some silly house buying questions

[Dottydot]

I've only been a first time buyer, so have some probably incredibly silly questions - would appreciate any help with them!

Can you put in an offer on a house before your own house is on the market?! i.e. If we really like a house we're seeing on Monday, can we make an offer and then get our house on the market asap after that?

When you're selling your house for a profit and buying somewhere else can you pay everyone off (surveyors, solicitors etc.) out of the profit at the end?

Sorry - I'm rubbish at this - have seen a house and want to view it this week and think it might be the one, but would need a week or two to get our house presentable to put on the market and we've got absolutely no savings to pay anyone before everything went through.

Yes you can put in an offer - but you're unlikely for the offer to be accepted AND for the house you want to buy to be taken off the market - they may accept your offer, but continue to market the property until you have a firm buyer for your house.

You can pay off some people after the sale goes through but think the surveyor's bill might come before the sale is completed, as will any fees attached to the mortgage, and you might need to provide a 5 or 10% deposit of the price of your new home, when you exchange contracts (although in reality many chains only ask for the deposit of the first time buyer at the bottom of the chain so if you are further up you may not need to provide any more money)

You can put in an offer, but it might not be accepted. (If you were trying to sell, would you accept an offer from someone whose house wasn't yet on the market and who had no other means of buying yours apart from the proceeds of the sale of theirs?) You're in a much stronger position if you wait till you'ver sold your own before looking. Then vendors know you're not wasting their time and also you're likely to be able to negotiate a better price. If the sale and purchase don't quite synchronise, then you can always rent for a while after you've sold while looking to buy.
Yes, you can pay everyone off at the completion of the sale, but you'll probably need to put in a deposit on exchange of contracts. That can be held by your solicitor and I think it can be a 'virtual' deposit and you don't actually have to stump up the cash providing you can prove that you have the means (albeit tied up in your house) to pay.

Dotty, the only problem is you put yourself in a poor position because you end up taking an offer for yours as you become very keen to sell and you pay over the top for the one you want as you are so keen to buy.

Put yours on the market but then try hard not to look at too much as like bluebear says people won't take offers seriously unless you have sold.

But this makes no sense to me!! Well, it does, but I'm really really (really) fussy about where I want to live - I've got it down to about 6 roads, so couldn't put our house up for sale 'cos I'd never know when one of them was going to come up.

Sigh. I think you're probably right though about doing it that way. Will go and have a look at this one anyway and give it a go if it's worth it - is only within our price range because it is "in need of modernisation"...

if you are buying in scotland then if you make a offer and it is accepted it is legally binding. if you then pull out of sale then you can be held accountable for sellers fees to readvertise etc

I agree with you Dottydot -if you are searching for a particular house and don't know when it might come up, how can you sell your present one?

Unless your house is so desirable that it will definitely sell quickly, can afford to bridge or you are prepared to price it keenly enough to do so then you just have to take a chance, put it on the market and wait it out. I'm afraid no seller is likely to take an offer seriously unless you are at least on the market and preferably with a proceeding offer, sorry. We are under offer and finding it hard to find anywhere suitable to buy atm so good properties are selling quickly and we have already lost out twice to other offers so competition is high. Yes you can pay the bills out of the equity released on completion.

you can always bridge - but it's expensive. Friends of mine took 2 yrs to sell their house after they bought another

Unless you get several suggested asking prices from local estate agents and put your house on the market first you won?t know what you can afford to offer on a new house.
I would certainly continue to view any homes that will let you view (some sellers refuse to show their homes to anyone who isn?t already sold subject to contract), but get your own home on the market ASAP so you show you are a serious buyer.
You have nothing to lose by doing this and it?s a great excuse for a blimmin good tidy-up. Costs a small fortune in fresh flowers though
You just need your estate agent to be up front about your circumstances to prospective viewers i.e. you won?t agree a sale on your home until you have found somewhere and had your own offer accepted.
You will need to pay up front any mortgage arrangement fees and survey fees, and also save for removal costs ... and flowers

flipping heck. I'm all disheartened now. I think we're probably not 100% ready to move at the moment. But maybe going to see the house for sale this week will inspire us!

DD, have a look at what else is for sale in your area at the same price as yours so you can check the competition? Is there anyway you could get a buy to let mortgage on yours and rent it for a year or two and use your normal mortgage to buy the other house? I have an IFA (independant financial advisor) that is excellent and I can recommend as we are just renegotiating our mortgage but we are in East Herts.