I have two properties to sell before I buy, but no mortgage, will my offer be taken seriously?

Matt5_2

Hi guys, as per the title, I currently have two properties to sell, neither are currently on the market. Me and my partner have just decided we'd like to upsize to a larger house in our area. Our situation is we have a mortgage on our current house with about £45k equity to release on sale, and another property that was inherited some time ago which we own outright, worth around about £200k on sale. We also have around £90k in savings. The particular property we are interested in is up for sale at £325k.

Our  ideal scenario is to sell both our properties, and use our savings to make the move and hopefully be mortgage free, but obviously as per the figures this would be tight. A small mortgage otherwise would be fine. Assuming we view this property, and like it, and wish to make an offer, where do I stand with having two properties to sell? will my offer be looked upon favourably because there's (potentially) no mortgage involved, or unfavourably because we have two properties to form the chain, rather than just one?  I've never been in this situation before, having only recently been a first time buyer. I am aware of SDLT liabilities, and conveyancing, and EA costs, and appreciate financially it rests on alot of unknowns including actual sale prices on our end etc.

When we last moved, me and my partner had full time jobs and incomes, now due to family reasons my partner works part time, and myself full time. We have a modest joint take home income of around  27k, which is substantially less than when we had our mortgage, but we get by just fine, as we don't really have any other outgoings aside usual household bills (nothing on finance, no cards etc). My concern is that if we DO need a small mortgage to bridge the gap between our combined assets and cash, and the purchase price and other liabilities associated with the sales and the purchase, we would struggle to get one due to our relatively low income, or would this be less of a concern to lenders given the really low loan-to-value required?

So I guess those are my two questions really...

1. With neither properties currently on the market, would a buyer's offer with two to sell (but potentially no mortgage) be considered a 'good' offer from an EA/Vendor point of view.

2. If a small mortgage with a very low LTV should be required, would a low joint income (but otherwise great credit score) put a lender off?

Many thanks,

Matt.

Flugelhorn

EA/ vendors tend not to be impressed if you haven't got an offer on a property you are selling and prefer the sale to be progressing. Having 2 properties to sell with neither on the market would be an off-put.
Can you at least sell one and move into the other to put yourself in a slightly better position?

Matt5_2

Flugelhorn said:

EA/ vendors tend not to be impressed if you haven't got an offer on a property you are selling and prefer the sale to be progressing. Having 2 properties to sell with neither on the market would be an off-put.
Can you at least sell one and move into the other to put yourself in a slightly better position?

I thought that might be the case.

Yes, absolutely I could do that. I suspect that the property I own outright (the one I inherited, currently vacant) is the easier to sell, partly due to it's location and land associated with it, and partly because neighbours either side have both expressed interest in purchasing for some time (originally we were going to extend it and move there, but for reasons I won't bog down on, plans have changed).

Our property may be a little harder, it's in fine condition but is overlooked by flats which I think the previous vendor found a sticking point prior to our offer being accepted.

Our position re-finances does give us some flexibility to be able to price to sell I suppose.

Slithery

Even someone with only one property to sell is unlikely to be taken seriously by vendors until they have an offer accepted on their own property.

I agree with Flugelhorn - getting one of them sold first will put you in a much better position.

Matt5_2

Slithery said:

Even someone with only one property to sell is unlikely to be taken seriously by vendors until they have an offer accepted on their own property.

I agree with Flugelhorn - getting one of them sold first will put you in a much better position.

Thankyou.

This makes it clearer in my head now.

I think rather than going to view, and potentially making a fool of myself with an offer looked on unfavourably, I'll shelve plans and push on with getting both properties on the market, and one sold first.

Ultimately, even if the property that has sparked our interest now has sold, I'm sure others will appear in time, and our desire to move is not based on one particular example alone.

eddddy

At the very least, to be taken seriously, both your properties need to be under offer when you make an offer.

Even better, if you wait until one of your properties has completed, and the other is under offer before you make an offer - that will put you in the same position as most other buyers. (i.e. Most other buyers will have one property to sell which is under offer.)

Moneyminded

As the replies above have answered your first question I will focus on the second one. Should you require a small mortgage to purchase your next home a low income wouldn't necessarily put a lender off. Have a play around with a mortgage calculator to see what you could potentially borrow, I would imagine 4x your salary would be possible depending on outgoings. 

AnotherJoe

1. With neither properties currently on the market, would a buyer's offer with two to sell (but potentially no mortgage) be considered a 'good' offer from an EA/Vendor point of view.

If I was the buyer I'd say "thanks please let me know when you have offers on your properties" and I'd mark you down as a poor prospect because chains are uncertain enough and you've doubled the risk with Two to sell, plus you don't seem to be serious anyway since you haven't even put your properties up for sale yet let alone have offers. 

Get the one you aren't living in up for sale And then sold ASAP.