To offer on a house as a no chain buyer but then try to sell my house first?

[Housequestionsss]

Our house is currently on the market. We’ve seen a property that we’d like to put an offer in on. The sellers of this property need to sell in order to buy their next property.

We have the affordability to buy this property without selling ours (with the use of a bridging loan). However we don’t actually want to do this due to the high interest rates that we would incur.

AIBU to use this mortgage in principle to get the vendor to remove their house from the market, but then get our own estate agents to sell our house ASAP (by listing it at a really good price for a fast sale)? The reduction in price for a fast sale would cost us less than the interest on the bridging loan.

I would try to sell our house within 4 weeks and if it’s not sold, then to go ahead with the new mortgage and bridging loan.

I wouldn't accept your offer under these circumstances. Too much to go wrong, too much possible dicking about.

I think you need to be honest about your situation so the sellers can decide.

Also if you aren't completely transparent, at the first hint of you being dishonest they could well ditch you and go with other buyers.

I would certainly be pissed off if chain-free became a chain because "well someone's buying our house now, so we are waiting for that".

I think if you are a cash buyer you have to show proof of funds
(I'm assuming you mean cash buyer when you say no chain?)

We are literally in the process of doing exactly this at the moment.
We positioned ourselves as chain free, but were honest and said to the estate agent we were planning to sell our house quickly which for us would be the ideal scenario, but we were able to proceed without selling our house.

We knew we could sell our house quickly as it’s in a very desirable area and totally renovated so it felt low risk to us. It sold within 2 weeks.

The estate agent asked us to have an affordability check done via their in house mortgage broker to check we could actually afford it without selling, which was fine.

We actually have a let to buy mortgage in place as our back up if our current buyer falls through. This was recommended by our mortgage broker so we can release some equity to buy the new house but looking like we intended to rent our current house out. We don’t but also worst case we could.

Although this was all sorted back in Feb before all the rates changed.

I hope this is helpful.

I think the likelihood of you getting an offer on your house in 2-3 weeks is about zero. 😂 The market is just not like that right now, unless you went through one of those we buy any house schemes. No reason not to make an offer and be honest about your proceedability.

The issue with no chain isn’t just about getting an offer quickly - we accepted an offer two days after speaking to the estate agent and from someone who viewed before we even went on Rightmove or anything.

That sale still took time to proceed with surveys and them sorting their mortgage etc. Quick off isn’t the same as quick cash.

You'd be telling them because you'd have to disclose it to your solicitor, won't you? Also on what planet does one sell a house in 2-3 weeks?
I am in chain free set up, both of us want a quick sale. We are in week 8 and only just got to the final stages of enquiries. It'll be at best another week before the exchange.

Are you at the higher end of the market OP? This is actually pretty normal at the more expensive end of the market because there is less stock of the houses you might be going for and you have to make yourself attractive. I don’t see anything wrong with what is being proposed. You bridge and hope to sell in the meantime.

We accepted an offer from a cash buyer who then decided they wanted to sell their flat in the past and it added months onto the process and very nearly caused the chain to collapse. I was absolutely fuming so I do think yabu.

This. I’m a former estate agent and yes you can hide it for so long, but the truth comes out in the wash and if you’ve lied, the sellers won’t trust you again.

So you'd be lying?

If you don't want to take out a bridging loan then you would be in a chain. I'd be very unimpressed if it was presented that my buyer was chain free and then suddenly a chain appeared...

Just buy the house and use the bridging loan if you can afford it, and want the house that much.

If you sell your house in the meantime, you'll be able to pay off the bridging loan quickly, but if not, you're not messing anyone around.

It sounds to me though, like you're just trying to pull a fast one, and if as a seller I found out what you were doing, I'd dump you on principal.

What if you drop the price, the sale gets delayed and then you have to use the bridging loan and you are selling it for less? It will be a double loss for you!