Do we have to have our house on the market to be able to view other houses?

louloulouisa

Hi.
Our son started his new special needs school, it's a 45-minute drive there so we're are thinking of moving house. The houses near the school are more expensive. So we will be downsizing but it's fine as our eldest daughter is moving out soon.
We wanted to view a property we liked, but the estate agent said we had to have our house on the market to be able to view it. Is this normal? I guess maybe because of COVID?
I feel like we're stuck in a catch 22! as we don't want to put the house on the market until we know for sure we want to move! You can't really get a good feel of the size with video/pictures! 
Thanks 

Mahsroh

The Estate Agents wants to know that you are in a position to buy if you do view. If part of that buying process involves selling a house that is currently not for sale, then they've decided that you are realistically not going to be in a position to proceed with the purchase any time soon. 

Probably is partly down to COVID and them making sure that any viewers are serious.

Putting your house on the market doesn't force you into selling. Just list it. If you don't like anything you are viewing you can still stay put. Most EA's only charge their fees when a sale being completed (obviously check this first before instructing) so there shouldn't be any real risk by listing it, even if you ultimately decide not to move. 

Dadto3Boys

It is purely down to the estate agent.
We dipped our toes in, to see if we wanted to move and came across this struggle.
A work around is "yes I want to put on the market, can you value our house after the viewing"
We ended up putting the house on the market, as even missing out on viewing on one house could have been "the house"

louloulouisa

Thank you so much Mahsroh and Dadto3Boys   

ssparks2003

Until you are in the process of selling your house you a just a tourist, out for a day trip.

Alter_ego

ssparks2003 said:

Until you are in the process of selling your house you a just a tourist, out for a day trip.

Depends how much you have in the bank! Ever heard of cash buyers?

LudaMusser

We were viewing houses in September and had our’s for sale. Some estate agents wouldn’t let us view unless we had accepted an offer, some didn’t ask if we were on the market

Gov guidelines are that you need to be in a proceedable position and different EA’s interpret that in different ways

One wouldn’t even let us view a house until we had accepted an offer and the house we wanted to view had been empty for months so no risk to the seller. Tbh a frustrating time to buy/sell esp with EA’s all having a different stance 

lf93

We also had this stumbling block. We essentially didn't want to move unless we found a specific house we wanted, otherwise we were going to stay put for a few years (because of the stamp duty holiday).

We were not allowed to view the house we wanted (and ultimately bought) when it initially went on the market because we were not 'proceedable' however a week later they called us back and the vendors must have then decided that anyone could see it.

We put ours on the market the next day with the same agent, had an offer within a week and then offered on our purchase. It all went through in 11 weeks - our sale, our purchase and our vendor's purchase. 

Daveinlincoln

I've had this recently and I really hate it. To be fair its just one EA....all the others are perfectly fine to let me view properties because they understand business, i.e more viewings= more sales.

I wanted particularly to view one flat here in Lincoln but YourMove would not let me view it because it was "for my safety and they were just protecting me"....this was because my house is not yet on the market, if it was on the market and I'd had an offer on it then of course I could view the flat.....why would anyone sell their house with these guys?....its just lazy.

davilown

We’ve just gone on the market earlier than expected and Our EA is very strict - not in a proceedable position = no viewing.
possibly a vicious circle but less cleaning for me!

Octothorpe

We are on market. One house was no problem to view one house vendor wants us to be under offer first.