Found an ideal house, but not sold ours!

MissCellaneous

Hi all,

Just after a bit of advice on our first time in a property chain

We're after more space, and feel it's an important time for us to move from our current, smaller home.

Not the query here, but some background: As a separate consideration, it's worth noting that we have some debts to resolve, and in order to help us make some serious changes to our spending habits and move forward, our intention is to use some of the hopefully sizeable equity in our current property to pay off credit cards and a loan, then using the remainder of the equity to pay house purchasing fees etc. and bring our new house mortgage to 90% LTV (which seems to be comfortably within our reach based on a mortgage advisor we've spoken to, and an AIP from our current lender).

That requirement means it's really a bit much for us to consider keeping our current property and renting it out - we had originally considered this, but we need to get ourselves sorted out, and that seems like a massive complexity / commitment, etc.

So, having said all that, we've got our property on the market, and we've been looking at houses. Having looked at about 10 properties, we have viewed one property twice and fallen in love with it. It's in budget.

But, even though we're with the same estate agent as the other sellers are with, there appears to be nothing we can do to agree any sort of conditional offer to secure the house, even though our agent thinks our house will sell quickly. We're on tenterhooks, and even though we realise we should have accepted an offer on our house before we can make an offer on another - do we have *any* other options here? I've heard of agents making deals etc, but ours seem to be against doing anything at all that will secure us this property. We've been on the market only 5 days, had one not very serious viewing, and one no-show.

My husband has even pondered whether we could remortgage our current property as interest only whilst we try to sell it, in order to get equity out of it and buy the new property, but that rings a million alarm bells for me, and I don't even think something like this would be possible.

Any ideas? Or do we just need to wait it out and hope no one else offers for the new property whilst we try to sell? The type of houses we're looking at seem to be selling very quickly around here.

jakieahmed

Unfortunately, the good houses go pretty fast and thats how life is.

As for the selling/buying process. I would try to get rid of the house you are living in. Having said that will take months, in that time and space try to find something. And if you cannot find something then go to rented accommodation if it helps for few months.

Trying to put deposit/hopes in a house you love will simply break your heart, especially the fact that you're not getting many views at your own place.

Also, don't forget having two properties a the same time means you will be paying high stamp duty and then you would have to claim for the refund. Do you have the budget to do that

Crashy_Time

jakieahmed wrote: »

Unfortunately, the good houses go pretty fast and thats how life is.

As for the selling/buying process. I would try to get rid of the house you are living in. Having said that will take months, in that time and space try to find something. And if you cannot find something then go to rented accommodation if it helps for few months.

Trying to put deposit/hopes in a house you love will simply break your heart, especially the fact that you're not getting many views at your own place.

Also, don't forget having two properties a the same time means you will be paying high stamp duty and then you would have to claim for the refund. Do you have the budget to do that

Are you saying that the OP`s house is not good enough?

sheff6107

This is what happens when you look at houses when your hasn't sold!
They'll be another you'll like just as much when you're in a position to proceed.

Mickygg

I don't understand why people look at houses when not proceedable. Get under offer and then view, so doesn't waste your time and more importantly the sellers time.

I always said no to anyone not proceedable who wanted to view my previous house.

OP get under offer on yours, then offer on the one you like.

gettingtheresometime

When we looked at the house we now live in, we hadn't put our house on the market.

However the sellers were buying a new build so didn't want to move fir at least 4 months which bought us some time to put our house on the market & sell it.

If you don't put your house on the market you'll never know how quickly it will sell

Thrugelmir

Focus your energies on addressing your financial issues and selling your current property. Than dreaming of the future.

Davesnave

gettingtheresometime wrote: »

If you don't put your house on the market you'll never know how quickly it will sell

OP's house has been on the market for around 5 days. They have simply made the mistake of viewing before being proceedable.

Their agent thinks the house they like will sell easily to someone else, which is probably why they aren't willing to encumber its owners with some special deal with the OP. It's likely that they believe the OP's house will take longer to sell, not necessarily because it's not good enough, as Crashy suggests, but perhaps because they've marketed initially at a 'hopeful' price.

Despite the above, the people who bought our last house weren't even on the market when they first viewed, so if we'd taken Mickygg's stance, we'd not have sold it to them.

i agree with Thrugelmir that getting straight financially is key to making a good deal further down the line. Even going into rented can work in a falling market. It worked for us.

warby68

All you can really do is ask the agent to put forward your serious interest and price you would pay once your are proceedable. Nothing other than making the vendor aware of you so you have some kind of place in the queue.

At least you're on the radar if, for some reason, they don't attract another buyer quickly. It worked for us but very different market and personal circumstances at the time.

Truthfully though, if you have debts to sort out and need a 90% mortgage you are not the most attractive buyer in that you might not find a mortgage as easily as some and will have very little wiggle room on price, unexpected things etc along the way.

As others say, you might be better concentrating on the sale of yours, building some cash for fees etc and securing a firmer mortgage commitment first - sad and not the exciting place you want to be in but probably realistic.

gettingtheresometime

Davesnave wrote: »

OP's house has been on the market for around 5 days. They have simply made the mistake of viewing before being proceedable.

Their agent thinks the house they like will sell easily to someone else, which is probably why they aren't willing to encumber its owners with some special deal with the OP. It's likely that they believe the OP's house will take longer to sell, not necessarily because it's not good enough, as Crashy suggests, but perhaps because they've marketed initially at a 'hopeful' price.

Despite the above, the people who bought our last house weren't even on the market when they first viewed, so if we'd taken Mickygg's stance, we'd not have sold it to them.

i agree with Thrugelmir that getting straight financially is key to making a good deal further down the line. Even going into rented can work in a falling market. It worked for us.

Ah sorry - brain fog !

hazyjo

Nothing wrong with viewing before getting a buyer providing you're not going to fall in love with it. And if you do, you have to be prepared to lose it.


I'm looking some distance away so wanted to see exactly what was available for our budget before marketing. Things look very different in the flesh compared to on paper!


One we viewed was taken off the market and we approached her privately some months later. Now, several more months on (now we have a buyer), we may buy it privately (ie no EA). We'd never have had that option if we'd not viewed it before.


I also like being in a position whereby if you view something and like it, when you get a buyer, you can literally just pick up the phone and make an offer. No trying to arrange a viewing, nobody else getting through the door, it's just easier. Different if you live on the doorstep, but even then who's to say you'll be able to view when you want. Also, even if properties sell, they may well fall through (1 in 3 does). Again, you can just pick up the phone and offer. Always good if the property was popular and went quickly before.


As I first said though - DO NOT DO THIS IF YOU ARE GOING TO 'FALL IN LOVE WITH IT'


There will be others...