Are you buying/selling or staying put?

[sst1234]

Not an AIBU but interested in how fellow MNers are approaching any house moves that they had planned. As a northerner living on the outskirts of a big city, I am amazed at how much prices are sky rocketing here. The rate at which properties are coming on the market has increased but at the same time, the rate and speed at which they are selling is fastest I have ever known, anecdotally speaking as a Rightmove addict.

The upsizing move I had planned for some time looks unlikely this year now. And the uncertainty just never seems to end, first with Brexit, then GE, now the pandemic. Again anecdotally, there is so much in the news about people leaving big cities to head out to less urban, less well connected parts of the country for a better quality of life while they WFH. I am curious if fellow MNers are doing the same. Also how are you approaching your upsizing/downsizing/FTB plans. This is not a crystal ball type question as no one knows what will happen to the market, just interested in how others are planning their house buying/selling plans.

We're selling. We were planning on doing so anyway, but the stamp duty holiday has made us get on with it. But not sure whether we will buy now, or whether prices will drop enough once the stamp duty holiday is over to make it worth waiting (selling in England and buying in Scotland so smaller savings to be had as stamp duty holiday is less generous).

I bought my first house at the beginning of January before Covid. I went ahead and moved in in June. I'm wondering now if it was the right thing to do - my job seems safe for now but I was on furlough for a long time so who knows what will happen if things take a dive again. I was in a rented flat before and as a single parent if I lost my job I would have been able to claim housing benefit to pay the rent, now I'll get no help if it happens.

We’ve just sold (took one week!) Can’t find anywhere to move to as houses in our desired area almost never come on the market. Will probably have to rent. Had been planning to move for a while but the stamp duty break gave us the kick up the arse we needed to get on with it.

Staying put (hopefully for the next 30+ years!) but would be curious to see what our house is worth. I have some friends hoping to move to a 3 bed and are quoting almost the same price we paid for our 4 bed which we bought in 2016.

In the middle of a split move, sold December 18, bought a lower price bolt hole and was hoping to have moved on by now.

However, I have come unstuck with those plans because I just cant find what I want, or lose out by not being fast enough when I do.

I have just driven home from family trying to decide what to do.

I think I will now wait till after March, hoping that prices may return to their pre-covid levels (they have gone mad here since lockdown). I also don’t want to be caught trying to move during another CV peak.

We are hoping to put our house on the market in a couple of weeks. We were planning to do it next spring but it seems daft not to have a go right now.

It’s a pretty country cottage with a posh new kitchen extension, a few acres of land, super fast broadband and we are near lots of good beaches, so I’m hoping a posh city type who has started home working will snap it up.
Ideally we would then be looking to buy but we want to move across the country and house hunting trips might be difficult if we get a covid spike in the autumn.

We’ve just moved. So glad too as we now have a nice big garden, much more space and rural location should lockdown ever happen again!

We are mid house selling/buying.
It's fallen through 3 times so far, as people who have been put on furlough are now getting their mortgages stopped or reduced.
It's been pretty crazy!
We hope to continue to move, our mortgage company out of nowhere has reduced the amount by 30k even though non of us were on furlough, thankfully due to equity we are still able to purchase our house, but it's very unstable at the moment. I don't think anyone knows what to do for the best x

We went on market last week. Hoping to stay in next place 10 years plus and so if prices do dip I’m sure they’ll go back up.

We had planned to buy in October this year but this week I've narrowly avoided redundancy so we've decided to stay put, keep saving and see what the market is like this time next year.

I had my house up for sale in January, in a popular area but house type isn’t typical for the houses in the area, so although houses generally get offers within days of going on the market, ours took months (thanks to Covid too). We accepted an offer in June which was less than asked price but we weren’t in a position to wait around. We managed to put a lower offer in for the house we wanted to make up for it. We were lucky the people living in the house we’re buying wanted to sell quickly and hated having viewings, they didn’t hesitate to accept the offer. Since then, I’ve noticed similar houses in the area we’re buying and area we currently live have risen so much. If we didn’t offer when we did I think our move would have had to go on hold.

It’s weird. Our next door neighbour pretty much identical house sold recently for an amount we’d be very happy with (it went to a bidding war!). Ours is a touch smaller so priced to reflect this. We have new bathrooms, kitchen etc (all white, very vanilla!). one viewing in six weeks! Meanwhile the housing market everywhere seems to be on fire.

Staying put. It's not a dream home but we've done loads to it and it's close to work.
I'd love a detached place but they are too much money.

We’re in the middle of selling.
We got an asking price offer within 3 weeks of house going up.
Stamp duty is allowing us to move to a bigger house which we’d probably not have been able to do for a few more years.

Trying to sell our 500sq ft gardenless london flat since March just before lockdown. No offers. Some viewings but not many. Price lowered multiple times. Took it down 3 weeks ago and have spent the time turning poor DD's room into an office in the hopes of appealing to people who want an office and occasional spare room rather than a second double bedroom.

I honestly feel suicidal over not being able to sell. I cant bear it.

We accepted a full asking price offer less than a week into listing our house, now in the midst of negotiating on the house we’re keen on. We’re relocating for a job I started at the end of last year so we didn’t really have much choice in terms of timings, although the stamp duty holiday will come in handy.

@inpontypandyallday

Sorry to hear of all the trouble you’re having, hope the right buyer turns up soon

We are putting our house on the market soon. We really want to move out of this area.
We won't get another mortgage currently but happy to rent to be in a nicer area.
Houses like ours going to bidding wars currently as potential to extend loads to make into HMO.

Staying put! Not my dream house but love the location, very close to family and school and we are mortgage-free. The house works for us at the moment.