house selling and buying process

[felinewonderful]

Hi,

We have a property to sell that is not yet on the market. Can someone please talk to me very simply about the buying/selling process and the order in which this happens. When I bought the house as a first time buyer, it was a new build so I didn't really go through the estate agents/making offers/having a house to sell etc.

Basically what comes first?

make offer on desired house

get mortgage accepted (we have had mortgage advice and previous offers so have an idea of amount/cost etc)

solicitors/estate agents for selling own house

It might sound stupid but I'm completely confused as to which order to do all this!!

Any very simple help/advice appreciated

No usually you put your house on the market first and accept an offer. Then you look for a new house and make an offer.

Very few sellers will accept an offer on their own house if you have not "sold" (i.e. got a buyer in place) as you could take months and months to sell your own property.

Yes, put your house on the market first, accept an offer, then start house hunting (no harm in looking before you've sold but unlikely that anyone will accept an offer you make). If there is any way you can break the chain eg move in with family for a few weeks, then do it because in my experience even short chains can be hell! Good luck!

At the same time as you put your house on the market you can start speaking to mortgage brokers ( money saving expert have some good guides on this) to get a morgage in principle so you know how much you are likely to be able to borrow. This puts you in a better position when you come to make an offer on a new place.

You need to be proceedable to allow vendors to take the offer seriously ( i.e. You need to be able to move nit wait for a buyer)

Thanks everyone for your replies, I will start the process of putting the house on the market!

Just to give a different point of view, we actually had an offer accepted without having sold out house first. I think it can depend on the buoyancy of the market your property is in vs the buoyancy of the market you plan to buy in. We had a 3 bed semi for £300k in the SE, we were looking at £550k four bed houses. The 3beds were getting snapped up, the 4+beds were slower coming to the market and slower to be offered on, so armed with our decision in principle we offered and it was accepted, that week we instructed our EA and sold straight away.

So get 3 x EAs to value your flat, get a good idea of your budget and start viewing properties, kinda do it all at once as it can happen quickly. Good luck.

Buy the book 'Buying and Selling Homes for Dummies' (or similar title). There's an American and British version. Very useful.