Selling and being part of a 'chain' - what happens? New to all this!

[bronya]

We're looking to sell (too small) and will then need to look for something bigger to buy. How does this work? Do we look for ourselves as soon as we have an offer on ours, and what happens if they complete sooner than we do? How quickly would we need to find something and put an offer in?

When yours is under offer you can then look for a house and put an offer in on a place you want. Those people do the same. This becomes the 'chain' . Ideally you would want to sell to people with nothing to sell and buy an empty house. Then there would only be 3 in the 'chain'. You all have to agree to exchange on the same day and then complete on the same day. The longer the chain, the more complicated it is to coordinate.

also the longer the chain, the more chance of it breaking.

the alternative is to sell then rent. That makes you good buyers but means you have to move twice.

Thank you for the info! We'd love to sell then rent, for all sorts of reasons, but we have a dog so that's not an option!

There's no harm in looking while yours is on the market but estate agents will always ask if your property is under offer before you make an offer on a place you like - if not, they won't take your offer seriously.

The chain on our last move was very short but it still took 3 months to move in.