Am I being unreasonable to want to line up next home before marketing current one?

nittygritty20

I'd like to move home locally, but it has to be the right next home because I'm fortunate enough to be happy in my current flat. The estate agents are all encouraging me to list the current flat and secure an offer on it before I try to make any offers on potential next homes. While this would put me in a stronger buying position, I'm worried about messing around my own flat buyer: who knows how long it would then take for me to find the right next home?

What would you do? List the flat and get an offer on it before trying to make any offers of my own, or try making offers and then put the flat on the market? I can see so many pros and cons to both approaches.

RelievedSheff

I would put the flat on the market and actively look for the next property at the same time.

Your flat may not sell as quickly as you expect given recent events and you wouldn't want to be in a position where you have an offer accepted on your next home and no sale on your current flat.

p00hsticks

Personally if I was selling I wouldn't accept an offer from you unless you either had the resources to buy without selling or you had had an offer on your existing property. I certainly would consider you a time-waster if you didn't even have your current property on the market.

princeofpounds

It's not practical at all to line up your next home, because your offer won't be regarded as proceedable without having an agreement to sell your current home. You could have the discussion, but then they will say 'ok thanks for the offer, we'll stop marketing when you've got an agreement to sell your place'. That's why it's traditionally done the other way around. 

However, I appreciate your concern. If you mess around a buyer for too long, you can also lose them. So you have to look into alternatives, such as moving into rented for a period, or raising money on your current place with a BTL mortgage and buying the new place outright (if possible). Bridging loans would also be another method if you can raise one, but a risky and expensive approach, so I wouldn't recommend it.

saajan_12

Theoretically it could be either way..
A. accept an offer on your sale then you're a proceedable buyer OR
B. place an offer which is accepted on your purchase then you're a proceedable seller
One has to come first, and if finding the other party for the second step takes longer, the first transaction has to wait. The thing is, in this country the convention is A. ie accept an offer on your sale then look to buy. Sellers and their agents simply wont (usually) entertain you seriously until your flat is under offer. You can argue the logic, but that's the way it is. 

If you're worried about finding a house to buy before your flat seller disappears, your other options are either
1) complete on your sale and move into rented, so you're ready to buy whenever you find a house you like --> will mean an extra move and you're exposed to house prices rising
2) purchase the new house, then sell the flat later --> only if your finances allow affordability for both houses temporarily plus some extra stamp duty which you'll eventually get refunded and you're exposed to house prices falling. 

GixerKate

Have a look around online and have some properties that you want to view.  Get your place up for sale and view the properties that you like.  Once you have a proceed-able offer on your place you can then put an offer on the place you want.

As a seller I wouldn't even let you view my place until yours is on the market as right now, you can't proceed.

nittygritty20

saajan_12 said:

If you're worried about finding a house to buy before your flat seller disappears, your other options are either
1) complete on your sale and move into rented, so you're ready to buy whenever you find a house you like --> will mean an extra move and you're exposed to house prices rising
2) purchase the new house, then sell the flat later --> only if your finances allow affordability for both houses temporarily plus some extra stamp duty which you'll eventually get refunded and you're exposed to house prices falling. 

Could option 3) be buy a new build and thereby avoid the need to balance a chain?

pinkteapot

Just be honest with your buyer. We made a buyer wait once - we wanted a house in a very specific area where few came to the market. We told the buyer this when they viewed and kept them informed through our search. We did tell them not to spend money on a solicitor or mortgage application until we'd found a house but they did anyway. They waited a few months before we found something, then the chain above us took another few weeks to form. 

So long as you don't tell your buyer you're ready to go when you're not, you're not messing them around. 

Agree with the others that no-one will accept an offer from someone who isn't on the market. And if they do they'll keep their house on the market and someone else might swoop in and take it. 

elsien

In practice I found that I wasn't being accepted for viewings until I was proceedable, let alone offers.
Which was a bit of a dilemma because I would only move for the right house otherwise I would stay put. And I didn't want to mess any potential buyers around. But there wasn't really much option. 

seradane

I've got a couple friends who did it the way around you're suggesting. They started looking first, because they weren't entirely sure what they wanted and are quite picky. After about 18 months of looking, they finally found a property they were both happy with, so they offered and it got accepted. The seller was aware of their situation, they promptly put their house on the market, got a couple viewings... and coronavirus hit. Everyone seemed content to wait around until last month, when their seller suddenly said 'You've got two weeks to complete or we pull out'.  Well, obviously that wasn't happening so they started their search again, and have now seemingly got a buyer and have found a new property in the space of a few weeks. So it sounds like it's worked out so far.

So - on the one hand, it's fortunate they looked first, as it would have been cruel and unreasonable to keep a buyer waiting around for 18 months!! But then on the other hand it did cost them the property they had initially wanted.

Davesnave

p00hsticks said:

Personally I certainly would consider you a time-waster if you didn't even have your current property on the market.

I wouldn't call you a time waster, because we sold our last house to a couple 'just looking' and they certainly didn't waste anyone's time. They came back when they had an offer on theirs.

OTOH you wouldn't have been able to buy the house we bought next, because the vendor specified cash and being unencumbered as essentials for a fast sale at an attractive price.