[Misc] House buying & selling question

thedonkeycentrehalf · Feb 28, 2021

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

n1 gull · Feb 28, 2021

Our next door neighbour is moving and they wouldn't even show them houses until there was an offer on their house.
Apparently the market is mad due to stamp duty. They sold first weekend. They had 6 viewings on the Saturday and offers on the Monday.

studio150 · Feb 28, 2021

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

The current covid restrictions may play a part as to whether people are keen for you to visit if you haven't already got a buyer for your existing house.

sully · Feb 28, 2021

studio150 said:
The current covid restrictions may play a part as to whether people are keen for you to visit if you haven't already got a buyer for your existing house.

I’m not entirely sure I’d be comfortable letting others view my house or me view other houses at the moment. Not a time I’d consider moving unless I had to, despite the stamp duty benefit.

I’ve always thought it better to get a buyer for yours fist, though. Nothing worse than finding the home you want and then being unable to have it as nobody wants your current one!

DJ NOBO · Feb 28, 2021

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

You should at least have a good idea of what you’re looking for before you put your house on the market imo.
Good houses at competitive prices are selling fast atm.

nwgull · Feb 28, 2021

Getting a buyer for your house first is always best as it puts you in a position to be able to make a purchase. A seller is very unlikely to accept an offer and stop taking further viewings if you’re not in a position to procede.

Larry Boyd · Feb 28, 2021

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

amexer · Feb 28, 2021

If you have made up mind about moving get a buyer and you will be in a position to make offer on another property. Worse comes worse and you cant find anything just withdraw from sale

AmexRuislip · Feb 28, 2021

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

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.

The Antikythera Mechanism · Feb 28, 2021

The housing market when selling and buying is unfathomable at the moment. We’re selling a 2 bed flat where we have accepted an offer by a first time buyer (£80k can you believe it - Lytham St Anne’s). The solicitors say that it will be a minimum 20 weeks to complete as it’s a leasehold property. This leaves so much time for buyers to change their minds if they find something else and then it’s back to square one. Hey ho!

BBassic · Feb 28, 2021

We're just at the tail end of selling and buying.

The various estate agents, when we started to look at properties were advising that they wouldn't accept offers until we had a buyer. Something to consider.

Because of the restrictions they are supremely wary of people 'window shopping'.

Billy the Fish · Feb 28, 2021

nwgull said:
Getting a buyer for your house first is always best as it puts you in a position to be able to make a purchase. A seller is very unlikely to accept an offer and stop taking further viewings if you’re not in a position to procede.

Basically what I was going to say.

The estate agents won't take an offer until you've got an offer on yours.

Lots of swings and roundabouts here. Personally I'd start looking now to get a feel of the market and what's available in your price range. If you've priced to sell quickly then it might move fast, if you've priced for max value them you might have to accept losing out on some houses you like.

Wrong-Direction · Feb 28, 2021

Few of my mates been selling/buying recently, sounds horrendous

Sent from my SM-A715F using Tapatalk

A mex eyecan · Feb 28, 2021

it’s a mad situation.

We weren’t even allowed to view properties unless we were under offer.

So,we had 10 viewings, and four offers inside 24 hours. Nothing much coming to market, so after looking every single day for. 2months we lost our buyer.

Back onto market. 6 viewings next day, 3 offers, all higher that previously accepted, but still little coming to market of interest.

Pinning90% of our hopes on an executor sale coming on in next few days, then hoping the interior is as of as much interest to us as the exterior seems to be.

If it’s not, and we can’t find suitable elsewhere our buyer will probably disappear again and so the merry go round starts all over

beorhthelm · Feb 28, 2021

A mex eyecan said:
it’s a mad situation.

We weren’t even allowed to view properties unless we were under offer.

cant understand this practice, if every agent took this approach there would be no market.

A mex eyecan · Feb 28, 2021

beorhthelm said:
cant understand this practice, if every agent took this approach there would be no market.

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.

Gabbafella · Feb 28, 2021

I'd like to be able to buy my flat but it's literally impossible. It's housing association with right to buy, you get a discount based on location plus an added discount for each year in the property, all in all we have around £100k discount but we had the flat valued at £320-£350k, we will never get a £220k+ mortgage on our combined salaries.
It's hugely frustrating when we both work our arses off to try and give ourselves the best life possible yet property prices are so ludicrously expensive that we can't afford to do anything.

Poojah · Feb 28, 2021

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.

spongy · Feb 28, 2021

Gabbafella said:
I'd like to be able to buy my flat but it's literally impossible. It's housing association with right to buy, you get a discount based on location plus an added discount for each year in the property, all in all we have around £100k discount but we had the flat valued at £320-£350k, we will never get a £220k+ mortgage on our combined salaries.
It's hugely frustrating when we both work our arses off to try and give ourselves the best life possible yet property prices are so ludicrously expensive that we can't afford to do anything.

I feel and completely understand your pain. It's all just shit. Not just treading in dog shit shit. But proper shit.

Chicken Run · Feb 28, 2021

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

Agree a sale on yours first.

If you don’t the place that you find first as always will be at a price that requires your property to be sold for more than it’s worth making your move un likely.

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[Misc] House buying & selling question

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