Viewing property when your's is'nt on the market

Ozzuk

phill99 wrote: »

If you view a property and make an offer without yours on the market, it will be noted as an expression of interest only as you are not in a position to proceed with the purchase.

You have to at least show willing and put yours on the market. If yours is sold, it puts you in a much stronger negotiating pisition for a house you may offer on.

Not necessarily true - it is ultimately up to the vendor.

I was tempted to sell my house and made the mistake of looking before mine was even on the market - and yes of course found the perfect property. I had a long chat with the vendor/EA, explained my position and like you thought my house would sell quickly. The EA strongly advised against it but the seller accepted my offer and took it off the market.

Fast forward a few months and despite a lot of interest my property didn't sell quickly - it was a stressful time and in the end I pulled the plug and took my house off the market.

So it is totally possible, you could even offer, but I wouldn't recommend it.

The following year I put it back on the market and sods law it sold within weeks - I was then left to find a new house rather quickly.

hazyjo

I viewed one recently but am not really looking to move until next year. For the right house, I would consider going sooner, although will incur fees for ending my mortgage deal.


So long as you don't get emotionally attached, go for it. If you're one of those people who says they've fallen in love with it and would sell their granny and a kidney to get it (or take out a bridging loan :eek:), forget it.


I've not had any probs in viewing when mine's not yet on the market.


I'm looking an hour or so away from home so if I view one which, when I have a buyer, I'm able to ring up immediately to offer on, it makes life much easier. It's not always easy getting viewings on demand!


Jx

bigfreddiel

I always view without mine on the market. That's because I'm a cash buyer!

Sadly now with the extra 3% SD it's not really an option. You do of course get three years to sell a property to get the 3% SD back.

Cheers fj

theartfullodger

Prospective landlords often view properties without their home being on the market....

jojorose

As a serial mover, 26 times at last count, i found with a family and a job that getting the house to look pristine for more than ten minutes was highly stressful and then to find that my viewer was not marketing their property did to me seem a waste of my time. HOWEVER, I have done a swap, i was downsizing and she was upsizing. Neither of us had our home on the market at that time. In fact ive done it twice.

ElsieMonkey

As a vendor, I explicitly told my EA that I only wanted proceedable viewers, and I checked this too everytime someone was booked for a viewing. It takes so much time and effort to get a property in show home condition, I'm just not prepared to do this for people who are just window shopping. Until someone has sold a property I think they underestimate this (alhough granted there are some people who don't clean up before a viewing).

MobileSaver

hufc2002 wrote: »

Are estate agents/vendors likely to let you view properties if your own isn't on the market?

Personally I would get your own on the market first.

I'm selling a property at the moment, it's empty and the EAs are doing all the viewings; I rejected an offer from a potential buyer precisely because they didn't have their own on the market at the time. I've now accepted an offer from someone else who had already accepted an offer on their own property.

oystercatcher

It worked for my previous neighbours, they had quite specific requirements so viewed a property and had an offer accepted, then they put their property on the market. I thought it would all go terribly wrong but they found a buyer within days and the move went through a couple of weeks ago. The market is pretty fast here though.

I also did a similar move but this was 20 ish years ago when market was very slow and we were lucky.

However, when my mother was moving she refused any viewings from anyone who wasn't procedable. So there are all sorts of variables. No harm in asking though.

vet8

When we sold our house the first offer was from a guy who had not put his on the market yet, we tentatively accepted it but still let others view. Weeks passed and this guy who said he was very keen had still not put his house on the market so we accepted a lower offer from someone else who was ready to go. The initial guy was REALLY annoyed and amazed he even offered the asking price, but since at that point he STILL had not put his house on the market we told him to stick it. We had already waited long enough. The entire process takes AGES anyway so you want to have a buyer who can at least buy when he says he want to.

Ithaca

Last year when we were looking I was told in no uncertain terms not to even bother booking a viewing until our house had a firm offer on it. The market was red hot in our area at that point so agents and vendors could afford to be picky; I think it's cooled down post-Brexit vote though so agents might be a bit more keen to get prospective buyers through the door.