. . . to want to make an offer on a house?!

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Hi everyone - I've just had a really confusing conversation with an estate agent and could do with some advice.

Our house is going on the market - we've signed contracts with our estate agent, engaged a solicitor, the photographer is coming this week, so I reckon it will be live and viewable next week.

We've been to see a house that we love, and I just called the estate agent to find out how to make an offer. Coincidentally, it's the same agent we're selling with. They've told us that we can't make an offer on our new house until our own house is sold, we can only make an "expression of interest". This doesn't really make sense to me, as I'm not sure we would accept an offer on our house if we had nowhere to go.

From chatting to the vendor during the viewing, we know there is no onward chain as they are moving to their other property in the south of England (we're in the north). I thought it would be their decision as to whether to accept our offer in the knowledge that it may take a few weeks to sell our house. They might be happy to do that, or they might not. Up to them.

AIBU to be a bit annoyed with the estate agent or is this normal practice?

You can’t make an offer without your house being sold or at the very least with an offer!

This seems to depend on the agent/area/vendor.
We made an offer which was accepted on our house before having an offer on the one we were selling. They were both with the same agent, and it motivates them to find a buyer for our house to complete the chain.

It's pretty standard to only accept offers from proceedable buyers - i.e., people who have sold their houses. Your house could be sold to someone in a massive chain, or to a FTB - they have no way of knowing until you have the actual buyer!

Yes, someone has to take the risk first, but it makes sense that it's the seller, not the buyer.

Yes, it's standard practice. You're not far enough along the selling path to be considered a serious buyer. If a cash buyer or first time buyer came along and offered on the house you are looking at, they could be more attractive to the seller, even if they offered a lower price.

If you made an offer and it was accepted, you would expect the seller to take the property off the market so you could start your buying process which you can't complete without selling your own property. Until you have an offer on your property, you will always be stuck - the seller has no idea whether you will get an offer tomorrow, next year or not at all.

If you make an offer the estate agent has to forward it to the seller, and it’s up to them if they want to accept and wait for you to sell.

Never been told this. They always ask my position but never said they won't take offers even if we hadn't sold.

Hmm . . . mixed responses.

I thought the estate agent would be obliged to put our offer forward to the seller, and then it's the seller's decision as to whether they would accept or decline based on their opinion of our circumstances.

I've sold my house, but I'd have been pretty pissed off if the agent had put forward an offer from someone who hadn't sold.

I'm wondering how people feel confident accepting an offer and agreeing a completion date if they don't know where they're moving to yet, though?

This is horrible. I've never bought and sold at the same time before, it's a bit stressful

Presumably the agent is acting on instructions from the seller?

Write offer down, send it to vendor. Tell them agent not passing on all offers.

You don't agree a completion date until a lot further into the process when the chain is in place.

Eg FTBs offer on your house and you accept
You offer on house A
Owners of house A offer on house B
Owners of House B are moving abroad so not buying in the UK

All the above has to be in place (ie a complete chain) and all the legal work (searches, surveys, mortgage offers) started before exchange and completion dates can be thought about. This can take months and if any of the parties pull out, or face problems, the whole chain can fall apart and even be back to square one. Yes it is stressful, and ridiculous, but that's the house buy/sell process in England for you.

The vendor may have already stated that they would not consider an offer from someone who hasn't sold. It's pretty standard practice in any case. And yes, it's bloody stressful - we're going through it all at the moment!!

Also, things have to be 'ready' from the bottom of the chain up, when exchanging and completing, so in the example above, the FTBs exchange on your house, then you exchange on house A then the sellers of house A exchange on house B.

So if there are any problems as this all goes through, someone is left without a house, which is a favourable situation to being left with two houses when they only have money for and only need one.

Write offer down, send it to vendor. Tell them agent not passing on all offers.

And they will say so what? You aren't in a position to proceed. It's about as useful as me making an offer on the same house.

A good agent is weeding out the (current) time wasters. Go back when you have an offer on your house. Until that point you are in no position to proceed (unless i'm assuming you have the money sat in the bank already).

You don't agree completion dates until way further down the line after searches/surveys etc. Completion date is only agreed when all parties are ready to exchange contracts.

For example, the people we were buying from had not found anywhere when they accepted our offer. It took them another 2 months to find somewhere. And another 10 weeks after that for the whole chain to complete. No way could that final date be set until everyone knew where they were going and that there would be no issues in the chain.

I am not convinced by the 'you're not a serious buyer until you have an offer' thing. All chains and circumstances are different. We were in rented accommodation, looking to move to a family home having previously moved out and rented out our too small own house. The decision on whether to sell our previous home was based on the final value of the house we were buying. If we had bought a cheaper one, we would not have needed to sell it. The agents knew that, so once they had found us a house we liked, they moved quickly to get it on the market and get an offer. Their commission on the houses further up the chain (i.e. the one we were buying and the next one up) was highly motivational to get the chain to work.

I'm an ex estate agent. If you want to make an offer, the agent legally has to put it forward. However, they also have to disclose your situation to the vendor, and normally a vendor will not consider an offer from a buyer who isn't in a position to proceed.

So your offer really is just an expression of interest, although they do have to put it forward.

I would just tell the seller you're interested and will make an offer once you have a buyer, if the house is still available.

My house is one of only a few of it's kind, they tend to sell very, very quickly. I would worried it would sell before I would be any where near having a house to move to. I can see why the practice exists though. You want to know buyers are serious.

Just seen you last update. You don't agree a completion date at the point you accept an offer on your own house. When you accept an offer from a buyer who is in a position to proceed (compete chain or no chain) your agent will explain to them that you have to find somewhere. Normally buyers won't spend any money (get the survey done, etc) until the chain is complete.

Once the chain is complete (top and bottom) there is still a lot of work for the solicitors to do. Completion dates are agreed at the point you exchange contracts and this is when the sale becomes legally binding. The whole chain exchanges in the same day. You can obviously discuss completion dates and express a preference, but it's not confirmed until you exchange.

If your buyer is pushing you and saying that they need to be in by a certain date, and you've not found a property, it's the agents job to make it clear to them that you won't be moving until you've found somewhere. Your agent acts for you remember, as you're the one paying their bill.

ou can’t make an offer without your house being sold or at the very least with an offer!

Rubbish of course you can. That said very few people will accept your offer and take their house off the market if you have to wait for your house to sell. If you have the funds to get your new mortgage before selling then you can proceed that way. Otherwise you'll have to hope the house you're interested in doesn't sell quickly.

Seems the norm to wait until your house is sold before putting a offer in on another one.

The Estate Agent has a legal obligation to pass on all offers, but the vendor has prob said that they will only accept offers in a position to proceed.

We have put an offer on a house that already had two other offers. Both offers are from buyers who need to sell their homes. So you can put an offer if your home hasn't been sold where we live.

We are FTB's so we are going in with a mortgage no chain attached.

The sellar refused other offers because she didn't want to wait around for their homes to be sold therefore proceeding with us unless someone outbids us.

I thought they legally had to pass all offers on to the vendor.

We made an offer before we had any offers made on ours. The vendor accepted the offer we made and it would be binding once we had accepted an offer on our house.

Another buyer also did the same so they provisionally accepted both offers and basically whichever one of us sold our house first got it.

I offered on the house I'm in now before my house had even had any viewings - they accepted the offer but wouldn't remove from market until we'd had an offer on ours and proof of where funds were coming from, which is understandable.

Must differ across agents.