If you sell your house, but there's nothing you want to buy on the market???

[Igloo71]

We're not in this situation, but it's one I can see becoming an issue for us when we put our house on the market this year.

Current house is typical family four bed house, five minute walk from a good primary school, on an estate where similar houses are sought after, but don't come on the market very often. It's also less than a ten minute walk from a future Crossrail station. As long as we get the asking price right, I think we'll sell it fairly easily.

We've been keeping a close eye on Rightmove for a few years now and so few properties come on the market which I'd be interested in buying. So my question is, do we put ours up for sale with a clear guidance that we don't have anything in mind (stalling potential purchasers from doing surveys, etc)? Or have it all ready to go on the market in a flash if the right home comes up? In which case, we might lose potential new home through not having ours already up for sale/under offer?

Anybody have any experience with either of these scenarios? Selling current house and going into rental isn't something we'd consider immediately.

[MirandaWest]

My sister did this - there was initially a place they wanted but then vendor changed their mind. So they rented for a year.

[3point14159265359]

I'd say it depends on what you want to buy and why and realistically how quickly you can sell.

We were in similar boat - wanted to sell perfectly adequate 4 bed for a differently laid out 4 bed in same town. There were very few houses that met our requirements, and we weren't really prepared to move to a rental as our need to sell wasn't pressing enough to merit two moves.

We still hadn't decided what to do when we saw a house we wanted and viewed it. We spent a crazy week getting house ready for sale, put it on the market with the estate agent who was selling the other house and essentially said that if you can sell this, then we will buy that. We managed to find a buyer within a week and now live in the new house.

That worked for us because old house was in very desirable area and we were able to ask for a fairly unambitious asking price. If we'd been hoping to get top dollar for old house, I'm not sure we'd have managed.

[TheGreenTriangle]

This is why we have been looking for a year and not put our own house on the market - agents very sure they'll be able to sell ours (I agree, seeing how quickly the few that are similar to ours have sold). But it's the dearth of anything we want that is stopping us from going on the market.

Even looking on Rightmove at houses that are above our budget (yes, pointless exercise) brings up nothing that we'd like to live in. Our fantasy house, that we can afford, just doesn't seem to exist

I would feel incredible pressure and would probably have lost many buyers in the last year if we had put our house on the market, sold it and made everyone in the chain wait whilst we looked for our next house. Like 3point, there's no pressure for ourselves to move, so why create pressure by selling without having found anything?

Agents keep telling me it would make us more attractive buyers in turn, but given that we've found exactly zero houses that we'd like to move to, I'm not convinced by that argument.

[Igloo71]

3point14159265359 sounds like your thoughts mirror ours. Before you found your dream home, did you discuss this scenario with estate agents? Did they offer any guidance?

[Igloo71]

I completely agree, nothing on the market round here too and my big concern is that potential buyer and estate agent (pushing for the sale) would pile pressure on us.

[3point14159265359]

No, we had done exactly nothing beyond lamenting the dearth of suitable houses on Rightmove. I was very certain we'd be able to sell quickly though, due to area. If I'd have been less certain, I may well have checked with EA.

If I was in your shoes now though, I'd get the house ready for sale (I don't mean by putting all your stuff in storage, I mean finishing off the undone DIY) and speaking to some estate agents.

[lljkk]

We rented. We planned to rent because we had to move and that was that. Having a chain behind me was so stressful. I don't know how people do that!

I hated viewing houses where the vendors said "We only put this on the market because we saw X house we really want." My first thought was "I am totally wasting my time because the chances of your purchase falling thru are so very high, I know know that I have to look elsewhere."

[WhereYouLeftIt]

"We've been keeping a close eye on Rightmove for a few years now and so few properties come on the market which I'd be interested in buying."
In that case, would it be worth considering building the house you want, rather than waiting for one someone else built to be put up for sale?

[RaphaellaTheSpanishWaterDog]

We put our last house on the market because we'd found the perfect house to buy - very strict criteria as had to be a detached Arts & Crafts period house with large garden - and did manage to sell ours (almost fully restored Georgian house in a slow moving part of rural Wiltshire) within five weeks enabling us to complete on sale/purchase within 14 weeks of ours going onto the market.

Going into rented wasn't an option for us - we have no mortgage, are self-employed and all our cash was tied up in the old house/required for the new one/moving costs - as we have two dogs, three cats and shed loads of stuff so one set of removals alone set us back just under 4k

Getting all the unfinished jobs done is a good idea so then you'll be ready to go should the elusive house suddenly appear. We were coming to the end of a three year major project when our perfect next house turned up on RM and we had to go onto the market whilst still getting a few bits completed which was a pain.

[OliviaBenson]

If you've been looking at rightmove for a couple of years are you sure that you are being realistic in terms of what you want and can afford?

[Chewbecca]

We waited until the house we wanted to buy came up. Viewed it, made an offer, agreed price and put ours on market with same agent immediately (it was ready to sell, no clear outs or little jobs needing). It only took about a week to have both sake and purchase agreed.

It is a bit risky as you could lose the house you want to buy (though unlikely for in a week), and you are not in a terribly strong negotiating position on your sale. However, for me selling mine and not having anywhere I loved to go was a bigger risk.

[wickedwaterwitch]

Are there houses you like nearby that aren't on the market yet?

If so could you leaflet them?

You might find someone who will sell to you. I know someone who did this successfully.