I feel stuck!

missile

Paton147 wrote: »

My wife and I live just outside Edinburgh in a nice part of our town.

and

We live close to Dunfermline.

Dunfermline is a long way from Edinburgh where properties are much more expensive :rotfl:

quantumlobster

Paton147 wrote: »

we do fundamentally love the house we are in

Paton147 wrote: »

I'm desperate to move but my wife isn't so sure

Resolve the basic contradiction illustrated by these two statements and things will become much clearer.

trailingspouse

I suspect that the OP feels he 'ought' to move to a bigger house. Whereas his wife is more of a 'if it ain't broke, don't fix it' mindset - they have a nice house, in a nice part of town, close to a park etc etc, so why move to something that might be bigger but might not have all of the other advantages of their current house.


OP - have you considered extending your current house?

AdrianC

Paton147 wrote: »

I'm desperate to move but my wife isn't so sure.

Before you go ANY further, come to an agreement between yourselves whether or not you want to move.

My wife wont agree to selling the house until we find something, though no seller would take theirs off the market as ours wouldn't have even been listed.

Indeed they won't - "selling" doesn't mean going as far as exchanging missives and being tied to a sale, just accepting an offer. This is how hundreds of thousands of chains work all over the country ever year...

We have a young family so being homeless even for a few months would be a nightmare.

Being in a chain is not "being homeless".
Breaking that chain by moving to a rental is not "being homeless".

Presumably few sellers would accept an offer from someone who is just proposed to list their home the following day, even if it is a saleable property in move in condition?

They might - but unless they have no other, more procedable options, why would they? If your place will sell quickly, why won't theirs...? If theirs is sticking on the market, why won't yours?

Pixie5740

Paton147 wrote: »

My wife and I live just outside Edinburgh in a nice part of our town. We have a 3 bed Victorian semi that's full of character with big rooms, though as we are in Scotland, the house could be yours for a mere 200K! Estate agents have suggested 225K which I could see happening, but my 'not being greedy' figure would be 205K-210K.


I'm desperate to move but my wife isn't so sure. The houses we like seldom come up, as we want a 4 bed/3 reception room Victorian house in admittedly just one of a dozen or so streets. Over the last couple of years I've seen just 5 or 6 houses that fit the bill.


My wife wont agree to selling the house until we find something, though no seller would take theirs off the market as ours wouldn't have even been listed. We have a young family so being homeless even for a few months would be a nightmare.


Are there any other options? Has anyone used a part exchange service in Scotland? Presumably they offer significantly less than what your property is worth? Has anyone had any success letter dropping potential homes that then turned into a sale? What about bridging loans?


I wouldn't be greedy with the sale of our home, we have enough equity in it to sell it below its value to make a deal stick.


Presumably few sellers would accept an offer from someone who is just proposed to list their home the following day, even if it is a saleable property in move in condition?

You're house is not £200k because it's in Scotland it has that kind of value because it's in Dunfermline and not "just outside Edinburgh.". You've bought at least one house in Scotland before so surely you realise the house buying process is different from England so I'm not sure where this, "Presumably few sellers would accept an offer from someone who is just proposed to list their home the following day, even if it is a saleable property in move in condition," is coming from. Sellers in Scotland won't stop marketing a property until they accept a formal offer from you via solicitors and you shouldn't be making a formal offer when you're in no position to make one.

I know lots of people who have part exchanged properties in Scotland but as the market isn't the same across the whole of Scotland their experiences probably aren't relevant to you. For example, there is a builder near Forveran offering 105% part exchange but the new build market in deepest darkest Aberdeenshire is not the same as the new build market in Dunfermline. I know people who bought a new build in Dulloch a few years ago but they didn't part exchange. They have a nice house but I wouldn't swap a Victorian property for it and not just because I prefer the Victorian architecture but also because of the location. You also say that you enjoyed doing up your house and would like to do it on a larger scale so I'm not sure why you would even consider buying a new build in the first place.

Not that any of this really matters because your wife doesn't want to move and you only want to move because you feel that you ought to have a larger home. There's nothing wrong with wanting to move for that reason but don't trade in a house you love for something else just because it's slightly larger but that you'll never love i.e. a new build.

Crashy_Time

"Hard" or " No Deal" Brexit (silly names because there isn`t such a thing as "No Deal" in this scenario) will have a potentially negative effect on jobs/ general economy in Edinburgh, and this will also have a knock on effect on Dunfermline. Hold fire until you see what the market does, bigger houses will probably be cheaper in future.