Second viewing was good...

[CoffeeMummy]

...but now I'm in turmoil because for various reasons I'm reckon we'll never get this property

Apologies in advance, this is a bit of a brain dump, but I need to get it out of my system or I'll be going round in circles with it for the rest of the weekend!

We really liked the house this morning on second viewing - it ticks SO many boxes and just seems like an ideal next step up for us - would give us more space, room for me and DH to work, bigger garden for the DDs and there's still potential to extend or improve in the future.

We also discovered there are other people interested, and at least a couple of notes of interest in.

We're not even on the market yet - it might seem ridiculous going to view homes without even being on the market, but we want to stay in our village and don't want to just randomly sell without being pretty sure where we're going to move to. So - we'd have to move fast, get this house tidy/ready for the market and then obviously hope that someone comes along quickly enough to buy ours (although the EAs say they'd be confident it could sell quickly - it's in a good price bracket and desirable for families).

Then there's the difference in mortgage payments - a good couple of hundred more each month. We're on 1 and a half salaries at the moment - maybe not even that - but with the intention that I'll be bringing in some more money very soon. I think we'll get the mortgage without too much difficulty but there's always the worry that we'll just find every month too tight.

Gah. I just feel certain we're in for a bit of hassle and heartbreak with nothing to show for it. Do I stay optimistic and just hope and pray it all works out - I do believe (cheese alert) what's for you won't go by you. But perhaps we should just forget it until we're earning more and ready to move and in a much better position?

Phew, good to get it out. Any words of wisdom or experience would be lovely.

Um yes. Do not view properties until yours has sold. You cannot hope to put in any offers until you have the funds to back them up. It could be months, or even longer, before you manage to sell your place!

You are jumping the gun!

Again gah. But what if we sell ours but can't find a new place in our area? I can't bear the idea of renting in between times. That seems more of a gamble to me than finding a place then selling.

We're in Scotland too by the way, fwiw, to give a clearer picture of the market etc.

Yes...I'm in Scotland too.

It doesn't matter - you cannot offer on a house you are not able to pay for!
Say they accept your offer and no-one buys your current place - what then?

You cannot put in offers based on hope!

I want you to go for it CoffeeMummy-if only to prove that we can do it too!

But seriously-what does happen in the worst case scenario? If you have committed to buying a property and then you don't have the funds as your own house doesn't sell? Do you get sued for the full amount/get sent to jail?

I come from another country where you used to be able to make an offer 'based on selling your own'-but I don't know exactly how that worked and what kind of time frame you were given. And it would only work if there were no other prospective buyers!

Reality check from Pictish, hope from underthemountain...I'm still swaying violently between these two points myself!

I guess none of this will become clear until we suss out our options with the solicitor, which I think I'll be doing on Monday. Of course the decision will be made for us if someone swoops in quickly and makes a good offer. On the other hand, maybe the other interested parties are no closer to selling than we are.

I guess if this does all work out, against the odds, I'll know it was definitely meant to be!

I accepted an offer within 2 weeks of mine being put on the market in January last year but it was on at a reasonable price, was in good order and was a nice house, large 3 bed semi with good extension, huge garden and off road parking.

IMO there is no substance to an offer from someone that hasn't accepted an offer on their own house (assuming the purchase is reliant upon the sale of their house).

The deal breaker for me would be the worry of the increase in mortgage payments. Not to be rude but I think you are crazy to even consider upping your mortgage by approx £200 a month based on the fact that you anticipate to earn more shortly. Our economy is shot, we cannot guarantee anything in this economic environment.... but that is only my opinion and I play safe.

Good luck, it's so tough when you fall for a property.

Well, there's no harm in trying, is there? It can happen - we went to view a house we fell in love with. Our house wasn't even on the market, and there was a deadline for offers with the one we liked. The vendors agents were clearly not interested in us until our place was under offer, I rushed to get it on the following week, we had a good offer within two weeks, and managed to put an offer on the table on the final day of marketing. At which point I found out there were two other parties putting offers in - still didn't think we'd get it as at least one of the others were chain-free. Amazingly they accepted our offer after the EA read them my email which talked about how we'd fallen in love with the place and thought it would be perfect for my twin girls to grow up in... we're due to exchange in a couple of weeks (fingers crossed etc etc) - so it can happen. And of course the whole way through I kept trying to reassure myself that if it was meant to happen, it would - and that if it didn't happen we'd find something else and move on.

If you like it, put your place on the market - you never know!

I'm like Lottie. We saw a house we loved and ours not even on the market. We put ours up for sale, got a good buyer (chain free, cash) immediately (details not even prepered by EA), so took a hit on the price and we are moving on Thursday! There were others interested in the house that will be our new home too. We just decided it had our name on it and did our best to make it happen. We did not play any nasty tricks or anything; we just set about getting our new home with all the will and energy we could muster.
You owe it to yourself and your family to try your very hardest. Good luck.

Wow, fab stories folks - encouraging to hear!

oliviasmama I totally understand your cautious approach - I think it's one of the main things holding us back from totally going for it. But I know we wouldn't even be considering it if we really didn't think we could manage. And our present house sounds similar to yours - 3 bed semi, good location, nice garden - so it's good to know you sold quickly.

londonlottie love that your email swung it for you! Hope all proceeds smoothly in the next couple of weeks.

Dorothy I like your approach, I think that's more or less where we're at now. We'll do our best to make it happen and if it's not meant to be, we'll soon know, one way or another.

Some years ago we found a house we very much wanted to buy, but we had to sell two houses to proceed and knew there was a lot of interest. We wanted somewhere with some land and affordable properties like this are hard to find. I mentioned the situation to my next door neighbour who immediately offered to buy the house we were living in ( to increase the size of hers!) and the other house went into an auction and made a good price too - so against the odds we got our dream home ( of the time). Now we live in a newbuild as the charms of country life eventually palled. Sometims things are more do-able than you think!

I think the thing that swung it on selling my house was the price, it was realistic, marketed at £230,000, I had two offers within two weeks. I accepted £225,000 which was the lower offer but I really liked the people, they had fallen in love with my home. I had very fond memories of that house and it meant a lot to me that they felt exactly as I had done when I'd first viewed it.....oh and they had sold to first time buyers too which I felt was good.

The house next door went up for sale a month later, same house, no extension at £245,000, still on the market.

I also bought well too, £15,000 off asking price.

Try hard, give it all you've got.....I'm another who strongly believes in fate.

Fingers crossed for you.

Oh coffeemummy I feel for you as we've just done a similar thing, although we've been on the market a few months.

We went on a second viewing Saturday and love the place but are powerless to do anything until ours sells. We've just dropped the price so fingers crossed, but I've vowed not to view any others until ours is sold!!! The emotional turmoil is too much

Some good stories of hope here though

More good advice, thanks guys. We're thinking very hard about this at the moment and how we should proceed - or whether we should. The Fear has taken over, with regards to money matters etc and we really don't want to lose out on a house, then feel obliged to stay on the market and sell when there may be nowhere to go. Perhaps we're not feeling the 'need' to move strongly enough. Although there's still the thought that we don't want to miss out on the kind of house that doesn't often come up in our area.

Gah, so confusing! In any case, there will be much more thinking/discussion in the next couple of days I think!

With stamp duty, solicitors fees, removal company it cost me about £10,000 to move!! A substantial amount to add to the overall cost.