to be annoyed by not being allowed to view a house unless my house is sold.

[LemonSwan]

I found a house I potentially really like, although its very unusual so absolutely have to view it to be able to be certain. It could be a disaster.

Apparently I need to have sold my house to view it!?

Our non negotiable requirements are very unusual and do not come up regularly (c. once every 3 months). I have been looking for a long time and only viewed 3 houses which were discounted because one was riddled with damp smell, another the seller was just pretending to sell (trying to get the agri tie removed), and the other looked bigger in the pictures.

What would you do in my shoes?

Voting:

YABU - Put my house on the market and sell it just so I can view this house which may be a complete non starter.

YANBU - Or just forget it and move on.

[IndecentFeminist]

Has it been on for 2 years? How come you haven't seen it before?

This is common practice for sure.

[bilbodog]

I was in this position when my dream house came on the market 2 years ago. I did have a neighbour who was potentially interested but i was up-front with the agents so they used this as a good enough reason to let me view. We went home and put ours on the market as soon as we could and were lucky enough to move 5 months later.

If i was you i would get a local agent round to value your house and give you an idea of how quickly you might be able to sell - the property market is weird at the moment with some areas selling like hot cakes and others not. Dont use an online agent - go to a good local one.

If your agent thinks your house will go quickly they could get photos, epc and floor plans done and you tell the other agents that you are ready to GO if this house is right for you and they might let you in. If not can you look at it from the outside at least?

If you decide to put yours on the market put it on at the right price to sell quickly. If this house isnt right then you could take your house off rightmove and wait again until something comes up, just leave it low profile with the agents.

This would give you more clout with all agents as proves you are serious about moving and agents are more likely to call you when houses are about to come on the market so you get in for an early viewing.

[LemonSwan]

Has it been on for 2 years? How come you haven't seen it before?

We really do want to move now. Mortgage coming up for renewal in summer so have widened the search area dramatically.

[reluctantbrit]

It is a nightmare. We didn't started looking until our house was on the market but then how can I get a buyer if I haven't made an offer on a new house (most people were only keen on making an offer if they knew my side of the sell was settled) and how can I make an offer if I don't have a buyer?

I think having a house on the market is a decent reason to view properties.

[LemonSwan]

If i was you i would get a local agent round to value your house and give you an idea of how quickly you might be able to sell

I have been in touch with the local agents all year. They can sell my house in a week and they did last month with an identical one down the road.

[honeylulu]

It's difficult because I can see why sellers/ agents stipulate this but on the other hand you don't want to find a buyer for your house and then mess them around with months of hunting for your own dream house. It took us over a year to find ours (we got gazumped twice on the way). We were lucky and able to proceed with an overlap (bought with a bridging loan so we could start refurb while still living at our old house) but our sellers wouldn't accept our offer unless we could proceed imminently. Annoyingly and hypocritically they had house hunted in advance and had a property lined up before putting theirs on the market. This also happened with one of the sellers where we ended up getting gazumped; they found their "new house" before selling theirs.

From what I've seen people moving to big expensive houses are more likely to get away with this because those houses are usually on the market for a long time (smaller pool of buyers) and the seller is usually happy to wait because they've finally agreed a sale.

[LemonSwan]

If you decide to put yours on the market put it on at the right price to sell quickly. If this house isnt right then you could take your house off rightmove and wait again until something comes up, just leave it low profile with the agents.

This might be the answer. Would this devalue our house though by making it look like its being SSTC and then dropped at survey IYSWIM?

[HeddaGarbled]

I think if you’re serious about wanting to move but have rigid requirements for the new house, your best option is to sell first and be prepared to rent while you look for the right house.

I wouldn’t do it because I couldn’t bear the hassle of moving twice plus the extra expense, but I don’t have unusual non-negotiable requirements.

If you don’t want to do this, you’ll just have to accept that your chances of being able to jump when the right property comes up are slim.

[RockyRoadster]

@LemonSwan

If i was you i would get a local agent round to value your house and give you an idea of how quickly you might be able to sell

I have been in touch with the local agents all year. They can sell my house in a week and they did last month with an identical one down the road.

Then all you need to do is view the house you want to buy next week when you have sold

[LemonSwan]

Then all you need to do is view the house you want to buy next week when you have sold

This seems like a dick move to me. Perhaps I am being too considerate of others here and should just do it.

[1000bicyclesinNanjing]

As this house has been on the market for TWO YEARS and the sellers still aren't allowing you to view, I would actually wonder whether they really want to sell the house.

In normal circumstances I understand only wanting buyers ready to proceed to view, but having waited TWO YEARS I imagine anyone who actually wanted to sell would be more flexible?

[Windchangeface]

I think your voting options are a bit pants tbh. Your AIBU seems to be ‘AIBU to expect to be able to view a property without having sold mine’ - to which the answer is ‘yes YABU the rest of the country are still in pretty restrictive lockdown it’s only right you’re not allowed to poke around other peoples houses without being seriously committed to moving’.

I mean some families in covid would house view just for a legal ‘thing to do to get out of the house’
They’re the same people who take the whole family to Asda!

I understand that your circumstances are a bit quirky but you must see why this is the case.

The way I see it there are 2 outcomes here, either the property is so weird and quirky it won’t sell fast in which case wait till restrictions ease and then go view, or it probably doesn’t matter anyway because it’ll be gone by the time you sell yours.

Houses in our area are going to best and final within days of being listed.

[Merryoldgoat]

Just pop a letter through the door explaining the situation with your phone number.

I’d let you look round but not accept an offer unless you sold.

[SunbathingDragon]

This is normal even before covid, and probable largely contributes to so many chains falling through.

I wouldn’t have a viewing for my house unless someone either had an offer on their house.

[LemonSwan]

I would actually wonder whether they really want to sell the house.

The house is unusual so I am not surprised its not sold easily tbh. This is why we really would have to be sure we would be happy there as we will also find it a nightmare to sell.

[SunbathingDragon]

@Merryoldgoat

Just pop a letter through the door explaining the situation with your phone number.

I’d let you look round but not accept an offer unless you sold.

I wouldn’t have thought they would say yes as this decision will be coming from the seller and not the Estate Agent.

[LemonSwan]

I think your voting options are a bit pants tbh.
Yes I appreciate that! I get confused with double negatives and both options seemed negative to me so it was perplexing.

[shivawn]

Its sucks being in a position where you need to sell a house to buy a house. The housing market here sucks especially for the last year with covid, I can't just put my house up for sale so I can buy a new one because one I like only pops up every 5 months or so and then there's massive demand for it. I've been working on building up enough savings to have a deposit to buy without selling my own house first but then there's the risk of paying a double mortgage for months on end.....sucks.

[joystir59]

I wouldn't let you view unless you were ready to proceed and neither would any decent EA. You need to have accepted an offer and have all your finances in order. When we sold our house 4 yrs ago we only had 5 viewings, all ready to proceed. 3 of those viewings turned into serious offers.

[Roselilly36]

Due to gov guidelines, I expect. No way would I entertain a viewing from someone not proceedable, personally total waste of time.

[Disfordarkchocolate]

I think this is ridiculous. Surely its self defeating? If everyone does this there will hardly be anyone able to view houses.

[poppycat10]

I think it depends. You might have no intention of moving unless your dream house comes onto the market. But you are not going to be 100% unless you've actually seen it. Seems like cutting your nose off to spite your face to me (that's the seller's nose).

But depends on a myriad of factors eg is it a very desirable house that is likely to go under offer the day it goes on the market in which case you will want someone who can proceed right away.

[VeganCow]

A friend of mine actually went round and knocked on the door of the house they wanted to buy. Seller let them in there and then to have a look! I think that's unusual though

[lastqueenofscotland]

Yabvu your house isn’t on the market. Yours could take years to sell.

[poppycat10]

@Disfordarkchocolate

I think this is ridiculous. Surely its self defeating? If everyone does this there will hardly be anyone able to view houses.

I agree. This never used to be a "rule". My parents used to move every few years and sometimes we'd sold before we offered and other times we offered before we'd sold. I was a bit surprised when estate agents told me as an adult I wasn't allowed to offer unless I'd sold. But that's different from not even allowing viewings.

I accept covid guidelines might play a part but if it's just their "policy" I agree it's silly. And I suspect it is the estate agent rather than the seller - not quite the same but when we bought the house we live in now we wanted to give a 5% deposit not a 10% one. The solicitors said no but when we approached the seller we found out the solicitors hadn't even asked them and they agreed as soon as we explained why (although that is now something I wouldn't necessarily agree to with mortgage lenders withdrawing offers between exchange and completion). But my point is that estate agents might just say things without checking.