Has anyone ever sold (and bought) their property whilst living abroad?

[Boobz]

Our family currently lives in Rome but we are due to move back to the UK in August 2016.

In an ideal world, we would like to sell our property (in London) and buy the next place so that it's all ready to move into when we are due to go home.

However I am thinking this is going to be a nightmare as we currently have a tenant in our house (who is nice enough, but not that tidy as far as I have seen, and works long hours so won't be around for viewings really...) and also we would need to do some proper house hunting and go to the UK to look at places to buy but we have 3 kids all under 6 so would have to drag them around with us etc.

DH is keen to try, whereas I think it will just be easier if we move back into our (too small now) house for 6 months when we get home and try and do the sell/buy quickly when we're back.

Has anyone sold and bought whilst living overseas and do you have any advice?