what to do, sell then buy, what if theres nothing?

confusedhouseowner

Hi all
Looking for some advice.
We currently are in a home that we don't feel is our forever home, we would like to move to a larger house but the problem is we would like to stay within the same estate. We have a list of likes and don't likes and we have already tried leafleting but of the two responses, one owner is asking us for 25k over their house value and the other knows they want to move but don't know when, they have also mentioned a figure over what its worth.
We really want to stay in the same area as we have young kids and one is settled in school and we don't wish to move him. We don't want to sell what we have and then there is nothing available that we want. However if something does come up we may miss out as we are not on the market already. There isn't anything available right now that would make me want to sell.
We have looked at extending but for the cost of that we could move.
Has anyone else been in this situation? Any suggestions?

Pixie5740

Is there anything you could do to your current home to make it feel more like a forever home? A loft conversion or extension maybe?

If you have children, one of whom is settled in school, I wouldn't sell to move into private rented accommodation. Renting means that your only months away from eviction after your initial fixed term unless you keep signing new fixed terms but that would take away the flexibility you are looking for so that you can move quickly if something you do like comes on the market.

nubbins

Welcome to the chicken and egg situation of buying and selling houses. I was in this situation some years ago and after going through the hassle of missing out on properties because I was not proceedable or putting mine for sale, getting offers on my property and then not finding a "forever home" I decided to remortgage plus save enough deposit so I was in a good proceedable position to buy the next house without selling the first.

In my area and if its a sellers market you almost have to be in a proceedable position, on the other side of that because its a strong market anything decent that comes on goes almost instantly at the ask or above.
It maybe that if something decent does come up you will have to snap it up quickly and put your house on with the same EA so that gives them an incentive for double commission but it does not always work.
With the leaflets thing, it can work but as you have found out most owners will have a good idea what their house is worth and will chance their luck with someone who comes along obviously wanting their property.

confusedhouseowner

Thanks guys.
We could extend our 1st floor to add another bedroom but we can't really go anywhere with the downstairs and that's where we would like more living space.
I am not sure we would earn enough to remortgage? Not sure how that works either. We are in a good situation at the moment mortgage wise as our mortgage is only 45% LTV.
I was shocked at that person wanting 25k over their house value. Chancing their arm but we don't have a bottomless purse!

pinkteapot

We were in exactly that situation. We put ours on the market and were honest and open with people who viewed that we were looking but hadn't found anything yet. We sold to someone who was happy to wait for us. Our EA was also fully aware of our position.

They waited two months after we accepted their offer before something for us came on the market, and then the chain had to form above us and conveyancing started.

If our buyer had got fed up and found something else, we would have remarketed and got another buyer.

We were lucky as our house was easy to sell, so we weren't particularly worried about losing that buyer as we'd have got another one easily enough. This part depends on what the market is like in your area and how much you're hoping to get for the house.

Ours was stuck under the £250k stamp duty threshold when that was still an issue. If we'd got an offer over £250k we'd have gone into rented, but at £250k we could easily sell, so we knew we'd get another buyer if need be, and so we made them wait. If you're going to make a buyer wait, you can't really push your house to get the absolute maximum price as it's more likely that your buyer will either get cold feet or find something else that's better value.

I think it's fine to market so long as you're honest with viewers. If someone views who needs to move quickly, it won't be the house for them. Don't string people along. We told our buyers not to apply for their mortgage before we found as we didn't know how long it would take, but they ignored us and did it anyway!

If you get a good EA to sell yours, they shouldn't send round viewers who need a quick purchase, though you can't rely on that! They EA wants their fee so may put pressure on you to clear out and rent but you can ignore them.

confusedhouseowner

thanks, I wasn't sure how this would go either as normally when you get an offer they will put a date of entry on the offer don't they (we are in Scotland so unsure if it works differently) House should also get around 160-170k.
My fear is if we have our house on the market for a while it will look like no one wants it so will put people off or make people place silly offers. Also the home report needs to be refreshed after 3 months I think so that is more expense.
The joys!

pinkteapot

Ah.

Being in Scotland makes a difference I think - don't you agree a completion date when you accept an offer up there? If so, that's totally different.

My advice applied to England and Wales.

confusedhouseowner

yes, I am sure when an offer comes in, on that they state a date of entry, once everything is agreed (inclusions etc) then the docs are signed and its legally binding. I may be corrected but this is how it worked when we moved here 10 years ago.

Pixie5740

Yes, in Scotland, the date of entry forms part of the offer. That goes the same for the person buying your home though so you wouldn't end up in the same situation as pinkteapot, finding a buyer and then waiting for a chain to form.

pinkteapot

No, I didn't realise OP was in Scotland when I replied.

davidmcn

If you sell and can't find anything to buy, then you rent (or stay with family etc) until you find something to buy. Which might not be ideal, but it's better than the alternative (buying then failing to sell) which might leave you owning two houses...

Generally you would try to find a buyer willing to tolerate a long entry date to give you time to find something to buy.