[Misc] House buying & selling question

A mex eyecan said:

you know i get all the extra precautions etc, but it does smack a bit of agents dictating a market.

let’s be honest, who, unless financially forced to, is going to sell their home unless they can find something better or more suitable.

Click to expand...

thedonkeycentrehalf said:

Mrs DCH has told me that we are considering moving house. As we have lived in the same place for over 23 years, it is fair to say that I am a little out of touch with the current ways.

With regards to buying and selling, is it better to find somewhere first and then find a buyer for yours or the other way around? I know back when we bought our current place it was better to find somewhere first but I know this changes depending on the market.

Thanks

Click to expand...

Chicken Run said:

Well you haven’t sold your home have you, this doesn’t happen until contracts have exchanged, all your doing is agreeing a price with a potential buyer on your home subject to you finding somewhere.

Click to expand...

Larry Boyd said:

You'll get the NSC elite on here soon such as Harry Wilsons Tackle boasting about his extension basically adding nothing to the debate.

Click to expand...

Herr Tubthumper said:

I wonder who’s behind this second account ?

Click to expand...

swd40 said:

Bandwagon jumping slightly.

Any recommended solicitors, who deal with buying/selling?

Click to expand...

Poojah said:

Just to throw a slightly less conventional option into the ring, depending on your circumstances, here’s what I did last year.

We were in the fortunate position of having a reasonable cash deposit (around 35%), which meant that we were theoretically able to get another mortgage for our new house without having to have sold our old one. The tricky thing was that we wouldn’t realistically have been able to sustain the monthly remortgage payments on both houses.

So, what we did was temporarily remortgaged our existing property onto an interest only mortgage which reduced the monthly repayments to a nominal figure so that we could go ahead and purchase our new home and then sell our old one any time we liked.

There were multiple benefits to this. It meant we were effectively chain free (which given what would ensue with Covid was crucial), gave us more of a case during negotiations and avoided the stress of moving out of one place and into another on the same day. There were some huge, unforeseen advantages too. In April I was able to renegotiate a significant reduction in price on account of the uncertainty of the pandemic - we ended up 8% under the asking price in an area where houses regularly go for more than the asking price. House prices in this area of Leeds are broadly up 10% since the mortgage market reopened, so we’re up almost 20% in the space of a year, remarkably.

It also meant that we were able to sell our old house on the back of rising house prices, so we gained there too. You’re in a stronger position as a seller, too. Of course, there are risks there in terms of what house prices do in the medium-term, and we got lucky, so keep that in mind.

Of course, this doesn’t work unless you have, or can create the cash to put down on the new house. However, since you’ve owned your current place for 23 years, I’m assuming you have a reasonable amount of equity. With that in mind, you could free up some of your existing equity as part of your remortgage and raise the cash that way.

The down sides? Well, you have two mortgages to sort out and the products you need are fairly specialist, however we used NSC’s very own [MENTION=3887]Uncle Spielberg[/MENTION] for this and it was relatively painless (at least for us). Less complex than chains can be, arguably. You’ll also pay a premium on stamp duty as its classed as a second home, however you have 3 years to sell the property and claim this back. You also need to check the early repayment terms of your remortgage as well. And of course, as I’ve said, there are risks in terms of what house prices do. If you buy now and then house prices crash, you may lose value on your sale. That said, the fact that you place yourself in a far stronger position as both a buyer and seller should hopefully offset much of that risk (though of course, I cannot see into the future).

Anyway, just some food for thought. As an option it worked brilliantly for us on every level, in part due to a quirk of the pandemic’s impact on the market, however it was my plan long before I’d heard of Covid-19 and I’d happily do it again.

Happy to answer any questions.

Click to expand...

dazzer6666 said:

Friends of mine recently did exactly this and it worked brilliantly. They had a stress-free 'gradual' move to the new place (and getting all the main decorating etc done before they moved), and were then in a v strong position when it came to selling their first place. Given the excess demand for property, and very low interest rates, if you can do it this way it's a good option.

Click to expand...

AmexRuislip said:

If and when you move, be wary of time wasters.
Our neighbours house is up for sale, and they've had several of them come around.

Click to expand...

clockend1983 said:

That’s what viewings are all about aren’t they.
People come and view and make an offer if they like
the property and it’s what they are looking for.
Is it if they don’t make an offer they are time wasters?

Click to expand...

dazzer6666 said:

Friends of mine recently did exactly this and it worked brilliantly. They had a stress-free 'gradual' move to the new place (and getting all the main decorating etc done before they moved), and were then in a v strong position when it came to selling their first place. Given the excess demand for property, and very low interest rates, if you can do it this way it's a good option.

Click to expand...

Poojah said:

Just to throw a slightly less conventional option into the ring, depending on your circumstances, here’s what I did last year.

We were in the fortunate position of having a reasonable cash deposit (around 35%), which meant that we were theoretically able to get another mortgage for our new house without having to have sold our old one. The tricky thing was that we wouldn’t realistically have been able to sustain the monthly remortgage payments on both houses.

So, what we did was temporarily remortgaged our existing property onto an interest only mortgage which reduced the monthly repayments to a nominal figure so that we could go ahead and purchase our new home and then sell our old one any time we liked.

There were multiple benefits to this. It meant we were effectively chain free (which given what would ensue with Covid was crucial), gave us more of a case during negotiations and avoided the stress of moving out of one place and into another on the same day. There were some huge, unforeseen advantages too. In April I was able to renegotiate a significant reduction in price on account of the uncertainty of the pandemic - we ended up 8% under the asking price in an area where houses regularly go for more than the asking price. House prices in this area of Leeds are broadly up 10% since the mortgage market reopened, so we’re up almost 20% in the space of a year, remarkably.

It also meant that we were able to sell our old house on the back of rising house prices, so we gained there too. You’re in a stronger position as a seller, too. Of course, there are risks there in terms of what house prices do in the medium-term, and we got lucky, so keep that in mind.

Of course, this doesn’t work unless you have, or can create the cash to put down on the new house. However, since you’ve owned your current place for 23 years, I’m assuming you have a reasonable amount of equity. With that in mind, you could free up some of your existing equity as part of your remortgage and raise the cash that way.

The down sides? Well, you have two mortgages to sort out and the products you need are fairly specialist, however we used NSC’s very own [MENTION=3887]Uncle Spielberg[/MENTION] for this and it was relatively painless (at least for us). Less complex than chains can be, arguably. You’ll also pay a premium on stamp duty as its classed as a second home, however you have 3 years to sell the property and claim this back. You also need to check the early repayment terms of your remortgage as well. And of course, as I’ve said, there are risks in terms of what house prices do. If you buy now and then house prices crash, you may lose value on your sale. That said, the fact that you place yourself in a far stronger position as both a buyer and seller should hopefully offset much of that risk (though of course, I cannot see into the future).

Anyway, just some food for thought. As an option it worked brilliantly for us on every level, in part due to a quirk of the pandemic’s impact on the market, however it was my plan long before I’d heard of Covid-19 and I’d happily do it again.

Happy to answer any questions.

Click to expand...