Should I offer on new house before selling mine?

GixerKate

View the property but there is little point putting an offer in until you have accepted an offer on your house.  As soon as you accept an offer on your current property then submit an offer on the house you want.

We viewed loads of places while ours was on the market, as soon as we accepted an offer on our place we offered on the house we wanted the most the same day.  There was about a month between viewing the house and putting an offer in.

PlumLuck

GixerKate said:

View the property but there is little point putting an offer in until you have accepted an offer on your house.  As soon as you accept an offer on your current property then submit an offer on the house you want.

We viewed loads of places while ours was on the market, as soon as we accepted an offer on our place we offered on the house we wanted the most the same day.  There was about a month between viewing the house and putting an offer in.

Does this not go both ways? We're FTB considering making an offer on a house but the vendor hasn't found somewhere yet which is putting us off as we don't know how long we'll be waiting for.

Drawingaline

RoseGold2021 said:

Pre CV19, I viewed a house, submitted an offer, and it was accepted. Estate agent then was about to put mine on the market, but then the vendor pulled it off the market. Now, if you haven’t sold, have a DIP, EA won’t entertain you!  

Sell yours before submitting any offers. 

We managed to do this last summer the week before the stamp duty announcement, so just before it all went mad. We were given 10days to market and receive an offer and in that time they would stick sstc in the one we had offered on. (We actually viewed it just before it hit the market as we had the EA out for a valuation and when he mentioned it, it sounded perfect) 

We got the offer and it all worked out, but I couldn't see this happening in the current market. Or indeed, even a month after we managed it!

catclaires

Well, I know a lot of EAs wouldn't even let us book to view properties until our own was SSTC, so the fact that you've managed to get a viewing at all may be a good sign that the sellers would be amenable to offers!

Our own EA asked us about the viewer positions we'd accept before they scheduled any viewings (we ended up having several viewers over a single weekend), and we did have some whose properties were on the market but not yet SSTC. Most properties in the area were selling very quickly, so it didn't generally feel to us as if it would have made too much difference whether the buyers were SSTC at that exact time or not! It may come down in the end to who else offers and what the offers are...

GixerKate

PlumLuck said:

GixerKate said:

View the property but there is little point putting an offer in until you have accepted an offer on your house.  As soon as you accept an offer on your current property then submit an offer on the house you want.

We viewed loads of places while ours was on the market, as soon as we accepted an offer on our place we offered on the house we wanted the most the same day.  There was about a month between viewing the house and putting an offer in.

Does this not go both ways? We're FTB considering making an offer on a house but the vendor hasn't found somewhere yet which is putting us off as we don't know how long we'll be waiting for.

@PlumLuck Not really as most places insist that you have accepted an offer on your current property before they will consider an offer on where they want to go.  As a vendor we looked at places in advance so that we could make an offer as soon as we had accepted an offer on the current house. 

warwick2001

Doesn't matter now anyway, as the house we were going to look at has already sold. Only on the market for 2 days. Crazy times.

Thanks for everyone's opinions.

BV88

If your market is anything like most of the U.K. at the moment the EA won’t even let you in the front door unless you have a buyer lined up. Where we live even that was not good enough, there was so much interest from cash buyers and people without a chain they would not even accept viewings from people that were not immediately able to proceed. 

We ultimately had to break the chain to secure an accepted offer on the house we are now buying. Unless you were/are a cash buyer or low LTV value mortgage buyer with immediately available proof of funds and AIP then you are at a big disadvantage. The EA’s and vendors want the quickest, easiest and lowest risk buyers, of which there seems to be an awful lot around at the moment! 

warwick2001

BV88 said:

If your market is anything like most of the U.K. at the moment the EA won’t even let you in the front door unless you have a buyer lined up. Where we live even that was not good enough, there was so much interest from cash buyers and people without a chain they would not even accept viewings from people that were not immediately able to proceed. 

We ultimately had to break the chain to secure an accepted offer on the house we are now buying. Unless you were/are a cash buyer or low LTV value mortgage buyer with immediately available proof of funds and AIP then you are at a big disadvantage. The EA’s and vendors want the quickest, easiest and lowest risk buyers, of which there seems to be an awful lot around at the moment! 

Obviously the market where I live is not like you have described, as the EA  was happy to let us view, as stated in my OP. In fact, since yesterday we have spoken to 3 EA's, all of whom will let us view before our house has sold/had an offer. There is one EA that does enforce the situation you have described, but at the moment they don't have a huge amount of houses on their books.

I think this will vary to where you live, I believe the SE is still crazy, whereas up 'ere in the North, things are starting to slow down, with a couple of EA's I have spoken to saying that the market is slowly starting to approach pre-Covid levels.