Offer first or get an offer first?

[Kaida]

I have read that it is the norm to accept an offer on your house before offering on the house you want to buy, so that your offer is taken seriously as you are in a proceedable position, but is this always the way it must be done? Our house will hopefully sell quickly, it's in an area which appeals to both private landlords (university nearby, young professionals) and young families (lots to do for children nearby, three bedroom house, etc) and other houses in our street have generally sold within maybe 6 weeks-ish at most. We're looking for something very specific though, so it's unlikely to be easy to find. It seems, therefore, logical to get our house ready to sell, look for somewhere, and then put ours on the market as soon as we've found somewhere, but I'm worried we'd then miss out on the house we want to buy for not being in a proceedable position. But if we accept an offer then start looking, it could be months before we find the right house for us, and we'd presumably lose the offer on our house by then.

Is it acceptable, btw, for me to ring a local agent or two to check how quickly they would say houses like mine will sell?

Definitely start looking now and make an offer on anything you really want, whether you have had an offer or not. At least it shows you are serious, even if you can't proceed until later on when you have an offer in.

We almost lost our buyers as it took us so long to find a place. Several buys fell through for us, for various reasons, and in the end we went into rented to avoid losing our buyers who'd offered asking price.

i wouldnt take your offer seriously tbh,

i didn't even let buyers look who weren't on the market. as as a seller its really anoying to get a asking price offer and they haven't sold.
sstc is the only way you can offer and expect things to be taken off the market and to proceed.

We were in a similar position, where we currently live it's a microclimate of fast sales (we got an offer the first day of viewings and went to bids at the end of the first week) but the area we are relocating to is a wide search area and we wanted something quite specific.
We started looking prior to putting our house on the Market, then after it went on the Market /sold we made a concerted effort (2weeks off work driving down there and viewing everything we could) we found what we wanted and had an offer accepted.
If it's really specialised up may need to consider selling and renting for a while.
When our house went on the Market we initially only allowed proceedable buyers to view, with the idea that if that didn't produce an offer others could then view. As it was we never showed the house to a non immediately proceedable buyer as we sold before we got to that stage - this may be the case for other desirable properties that don't come up much.

My house is on the market and if someone not in a position to proceed offered a reasonable price I'd thank you and keep you updated but i'd continue to market the house and sell to anyone else who came along before you could proceed.

I guess I'm saying I'd be happy to agree a price with you but it would be a bit pointless because I wouldn't take the house off the market for you.

If you made an offer on my house but weren't in a position to proceed then I would continue to market, if some one came along that could proceed I would go with them.

By all means look and tell the EA you are interested if there are any you really like - but an offer wont be accepted until you have got a proceedable offer on your own house.

Offering is difficult too, how do you know what to offer? Are you offering a price based on your property selling for its guide price? What if the only offer you get is £20k less?

If you wait until you have an offer, you can approach the vendor of the house you want with an offer based on that say, £20k less, rather than automatically dismissing your offer as too low to be acceptable.

I also wouldn't let anyone look round who had sold or funds in place to buy.

I don't visit either unless I'm under offer.

There's no point making an offer unless you have a serious offer on your house.

What would happen if you drop the price of your house by say 10k? Would you still be able to pay the same for the house you want?