Found dream house - should we make an offer - ours isnt even on the market yet?

[pooter]

Hi, I just dont know what to do. We are relocating and viewed a beautiful Victorian Semi this week, after looking at many many 'meh' houses before.

We are going to get ours on teh market this week (just putting finishing touches to it (tidying it as it is bombsite of children's toys)).

So, my question is - do we put in an offer even though we havent sold ours yet? Do we wait and risk losing it? What do we do????

Our house is probably not a ftb house, so there may be a chain involved our end. The vendors of the house we want are moving up the road, and i dont think there is a chain involved with their purchase.

They are not going to be interested in us are they? It hasnt been on the market long - 2wks. smeg. Any advice?

Depends - are houses similar to yours selling v quickly? Can you afford to bridge if yours takes ages to sell? Personally I wouldn't in this climate, but your financial situation may be very different from mine!

Well, I wouldn't accept your offer but they might. Worth a punt. At least they know you are interested.

You can offer so they know you are interested. I wouldn't accept an offer from someone who hadn't sold though.

they can accept your offer in principle, which means they know you are out there and will take it if nothing better comes up but wouldn't take it off the market or anything.
Or you might decide to risk waiting till you have a buyer and then make your offer, which might be lower than it would have been if you make it now. Whereas if you make an offer now and then lower it later if the market falls it would piss off the vendor massively and might cause them to pull out.

We made an offer on the house I'm standing in now before ours was on the market. I think it does no harm to lodge strong interest and say the region you are thinking of then get your sold asap. How long is property near you taking to go?

Well I would not take your offer seriously. I certainly would not take the house off the market: in fact all I would say, and in fact did say in a similar situation, is come back when you have exchanged contracts on your current house.

We put an offer on a house when ours wasn't on the market - the vendors understandably didn't stop marketing the property and it sold to someone else a week later .

I would register an interest but be prepared to be very disappointed, sorry.

(Just to say, we then put our house on the market, sold in six weeks and moved to an even better property in July, so you never know!).

That's why I refused to allow myself to start househunting until we had an offer on ours. Too painful to see something nice and then be unable to do anything about it.

Sorry, that doesn't help really, does it?!

I would definitely express an interest/make an offer, but if you don't get it, there'll be another house out there for you when the time is right.

Hmm, ok, that all makes sense.

I suppose i could ring the estate agent to register an interest and let them know that we are pulling out all the stops to sell ours,. and as soon as we do to expect a decent offer.

Thanks everyone for your help. Aaaggh - i really want that house!!

back to the tidying.....

As my mother says - what's for you, won't go by you

(feel free to scream at that - I often do when she comes out with it)

Good luck in your house hunting!

If you really want it, offer the asking price. Get yours on the market and hope nobody else offers asking.

No, don't offer until you have an offer. We were in this position last time round and it was agonising but we got there in the end. The EA was adamant that we hang on, and he was right otherwise you'll just end up emotionally (and possibly financially) involved - it's really hard, but be patient!

We have just seen a house we like and ours has just gone on. We told the selling agent that we were very interested, and would like a 2nd viewing, but will not be able to proceed until we have an offer ourselves.

He has passed that on, so now we wait and see.

We did this in our current house.Had no plans to move but saw a once in a lifetime house,put an offer in that was accepted and put ours on the market a few weeks later.[I had to finish renovating ours whilst I was 7 months pregnant and with a 14 month old in tow].Luckily the first person to see ours bought it and we moved in to our new place when dd2 was 3 weeks old.

This was in 2005 though and the market was different,but can be done.

Good luck!

You could put an offer in, but unless you are under offer probably won't be taken seriously. No harm in offering though, but if I were vendor I would keep house on market!

Wow MrsTITCON (???)I am full of admiration for you!

We are going to ring the estate agents and say we are very interested. Im getting estate agents out to ours on Thursday - had the carpets cleaned yesterday and am going to put lots of our crap into storage today. (plus take two kids to toddlergym and visit friends).

Thanks for all your input everyone.

We were in the same position in July.

Saw the ideal house without ours being on the market.

We put in an offer of the asking price but obv nothing could move as we were not on the market.

We put ours on the market within a few days, and 2 months down the line, we have accepted an offer on ours and have had our offer accepted :)

It is just a crazy timing thing this whole thing. As others have said, no harm in registering your interest, however, as with us, they didn't take it off the market and didn't take it that seriously.

So, get yours on the market pronto!!

woo hoo SOL!! well done! so there is hope :-)