What options could we have to buy a house before selling ours?

Wishywashy74

Hi, I'm looking for some advice with regards to raising funds for a potential new house.

I'll try my best to keep this simple but basically my partner and I have seen a house come onto the market we both like, she's going to view it asap and I will view it when I get home next week from work if she likes it.

Our current situation is we each own a house and we are looking to buy together but it needs to be right, i.e in our current village, detached etc etc.

Both our houses have been assessed by the local estate agent's and I know they will sell quickly as they are in a nice part of the area, however they are not officially on the market but all details have been prepared and they could go on the market within hours if we wanted to sell.

We have seen a house for £475,000 we are very interested in and if its the right property then we want to move quickly and offer, we both have enough collateral in our houses (when they sell) to buy the new house outright, I have approximately £220k in mine and she has approximately £300k in her place (so £520k combined) and we also have combined savings of around £150k as well. We both work full time and our combined wage is in excess of £180k per year.

If we went to see the house and wanted to offer on it, what potential ways could we raise finance on the new place without having to wait until ours sell, I have to state my partners house would sell in a day or 2 as they are very sought after and the estate agents always have people saying if ever one of those houses come onto the market it will go super fast, mine may take a little longer but I'm confident it would go quick.

I've heard about bridging loans but is there other options we could look at?

Hoping someone may have some possible options we could look into.

Thanks in advance.

Brie

Could you get a mortgage agreed on your current salaries without selling your current houses?  Maybe one of your current mortgage companies would be willing to shift your mortgage to the new place?  Possibly her house and her mortgage company is the one to approach first given that it appears she has more equity and is more likely (in your opinion) to sell hers faster.

Wishywashy74

Brie said:

Could you get a mortgage agreed on your current salaries without selling your current houses?  Maybe one of your current mortgage companies would be willing to shift your mortgage to the new place?  Possibly her house and her mortgage company is the one to approach first given that it appears she has more equity and is more likely (in your opinion) to sell hers faster.

That would be an option, my partners good friend is a mortgage advisor so will speak to her next week.

housebuyer143

You will need to factor in the additional stamp duty which will eat a large chunk of that deposit.
Bridging as you said is one, the other is to get another residential mortgage on the new place but the current mortgages will reduce affordability. 

hazyjo

Just a word of warning, most EAs say they'll sell quick. And most sellers think the same. Been guilty of it myself!

Just get your houses on the market now. If I was selling, I'd be a little wary of someone with 2 properties to sell saying they could borrow the money using other means. The minute you get buyers, you're going to want to try and tie everything together to avoid extra stamp duty, etc. That could slow things down somewhat.

Wishywashy74

housebuyer143 said:

You will need to factor in the additional stamp duty which will eat a large chunk of that deposit.
Bridging as you said is one, the other is to get another residential mortgage on the new place but the current mortgages will reduce affordability. 

Can you claim stamp duty back once both places sell?

Wishywashy74

hazyjo said:

Just a word of warning, most EAs say they'll sell quick. And most sellers think the same. Been guilty of it myself!

Just get your houses on the market now. If I was selling, I'd be a little wary of someone with 2 properties to sell saying they could borrow the money using other means. The minute you get buyers, you're going to want to try and tie everything together to avoid extra stamp duty, etc. That could slow things down somewhat.

Thanks, we're pretty confident hers would go quickly buy yes agreed about the estate agents.

mi-key

If you are sure you can sell quickly, then get them on the market now. If one or both gets an offer, then you would be in a position to offer on the new house. Given your equity and incomes and deposit then you should have no problem just getting a mortgage from the sale of one if needed.

As a seller I wouldn't even entertain an offer from someone who hasn't sold their house ( or houses ) yet or doesn't have definite finances in place to buy.

There is always the possibility neither of your houses sells quickly, so you need to keep that in mind

GDB2222

Martylaa said:

housebuyer143 said:

You will need to factor in the additional stamp duty which will eat a large chunk of that deposit.
Bridging as you said is one, the other is to get another residential mortgage on the new place but the current mortgages will reduce affordability. 

Can you claim stamp duty back once both places sell?

Yes, you can claim back the extra 3%, although you obviously have to fund it in the meantime.

As a seller, I'd have difficulty with you as buyers. You'd have to try really hard to convince me that you would not mess me around, and try to combine your purchase with the sale of your two properties. I might believe you if you put your bridging finance in place, but that's expensive.  

Brie

I agree with others that say that having 2 properties to sell complicates things and might make you look unattractive to a seller.  So maybe you can avoid answering that question if asked.  "She" goes to look at the new place and says "yes I'm selling my property".  You go to look and say the same and neither is lying.  

Truthfully the only real complication to the seller is if your funding is dependent on both properties being sold. (been there, done that!!)  But if you can afford the new place with only selling one of the old places (preferably either) then it doesn't affect them.  Still fussy for you of course shifting everything from 2 places into one and likely on different dates but take my word for it - it can be done!

GDB2222

Brie said:

I agree with others that say that having 2 properties to sell complicates things and might make you look unattractive to a seller.  So maybe you can avoid answering that question if asked.  "She" goes to look at the new place and says "yes I'm selling my property".  You go to look and say the same and neither is lying.  

Truthfully the only real complication to the seller is if your funding is dependent on both properties being sold. (been there, done that!!)  But if you can afford the new place with only selling one of the old places (preferably either) then it doesn't affect them.  Still fussy for you of course shifting everything from 2 places into one and likely on different dates but take my word for it - it can be done!

It's not an enticing proposition, given that neither property is yet on the market.