When to Put House On The Market

Danger_Mouse

Hi,

Just looking for advice on when I should put my house up for sale, before or after I find another property I want to buy?

Houses im my area get sold very quickly and im confident we won't have any problem selling ours, which makes me think I should hold out until I find a property I really want, instead of feeling rushed into buying something.

Assuming the negative of this approach is that the owners of whatever property I want to buy could favour people who have already sold their own (thats obviously not including first-time buyers and cash buyers)

need_an_answer

I'd put yours on if you are actively looking at others to purchase.

Vendors and EA's like proceedable people and until you accept an offer on yours you cant complete the chain upwards.

hazyjo

Get a buyer first, but view in the meantime to make sure you can afford what you want (PLEASE don't 'fall in love with' any property though!).

EVERYONE's confident their house will sell quickly - me included. I was wrong (as are most people).

The vast majority of sellers will not take you seriously as a buyer without a complete chain beneath you.

By offering, you are pretty much restricting yourself to only accepting FTBs or cash buyers unless you find someone with a complete chain.

Many other reasons why it's not a good idea.

Copying my post from another thread:

"Offering when not proceedable just results in several things:

- The vendors will now be deluded that people will be queuing round the block to buy their house.
- They are less likely to reduce the price if little interest as you are hanging on offering full asking price or more.
- The house is now MUCH more appealing to others. It forces their hand. They will be told there's an offer on the table which hasn't been accepted yet (they prob won't even bother saying you're not proceedable, they just play one off against the other). Plus it makes it look like a good deal and they'll prob say there's been lots of interest. Human nature to want something that someone else does.
- Doesn't give you any wriggle room on your asking price.
- They're less likely to agree a reduction.

chris_wa

It can very much depend on your local market - where I live the market (North Shields/Tynemouth in the North East) is moving so quickly that sellers wont let you view unless you have your house on the market yet over the water in South Shields you can view without being on the market.

Speak to local agents - see what what they say

Rule of thumb though is most EA and sellers will see you as more serious if you are on the market and more likely to ring you or email you about new listings etc

cattie

I wouldn't consider an offer from anybody who wasn't proceedable, even if they offered over the asking price. I think you'll find a lot of vendors take the same view, so get your house on the market & once you have an offer then start viewing properties.

If you view before you sell you risk falling in love with a property that you can't actually secure & it can end up negatively distorting your view of any other property that you look at.

getmore4less

Danger_Mouse wrote: »

Hi,

Just looking for advice on when I should put my house up for sale, before or after I find another property I want to buy?

Houses im my area get sold very quickly and im confident we won't have any problem selling ours, which makes me think I should hold out until I find a property I really want, instead of feeling rushed into buying something.

Assuming the negative of this approach is that the owners of whatever property I want to buy could favour people who have already sold their own (thats obviously not including first-time buyers and cash buyers)

If everyone took the view find somewhere then market the chains would get longer as everything would run serially backwards

Much more optimum for people to try to work in parallel.

Research is the key, know both markets the one you are selling into and the one you are buying from.

If you have exhausted the current stock so playing the waiting game for new properties to come on then you have some control over the pace of your sale through asking price.
You need to be seen to be serious not marketing is not going to help.

If you find somewhere you can make your place more competitive if needed.

if you get a bite at a higher level it may open up options on a new place if you have a bit more in the pot.

welwynrose

We looked whilst prepping ours to go on the market - narrowed it down to 4 that we really liked then put ours on the market

We did second viewings after ours had been on the market for two weeks and we were lucky to get an offer after 18 days on the market so we could then make an offer on the property we liked

Slithery

It would be very unusual for any offer that you make to be accepted if you don't already have a buyer arranged for your current property.

Alter_ego

need_an_answer wrote: »

until you accept an offer on yours you cant complete the chain upwards.

Most people can't, I agree. However on our latest move, we bought before selling without problems.

OldMusicGuy

IMO you should out it on the market when you know:

a) Where you want to move to
b) That there are houses on the market in your price range in that area

Once you have an offer accepted on yours, start making offers on houses in your chosen area. As someone who has just sold, we would not accept offers from people that did not already have an offer on their property.

Conversely you don't want to risk losing a buyer for your property because you have no idea what property you want to buy. The longer you faff around trying to find somewhere, the more likely you are to lose your buyer.

Danger_Mouse wrote: »

Hi,
Houses in my area get sold very quickly and im confident we won't have any problem selling ours, which makes me think I should hold out until I find a property I really want, instead of feeling rushed into buying something.

Funny you should say that. We felt the same way, as did the agent we went with. They sold another property in our small close in two weeks of it coming on the market. Ours took five months to sell and we had to drop the price. I'm afraid you won't know until you put it on the market.

But you shouldn't be selling unless you have a clear idea of what you want to buy IMO. Unless of course you are prepared to go into rented and take your time.

lookstraightahead

Sell then rent them buy. The fact that you are happy enough to move out promptly rather than faffing around looking for somewhere to buy will be a selling point and you will make the money up with a higher offer.

If you're not happy to put yourself out and rent, five somewhere to buy but prepare to be disappointed if your house does stay on the market. Proceedable is key in this buyers market. I'm looking to buy and if I had to wait for someone to find a house, or they weren't happy to rent, I would walk away and label them timewasters.