What do we do if we sell and have nowhere to go?

amandacat

I sold, intended to move into rental to not have the pressure of a chain/have more time to find our forever home and get my house sold but couldn't get a rental with pets and ended up moving in with family. I am still here 7 weeks later, it is not nice to not have your own space. Air bnb was an option but can be expensive and while it seems fine with a dog, is more difficult with cats.
In hindsight, knowing how popular houses in my area were, I really wish now that I had made my buyer wait and found a property to move to first even though it meant being in a chain. I have ended up rushing to buy a house anyway as rentals are too competitive and difficult to secure with pets and so we have had to settle for somewhere to buy that while nice isn't really what we wanted. 
I would make it clear to any buyer you need to find your home and they will need to wait. Don't let the EA or buyer bully you either as I let them intimidate me a bit during my sale to agree to break the chain and I regret it. 

Ramouth

We also sold and moved into rented thinking it would put us in a better position to buy etc.  

We are now regretting it somewhat as the market in Cornwall has gone crazy and our cash buys less and less each day.

lookstraightahead

amandacat said:

I sold, intended to move into rental to not have the pressure of a chain/have more time to find our forever home and get my house sold but couldn't get a rental with pets and ended up moving in with family. I am still here 7 weeks later, it is not nice to not have your own space. Air bnb was an option but can be expensive and while it seems fine with a dog, is more difficult with cats.
In hindsight, knowing how popular houses in my area were, I really wish now that I had made my buyer wait and found a property to move to first even though it meant being in a chain. I have ended up rushing to buy a house anyway as rentals are too competitive and difficult to secure with pets and so we have had to settle for somewhere to buy that while nice isn't really what we wanted. 
I would make it clear to any buyer you need to find your home and they will need to wait. Don't let the EA or buyer bully you either as I let them intimidate me a bit during my sale to agree to break the chain and I regret it. 

If I had been told to wait I would have found somewhere else. There are buyers  waiting in rented as well, who are funding those who want to keep their cash and have the luxury of their own timescales while someone else is funding it.
each to their own I know but I wouldn't be "made to wait"

lookstraightahead

Ramouth said:

We also sold and moved into rented thinking it would put us in a better position to buy etc.  

We are now regretting it somewhat as the market in Cornwall has gone crazy and our cash buys less and less each day.

Bring bottom of the chain is such an advantage. You will make it back I'm sure. I reckon we got our property for about £15000 less than if we weren't bottom of chain.

NQManchester

We did have an offer accepted on a house at the same time as we sold ours and after it fell through we decided to carry on with our sale and move in to rented. 
It does come with its own stresses because you only have a short window to find a rental and at one point it looked like we’d have to move into a really ropey property or be homeless. Ours was complicated though because we have a dog and were applying for our sons school place so there weren’t many options.
By waiting we did however end up being able to buy a four bed detached (was originally settling for a 3 bed semi) and they accepted our 10k less offer because we were chain free. I don’t think we would have gotten the house at all if we weren’t in rented. 

I found the sale and purchase considerably less stressful by separating them as well.

I also didn’t mind moving twice because we only unpacked what we needed in between (recommend getting somewhere with a garage!) 

That being said, there’s obviously the cost of renting and the market increasing in the meantime to consider but there are definite benefits. 

We also had a nice surprise of saving £9k in stamp duty by delaying our purchase :-) 

amandacat

lookstraightahead said:

amandacat said:

I sold, intended to move into rental to not have the pressure of a chain/have more time to find our forever home and get my house sold but couldn't get a rental with pets and ended up moving in with family. I am still here 7 weeks later, it is not nice to not have your own space. Air bnb was an option but can be expensive and while it seems fine with a dog, is more difficult with cats.
In hindsight, knowing how popular houses in my area were, I really wish now that I had made my buyer wait and found a property to move to first even though it meant being in a chain. I have ended up rushing to buy a house anyway as rentals are too competitive and difficult to secure with pets and so we have had to settle for somewhere to buy that while nice isn't really what we wanted. 
I would make it clear to any buyer you need to find your home and they will need to wait. Don't let the EA or buyer bully you either as I let them intimidate me a bit during my sale to agree to break the chain and I regret it. 

If I had been told to wait I would have found somewhere else. There are buyers  waiting in rented as well, who are funding those who want to keep their cash and have the luxury of their own timescales while someone else is funding it.
each to their own I know but I wouldn't be "made to wait"

Well then you potentially lose the house you want to buy. It’s a sellers market in the area I sold in someone would’ve waited. It’s the nature of getting on the property ladder, if you are bottom of the chain and in a rental then you wait for a chain to form or specifically buy chain free. Most people once on the property ladder don’t want to come off and were once in the same position at the bottom of that chain. Pair that with the fact it is extremely difficult to get a rental currently, I can’t see why anyone would choose to risk it and get a rental and potentially end up homeless. 

Scotbot

amandacat said:

lookstraightahead said:

amandacat said:

I sold, intended to move into rental to not have the pressure of a chain/have more time to find our forever home and get my house sold but couldn't get a rental with pets and ended up moving in with family. I am still here 7 weeks later, it is not nice to not have your own space. Air bnb was an option but can be expensive and while it seems fine with a dog, is more difficult with cats.
In hindsight, knowing how popular houses in my area were, I really wish now that I had made my buyer wait and found a property to move to first even though it meant being in a chain. I have ended up rushing to buy a house anyway as rentals are too competitive and difficult to secure with pets and so we have had to settle for somewhere to buy that while nice isn't really what we wanted. 
I would make it clear to any buyer you need to find your home and they will need to wait. Don't let the EA or buyer bully you either as I let them intimidate me a bit during my sale to agree to break the chain and I regret it. 

If I had been told to wait I would have found somewhere else. There are buyers  waiting in rented as well, who are funding those who want to keep their cash and have the luxury of their own timescales while someone else is funding it.
each to their own I know but I wouldn't be "made to wait"

Well then you potentially lose the house you want to buy. It’s a sellers market in the area I sold in someone would’ve waited. It’s the nature of getting on the property ladder, if you are bottom of the chain and in a rental then you wait for a chain to form or specifically buy chain free. Most people once on the property ladder don’t want to come off and were once in the same position at the bottom of that chain. Pair that with the fact it is extremely difficult to get a rental currently, I can’t see why anyone would choose to risk it and get a rental and potentially end up homeless. 

Sometimes it's not a choice. I have always sold before buying and rented in between as I have been moving long distances. Apart from logistics if you are moving to a new area it makes sense to rent to get to know the area first.

Finding a rental is stressful but since it is temporary you can afford to be a lot less fussy with location and type of property. Most times you end up in somewhere pretty vanilla but the nicest place I have ever lived was rented. People complain about moving twice but other than 2 sets of fees it is no big deal. Moving takes a day. I have rented with pets and found that offering extra rent makes this easier. Renting is not a cheap option.

It definitely gives you an advantage in a sellers market if you can prove you have sold and have the cash in the bank for the next one.

The biggest downside I see is in a rising market if you can't find a property you like prices will go up whilst you are off the ladder. Normally in this situation you would find the next property first then sell yours knowing it would not take long to get an offer. With EAs now insisting people need to be proceedable to view this isn't possible. It is not surprising so many sales fall through as a result.

lookstraightahead

amandacat said:

lookstraightahead said:

amandacat said:

I sold, intended to move into rental to not have the pressure of a chain/have more time to find our forever home and get my house sold but couldn't get a rental with pets and ended up moving in with family. I am still here 7 weeks later, it is not nice to not have your own space. Air bnb was an option but can be expensive and while it seems fine with a dog, is more difficult with cats.
In hindsight, knowing how popular houses in my area were, I really wish now that I had made my buyer wait and found a property to move to first even though it meant being in a chain. I have ended up rushing to buy a house anyway as rentals are too competitive and difficult to secure with pets and so we have had to settle for somewhere to buy that while nice isn't really what we wanted. 
I would make it clear to any buyer you need to find your home and they will need to wait. Don't let the EA or buyer bully you either as I let them intimidate me a bit during my sale to agree to break the chain and I regret it. 

If I had been told to wait I would have found somewhere else. There are buyers  waiting in rented as well, who are funding those who want to keep their cash and have the luxury of their own timescales while someone else is funding it.
each to their own I know but I wouldn't be "made to wait"

Well then you potentially lose the house you want to buy. It’s a sellers market in the area I sold in someone would’ve waited. It’s the nature of getting on the property ladder, if you are bottom of the chain and in a rental then you wait for a chain to form or specifically buy chain free. Most people once on the property ladder don’t want to come off and were once in the same position at the bottom of that chain. Pair that with the fact it is extremely difficult to get a rental currently, I can’t see why anyone would choose to risk it and get a rental and potentially end up homeless. 

I don't agree with you, that's all. I know how a chain works as well 😊. I see it from the opposite perspective completely - im not worried about 'losing' a house, I'm more concerned with losing a sale. 
Renting is not a big scary monster.

lookstraightahead

Scotbot said:

amandacat said:

lookstraightahead said:

amandacat said:

I sold, intended to move into rental to not have the pressure of a chain/have more time to find our forever home and get my house sold but couldn't get a rental with pets and ended up moving in with family. I am still here 7 weeks later, it is not nice to not have your own space. Air bnb was an option but can be expensive and while it seems fine with a dog, is more difficult with cats.
In hindsight, knowing how popular houses in my area were, I really wish now that I had made my buyer wait and found a property to move to first even though it meant being in a chain. I have ended up rushing to buy a house anyway as rentals are too competitive and difficult to secure with pets and so we have had to settle for somewhere to buy that while nice isn't really what we wanted. 
I would make it clear to any buyer you need to find your home and they will need to wait. Don't let the EA or buyer bully you either as I let them intimidate me a bit during my sale to agree to break the chain and I regret it. 

If I had been told to wait I would have found somewhere else. There are buyers  waiting in rented as well, who are funding those who want to keep their cash and have the luxury of their own timescales while someone else is funding it.
each to their own I know but I wouldn't be "made to wait"

Well then you potentially lose the house you want to buy. It’s a sellers market in the area I sold in someone would’ve waited. It’s the nature of getting on the property ladder, if you are bottom of the chain and in a rental then you wait for a chain to form or specifically buy chain free. Most people once on the property ladder don’t want to come off and were once in the same position at the bottom of that chain. Pair that with the fact it is extremely difficult to get a rental currently, I can’t see why anyone would choose to risk it and get a rental and potentially end up homeless. 

Sometimes it's not a choice. I have always sold before buying and rented in between as I have been moving long distances. Apart from logistics if you are moving to a new area it makes sense to rent to get to know the area first.

Finding a rental is stressful but since it is temporary you can afford to be a lot less fussy with location and type of property. Most times you end up in somewhere pretty vanilla but the nicest place I have ever lived was rented. People complain about moving twice but other than 2 sets of fees it is no big deal. Moving takes a day. I have rented with pets and found that offering extra rent makes this easier. Renting is not a cheap option.

It definitely gives you an advantage in a sellers market if you can prove you have sold and have the cash in the bank for the next one.

The biggest downside I see is in a rising market if you can't find a property you like prices will go up whilst you are off the ladder. Normally in this situation you would find the next property first then sell yours knowing it would not take long to get an offer. With EAs now insisting people need to be proceedable to view this isn't possible. It is not surprising so many sales fall through as a result.

Excellent post.

smorri4

Hi everyone thanks for the replies. So things have happened rather quickly and we have now actually sold our house.Buyers are keen to be in asap, and we have small chain below of a FTB buying their place. We are actively looking for houses but nothing majorly catching our eye. 
Conveyancing wise - can i instruct a solicitor just for the sale right now as obviously I can't instruct on a purchase if we haven't found anywhere to go.