Should I put an offer on a house halfway through my supposedly chain-free sale?

louisera

Hi all,


Currently selling my flat to move to a new city, and have a buyer in place - am about 2 months into the process. Original plan was to rent in my new city for a year or so to ease the process. Buyer is a first-time buyer so all chain-free at the moment.

However, I've just seen a house in my new city that looks perfect for what I want - location, size, etc. - and at a really fair price. I'm going to view it next week.


I wondered if anybody would be able to point out any potential complications / stumbling blocks to making an offer on this house? I've already instructed solicitors for my sale and they are a fair way into the process, I've never bought and sold at the same time before so don't know what it would entail. I'm happy to complete on the sale before the purchase goes through and find somewhere to stay in the interim if that would make things easier / is possible.


Any help appreciated as I'm very inexperienced in all this and don't want to screw myself over!

Kat88

Massively depends on your buyer and whether they would be willing to wait to join the purchase and sale...

Slinky

Your proposal sounds fine, it's when you try and tie your new purchase in with the sale of your old flat that could pi$$ off your purchasers.

AdrianC

If you're happy to complete the sale before the purchase, then you're still chain-free.

AnotherJoe

Will you be getting a mortgage on the new property and do you have one on your current one ?

louisera

AnotherJoe wrote: »

Will you be getting a mortgage on the new property and do you have one on your current one ?

Yes, I'm fairly sure there's a clause in my mortgage that says I can port it to a new property up to six months after selling my current property which is obviously a big plus here.

AnotherJoe

I was thinking more there might be issues if you did it the other way round, because as long as you arent proposing to buy before your sale completes there should be no problem.
However ........ Nothing is certain regards the length of time these things take. Suppose your buyer takes their time, or even drops out, so the whole process is delayed,whilst your purchase speeds ahead ?

You might then be looking to delay your purchase or otherwise juggle two mortgages having told your vendor what an easy buyer you will be as you arent in a chain.

louisera

AnotherJoe wrote: »

I was thinking more there might be issues if you did it the other way round, because as long as you arent proposing to buy before your sale completes there should be no problem.
However ........ Nothing is certain regards the length of time these things take. Suppose your buyer takes their time, or even drops out, so the whole process is delayed,whilst your purchase speeds ahead ?

You might then be looking to delay your purchase or otherwise juggle two mortgages having told your vendor what an easy buyer you will be as you arent in a chain.

Thanks, this is actually a potentially likely scenario as I'm in a fairly complex leasehold position at the moment. Very unlikely to be approved a second mortgage so I suppose it would need to be a case of being open with the vendor from the start that I'm relying on a sale going through.

AnotherJoe

Good luck Louisa !