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

veryintrigued

tacticalbanjo said:

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.

The accepted way? I'm not sure what that means.

Our experience in EA so far is that it's a tough decision which one to choose less least and understandably only have an interest in marketing as many properties as possible and turn them around as quickly as possible.

It's sad that trust in EA and all the way along the chain seems to lacking.

But once again a sign of the times.

Maybe a growing phenomenon generation on generation.

Thrugelmir

veryintrigued said:

tacticalbanjo said:

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.

It's sad that trust in EA and all the way along the chain seems to lacking.

Committment is shown by actually doing something. Time wasters abound unfortunately when it comes to selling property. Never been any different nor likely to change. Unless the entire system does. 

veryintrigued

NinjaTune said:

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.

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.  

This does seem the least worst option at the moment.

I was hoping that people would come back with further options we hadn't considered (hence the thread - sorry if it's creation has clearly offended you).

Genuinely hope your purchase goes smoothly.

 

veryintrigued

caprikid1 said:

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.

This is reassuring - but not what we're seeing or reading on here.

But well done to you!!

veryintrigued

Thrugelmir said:

veryintrigued said:

tacticalbanjo said:

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.

It's sad that trust in EA and all the way along the chain seems to lacking.

Committment is shown by actually doing something. Time wasters abound unfortunately when it comes to selling property. Never been any different nor likely to change. Unless the entire system does. 

From the amount of houses we're seeing 'sold' and then back on the market you're absolutely right about time wasters.

Presumably all of these are people who have sold their houses already from this being the 'accepted way'.
 
Personally having already agreed fees (and paid some out) with solicitor and EA (once house sells) letting people down and being time wasters wouldn't be on our agenda.

People eh?

NinjaTune

veryintrigued said:

NinjaTune said:

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.

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.  

This does seem the least worst option at the moment.

I was hoping that people would come back with further options we hadn't considered (hence the thread - sorry if it's creation has clearly offended you).

Genuinely hope your purchase goes smoothly.

 

Your thread hasn't offended me, your attitude has a bit though hence me replying in kind.

I too hope my purchase goes smoothly but if it doesn't at least I'll be in a strong position to move forward with another property.  Nothing is certain in this game, all we can do is try and make things easier all round.

I still think you need to put your property on the market.  Our EA wouldn't have even allowed you a viewing without your house being up for sale which is another sign of the times, at least in our area.  Our property went on the market a 4pm and we had 11 viewings booked by 5pm.  Out of 6 viewings on the first day we had 3 offers - 1 at full asking and 2 just below - all were from people with offers on their own property. 

Things can move very fast so you need to be in a position to be seen as a serious buyer.

I hope your house search is fruitful and you find somewhere you are happy with. Wishing you all the best with your move.

elsien

I'm in a similar situation to the OP. I would be ok to stay where I am. There are things I would be looking for in another house and would be keen to move for, but  I would stay put if I needed to. So selling up and renting isn't an option.
 I would be reluctant to put my house on sale, accept a buyer, then mess them around by cancelling the sale if I couldn't find what I was looking for but that would seem to be the only option to move things forwards as I've previously been refused viewings without my  house being on the market. And without viewings I have no idea if I'm moving or not because you can look online but it's not the same.
It is all a bit catch-22. I supposed honesty with any potential buyers is the only option and then it's up to them if they want to wait or not. 

veryintrigued

As aside, when we put the offer in for the house we liked and it was 'verbally accepted' by the seller, the EA dealing with it had previously said that the seller wouldn't take offers and certainly wouldn't take offers from buyers without their house closer to being sold.

Hence we were over the moon.

When we found out the EA had subsequently called a previous interested party to let them know the seller was taking offers (presumably our offer too) and of course we then got dumped as they were further down the selling process.

Brutal really.

Some grubby people out there.

veryintrigued

elsien said:

I'm in a similar situation to the OP. I would be ok to stay where I am. There are things I would be looking for in another house and would be keen to move for, but  I would stay put if I needed to. So selling up and renting isn't an option.
 I would be reluctant to put my house on sale, accept a buyer, then mess them around by cancelling the sale if I couldn't find what I was looking for but that would seem to be the only option to move things forwards as I've previously been refused viewings without my  house being on the market. And without viewings I have no idea if I'm moving or not because you can look online but it's not the same.
It is all a bit catch-22. I supposed honesty with any potential buyers is the only option and then it's up to them if they want to wait or not. 

Good to hear we're sort of not alone.

If we did put the house up we'd definitely be up front with any potential buyer regarding plans. Naively I'd hope everyone would be like that.

Presumably, lack of, honesty is a factor in so many of the chains we see either falling down or being delayed.

I do wonder how market will be post the reintroduction of the stamp duty will be and indeed if there will be people regretting the property they end up in

tacticalbanjo

NinjaTune said:

I still think you need to put your property on the market.  Our EA wouldn't have even allowed you a viewing without your house being up for sale which is another sign of the times, at least in our area.  Our property went on the market a 4pm and we had 11 viewings booked by 5pm.  Out of 6 viewings on the first day we had 3 offers - 1 at full asking and 2 just below - all were from people with offers on their own property. 

I agree. My last place sold in days to someone with finance in place and ready to move. I wouldn't have entertained an offer from someone who wasn't ready and instructed the estate agent not to let unproceedable buyers view my property. I work from home to tyre kickers cost me money.

My offer wouldn't have been accepted for the house I was intending to buy if the chain wasn't complete under me because I wouldn't have been proceedable either. 

veryintrigued said:

tacticalbanjo said:

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.

The accepted way? I'm not sure what that means.

Our experience in EA so far is that it's a tough decision which one to choose less least and understandably only have an interest in marketing as many properties as possible and turn them around as quickly as possible.

It's sad that trust in EA and all the way along the chain seems to lacking.

But once again a sign of the times.

Maybe a growing phenomenon generation on generation.

It means that up and down the country, most people buying and selling houses do it this way. Most vendors won't accept an offer or even a viewing from an unproceedable buyer. You don't have to agree with how chains are formed but it is the 'generally believed or recognized to be valid or correct' way of doing things in this country so you'll either have to put up with it or find someone else who wants to do it your way. Of course, everyone in the whole process is interested in getting their house sold as quickly as possible for the best price possible. It might not suit you but that's life.

Have you heard of the phrase 'a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush'? This is why people don't want to sell to someone without an offer. Your offer along with the promise that your house will sell quickly is worth less than someone offering with a house already offered on.

veryintrigued said:

From the amount of houses we're seeing 'sold' and then back on the market you're absolutely right about time wasters.

Presumably all of these are people who have sold their houses already from this being the 'accepted way'.
 
Personally having already agreed fees (and paid some out) with solicitor and EA (once house sells) letting people down and being time wasters wouldn't be on our agenda.

People eh?

Sales fall through for all sorts of reasons that will apply to your sale too. People up the chain don't want to sell any more. Surveys reveal problems. Finance falls through. It doesn't mean that it's the wrong way to do it. This can happen up and down chain. You could let down a buyer because your vendor pulls out. You could find the perfect house and get a survey which reveals it is about to fall down so you pull out. This won't make you a horrible person because house buying is filled with uncertainty pretty much until you are in the new place.