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

fishfingerbutties

Suseka97 said:

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.  

I think this is a good point. When I was selling previously the market wasn't too fast and I was out of the house 3-4 days a week, so I wasn't quite so bothered about it. Actually one couple came to view who didn't want to buy my property, but they did decide they wanted to move and ended up selling their place through my EA. 

Now the market is moving much quicker where I am, and I'm working at home 5 days a week, I have no desire to have people in the house who aren't as serious about moving as I am. I will only be allowing people who at least have their property on the market this time around, shows they have some skin in the game. 

davidmcn

Suseka97 said:

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.

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.  

Scotland is still in the UK (there's a clue in the name!). 

And despite popular mythology, offers in Scotland are not immediately "binding" - in practice you still have to wait until both parties are happy to commit themselves. Which will tend to be earlier than in England /Wales (and generally the whole process is faster), but often still a last minute thing before completion. 

GlasgowExpat2

davidmcn said:

Suseka97 said:

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.

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.  

Scotland is still in the UK (there's a clue in the name!). 

And despite popular mythology, offers in Scotland are not immediately "binding" - in practice you still have to wait until both parties are happy to commit themselves. Which will tend to be earlier than in England /Wales (and generally the whole process is faster), but often still a last minute thing before completion. 

The problem with the Scotland system is the offers over.  Flats near me are on for offers over £190k, home report says £225k but they will probably be sold for over £250k. 

[Deleted User]

Alter_ego said:

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.

Its not about you though , people are trying to help OP regarding the scenario he described: he needs to downsize to afford the new area as it is expensive, so it IS contingent on his house sale. But you did manage to shoe horn in the news about your cash purchase. Congrats.

LAD917

I understand the positive intention, but ultimately think policies like this will end up wasting more people's time (and result in more people seeing properties unnecessarily).

E.g., if I list my flat, but am not committed to moving, I could then have 20+ people traipsing through my home.  One or more may offer, only for me to say "no thanks" because I've seen the 1-2 properties that looked OK online and discovered they were no good.

I would just tell the EA I'm in a position to purchase without selling my home, and leave it at that.

george4064

Been really interesting reading the replies so far.

I have my London flat on the market and there hasn't been any bites so far, we have a few viewings but no second viewings thus far. Our target market is first time buyers, so the EA's job is to make sure that any viewers are in a proceedable position in terms of deposit and mortgage in principle ready.

We have not yet viewed any properties where we would like to buy, we will start doing so once the flat is under offer. We have had a mixture of 'rules and policies' from estate agents about whether we can view other properties or not, but generally we have been loosely monitoring Rightmove and driving round a few places we are interested in to get a feel for the areas.

Ultimately if the flat doesn't sell we will take it off the market and stay put, I assume the estate agent won't be offended by this? We have already dropped the price c. 3.4% from the original listing price.

pinkshoes

A friend of mine refused any viewings unless the person in question was in a position to proceed e.g. cash buyer or their house already had an offer! She found clearing up for viewings so stressful she only wanted people able to proceed to view. It sold quickly.

I personally don't see the difference between someone without their house on the market to someone with their house on the market, as it only takes 48 hours to list a property for sale, especially if the EA already has people interested in that sort of property.

BUT... when we sold our previous property, we would only take offers from those who could proceed e.g. a couple offered us an OK price but hadn't sold their own property yet so we said that we would not accept such a lower offer form someone not able to proceed immediately. 

You can always put your house on the market and if you get a buyer then great, but they need to wait until you find something. 

[Deleted User]

Its catch 22. 

If I view and make an offer on a property before mine is even on the market yet, then i'll be holding up my vendors.

If I put my house on market but then struggle to find an onward purchase, then i'll be holding up my buyers. 

Scotbot

boots_babe said:

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.

I could now buy my next house with cash. I will only buy a property that ticks every box. If I sell my house first my buyer could  be waiting a long time. I have seen a property on line I like. 18 months ago I would just have organised to view it. Now I have to show my investments to the EA which I am not comfortable with. Lord knows what the vendor will say. Surely people don't view houses just for fun?

Splatfoot

Alter_ego said:

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.

That's a completely different situation. We're talking about those people who need to sell a house in order to buy another. If you were a cash buyer and were buying second house, you'd just tell the EA that. Problem solved.