buying a house without selling my house

sarah234

I am thinking of putting an offer in on a property but the seller needs to complete within 7 weeks and the problem is that my house is not even on the market yet. I have got a mortgage in principle decision from the Nationwide and I phoned them up to ask them if this would be a problem. The woman on the phone did not really understand what I meant and after much explaining she said that they would need to do another check to see if I could afford two mortgages (but I know that on paper I cannot afford it). I said that I did not intend to keep two mortgages for anymore than a month or two but she did not have a clue what I should do.

The house that I am going to put an offer in on is being funded 90% mortgage and 10% deposit (which I was going to take out as a personal loan and repay when my house is sold). I am confident that my house will sell quite quickly but I don't want to put off any potential buyers by demanding that they complete within six/seven weeks.

Any advice? Does anyone have an experience of this situation?
(If it makes any difference this is the Scottish system)

Does anyone know if the nationwide will be ok with this? Or should I just keep quiet about it and if asked say that my house is on the market?

telfordwhite

Depends on whether you can afford to pay for 2 mortgages for several months.

Even if you sold yours tomorrow it could be months before you completed. Don't underestimate the timescale, everyone thinks their house will sell quickly.

Don't lie, the EA will want details of your selling position.

xela_17

The seller of the house you want will want to know your exact status and you won't be able to keep up the pretence that your house is on the market for long. Get an estate agent round asap and get the house up for sale. In the meantime, if you do want to go ahead and run two mortgages, I think in this situation you need a bridging loan. I don't know anything about these personally but someone else on here will or you could do a google search.

Rick62

Or Intelligent Finance will consider this situation.

sarah234

Thanks for your replies.

I did look into briging loans but they seem very expensive and we are only talking about 10K.

I did get 3 estate agents round and I have decided which one to go with but the reason I have not instructed them is because I'm not sure if i'm going to offer on this house i have found (it is fixed price and I have negotiated the price down a bit) or if I should forget about this one because of the time scale and keep looking for one that is looking for a august/september completion.

Time2Go_25

This reminded me of a question I've been meaning to ask for a while. Does capital gains tax come into these situations as you have two homes?

kingkano

pdel61 wrote: »

This reminded me of a question I've been meaning to ask for a while. Does capital gains tax come into these situations as you have two homes?

I think you have 3 years grace from it being your 'primary residence' to sell without CGT.

Doozergirl

You can't afford it, so you shouldn't be doing it. It's highly unlikely that you will be considered for two mortgages and bridging should be for a very short period of time.

In reality you don't know how long it will take to sell your house and therefore you cannot take what is a massive financial risk, even if you could raise the money to pay for it.

Moral of the story is to at least put your house in the market before you start looking for houses. It's easier to delay a potential buyer than it is to magic one out of thin air.

Do not lie I expect that the Estate Agent will verify with your estate agent that you have sold subject to contract anyway, which means you're scuppered before you've started, but could you even imagine how you would feel if, when you found the buyer, that they were simply stringing you along and lying to you in order to suit themselves? Let alone if you needed to be out of your house in 7 weeks?

They may not find the buyer that they need that quickly. get yours on the market and set your price as low as you can for a quick sale if you want the house that badly. You never know.

If it doesn't happen, there WILL be others, there always are. It's amazing how quickly most people find the house of their dreams. I think that's because there are a lot of houses out there!

real1314

What would you do if........


... you buy the new house (via bridging/2 mortgages/whatever)...

You find a buyer for your old house (sounds good so far)...

The buyer finds out that you're paying for 2 mortgages (getting difficult)

They realise they are in a position to turn the screw (eek)

They reduce their offer by 20% on the day of exchange.

????

pickles110564

Dont worry go for it. If it is your house of your dreams dont worry a few white lies never hurt anyone.
You can always grease the palms of EA's they are normally on the take and will love to take money in brown paper bags.
Say that you are a cash buyer and get your solicitor to hang it out, put your place up for a fair price that will mean that it will fly out of the window.
Dont let others ruin your dreams, they are normally green eyed monsters who dont have the balls to take life by the scruff of the neck and just love to run others down

shelly

I would say don't do it. There is a way to do it as we have just done what you want to do, but you HAVE to be able to pay 2 mortgages yourself and even though it might only be for a short while you have said yourself that you can't afford to.