Sell and rent or wait till the right house comes up for sale

Slimgimli

Hi! We live in a smallish village and wish to stay here, but houses that we like and can afford don't come up that often!
Tried putting our house up for sale couple of years ago but we're competing against new builds who were offering incentives etc ( ours is only 7 yrs old) so it didn't sell , we also brought at the height of property prices just before the crash, so know that we will not get what we paid for it!
Our dilemma is do we try putting it on the market again even tho no properties are for sale that we like! And then might have to go to rented which will be difficult as we have dogs etc .
Or wait and hope something comes on the market and we then put an offer in and put ours up for sale!
Have things changed since we brought in 2007 and Estate agents are now not wanting to show houses if your property isn't on the market??

Hoploz

Wait.

Something you want to buy will not suddenly become available if you sell and rent.

I was in your position until recently. I just could not justify selling, then having to waste £1600pcm on rent for who knows how long until something came up, losing out on the market uplift having sold too early. I would have been at least 25k out of pocket and we had no specific need to move so we stayed where we were. Eventually it all came together and we sold and bought as part of a chain last September. We had been looking for about 2 or 3 years during which time prices up went up a lot, especially in Spring 2014, but we had such a small search area and specific criteria it was bound to take a long time.

phoebe1989seb

I'd wait.

We wanted to sell up and buy in a different part of the country last year, but like yourselves we have dogs (two) as well as three cats and shedloads of accumulated *stuff* so moving into rented wasn't a viable option for us.

To illustrate the point, our removal costs were close to £4000, so moving twice would have been cripplingly expensive in that respect alone!

When the right house came along - we had very strict criteria and it was perfect - we got ours onto the market quickly at a realistic price and we were extremely fortunate to achieve a relatively fast sale and secure our purchase

Regarding viewing/making an offer before your house is on the market - we viewed the one we wanted to buy and did make a provisional offer, but whilst the EA (and obviously the vendor, although he had already purchased a new property so we never met him) was happy to show us over the house, they made it abundantly clear any offer would not be taken seriously till we were under offer ourselves.....

Slimgimli

Thanks Hoploz and Phoebe! that has helped me decide that waiting is the right decision and as I have quite a long criteria it could indeed take a while......in the meantime will carry on overpaying the mortgage!!!!
Would it be worth letting the local estate agents know what we are looking for even tho we are not on the market? Do you think they will give preference to those already on their books?

MisterB1959

do new build companies offer to part ex homes anymore, or is that long gone? have you improved your living area, in terms of space? conservatory etc. improved kitchen and bathroom might not cost the earth in comparison - if you don't like your house, identify why you don't like it? for the cost of moving you might be able to make yours into one you love again?

Hoploz

Definitely go on all the agents books as this gives you access to more than what is online. You'd be surprised how much is marketed under the radar! If the agent gets to know you and your criteria they will call you second, just after the person who has nothing to sell! But that's better than not being phoned at all!

Slimgimli

our current house was always a compromise due to losing out on one that we really wanted.....had sold ours and were due to complete but it fell thru! Didn't want to upset our buyers so ended up buying this one , won't make that mistake again!! Have tried for 7 years to to like it.....improved kitchen, landscaped garden, etc etc.....hasn't worked so have decided life is too short and want a house I love being in again!
Will go and see all the local estate agents and keep my fingers crossed as well as spreading the word locally that we are on the look out for certain types of houses, might get lucky and word of mouth will work it's magic