Selling/buying or buying/selling

jrar

Allowing for the fact that a lot of cash buyers are still floating around, is it totally unrealistic to bid on a house "subject to sale of one's own house" in the current market i.e. does one ALWAYS have to sell first in order to be considered a genuine bidder by most vendors/EAs ?

I'm looking in an area that doesn't have a huge amount of activity in the market so the prospect of selling up, trying to find a rental property in the same area (kids are in school etc.), putting most of our stuff into self-storage seeing as most rentals in this country are pre-furnished, and then waiting God knows how long for something suitable to come up (and to outbid any others etc.) seems a very tortuous process.

Do any posters have experience in recent times of buying in a chain ?

riclad

Most people look at the area ,you are going into,
put their house for sale,
then if they get a good bid,
then put in a bid for a house for sale .
Subject to their sale being completed .
Say you bid on house x , you are presuming that the other buyers will be cash buyers .
Maybe half or less of buyers are cash buyers ,
and it depends on the area you are looking to live in.
You could bid on 3 houses, in week,1,2,3 and see if any of your bids get accepted .
IF you need a loan ,go to your bank and say ,
i intend to sell my house for say 140,
will i be able to borrow 60,
if i need to spend 200k on buying a house .
if the other bidders are not cash buyers you,ll be on an equal footing with them.
You can look on property register see what houses sold for in that area ,
where you intend to live .

castle2012

We went sale agreed on our own last November and want sale agreed on the house we bought 6 weeks later. The key is not having a big chain . Our buyer was a first time buyer. The house we bought was a voluntary repossession with the owner and the bank . We where lucky no big chain . That's key I think . Hope that helps

jrar

Thanks for the responses - the likelihood of us selling up, and something coming on the market in the same timeframe is pretty unlikely.

The additional problem I have is that for the few houses that DO come up for sale, most are handled by the same EA and he has basically told me that we're not in the game from his perspective unless we've already sold up or have a buyer for our own place. Presumably therefore, even if we DID put a bid on a place, he wouldn't inform the vendor, or would actively advise the vendor to ignore our bid and focus on those ready to hand over the full asking price without delay ?

Miamiheat

jrar wrote: »

Thanks for the responses - the likelihood of us selling up, and something coming on the market in the same timeframe is pretty unlikely.

The additional problem I have is that for the few houses that DO come up for sale, most are handled by the same EA and he has basically told me that we're not in the game from his perspective unless we've already sold up or have a buyer for our own place. Presumably therefore, even if we DID put a bid on a place, he wouldn't inform the vendor, or would actively advise the vendor to ignore our bid and focus on those ready to hand over the full asking price without delay ?

I am not sure the following idea can be of any help:

Put house for sale, but be choosy of a buyer who has some time and can be flexible, perhaps agree on a slightly lower price in exchange for patience. DO close the sale asap to get your money and not torture your buyer on the conveyancing aspect but HAVE a rental agreement in place with your buyer - as in you are renting your own house that has become your buyer's house on a month to month basis until you are able to move to a property of your own. That should be beneficial to both you and the buyer..

I am in a situation as a buyer where i see a house at the limit of my budget with seller living in it and i have a lease agreement until December. Given the hassle it could be to break my lease ad the fact i would be left with no money to actually move I would favour a solution that gives me a better price and a little time (i do save every month). However the actual purchase would have to be fast (time limits on bank sanctions etc)