The best way to move to a specific set of roads?

[Lightofthemoon]

I'm after some thoughts on the best way to do this.

We want to move to one of a group of three roads in a village half a mile away. They are very popular so property does not come up very often and when it does it gets snapped up. Therefore, we need to be in a position to buy, but if we sell our house it is unlikely a house on one of these roads will come up at the same time.

We are in no rush to do this, so is the best thing to do to sell and then rent whilst we wait for one of these houses to be put on the market?

Thats what we did - needed to buy on a limited number of roads - only a few within our price range in a particularly expensive area so sold our house, rented in the area, built up a relationship with the various estate agents. When a house did come up, made sure we were one of the first to view and made good offer. It still went to sealed bids but we got it. Good luck.

I think that you need to look at how sellable your house is. Are there attributes that make it easy to sell, or more difficult? Renting isn't particularly cheap at present imo, and depending on your price band and what else is around you may find that by pricing your house competitively (and therefore getting £10k less than you might have done) it is still cheaper than renting.

Do talk to your local agents. In practice they know whether a property is coming up for sale at least a couple of weeks in advance (due to valuing it, taking photos etc), and if they know that you are definitely prepared to go for it they will let you know.

We're in exactly this position. We're exploring one house that is currently overpriced (but we're hoping that they'll negotiate) - saw it Saturday, went on market ourselves Tuesday, under offer last Wednesday. Still having our offers rejected though - grrr! But, having spoken to all of the agents, I know of 2 houses definitely coming onto the market after Christmas. So my worst case scenario is that I end up disappointing my current purchasers, and go through again in the New Year.

So talk to agents (before they jet off for their 8 weeks!), both about your property and the area you're looking at.

You could also consider leafleting the houses. A handwritten letter saying you live close by but you want to move to that very specific location and so please let you know if they are ever considering moving. It's just possible that someone might respond. And they might even be willing to wait for you to sell your place first (as long as you offer market value or more of course).

It does rather reduce your bargaining position of course as they know how keen you are to live there. But then, the same could be said of telling the local agents you want to live there. I suspect realistically if you want to live in a very specific set of 3 roads you do have to be prepared to pay a bit of a premium.

You can draw your own search area on rightmove and choose alert me every 24h with new instructions

Thanks for all the ideas, Kirsty and Phil often mention leafleting areas you are keen to live in, so that might be worth a go as it gives the vendor a chance to save on estate agent fees I suppose. I'm definitely going to get chummy with the local estate agents too.

Imthemap yes I found that feature recently, it's very handy isn't it!

We have just done this but we have waited 6 mths before a suitable house came up on our target road at the right price. We went straight in at asking price on the second day of viewings - they already had offers in from the 1st day of viewing. The chain offers were not in the running and we are relieved that it didn't go to sealed bids. We have been renting for 14 mths and counting but we feel that this house will be worth it. Good luck! Remember there are few 'bargains' to be had in prime locations but there definitely will be in lesser ones.

I think you're right myron, if you want a very specific location you've got to be willing to go straight in at the asking price or very near. You have to be more flexible to get a bargain!