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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

Viewing houses when ours isn’t sold.

30 replies

LindsayDentonsWineBottle · 20/04/2019 20:29

Our house has been on the market a week. We’ve had a couple of viewings but no offers. There’s some lovely houses I’ve seen on rightmove but am not sure whether we should view them as we are not proceedable at the moment?

Would the vendors entertain viewings from someone that hadn’t sold their house yet?

OP posts:

Hecateh · 20/04/2019 20:33

I'd rather people viewing mine had already sold - and preferably to first time buyers BUT not having sold is not an issue.

I would accept an offer in principle but not take mine off the market until a chain was complete - so hopefully my buyer's buyer's would be first timers.

Petalflowers · 20/04/2019 20:34

I thought it was quite normal to view houses when you haben’t sold.

HTruffle · 20/04/2019 20:35

This too is a question that has puzzled me recently. Ours is not even on the market but we went to view one recently and our offer was declined, with the estate agent suggesting we had no chance of being accepted until we had a sold house under our belt. It baffles me a bit though, because we live in a small ish town, we want to stay in the same town and therefore we could be asking a potential buyer to wait possibly months or years before we even found anywhere to move to.

collectingcpd · 20/04/2019 20:35

Depends where you are buying. We accepted an offer on our house from a buyer who hadn’t sold. When he sold he came back and reduced his offer to us by £50k. We said no. He has subsequently almost met us 1/2 way. We’ve been looking where we are buying for ages, and viewed quite a few. The market is good there and anything that’s nice and sensibly priced is going before it’s even gone online. We figure we need to have exchanged before we are considered serious buyers and be in with a chance.

eurochick · 20/04/2019 20:37

You can't wait till you have exchanged!

Andcake · 20/04/2019 20:40

I browsed before we had an offer. As it helped me define an area and get a feel for what we could get. we did end up buying one I had browsed when we did have an offer. We re visited it and it had also dropped in price 😀

bibbitybobbityyhat · 20/04/2019 20:40

You can always ask.

collectingcpd · 20/04/2019 20:41

We are going into temporary accom, so waiting until we’ve exchanged is fine.

Littlemissdaredevil · 20/04/2019 20:42

I think it depends on your local market. It’s OK as long as you are upfront about your position. Obviously not having sold yet does put you in a weaker position. I live in a small city and when I bought my first house I had an offer accepted without having a decision in principle. Now I’m looking at moving estate agents don’t seem especially concerned that I haven’t sold my property especially if the house I’m viewing has been on the market for a while. Where’s in the big city where I’m from the estate agents wouldn’t let you view unless you had sold!

thisisthetime · 20/04/2019 20:43

We just had an offer accepted on a house and as we’re not selling our current property it put us in a good position. They had a few people who wanted to make an offer but wouldn’t consider it until they had a buyer.

That said, the people they are buying from accepted their offer before they had sold their house.

I don’t think it would hurt to start to view some properties and there is no rule but bear in mind some people might prefer you to have a buyer already.

Grumpos · 20/04/2019 20:44

Eh???
If your house is on the market of course you can view.
What is the alternative? Wait until you’ve sold only to not find anything you like for months, leaving your buyer sat waiting?
In a chain there is always an expected amount of waiting, in an ideal world everyone would be able to proceed in a quick, orderly fashion but that’s just not realistic every time.
The only issue you might incur is viewing a house, falling in love and then not having your offer accepted bc seller wants to move faster. That said, the seller may be in no rush or may have not found anywhere themselves.

MRex · 20/04/2019 20:46

Of course you can view once your house is on the market, they might not (and should not) take an offer seriously but it'll get you thinking about what you're looking for and it's the only way to try to get everyone moving at once unless there's a huge disparity in desirability of the properties.

florence11 · 20/04/2019 20:48

Depends. I refused viewers who hadn't sold because we were keen to move and had plenty getting booked from those ready to go.

Flicketyflack · 20/04/2019 20:49

I have viewed houses when my home was on the market the last two times I have moved. However, my first move, fifteen years ago, the market was different and some people would not let you view their property unless you had sold. However the market is different and I think people are feeling grateful for viewings.
We went on the market in October and viewed lots of houses, our house sold in December and we are moving next month to a house we initially viewed in October!

In short I would view anything you are interested in because it gives you a feel for what is available at your budget!

Good luck

Original poster

LindsayDentonsWineBottle · 20/04/2019 20:54

I didn’t know whether it would be worth selling ours first, going into rented for 6 months, as that would put us in a stronger position. If our house sells for roughly the asking price, we will pay off the outstanding mortgage and buy the new house outright as we have a lot of equity in it. So we would be cash buyers with no chain at that point.

Problem is though that I don’t know if I can face moving into rented, then moving again a few months down the line, moving is really stressful. And then we would have wasted money on rent that we didn’t really need to.

OP posts:

user1474894224 · 20/04/2019 20:55

If you want to buy one also listed by your agent then the agent has a great motivation to find buyers for your house (two lots of commission).

BarrenFieldofFucks · 20/04/2019 20:56

We've never actually been to view until under offer or similarly able to proceed. I don't want to get attached to a house I can't buy.

HelloSummmmmmer · 20/04/2019 21:04

Not having sold shouldn't put you off viewing. I've rarely been asked whether I've sold or not when arranging a viewing.

However, I would be surprised if you could get an offer accepted without having sold first (or at least having accepted an offer on your place and in the process of selling). I guess it depends on the area - we're in London and decided to sell first and move into rented for a year to put us in a stronger position to buy.

ChristmasFluff · 20/04/2019 21:06

The only time I've not looked whilst selling was when I was moving long-distance and was unfamiliar with the area I needed to move to - so renting made sense to get a feel for where I wanted to buy.

Currently looking to move to a familiar place - cannot proceed until at least the end of the year, but am already getting a feel for the market and it's not fast-moving, so for me looking at houses when I am in that area makes sense. Those houses will very likely still be on the market when I am looking to move.

So depends on your circumstances. But my feeling is it is a buyer's market, so what't the harm? If you do give an offer, the buyer can choose to accept or not, depending on your circumstance.

But as for viewings? I've never known anyone even ask for 'status' prior to a viewing. why would they? After all, someone might choose to view on a whim, fall in love and offer full price, then be able to sell quickly.

Fannydango · 20/04/2019 21:12

Of course you can view! Putting an offer in, on the other hand, might be tricky as most sellers will only accept one from a buyer who’s got an offer themselves.
Absolutely do not wait until you’ve exchanged - nobody would reasonably expect you to do that!!

Hopeygoflightly · 20/04/2019 21:14

Totally normal around here...

notso · 20/04/2019 21:15

We were refused viewings initially as we weren't putting ours up for sale and the estate agents didn't seem to believe us when we said we could afford to buy a second property we had to offer to produce a bank statement to prove we were serious.

Bluntness100 · 20/04/2019 21:20

As long as your house is on thr market it's the norm to view.

If you do make an offer, it's unlikely if it's accepted the seller would take it off the market until you had sold. So you have a chance someone else will offer and be oroceedable.

You can only usually have it taken off the market if you've sold and are proceedable.

But viewing is no problem. You could sell yours next week!

JW13 · 20/04/2019 21:30

Totally normal here. We viewed our new house before our house was even on the market. We would only have sold our old house for the new house if that makes sense. The sellers accepted our offer but didn't take our new house off the market until we sold ours, fortunately to a no chain buyer. Took us 3.5 months to get an offer on ours but luckily the sale all went through and we now own the new house. You're definitely in a better position if you're under offer but it doesn't mean you're ruled out if you aren't.

MeredithGrey1 · 20/04/2019 21:43

Depends on the market in your area as well. We’ve just sold our flat and none of the agents were bothered we hadn’t sold when we first started looking but a colleague of mine mentioned that when he bought his house a while ago (not sure when but was a time when demand was high), estate agents weren't interested in you unless you’d sold - I guess they had a lot of other potential buyers they didn’t need to be. In the current market with fewer buyers around I doubt anyone would want to stop you looking.

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