) we told our EA we only wanted proceedable people viewing as we wanted to achieve as quick as sale as possible to relocate closer to ailing parents. Despite this the first couple they sent round (first day on market) were yet to put their house up for sale - in fact they apparently weren't even thinking of moving, just browsing RM but our house grabbed their attention.

We initially thought they were merely nosey time-wasters but they totally fell in love with our period house and the very next day (after putting in an offer which we were advised by our EA not to accept, and which was too low anyway) instructed the same EA to market their house.

The EA rushed through the process of getting their photos etc done and within days their house was live on RM. Unfortunately for them - but not for us - we received an acceptable offer at the end of the second week on the market.

The original couple never did manage to sell theirs - they told the EA they hoped our buyers would pull out leaving the way open for them (charming!) - and shortly after we exchanged they decided not to sell after all and withdrew from the market.

If we'd never got that acceptable offer we would if course happily kept them on the back-burner - their first offer wasn't far off what we accepted from our buyers - and it could have all worked out for them, but in that area houses were moving very slowly. Ours only sold as it was a one-off - our former neighbour put their modern house up for sale around the same time in 2011 and has only just gone under offer this month, so there are lots of factors (area, price, willingness to be flexible) to take into account....

fawny

Hi,

We are in exactly the same position, we have found the dream house & don't like anything else we have seen online. We have put our house up for sale with the same agents & made it very clear to them we want the other house. So far we have had two viewing(1 tonight) which seemed to go well & only been on a week so fingers crossed. I've pointed out several times they will kill two birds with one stone if they sell ours:D

kingstreet

It strikes me that finding the "dream home," with all its adjectives, before you have a buyer for you current property, results in the acceptance of an offer which would not otherwise be acceptable on that current home.

Financially, people seem to be better off getting a buyer for theirs, before they start viewing properties with serious intentions.

Are you more likely to accept a lousy offer on yours, if you have a property you want to buy already in mind?

I think you are...