Moving house. Should we go sale agreed first?

Eli1

We are thinking of moving house soon and have mortgage approval etc. As cash buyers are more attractive to sellers should we start selling our house now? We have not seen any house we want right now but season will pick up soon.

Just trying to figure out best tactics as we will be looking at second houses and want to be placed in best position should we find the right place.

JustMe,K

You can market your place and make the estate agent aware that you are yet to find a new property so they will alert potential purchasers to this, and it can be factored into the completion date. Depending on what you are buying, the vendors may not be interested in waiting for you to start things moving with your own place.

Eli1

Eli1 wrote: »

We are thinking of moving house soon and have mortgage approval etc. As cash buyers are more attractive to sellers should we start selling our house now? We have not seen any house we want right now but season will pick up soon.

Just trying to figure out best tactics as we will be looking at second houses and want to be placed in best position should we find the right place.

Thanks for that. Am very worried how we cover the period between us selling and closing on a new house. Looks like Airbnb with 2 small kids. Not attractive option

Brego888

I am in the process of buying and selling too op and I've a young family. There is no way I'll be disrupting them more during the process. We'll be making it a condition of sale that my current property will not be changing hands until the date we are in our new house.
Ill be making this very clear to perspective buyers.

It is a difficult process to schedule though as timing is key. We are advertising our current property in next 2 weeks and are due to move into new house in June. Obviously delays can happen and there is unforseen issues that can develop but put your family first.

Eli1

Brego888 wrote: »

I am in the process of buying and selling too op and I've a young family. There is no way I'll be disrupting them more during the process. We'll be making it a condition of sale that my current property will not be changing hands until the date we are in our new house.
Ill be making this very clear to perspective buyers.

It is a difficult process to schedule though as timing is key. We are advertising our current property in next 2 weeks and are due to move into new house in June. Obviously delays can happen and there is unforseen issues that can develop but put your family first.

Apologies for confusion earlier, we are not cash buyers are need a mortgage
The reason for the query was that a few people who have sold their house recently said they would only entertain cash buyer. They would maybe entertain a buyer who had proof of mortgage offer and had sale agreed on house

Sunrise_Sunset

I'm in the same boat. House hunting but haven't put our apartment up for sale yet. I've been in touch with an EA and they told me that a lot of sellers prefer the buyers to be already sale agreed on their property before they'd entertain an offer. This could be just the EA talking to get our business but I do believe there's truth in it.
We are considering going ahead and listing it for sale, even though we haven't found anywhere to buy yet. But it seems risky to us. 2 small kids here too.

JustMe,K

Eli1 wrote: »

Thanks for that. Am very worried how we cover the period between us selling and closing on a new house. Looks like Airbnb with 2 small kids. Not attractive option

My friend who sold recently had it as part of the contracts that he needed to have found somewhere to buy first, and there was a longstop date put in to the contracts also. I dont know the full details but would imagine it is fairly normal

Bigus

You need to see exactly what you're going to get for your current property so you need to sell first , particularly in today's market when asking prices are only a guide. Going sale agreed is not contractually binding and you can back out right up to signing contracts. Best to be straight up with everyone though in advance , and don't mess people around .

However before you put your house on the market , get 3 valuations, and then go look at potential purchases seriously. Treat the whole process as something that needs plenty of time ,effort and research, which may include taking time off work, to jump on properties for sale quickly.

antiskeptic

Eli1 wrote: »

We are thinking of moving house soon and have mortgage approval etc. As cash buyers are more attractive to sellers should we start selling our house now? We have not seen any house we want right now but season will pick up soon.

Just trying to figure out best tactics as we will be looking at second houses and want to be placed in best position should we find the right place.

Word from ea's is that cash has little advantage as mortgages are being passed without issue these days. In a head to head cash will win - but you wont get a price discount of more than a coulple of grand with it.

You need to work your buy and sell at the same time: your property on the market at the same time as viewing others - the ea will take you seriously then.

Sale agreeing on the new property will be dependent on your sale agreeing on your existing so you'll need bidding on your existing prop to be advancing in parallel with your bidding on the new.

If your sale isnt moving, the ea for the new isnt going to be interested in you.