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

coachman12

Davesnave said:

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.

I wouldn't call you a time waster either, NittyGritty. You are really up against it but as Del said "he who dares". For example Davesnave's first scenario worked----there is always a chance even though you are reaching for a high star.
I think all the posts which tell you that you are a time-wasting dreamer are not allowing a bit of "soul" into the equation. It is quite obvious you have strong feelings about the way you wish to go and the outcome you desire. If you feel so strongly, why not give it a go, be completely open and honest from the start with the owner of any property you set your mind on, and keep that owner up to date every day as you put your flat on the market and as you receive viewings, make the price of your flat very attractive. You never know. Sometimes I see these Forums as too clinical. If you want to go with your heart and you find an understanding seller who may only have to face a slight delay if you put your flat on the market on the same day as you get an aforementioned understanding seller, then have a "punt" to quote the "in" word on the Investments Forum at present.
But I have to ask one question which occurs to me as I read your mails------are you 100% sure you want to sell your present flat. And if you are only 80% sure, why not wait until you reach 100% at which you will be ready to sell and buy in the "conventional" way.  Whatever you do, I wish you the very best of luck-----I think you're going to need it if you follow your ideal scenario 

moneysavinghero

As a proceedable buyer, that is exactly what i want to do. PROCEED. Not have an offer accepted and then wait months for you to find the house you want, then wait a few months for the paperwork to go through. So personally i think you should find your next house first. Or even better, make the decision to move into a rental as an interim in between selling and buying.

Drawingaline

We are currently attempting to do it the wrong way round. We 100% want to move so got three EA round last week. Chatting to one about what they might have available for us to buy he mentioned one that had just had marketing done and was launching that eve. He sent the details through, it ticks our three musts, and a lot of our wants so we viewed it that eve. Next day I said I would happily offer full asking, but obviously we weren't ready, but we would get our house on the market with them asap. The vendors came back with an incredible offer to hold it for two weeks to give us time. They are moving abroad so it is end of chain and our house is normally a FTB house. Ours hit the market yesterday (I spent four days cleaning and doing DIY!) We priced 10k under valuation (what we are saving in stamp duty) to try and get a quick sale and have six viewings lined up for sat.

If it doesn't happen there are a list of people wanting to view the other house, and I have at least 8 in my RM list all of which would be fine (and cheaper) but would all need quite a bit of work (think garage conversion type work) to actually fulfill our three needs. 

EA is keen, obviously because they get two sales, so hopeful they will be decent (they wouldn't have been my first choice, but have good reviews and figures, I was originally going to use one that had been personally recommended) it is being marketed as a complete onward chain in place, so people know they won't have to wait for us to then find a property.

I have everything crossed, but am feeling incredibly stressed, which won't ease until we have an offer, or the deadline passes so we know either way. 

jenni_fer

We're in the same position. I don't think it's unreasonable to not want to string a buyer along or to not want to rent in the interim.

Our pre-COVID plan was as follows: We had our property valued by 3 agents, and were clear we would be wanting to price to sell quickly at the point we market it. The agreement we had with the agent we expected to use was that they were going to come and take all the photos and get the listing ready to go live and then sit on it until we told them to launch it (i.e. the point we found something worth viewing/we thought we might offer on).

In this new COVID world we're in a slightly messier position because we are even more certain that we don't want to move for the sake of it and should probably stay put for a bit. BUT if the dream house comes up, we'll be doing everything we can to get ours on the marketing and sold ASAP to secure it.

nittygritty20

Thanks, everyone, for your useful thoughts. Plenty to think about now.

Zoology_Dragon

We did it the wrong way round. Much the same as you, we only wanted to move for the perfect house, otherwise we'd have stayed put. We started looking online then saw the perfect house in early December and went to view (we were honest that we weren't yet on the market but we knew our house would sell quickly). Had our house valued by the same agent (fortunately was the one we were planning on using anyway) and agreed to go with them. First week of January our house went on the market, had a full asking price offer on the first day of viewings. Two days we'd accepted and had an offer accepted on the house we wanted. Ready to exchange just as lockdown happened, finally got moved mid May.

Drawingaline

Well, we have had two offers on our house so have secured our inward purchase! Both are BTL, which I know may be an issue, but the FTB who viewed seemed to think they could get more for their money, (think they will be in for a shock!) We are deciding tomorrow once the EA have fully checked finances, but it has been an incredibly stressful two weeks. 

Now for the incredibly stressful few months getting to exchange.