Buying & Selling - which first?

dragilex

Hi,

I'm currently in the midst of the moving house process. I want to sell the house I'm in and buy a new house. Our current house is not yet on the market but we're getting it prepared ready. We've not found the perfect house to buy yet but there's been a couple of close ones. We've had discussions with mortgage advisors and know how much we can borrow.

So my question is this. Which comes first the buying or the selling. Do we find a house, get an offer accepted then put our house on the market? Or do we get our house on the market, accept an offer and then full steam ahead finding a house to buy?

I feel it should be the second approach but my only fear is that what if it takes us a while to find a house and we lose the interested party. Is that something you just have to suck up and find another buyer?

All comments welcome.

cajef

Most people put their property on he market then when you have a buyer you are in a position to put an offer on a property, it is no use making an offer on a property unless you are in a position to go ahead with the purchase.

Personally I would never take a property off the market and accept an offer from someone that is not in a position to proceed.

jackomdj

The second or a combination of the two.

A lot of people won't entertain an offer if you are not in a position to proceed (ie if you have not sold subject to contracts)

What you can do is get yours on the market, start looking at ones you are interested in online, get it down to ones you want yo view, you could even go and view.

davidmcn

dragilex wrote: »

my only fear is that what if it takes us a while to find a house and we lose the interested party. Is that something you just have to suck up and find another buyer?

Or you go ahead with the sale and rent while you look for something to buy. Maybe not the preferred option but owning zero houses is at least feasible, whereas most people can't own two houses for any length of time.

pinkpiglit

We tried to put an offer on a property when we were in the process of selling our place. We were just waiting on the EPC to be sent through before the EA could start actively marketing our own flat, however the vendor of the property we were interested in wouldn't give us the time of day.

Once you have a buyer for your place and your mortgage in place, then chances are you'll be looked upon more favourably.

greatgimpo

pinkpiglit wrote: »

... however the vendor of the property we were interested in wouldn't give us the time of day.

I would (and indeed have done) accept the offer but tell the prospective buyer it will stay on the market and accept elsewhere if their house isn't sold soon - best of both worlds. The first time I done this the buyer set up a bridging loan, the second time I sold (another house) they had an offer on theirs a few days later so all ended well = lucky for me.

pinkshoes

A friend of mine wouldn't even allow viewings unless the person had their house on the market. They had plenty of interest, so didn't want the stress of unnecessary viewings.

When we sold, we made it clear we wouldn't entertain offers unless people were in a position to proceed.

The house we really wanted sold the day before be got an almost asking price offer!

We then couldn't find anything else, so completed the sale, lived with the inlaws, and have since bought a fabulous house that dropped in price whilst we were waiting.

Ironically, we know the people that bought the other house, and they have uncovered no end of problems!

dragilex

Thanks for those comments. Time to up our game and get the house on the market.