How should we avoid being caught out / making the transition smooth?

Jwalker95

House is currently on the market. I've had 6 viewings - 3 offers @ asking price with another 10 viewings lined up over the next couple of days. 

We've got our eyes on a property and have made an offer noting the fact we haven't accepted an offer on ours. We're hoping to accept this week. Hopefully the offers will be cash / FTB's to avoid prolonging the chain as we'll be utilising house equity for the purchase

We'll be using the same EA's & Solicitors for selling / buying.

Money information:

My House Sale Price: £155k
Mortgage Left: £65k
Equity to me: £90k.

House we're looking at:
Price: £185k
Deposit: 25% / £46500
Equity left to me: £43,500.

With the equity we will be paying the EA & Solicitor as well as around £10k of loans we have (1 personal loan & 1 balance transfer currently at 0%) 
We'll be looking to port our mortgage with First Direct. 

My wage: £41k
Partner wage: £12k

Credit scores are good (Both 700) 

We're both cutting back atm as we have little money up front for surveys etc. but will borrow from parents if anything is over what we have saved back (Around £1k atm) 

Budgeting wise we've gone through the mortgage increase, Gas & Elec increase, potential water increase and can easily afford the new house as well as savings 

Plus the fact we'll have around £25k left after all loans & debts paid off. 

It almost seems to good to be true that I feel I'm missing something.. 

RAS

Who are we?  Credit scores are made up, what matters is your credit record.

Why are you not using the bulk of your equity for a deposit on the new house.

Converting old consumer debt to equity is a bad idea, it might cost less per month but over decades it mounts up and you'll pay back a lot more.

And you've plenty to pay fees and taxes.

FlyMeSomewhere79

First and foremost is accepting an offer on your own house as nothing else will matter if those 3 offers find another home because you aren't committing to any of them or another offer comes in on the one you want because somebody in a position to proceed beats you to it - that will change your financial situation again because you may end up in a bidding war for that property or paying more for a different property. 

Bigphil1474

Beware the first time buyer. Okay, usually they are a good thing as they don't have a chain below so they just need to get the mortgage agreed. However, it also depends on the house they are buying. If it's an older property with minor issues, you might find they jump ship when they see the survey report. If the house was being bought by an investor, they might not even bother with a survey or would understand what it says rather than running a mile because there's a small crack in a wall somewhere. 

Albermarle

Hopefully the offers will be cash / FTB's to avoid prolonging the chain

Note comments about FTB's above. This forum is full of threads from FTB's panicking due to reading a pretty standard survey pointing out a few areas that need attention. 

Cash buyers that do not need a mortgage, can still be in a chain.

What you want is someone who does not have to sell their house to buy yours. Whether they can pay cash or with a mortgage is not that important. 

Also the house you are buying might end up in a chain above them.