How long a house buyer will wait for the vendor to find their house?

[littlecrystal]

I am in a tricky situation. I am looking to sell my house and buy another in a very narrow area (2 roads, basically). The houses there come up only 1 - 3 times in a year.
My house is not on the market yet but all ready to go ? the problem is that there is nothing on offer, so I am reluctant to advertise my house.
Let?s say I put mine on the market and find a buyer ? how long buyers are normally prepared to wait?

Going rented is not an option as mortgage is fixed with a good rate and early repayment fees.

I am prepared to accept a slightly cheeky offer on my house if the timing is right. Just not sure whether to put my house on the market while there is nothing to buy.

Any advice, please?

Thanks Toomuchtea and sorry to hear it is not working out for you as expected.

My initial idea was to put my house on the market when I see something I want to buy, remove from the market if I don?t buy it, and put it back when I see something else to buy. But I have read that owners putting the property on the market and taking out many times do not look serious..

The only good thing is that I am not desperate to move, have still few years to play with. But that is why I don?t want to leave for the last minute (secondary applications..) My mortgage provider gives 30 days portability (only!). If I lose my mortgage, I may have difficulty of getting a new one as I have gone from 1 to 2 DC. I have heard that they calculate affordability these days.

It does sound like a gamble!

we did it - exchanged on the sale and our sainted buyer waited 7 months to complete. He was however buying as an investment rather than to live in so he could be more flexible - you could get lucky, but if the properties you want rarely come up, being immediately proceedable is going to help you to the top of the buyer pile.

I think it depends on your property. If its the sort of house that's likely to be bought by a FTB or investor, they may be prepared to hang on.

As most vendors won't accept an offer unless the buyer has already sold or has finance in place, you do run the risk of someone else snapping up your dream home if they are in a better position than you.

Round my way a huge amount of houses sell without even going on the general market. People who have already sold get tipped off by agents the day before stuff is due to go on Rightmove. They arrange a viewing and get in an offer before anyone else even gets a look in.

Thanks BobbiFleckmann - lucky you!!

And nancerama - my house (I believe) should be easily sold, so your comment gives me an idea of just going on the market and then hoping for a patient buyer.

just a thought - with requirements that specific, how about putting notes through the doors of the houses that interest you? They may be waiting until the approved 'after Easter' to go up for sale.

specialsubject very good idea. But what's with "approved after Easter"? Do most people wait to sell until after Easter?

I've been a seller in a similar position.

Seling a house of a type/location that rarely occurs, there were dozens of people who had been keeping an eye out, some of them for quite a few years.

The top three or four bid the price up, and we chose what looked like the best buyer. There were always three of four others willing to pay about the same.

If you are not in a position to proceed, and have not even put your house on the market yet, the vendor is unlikely to wait for long.

After months of dilly-dallying from the first accepted buyer, we sold to a family who had already sold their house and were in local rented, and itching to move. The price was not significantly different. During the dilly-dallying several prospective buyers kept asking if the delay meant the house was coming back onto the market.

Our last sale took five months - we delayed because an onward purchase fell through and we just couldn't find anywhere else. In the end the agent told us that they buyer wouldn't wait much longer, so we sold and rented back from them (BTLers) while the house we really wanted appeared on the market.

Like you we had a very small search area in mind - we have tried in the past to only go on the market when there was a property we wanted, but despite havng offers accepted, we always lost the house to someone who could move more quickly than we could.

We did seriously consider letting ours out to fund the onward purchase, and on paper we could make the money work, but we never wanted to be landlords and didn't really have much appetite for the risk, so didn't pursue it.

Now, I wouldn't wait for anyone to find another house - they either want to sell or they don't - and we did back off houses we were otherwise interested in because we got wind that the vendor hadn't got their eye on anywhere and would only start looking when they had an offer on the table. What if they didn't find anywhere? - More wasted survey money and more rental months....

Apologies for the typos - long day!

We were in a similar position in that we were nervous to put our house on the market until we saw something we really wanted to buy. However this meant that when we saw a house we liked the vendors turned our offer down in favour of people who were further on the way than us. The estate agent suggested putting ours on the market subject to purchase so that if someone made an offer we said we would accept but only be ready to move once we had found something to buy.

I'm another one that thinks leaflet drop would be a good idea, as there are only 2 streets that you'd consider.
The vendor would cut out estate agents fees and stand to make more money on the understanding that they wait for you to sell.

Good luck :)