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

louloulouisa

Thank you so much everyone for your replies

Suseka97

It is frustrating how EAs interpret things differently, or perhaps it's a case of vendors instructing EAs to not put forward anyone who is not proceedable.  When we put ours on the market we were happy to take viewings from any interested parties and put no caveats in place.  As it turned out the couple who eventually bought it didn't have theirs on the market at the time and only put theirs up for sale because they decided they wanted ours. 

Weathergirl_76

Before I put my house on the market in December, I called an Agent to see if I could view a property, to enable me to understand what I could get for less money. I was not on the market yet, and I think the EA allowed me to view, to (hopefully) market my property with them. It made me understand that for the budget I had, I could buy something that would suit me. This led me to make the decision, to put my property on the market. 

Once my property was on the market, I viewed another, even though I was not under offer at the time.  It is the property I hope to purchase, should it still be available once I am under offer. Had the EA (and vendor) not have given me that chance, I would not know how much I like it. 

Redwino222

As someone who just put their house in the market, I would be irritated if people viewed who weren’t in a position to buy.  My house went sale agreed within a week, I have five days of having to be out of the house, and while most days there were ten or more sets of viewers, there were two days when I had to get the house ready for just one viewer.  Of this person couldn’t have bought it woudl have been a complete waste of my time.

ssparks2003

Alter_ego said:

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

True, however in the situation being presented by the OP it would appear that they are not cash buyers since they mention putting their house on the market! So not relevant 

Alter_ego

ssparks2003 said:

Alter_ego said:

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

True, however in the situation being presented by the OP it would appear that they are not cash buyers since they mention putting their house on the market! So not relevant 

You may think someone who owns a house cannot be a cash buyer for another without selling. You are wrong, your opinion is irrelevant.
I have no wish to continue this discussion further except to say that 2 yrs ago I bought our house for cash without selling our previous one.

Irishpearce26

I don't think its unreasonable, a friend had their house on the market with lots of interest which means lots of prep work. He must have had about 20 viewings. Offer accepted but the buyer was in no hurry to get their house sold they then struggled to sell and they pulled out. He asked that viewings needed to have an offer accepted on their house first and found a buyer than was far more advanced in their process than 90% of those that viewed previously.

I wanted to view a house and was told I needed to have SSTC on my property first, found another property and moved in 3 weeks ago. Said house has only gone to SSTC this week. Swings and roundabouts.

boots_babe

Even pre-Covid, surely a vendor doesn't want people traipsing around their house if they're not proceedable and able to actually make a meaningful offer? And of course with Covid that makes it even more understandable.

I must admit I don't understand at all the approach of first finding your dream house, and only then putting yours on the market. Surely by doing it that way round, you run a very high likelihood you'll be unable to find a buyer on your own house and put an offer in on the one you want, before it is sold? So it seems like you'll only end up disappointed.

Skiddaw1

Must admit I agree with the above. We had a Rightmove shorlist on the go but we didn't book any viewings until we'd accepted an offer from a proceedable buyer on our previous house.

Suseka97

boots_babe said:

I must admit I don't understand at all the approach of first finding your dream house, and only then putting yours on the market. Surely by doing it that way round, you run a very high likelihood you'll be unable to find a buyer on your own house and put an offer in on the one you want, before it is sold? So it seems like you'll only end up disappointed.

I agree, but I think it depends on a person's situation and area they live in.  So, in a fast moving market it would be daft to find somewhere first, but in another situation where there are lots on the market and the market itself is slow then perhaps not.  

Also, we had an offer on our house but our buyers did not - so effectively the chain wasn't locked-in at the time.  The house we offered on seemed as if they were proceed-able themselves but the house they wanted was unexpectedly pulled off the market and their next house was tenanted.  We ended up in a shorter chain as a result, but the process has taken longer and of course at anytime up to exchange things can happen.

Certainly I find the system in the UK to be a bit of a minefield to navigate - as opposed to binding offers in Scotland, but I can't see it changing anytime soon.  

As for EAs and/or Vendors only wanting proceed-able buyers to view - that's great, but some may miss out on a sale as a result.