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AIBU?

to go and view a house when mine isnt on the market yet?

24 replies

ThinkIveBeenHacked · 18/07/2014 12:55

We live in a two bed and at some point in the future (three years or so) will need a three bed. However we are in a situation whereby our search area is a maximum of five streets. Therefore I feel that as a house that fits our essential requirements (size cost and location) has just come onto the market, we should see it.

We have not had our home valued but if this house is suitable for us, we could start arranging that from tomorrow.

If needs be, we can move in with my parents very short term should there be an overlap.

Am I mad to go and look at this house without my own being up for sale?

As an extra, two flats identical to mine on my street have sold within a month each.

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MehsMum · 18/07/2014 13:14

No, as long as you make your situation clear to the vendor: that your flat isn't on the market yet but that flats on your road sell very fast.

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ChickenFajitaAndNachos · 18/07/2014 13:18

Can you afford to move now? If you can then it's worth viewing the house.

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ThinkIveBeenHacked · 18/07/2014 13:19

The house is actually at the top of our street so im hoping the vendor will understand that we are in a comparatively strong location (ours are 1800 stone built flats converted and they are in a newer brick built home up on the top corner).

They may even need a bit of time to move out anyways.

If I like this house, is my next step contacting my mortgage lender? I will need to know exactly how much I meed to repay (I know how much capital is left but are there fines?) And whether I could remortgage for this new property.

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smileyhappymummy · 18/07/2014 13:22

Not unreasonable at all, just let them know what your position is. We have just accepted an offer on our house and I would have been quite happy for you to come and view but might have appreciated knowing (and also a bit of flexibility from you in terms of timing of the viewing so I didn't knacker myself cleaning so you could view the next day!)

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museumum · 18/07/2014 13:24

We are planning to look for a house before selling next year, but we will have our house ready to sell and have had our mortgage conversations.

This is because we're in a very sellable traditional flat and we are looking for something very specific to do with our hobbies and my work-from-home.

If we put our flat on the market first we'd sell it too quickly as we think that what we're looking for generally only comes up once every two to three months, and of course, no guarantee we'll get the first one we want that comes up.

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ChickenFajitaAndNachos · 18/07/2014 13:25

It's worth a view and yes contact your lender or a mortgage broker. You will probably need an up to date valuation if your flat as well so work out the sums and factor in move costs too. Good luck.

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itsahen · 18/07/2014 13:28

I agreed a purchase before I put mine up as I knew it would sell immediately. It did within a week. I know loads who have done it Grin

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ThinkIveBeenHacked · 18/07/2014 13:33

excellent responses. I am booked for half five today and going along on another viewing so house already prepped for viewers.

The estate agent it is up with actually sold us our flat six years ago Grin and we bought it two days after it went on the market. our flats are very rare. its not in an immaculate condition but is miles better than it was when I bought it.

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Choccyhobnob · 18/07/2014 13:37

On NYE I said to a friend that I wasn't looking to move this year, on Jan 3rd I saw a property online, 4th Jan I went to view it, loved it, arranged a valuation of ours and ours was sold by the 10th!! Moved in on 1st May and I love it. Crazy fast process though!

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standwellclearvehiclereversing · 18/07/2014 13:38

We did this, fell in love with the house we saw and managed to get our house on the market and sell very quickly.

The sale completed. I'm sitting in the new house now Smile

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TestingTestingWonTooFree · 18/07/2014 13:42

If sellers want to be picky, they can always restrict who views their home. Some (unreasonable IMO) sellers wouldn't let my parents view a house without seeing their bank statements as proof they could afford to buy it. Upset them so they didn't take it any further and bought from some normal people.

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Snugglepiggy · 18/07/2014 13:50

We've just accepted an offer on ours but each time I rang about viewing properties estate agents asked what our position is, and they always said excellent when I replied house already on the market.You're obviously not a time waster but we definitely got at least one viewing that was 'just being nosey ' as ours is quite a distinctive property.And it's an exhausting process even though I'm pretty tidy keeping your house ready for a look round.
So as long as your honest,and even if this property goes before you sell it will help you decide if you really want to move won't it ?

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ShotgunNotDoingThePans · 18/07/2014 13:58

Yes, be honest; we've just done the same thing and are hoping to move in a few weeks (not exchanged yet so maybe optimistic...).
Our vendors gave us a deadline to come up with our own buyer, which luckily we did. They stopped having viewings during that period.

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HumpsForHalfMile · 18/07/2014 14:12

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

AnnoyingOrange · 18/07/2014 14:36

We did this. We were quite happy where we were, but an unusual house came on the market so we took the opportunity to view it.
We made an offer and put ours on the market and we sold it within three weeks

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museumum · 18/07/2014 17:07

A good idea when speaking to an agent who asks what your current position is might be to say "ready to sell, looking for an agent" :)

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mumminio · 18/07/2014 18:43

Go and see it. You're doing market research. If you do make an offer, disclose your situation to the agent.

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Balaboosta · 18/07/2014 18:59

You can look at a property under any circumstances you like!

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SoapySudsy · 18/07/2014 20:00

We did it. We viewed it. Loved it. Then put ours straight on the market. It sold very quickly and we moved here last year.

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ThinkIveBeenHacked · 18/07/2014 20:04

so we went and viewed it and it waa totally not righ for us. glad to have discounted it and it was the vendors parents doing the viewings rather than an EA so it was totally pressure free.

Thanks everyone!

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writtenguarantee · 18/07/2014 20:05

why not? look if you like.

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Pregnantagain7 · 18/07/2014 20:07

I think as long as the sellers know and are happy with you viewing their property it's fine. When we put our house on the market we wouldn't let someone come and view our house because theirs wasn't on the market. They were having a valuation done the following week, we knew exactly where they lived (just round the corner from us) and their house never ended up on the market they were definitely just coming for a nosey.

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GalaxyInMyPants · 18/07/2014 20:16

I did this.

Had no intention of moving. Saw a house in the local paper and fell in love. Rang the agents and booked an appt for the following day.

Told dh when he came home. We viewed the property on the Saturday morning. I was making appts sat afternoon to have ours valued. That took a few days.

We had our house on the market the following Thursday and sold it the next day.

We moved in 9 weeks after I'd seen the advert.

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GalaxyInMyPants · 18/07/2014 20:17

Oh yes and the day after we'd seen the house we bought, we went to see quite a few other houses to make sure there was nothing else we'd like better. A few vendors wouldn't let us make an appt. their loss. Once ours was sold the next week I didnt bother going to see them.

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