Have to Sell before Buying Now?!

user5000

I have bought 2 properties and sold one in my life. In the past buying a house meant placing an offer, negotiating that offer and then everyone waits until both parties sell/buy their respective properties.
It seems this is no longer the case and no one actually seems to be being transparent about the whole process.
Our property is currently for sale. We have made 2 offers on other houses only to be discouraged from the start by the agents selling and then rejected - not on the basis of the offer itself, but on the fact that we ourselves are not under offer. We have been vetted by every agent prior to viewing a house as to what our situation is and warned to only consider the property once ours is off the market.
It also appears that our own house is only being viewed by first-time buyers,cash buyers or those who have sold their own properties and are in limbo.
What is going on? It's like we have reached a dead-lock where no one can sell or buy. There are SIXTY 3 bedroom semi-detached houses for sale between £190,000 and 220,000 at the moment in our town. None of them are selling with any speed. So competition for viewings and offers is high. Meanwhile the media tells us there is a shortage of affordable houses. And also that the housing market is booming. It certainly isn't in at least two of the counties surrounding ours, or in our county. It seems more to me like the buying and selling process has become far more complicated - made so by the agents, who are more than a little cagey & defensive when you ask them when it became regular practice to sell before buying!?
No one seems to be discussing this ridiculous change in the process. I could understand if this was something particular to London, but we are not selling or buying in London (or any city) and it now appears to be the situation nationally.
Isn't it time this new way of buying and selling became more transparent?!

p1nky

In my area there was a time when houses were going sold/ back on market / sold / back on market etc. Because people who were putting in the offers weren't able to proceed. Now the estate agents wants your house under offer so you are a proceedable sale as opposed to an offer subject to selling your own house.

The first time buyers also has to jump through hoops. We couldn't offer without proof of deposit and mortgage in principle. You may think it's slowing down the market but from offer accepted to completion certainly seems to be going quicker

haras_nosirrah

If we put the situation back to you

Imagine you had found the house of your dreams and had an offer accepted

Someone then comes and offers on yours and they have a house to sell. Do you tell them that is fine I will wait for you or do you say that you want someone under offer so that you can buy the one you have an offer on

If you accepted the buyer who had to sell and waited for them but they were completely unrealistic in their pricing and a year later they were still not under offer - would you expect the whole chain to wait?

When we were buying and selling we found the house we wanted to buy. Told the vendors we were interested but needed to sell and as soon as we did we put an offer on.

user5000

Well that is exactly how it always used to be. Buyers and sellers just waited in the chain! What I want to know is when this process changed?
We have made offers on houses that have been rejected because we haven't sold ours and those houses are still for sale after 2 months and neither have received any further offers other than the ones we submitted. Lots of interest, but no offers. Nothing is selling in our town, or surrounding towns and there is a huge amount of competition. No one seems able to move. If houses just sit there for months on end without selling anyway, what difference does it make if you make an offer - secure your dream house provisionally and wait in a chain? It's waiting whatever the situation is. But if you have an offer, at least you know you can plan and get what you want when it becomes available. And these are good houses in great areas. It seems ridiculous to me.

haras_nosirrah

But any offer you did make that they accepted wouldn't be worth anything anyway

As soon as someone came along who was proceedable they would ditch you

If you want to have an offer accepted then make an offer saying that it is subject to you selling and that you understand the house will stay on the market

They may then accept an offer from you - just don't do anything that will cost you money

In your example where everyone just waited it makes no sense. Presumably people put houses on the market because they actually want to move relatively soon. They don't put their house on the market because they would like to move at some point in the next 2 years while they wait for everyone to find and sell a property. Then as the market has gone up the top of the chain raises their price and the whole chain falls apart anyway

user5000

The last house I bought was 8 years ago and it wasn't like that then. And if it's been like that for so long, why is it that so many agents are so defensive about the situation when you ask them? It's all just white-washed over and nothing is properly clarified.
I think it also probably varies from one geographic region to the next.

user5000

Obviously. You make an offer and the seller takes it off the market. You can't allow them to just sit there waiting for any better offers that come along. That would be nuts.

haras_nosirrah

It was like it in 2007.

You say you have only sold once so maybe your previous sale was the exception. Most sellers want people who can actually buy their house not someone who may be able to buy it at some indeterminable point in the future but who equally may change their mind or decide not to move anyway

If you want to put in an offer do so explaining that you need to sell yours and that you don't expect the vendor to take it off the market. Don't then be upset if you get a call saying they have sold to someone else. Essentially it is an expression of interest rather than an accepted offer. Don't invest financially or emotionally in the house and then if you get it, great - if you don't then no harm done

Alternatively you could wait until the chain is complete behind you and then get an offer accepted on a property with everyone being able to get things moving

user5000

It wasn't an exception. That was the way it was.
Our offers on other properties have been rejected outright, regardless of any terms we have suggested. We have been informed this is not because of the price we have submitted, but because we are not under offer, full stop. It makes no difference if we ask for our offer to be considered until we sell.
I have been analysing house sales locally for the last year now as we have been preparing, renovating and re-decorating ours to go on sale. The reality is that houses now seem on average to be on the market for about 5 months and in that time everyone could wait in a chain anyway. It makes no difference, so it is irrelevant how you do it.

haras_nosirrah

Why would the seller take it off the market? That would be nuts

The agent works for the seller not for the buyer. No agent would recommend someone sells their house to someone who cannot buy it.

If I were the vendor of the house you wanted to buy I would thank you for your interest and then it would be a race to sell. If you sell before someone else who offers who is in a better position to you then you would get the house. If someone else came along who offered more or who offered similar but could actually move then I would ditch you

Are you seriously saying that if I came along and offered you an acceptable price for your house but still had one to sell then you would take yours off the market for me?

This would be great for me. In a rising market I could price mine unrealistically, get an offer accepted on yours at today's prices and then sell mine in 2 years for more money than I would get today and get yours for a bargain price - sign me up

Assuming you would be willing to wait that long... Or how long do you expect vendors to wait?

user5000

As I think I have said several times already. This is how it always used to be! If the buyer submitting the offer still hadn't sold their own property after several months then clearly you can just withdraw. Or that is how it was in the past. Obviously you wouldn't hang around for 2 years!