House buying process - How do I proceed?

Guapito

Hi,


My wife and I recently came across a property that we have fallen in love with and would like to make an offer on. However, we weren't really house hunting, just browsing, so we do not have our house on the market; it was just a case of stumbling across the house of our dreams and it being within our financial grasp.


The property we want is not part of a chain but I would like to know how we proceed? Our current house was a new-build, so the buying process was relatively straight-forward. Obviously we have to immediately put our house on the market, but are we able to put an offer in the meantime (next couple of days)? The deposit would be tied up in the equity of our current house so we're not sure how this works. Not having been in this situation before, we have no clue as to how to proceed with this.


Help?

kinger101

It's unlikely that the vendor will accept an offer if you don't already have a buyer for your property. Chains have traditionally formed from the bottom up. There's nothing in principle to stop them doing this though. Particularly if their property has been on the market for a long time, or your offer is a number which they like.

Rambosmum

You can by all means put an offer in, but it is very unlikely to be accepted/ taken seriously if you can't proceed until yours is sold.

Only thing to do is get it on the market asap, and hope they don't accept an offer on it in the meantime.

eddddy

The problem is that the seller probably won't take your offer very seriously - because your own house isn't under offer.

It may take 6 months or 12 months (or never) for you to get an offer on your house. (For all the seller's know, you may have totally unrealistic idea of what your current house will sell for.)


One tactic you could try, is to try putting your house on the market with the same EA that is selling the house you want. That may help your cause.

Mickygg

By not being proceedable you would need to offer a very reasonable offer for the vendors to even think about waiting for you to sell.
I personally wouldn't wait as you haven't even started. It takes a good 2 weeks to get valuations of your house, instruct an EA, sign the agreement, get photos and brochure drawn up, approve then go live.
What they may say is that they will accept your offer if it's good enough when you are under offer, but still market and if get a buyer in the meantime then of course it's all change. I know of that happening before.

However having said that I assume the EA knew your situation before agreeing to the viewing? That may give a ray of hope. I ensure my EA ask everyone what their situation is and that they are proceedable, otherwise no viewing.

Guapito

Thanks everybody. We might do as eddddy has suggested. The EA is aware of our situation and did mention how being with them would ease the process, etc. Me being a little cynical thought "I bet it would!" so I didn't take it too seriously. However I think we might have to!

Hoploz

What you did is you tell the EA you are interested in the house but you need to sell. They'll tell the seller this and they'll bear it in mind if any other offers come in to them.

Meantime you go on the market at a reasonable price or a quick sale.

Hopefully it'll all come together. Seems to me in my area that things are moving a little slower just now so there's a bit of wiggle-room in these situations, unlike sometimes when houses get snapped up quickly and if you're not already under offer you have no chance.

Good luck.

ETA btw while you're waiting or a buyer you must visit your broker to seek advice on mortgages. That'll give a better idea of whether it's do-able or not. And how low an offer you can afford to accept!

aliby21

you have nothing to lose by putting in an offer, or at least having a discussion with the EA. I know the accepted process is that you need to be proceedable to be taken seriously, but it is not always the case. I sold last year, accepting an offer from people whose house was not on the market, in preference to an offer from someone who had a completed chain behind them. It suited me, as I hand't found anywhere to buy and didnt want to be pressurised into having to find somewhere quickly.

danielley

I think getting yours on the market ASAP is a great idea, however I would just register interest and not actually put an offer in. The reason being, your offer will probably not be accepted or taken seriously until you are in a proceedable position yet could be used as a selling tactic by the owner / agent when other people view the property

"This is already an offer on the table...."

Nothing sparks interest more than knowing there is competition.

Good luck; i went with an online agent and had mine on the market within 5 days from enquiring with them.