got a buyer now I can't find a house to buy

whitesatin

I thought I was doing so well, with an above asking price on my property. The trouble is, I just can't find a suitable house in the area I want to live in.

My buyers are patient, bless them, but there will be a limit. They are not dependent upon selling theirs to go ahead on buying mine.

I am on every register, alerts every day but nothing meets with the "worth moving to" criteria. I don't think I am being overly fussy and do really want to make this move which involves a total lifestyle change.

August has not been good for fresh properties appearing. Do you think September will be any better? Is the autumn a popular time to put your house on the market? Does completing around Christmas put people off marketing their property?

I don't want to let my buyers down but am beginning to feel despondent.

Out,_Vile_Jelly

August and December are probably the worst months for searching.

I would proceed with the sale and move into rented which makes you a much more attractive buyer.

Waterlily24

I would never move out and rent, but can see why some people do.

xylophone

Sell your house, move all your belongings into a storage facility near the seaside area of your choice, move into a nice homely B&B and devote your days to house hunting?

pinkshoes

We were in the same position, so moved out and lived with family, putting all our stuff in storage. We then moved out 3.5 months later into our lovely new home.

The ONLY reason we got this place for such a good price is that we were chain free so agreed to the sellers time scale required.

Niv

whitesatin wrote: »

I thought I was doing so well, with an above asking price on my property. The trouble is, I just can't find a suitable house in the area I want to live in.

My buyers are patient, bless them, but there will be a limit. They are not dependent upon selling theirs to go ahead on buying mine.

I am on every register, alerts every day but nothing meets with the "worth moving to" criteria. I don't think I am being overly fussy and do really want to make this move which involves a total lifestyle change.

August has not been good for fresh properties appearing. Do you think September will be any better? Is the autumn a popular time to put your house on the market? Does completing around Christmas put people off marketing their property?

I don't want to let my buyers down but am beginning to feel despondent.

I am normally against the idea of selling up and renting short term but in your case it may be the best thing all round assuming you want to sell your house in the near future. As I see it, as it stands you are nowhere with regard to getting a new house so everyday that goes by you are ~4months away from moving. I cant see the buyers hanging around too long unless they absolutely love your place.

I want to add the ~4months is a ball park figure to take into account viewing/second viewing/putting offer/upping offer then actually doing the moving thing - I actually think this is conservative timing but yea - go rent.

pinkteapot

Whether you take on the hassle of short-term relocation (staying with family / renting) depends in part on how easily you can replace your buyers.

If your house took a long time to sell, or you know your buyers are paying top whack for it and other people are likely to offer a bit less, get sold and rent.

If your house sold fast and you know other people will offer the same as your current buyers, make them wait and get a new buyer if need be. Be honest with them (sounds like you have been) so they don't get their hearts *too* set on your house and they don't start spending money on the process. We said to our buyers that we completely understood if they found something else before we found a house.

It also comes down to you. If it's just you (or you and partner) and you don't have masses of stuff, renting is a very different prospect to if you have tonnes of stuff, five kids and eight pets.

red_imps_2003

Options are very limited if you really need to continue with the sale of you current place but there really is nothing suitable to move on to. You either have to pull out of the sale and gamble on something more suitable being available the next time an acceptable offer comes in or you keep the bird in the hand and move into some kind of temporary accommodation.

We were in your position at the turn of this year but were fortunate enough to have sympathetic family able to accommodate us for as long as we needed. Most of our furniture and belongings are in a commercial storage unit. Renting didn't appeal partly because of the minimum tenancy we are likely to have been compelled to sign up to and partly because there were hardly any rental properties available in our limited catchment area.

I sympathise with your lack of options coming up in your alerts. We found there was a short spate of Rightmove alerts around March time and another in May. They have been few and far between since then. Even now, the new home we are moving into in a couple of weeks falls more into the 'meh' category than the 'yay!' one.

Good luck with your decision.

whitesatin

Thanks, everyone. I think we will really have to seriously consider the renting option. Last time we moved (less than 5 years ago), we sold up and moved in with my daughter for three months and ended up buying a house very quickly as it was the first time for almost 40 years that I did not own a house and I felt insecure. Being cash buyers at that time did help and luckily the house we bought, we loved and still do, it's just that we would now like to live by the coast.

Our house had several offers within the first two weeks, asking price and above, so I think we could sell it again easily enough should our buyers decide to move on.

A lot of thinking to be done.

densol_2

I think it depends where you live. In London or greater London if you sell and then rent, prices are increasing fast so you may find yourself slipping behind with what you can afford as interest on savings is rubbish against the increase in prices.

However in other parts of the country where prices are more stable, it's less of a gamble and means you can look for exactly what you want.

whitesatin

densol wrote: »

I think it depends where you live. In London or greater London if you sell and then rent, prices are increasing fast so you may find yourself slipping behind with what you can afford as interest on savings is rubbish against the increase in prices.

However in other parts of the country where prices are more stable, it's less of a gamble and means you can look for exactly what you want.

Yes, that is one of my worries about renting. We are in the south east and prices are high. They are also rising where we want to move to. I have noticed this even in the couple of months we have been looking.