Please tell me how to buy and sell a house

[Peppin]

I have only ever bought one house before and as I was a first time buyer, I didn't have to co-ordinate the purchase with a sale.

If you have to sell your current home at the same time as buying your next home, what's the order you do things in? Do you start looking at potential new houses first, and then only market your property once you've found one, or do you put your place on the market, start looking for somewhere new, and just hope that you get an offer around the same time as you find where you want to move to?

What happens if you get an offer on your house but you haven't found anywhere to buy yet?

What can you do if you find your dream home but haven't got a buyer for your current home?

Etc.

Please help the bewildered.

I'd sort out selling your house first. If you go out and find the house of your dreams tomorrow, it is likely they won't consider your offer until you are under offer yourself.

It is a nightmare, but if someone wants your house badly enough they will just have to put up or shut up wait patiently.

Thanks. I had thought about the possibility of accepting an offer, selling and then renting if not possible to find the dream home simultaneously, but then I wondered because don't most leases have a minimum 12 month term?

We are doing about it a bit backwards, and will only market our house once we have found something to buy and had an offer accepted. Properties are selling well here (London) and we have a toddler and a baby so I don't want to be in the position where we've sold and have nowhere to go. Nor do I want to be pressured into buying the wrong house. So far, agents haven't batted an eyelid when I've explained this. Of course it may affect how willing vendors are to accept a low offer, but that's a chance I'm willing to take.

Going about it, not doing about it.

My mum is The Queen of Selling Houses. Seriously. We moved 9 times in 20 years and by the end were living in a house worth half a million. Her biggest thing was to paint it as neutral as possible just before putting it on the market and to put everything apart from the essentials into storage. People don't want to see your stuff, they want to envisage their own.

If there are no houses selling in your area then letting may be the way to go!