Putting houses up for sale before you've found a house yourself

veryintrigued

Bad_Accountant said:

If getting the right house is overwhelmingly important, would you consider selling first, and moving into rented while you look?

Thank you.

This is something we've chatted about.
We've also had an offer from a relative to put us up should that need arise.

Not ideal but it's solutions like this which we may have missed are ones we were hoping to get out this thread.

Splatfoot

I'm pretty sure, even before 2020, it was always the norm to at least have an offer on yours before you offered elsewhere. In 2006 we bought ours and offered on another property first. They wouldn't accept because we'd not had an offer on ours even though it was on the market.its probably more so in a hot market like now, and pre 2008. 

amandacat

I had an asking price offer from someone who loved my house and had their heart set on it but they hadn’t sold theirs yet and it was still on the market. I agreed to their offer if they sold theirs before mine sold but I got another asking price offer from someone not in a chain a day later. I felt for them but I had no idea when they’d manage to sell theirs or if they’d change their mind so I had to be selfish. This is the problem in the current market with some houses selling so quickly in a lot of cases. 
I’m selling and moving into rented because I couldn’t find a house that I truly wanted to buy and anything I did like sold too quickly as there was competition and the seller opted for someone not in a chain.
Moving twice will be a hassle for me, I don’t like the idea of renting and I’ll have a £1500 early repayment charge on my mortgage doing it this way but for me, I’m willing to do this because I’ll be a more attractive buyer not being in a chain and  a few months in rented and a bit of money lost is worth the trade off of finding my perfect house that I hope to live in for the rest of my working life. 

Suseka97

We've sold and are close to exchange, but our onward purchase won't be for at least another 2 - 3 months - so we've accepted the fact that we'll need to rent.  The only downside to that is finding short term lets and AirBnBs in the area we are relocating to are few and far between at the moment.  If we had a family member who could help, that would be the best of all worlds and I'd have jumped at the chance.

So if you are going to want to hold out for that perfect property - then I think your best bet is to get sold and either rent or stay with the relative who's offered you a place to stay.  That opens all sorts of options for you and takes the pressure of tying the buying and selling in together.

I've found the whole process quite stressful myself.

avawat20

You may need to be prepared to go into rental if you only want the right house then. At least you are fully proceedable. I understand your thinking behind it but like a lot of people have said, you are very unlikely to have an offer accepted and are not going to be seen as serious until your house is at least on the market. Probably best to sell your house now while prices are good and then go into rental if you don't get a house you want know and wait for it to come up!

tacticalbanjo

The thing is letting people down goes both ways. If you list yours and don't sell straight away or don't get the price you expect and can't afford the new place then the upward chain are going to be let down when the chain collapses. A buyer without an offer on their existing property is an unknown quantity and it spooks people. You have no control over how long it will take your house to sell.

The accepted way of forming a chain is from the bottom up not the top down, so if you are forming a chain you will have to fit in with everyone else. Your choices are searching for a vendor who would rather take an offer from someone unproceedable over someone who is ready to go, breaking the chain by selling up and moving into rented or sucking it up and listing your house.

caprikid1

Feels like you are an unmotivated property browser/dreamer, not willing to demonstrate true desire to move.
Can you describe your current house and what your future house would be ? Important aspects , location.
Are you willing to go into rented ?  You don't appear will need to be making sacrifices to get to the next step but you expect everyone else to make them, IE work within your timescales. As a seller I have no idea if your current property is marketable or priced realistic when you eventually decide to put it on the market.

veryintrigued

caprikid1 said:

Feels like you are an unmotivated property browser/dreamer, not willing to demonstrate true desire to move.

You seem to have already made your mind up what we're about so I'll keep my reply to you short but it may help others who can be less damning.

I wouldn't say someone who had signed contracts with both EA and solicitor is unmotivated.

We'd be marketing our house circa £15k less than our next door neighbour who has an extension slightly larger than ours and 'sold' so quickly.


And yes we have a very clear idea of what we want.

Thanks for replying anyway.

NinjaTune

veryintrigued said:

This is the thing.

It seems acceptable to allow 'a sale to fall through' if we don't find a house.

Guess letting people down is just more and more acceptable today and why so many are falling through.

Sign of the times probably.

I said "what's the worse that can happen" and that is indeed the worse that can happen, I didn't suggest that it's acceptable  

Moving into rented accomodation or with family is the obvious way to avoid that and clearly it's something you've already discussed with your relative so you didn't need this thread to suggest it to you.  Whilst undoubtedly inconvenient it puts you in a strong position for an onward purchase - a genuine cash buyer with no property to add to the chain.

Moving in with family is what we are doing.  We're doing it to shorten the chain and ensure it doesn't collapse due to delays waiting for my purchase to be ready.  Personally I don't like letting people down, or wasting their time.  Unlike yourself, I made sure I was in a proceedable position (my house under offer) before making an offer on a property.

Like I and others have said, without you property even on the market you are highly unlikely to get an offer accepted.  Even then you may find that vendors won't accept unless you too are under offer.  There really isn't any other way around it, you need to have yours on the market.

caprikid1

veryintrigued said:

caprikid1 said:

Feels like you are an unmotivated property browser/dreamer, not willing to demonstrate true desire to move.

You seem to have already made your mind up what we're about so I'll keep my reply to you short but it may help others who can be less damning.

I wouldn't say someone who had signed contracts with both EA and solicitor is unmotivated.

We'd be marketing our house circa £15k less than our next door neighbour who

And yes we have a very clear idea of what we want.

Thanks for replying anyway.

For every single purchase I have made (4 in total) I have broke the chain, I have either held onto the existing property or gone into rented. I have never had a sale fall through.