Advice on how to secure house?

liz09

Hi all,

Any advice on the following:

We're just putting our 2 bed flat on the market and have seen the house we would like to buy. Basically, we're not in the greatest position as currently have no buyer for ours. Any advice / tricks on how to secure the house we want. We have offered the asking price (which has been reduced by 45k so we're happy it's worth what we're offering).

Basically as soon as a FTB comes along we're stuffed so I want to know if there's anything we can do to secure it.

Cheers
Liz

catlover1_2

I am not very sure of the procedure in the UK and havce asked for advise on my own purchas eon here... but where I come from people don't all wait everyone to be ready to move on the same day ..

... they get a bridging loan, but I haven't seen them over here at all. However until I moved here I have never heard of anyone moving without one.

Everyone I know from home woh has bought property has found what they want, got a bridging loan, put their own property on the market. moved sold old property anywhere up to 6 months later and paid back bridging loan.

xx

liz09

I would imagine that gets pretty expensive as you must have to pay both loans whilst you're waiting for the old property to sell. Plus in this market it may take a while. Although in Oxford where we're selling the market still seems to be moving ok, especially for flats.

Jorgan_2

From my experience, people in your situation uusually end up spending thousands more than have to when it comes to buying.

For example, you are selling your flat for £125k & looking to buy for £175k (made up figures). You offer close to the asking price on the new property in a bid to try & secure it, say £172k. You then get an offer on the flat, it isn't what you were hoping for, but can still afford the move so accept £116k, without too much negotiation. You may have been able to get £120k for the flat & by negotiating from a position of strength, purchased the next property for £167k. So potentially you are £9k down on the deal.

It is very difficult to try & secure a property before you have agreed a sale on your own.

Debt_Free_Chick

liz09 wrote: »

Basically, we're not in the greatest position as currently have no buyer for ours. Any advice / tricks on how to secure the house we want. We have offered the asking price (which has been reduced by 45k so we're happy it's worth what we're offering).

You can't.

It's only "secure" once you've exchanged contracts.

PINGLEIST

If you,re selling through an EA ask them to value your flat at a forced sale price, 6-8 weeks and adjust your asking accordingly. Let the vendors of the house you want know about this and request they take it off the market, if you,re that keen you might even think about offering a deposit but think long and hard about this.
Alternatively sell at auction but these are desperate measures and in a falling market not very wise, are you sure the house you want is worth that much to you?

poppysarah

Who said something about a rule of 3?

Never fall in love with a house unless you have 2 other great houses you love too...

The quicker you sell yours the better. Ask EA to help advise on price reduction.

Don't go BMV place as they can push and push until you're bullied into virtually giving it away.

benb76

There's nothing you can do as you're not in a position to make a serious offer until you've got a buyer for your house.

PasturesNew

If I were the seller being asked to take my property off the market for somebody who wanted to buy it but hadn't sold theirs... I'd say "Thanks, but no thanks"

In fact, that's what I did, almost. I had an offer from somebody who hadn't sold and I said I wasn't even going to discuss it until theirs was - and in any case their offer wasn't enough.

In the end, they sold theirs and we agreed a price on mine. And I still didn't take it off the market in case they pulled out. I stated that from the start. That it was being left on the market so people may show an interest in it to the EA, but under no circumstances was I going to accept a higher offer than I had already agreed. So I would never have let them be gazumped. But I couldn't run the risk of 2 months off the market "in case". Especially as I'd just done that with one buyer over the previous 3 months.

And this was all while the general population still thought it was a fast rising market.

geoffky

how can you put a offer in if you have not sold in this market.i would not even let you view my house if i knew your position...

SquatNow

How do you even know you can afford the house until you've sold yours?

What if you only get half as much for your house as you expect?