Found an ideal house, but not sold ours!

starshapedbrick

We did lots of first viewings before we had an offer so that when we did we would be able to move to second viewings quickly. I have to say though that I don't think we would have accepted a second viewing on our house from someone who wasn't proceedable.

OP, given that you want to get as much equity from your current home as possible to help tackle debts, a quick sale may not be in your best interests (depending on area and market). It's difficult to separate out the emotions in this process - you are doing the right thing in sorting out debt, but if you let your heart overtake for the 'ideal' house then you could be doing yourself out of the chance to reduce your debts as much as you want to.

phoebe1989seb

I agree with posters saying only do this if you're not going to fall in love with the property

It can work out ok, as I know from experience having twice viewed before our own house was on the market.

First time there was only one road in which we were interesting in buying and within that, only three houses - none of which had been offered for sale for decades.

One came up for sale, we viewed, fell in love and put ours on the same week. Unfortunately it sold - to an acquaintance - within days. A few months later, ours still unsold, a friend told me one of the two remaining houses might be available via a private sale. We viewed and were given first refusal should he decide to sell. Long story short, as it was tenanted (x4), we completed on our sale six weeks before we got the keys to our new home - a full twelve months after we'd originally viewed it. Well worth the aggro involved.....there was loads

More recently we were moving two hundred miles away and made the mistake of scoping out the area and what was for sale online prior to marketing our own house that we'd not quite finishing restoring. Again we fell in love Viewed it, offered, offer declined - for obvious reasons.

We completed the outstanding work on ours which took about six weeks, marketed it, had an asking price offer within five weeks so went back and re-offered - slightly less - on the new-to-us house. All ok and we completed on sale and purchase two months later. In neither area was the market particularly busy though......plus the house we bought was a quirky project in an area where these are less than desirable, lol!

Both times these were very much one-off properties that we'd have struggled to find anything we loved as much had we lost out.

To reiterate what Hazyjo said.....don't do it if you're likely to fall in love!

MissCellaneous

Thanks all, really beginning to see the folly of our ways (as I say, first time in a chain here, think I was a little ignorant of the point at which offers can be made), but we stupidly thought 'we'll look at houses now, after all we need somewhere to live once ours has sold!' - and then we go and find this lovely house

We're just going full steam ahead to try and sell this place now, re-taking a few pictures, trying to be more available for viewings etc. Don't want to alter price yet as some have said, financially we don't want to shoot ourselves in the foot, and the EA's don't recommend we alter the price, either. We don't want to mess up getting the finances straight, it's so important, so I agree it's important we don't compromise.

Having said that, trying to make sure we're prioritising the right things, and with the best efforts in the world, we have to accept that by the time we sell, the house could be gone and we'll hope that another comes along.

The_Logans

Mickygg wrote: »

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.

I'm afraid that's unrealistic. If we had said no to someone who wasn't proceedable we wouldn't have sold our house! He came to view, loved it, went home and put his on the market. In the intervening time we had an offer that fell through, then the 'not-proceedable' buyer sold his house and offered on ours. If we hadn't let him in to view, he wouldn't have put his on the market. I think you need to accept that people will shop around while their house is for sale. Why shouldn't they? It makes sense to know what properties you are aiming at.


Making an offer when you are not proceedable is a different matter though, it's not worth doing as it's meaningless.

The_Logans

MissCellaneous wrote: »

Thanks all, really beginning to see the folly of our ways (as I say, first time in a chain here, think I was a little ignorant of the point at which offers can be made), but we stupidly thought 'we'll look at houses now, after all we need somewhere to live once ours has sold!' - and then we go and find this lovely house

We're just going full steam ahead to try and sell this place now, re-taking a few pictures, trying to be more available for viewings etc. Don't want to alter price yet as some have said, financially we don't want to shoot ourselves in the foot, and the EA's don't recommend we alter the price, either. We don't want to mess up getting the finances straight, it's so important, so I agree it's important we don't compromise.

Having said that, trying to make sure we're prioritising the right things, and with the best efforts in the world, we have to accept that by the time we sell, the house could be gone and we'll hope that another comes along.

Good luck. If it helps, we missed out on our 'dream house' as ours didn't sell quickly enough. We're now in a much bigger house that is more of a 'dream house' than the first one was so it actually worked out for the best

toc25

Best thing to do is make sure the price of your property is really attractive so you will generate a lot of interest and get it sold quickly. It's never a good idea to view properties until you are proceedable. Fingers crossed you will sell quickly.

MissCellaneous

Believe it or not, we got great viewing and an offer (asking) within days of this, and a few days after that, got our offer accepted on the place we wanted overjoyed! Fingers crossed it all goes through!

glasgowdan

HPC crazies won't be happy! But excellent news and hopefully it all goes through for you.

hazyjo

MissCellaneous wrote: »

Believe it or not, we got great viewing and an offer (asking) within days of this, and a few days after that, got our offer accepted on the place we wanted overjoyed! Fingers crossed it all goes through!

It was fate then


Good luck - hope the chain's not too long

Grampus8

The_Logans wrote: »

I'm afraid that's unrealistic. If we had said no to someone who wasn't proceedable we wouldn't have sold our house! He came to view, loved it, went home and put his on the market. In the intervening time we had an offer that fell through, then the 'not-proceedable' buyer sold his house and offered on ours. If we hadn't let him in to view, he wouldn't have put his on the market. I think you need to accept that people will shop around while their house is for sale. Why shouldn't they? It makes sense to know what properties you are aiming at.


Making an offer when you are not proceedable is a different matter though, it's not worth doing as it's meaningless.

Well it depends I guess, we put a cheeky offer in and explicitly told them ours wasn't on the market. They accepted and gave us two weeks to sell or it was going back on.


All worked out fine. As long as everyone is honest I don't see the problem.