Hello, we are putting our house on the market next week (just finished a ton of jobs) and wondering whether it might be worth selling as 'no chain'. We could achieve this by moving into another house that we own when our tenants vacate in about 10 weeks. I am just wondering whether it is likely to have much benefit for us? In terms of cost it will involve 2 lots of removal costs plus storage (the other house is much much smaller and we will only be able to fit a few items of furtniture in there) but the mortgage is very small (so not equivalent to moving into rented). It will be a hassle as the other house is a 2 bed terrace and we are moving with 3 DCs from a 4 bed semi... However in the area we live in, the kind of house we want (in the school catchment we need) is hard to get - maybe two or three might come on the market over the course of a year. I am firmly wedded to the idea of living on a particular road, and although it is quite a long road with a lot of houses on, we could wait 6-12 months for a house to come up on there.
So would anyone have any wise words? We have never moved with a chain before so have no experience of it - we rented out our first house when we bought our current one (negative equity as we bought at the top of the market) so we have never sold a house and we have been at the end of the chain both times. Will it be more hassle squashing into a tiny house for (possibly) months and months, or worse to be in a chain? Is it that bad being in a chain....?? Will we be much better off as chain-free sellers and buyers? The thought of wedging into the old house is not a fun one, but the houses we like are so few and far between that we want to make sure we dont miss out.