Offer acceptance on two properties

googler

lookstraightahead said:

How does price work - do people haggle? 

Sometimes, if things are slow. 

In an active market, though, as the capital seems to be at the moment, there's little or no room to do so. I see press reports of some properties selling without buyers viewing them at all, of these and others going for an average of 37% over Home Report valuations, etc. etc.

Average selling time in Edinburgh is around 17 days, with areas around the city taking an average of 7 days to sell. 

https://www.edinburghnews.scotsman.com/lifestyle/homes-and-gardens/house-price-report-selling-prices-rise-as-demand-for-edinburgh-city-homes-continues-to-grow-3484336

user1168934

peterhjohnson said:

I think it's a good idea for house sellers and buyers to devote some time to researching the market(s) thoroughly.
On my recent move, I put in some work so I knew:

1. The likely worst case selling price to get the old house to sell in a few weeks,
2. How much money I could raise
3. That I would have enough money to buy what/where I wanted despite being fairly fussy
4. That I might have to wait a bit for a suitable house to come up

Because of #4, I was ready to go into rental although I was very lucky in that 2 great properties came up when I went SSTC on the old place. 

I think that my item #4 is something people need to give more attention to. You can for example look at the Land Registry price paid tool. There are areas where 2/3 bedroom terrace houses get sold every month. There's also a street of 400 detached houses and one is sold about every 3 years. Such information can help people be realistic.

Here around London and south east, I have seen more than one cases where the seller moved into rented accomodation to break a chain or to sell quickly and then they were unable to find a suitable house. There were varying reasons like sudden price increases, lack of properties, bidding wars and so on. In the recent years markets move into a frenzy every few years and the prices rise by tens of thousands in a matter of months. Govt schemes like help to buy and stamp duty holiday have added to the problem in my opinion.

Personally, after seeing all this, selling my own without having another property to move into would be an absolute no no.

Snookie12cat

user1168934 said:

peterhjohnson said:

I think it's a good idea for house sellers and buyers to devote some time to researching the market(s) thoroughly.
On my recent move, I put in some work so I knew:

1. The likely worst case selling price to get the old house to sell in a few weeks,
2. How much money I could raise
3. That I would have enough money to buy what/where I wanted despite being fairly fussy
4. That I might have to wait a bit for a suitable house to come up

Because of #4, I was ready to go into rental although I was very lucky in that 2 great properties came up when I went SSTC on the old place. 

I think that my item #4 is something people need to give more attention to. You can for example look at the Land Registry price paid tool. There are areas where 2/3 bedroom terrace houses get sold every month. There's also a street of 400 detached houses and one is sold about every 3 years. Such information can help people be realistic.

Here around London and south east, I have seen more than one cases where the seller moved into rented accomodation to break a chain or to sell quickly and then they were unable to find a suitable house. There were varying reasons like sudden price increases, lack of properties, bidding wars and so on. In the recent years markets move into a frenzy every few years and the prices rise by tens of thousands in a matter of months. Govt schemes like help to buy and stamp duty holiday have added to the problem in my opinion.

Personally, after seeing all this, selling my own without having another property to move into would be an absolute no no.

People viewing mine said the same.. Sold to break chain and then couldn't get anything. 

I personally like the house I am in, I just want bigger. I would rather not move than sell this without a better property guaranteed. 

lookstraightahead

user1168934 said:

peterhjohnson said:

I think it's a good idea for house sellers and buyers to devote some time to researching the market(s) thoroughly.
On my recent move, I put in some work so I knew:

1. The likely worst case selling price to get the old house to sell in a few weeks,
2. How much money I could raise
3. That I would have enough money to buy what/where I wanted despite being fairly fussy
4. That I might have to wait a bit for a suitable house to come up

Because of #4, I was ready to go into rental although I was very lucky in that 2 great properties came up when I went SSTC on the old place. 

I think that my item #4 is something people need to give more attention to. You can for example look at the Land Registry price paid tool. There are areas where 2/3 bedroom terrace houses get sold every month. There's also a street of 400 detached houses and one is sold about every 3 years. Such information can help people be realistic.

Here around London and south east, I have seen more than one cases where the seller moved into rented accomodation to break a chain or to sell quickly and then they were unable to find a suitable house. There were varying reasons like sudden price increases, lack of properties, bidding wars and so on. In the recent years markets move into a frenzy every few years and the prices rise by tens of thousands in a matter of months. Govt schemes like help to buy and stamp duty holiday have added to the problem in my opinion.

Personally, after seeing all this, selling my own without having another property to move into would be an absolute no no.

It's not that scary really. As I've indeed said, breaking the chain saved us money even with rental payments, as we could negotiate more. I lived in London and the south east for most of my moves. 

Hanging around waiting to form a long chain us a no no for me.

I suppose as you say, you choose your hard and we are all different.0

newdriver101

F37A said:

eidand said:

First thing to do is to pay the £3 on land registry website and download the lease. Nobody needs to give you anything, OP.

If you're ok with what the lease says then make the offer on the second property and if accepted, tell the first vendor that you changed your mind for now and might consider their property in the near future. That's it.

Honesty and integrity above anything else. We can't control what other people do but we can control what we do. This is my advice.

Cannot find the lease on Land registry. Paid the £3 but doesn't look like a lease. I'm expecting it to be longer than a few pages. Someone else told me the lease is non public info that I have to request from vendor

As poster above GDB2222 clarified - leases are not available online - you have to complete the OC2 form for the lease + it’s sent to you by post….  I believe you also have to pay by cheque (£7) unless you have a direct debit arrangement/account with LR.

Slinky

googler said:

lookstraightahead said:

How does price work - do people haggle? 

Sometimes, if things are slow. 

In an active market, though, as the capital seems to be at the moment, there's little or no room to do so. I see press reports of some properties selling without buyers viewing them at all, of these and others going for an average of 37% over Home Report valuations, etc. etc.

Average selling time in Edinburgh is around 17 days, with areas around the city taking an average of 7 days to sell. 

https://www.edinburghnews.scotsman.com/lifestyle/homes-and-gardens/house-price-report-selling-prices-rise-as-demand-for-edinburgh-city-homes-continues-to-grow-3484336

Blimey, haven't seen Trashy quoting that info.

googler

Slinky said:

Blimey, haven't seen Trashy quoting that info.

Whozat ...?

jenni_fer

People won't rent - I don't know why really, as we've always found it easier to break the chain.

If we'd rented when we lost our onward purchase last summer we'd be at least £10k worse off in rent (and likely double by the time we find somewhere new) and priced out of the market. Not to mention having uprooted children and had to move an additional time.

Makes absolutely no sense to us to do anything but have a chain.

lookstraightahead

jenni_fer said:

People won't rent - I don't know why really, as we've always found it easier to break the chain.

If we'd rented when we lost our onward purchase last summer we'd be at least £10k worse off in rent (and likely double by the time we find somewhere new) and priced out of the market. Not to mention having uprooted children and had to move an additional time.

Makes absolutely no sense to us to do anything but have a chain.

We made money by breaking the chain and renting. 

Some buyers aren't happy to wait around spending their own time and money because a vendor won't get a shift on. Personally as a buyer, I won't finance the chosen lifestyle of a vendor, and as a vendor the reason I put property up for sale is to sell it.

of course, each to their own, but the op's situation is common, and those who think the op should just be 'honest' don't think about the vendor's lack of commitment.

There are also lots of vendors who think their situation is a lot worse than the buyer's - things like "it's ok, the buyers live with parents" or "they're already renting" or "they're FTB and don't have kids". Some vendors have this 'higher status' mentality.

People all make their own decisions of course, but it hinders moving. 

I do think the current climate means there will be other buyers, but if and when there's a smaller pool, vendors will need to rethink their approach if they ever want to really move house.

I suspect a lot of people don't really want to move.

jenni_fer

I've not sought out any stats but I'm fairly sure that most people don't want to sell their house, they want to move house...the two sides are linked and always will be for most.
Likewise, im pretty confident chains are still more likely than not in house buying and selling and that will continue.

Agree to strongly disagree @lookstraightahead!