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?!

In_For_A_Penny_2

People are still replying on the other thread you started

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/5208774

the_flying_pig

fwiw I bought in sw London in summer 2013 and it was very much a proper [though shortish] old-fashioned chain.

ging84

always been that you've had to sell before you can make an offer, if your offer is dependant on proceed from that sale. In the past estate agents may have been a bit more relax in their attitude to checking out buyer, especially in boom times, but these days, they make money poking their noses into buyer's finances, trying to sell them financial services, so they are a lot more keen, we also live in much more litigious times, so there is a lot more chance of a seller turning around trying to sue them for negligence, because they didn't check the buyer could actually afford the property.

benb76

I've bought 4 properties (and sold 3) since I was a first time buyer 15 years ago. It's always been the case that, to have an offer accepted, buyers need to be in a position to proceed, either by having an offer on their property, obtaining a bridging loan or being first time buyers. Nothing has changed.