Never owned a house before... now I'm buying and selling- help!

[tethersend]

Live happily in London and never thought we'd be able to buy, although had begun to look at shared ownership.

My mum died unexpectedly in April and left me and DB her house (small terrace in Hertfordshire). We have probate and put it on the market in July. With Tepilo. They are beyond useless- massively overvalued it and cancel viewings when they're requested.

I am now approaching local agents to get their best deal on commission, as we have to pay Tepilo whether or not they sell it ; this seems to be 1%. They are very keen to sell the house and the market there is pretty buoyant.

We have also been approved for a mortgage and it seems we can actually afford to buy something in London using the inheritance from the sale of the house as a deposit.

I have no idea what I'm doing. Should I sell my mum's house through a local agent? And cancel the ad with Tepilo or leave it on there? Is it weird to have two ads?

Should I ask for OIEO the minimum we need to sell the house for? Or set the price slightly higher and wait for offers?

Also, er... How do I buy a house? Do I need to wait until my mum's house has been sold? Or can I make offers now?

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Evening bump

Who you put it on with is a matter of your own preference and also time / confidence / availability.
The fact you aren't around (ie, you don't live in your Mum's house) seems like a good reason to put it on with a good local Estate Agent.
I would see if you can get 3 to give you a quote - both for the price, and also for what they will charge you, and what they will do for that charge. If you are a good negotiator unlike me I understand you can sometimes knock 1/4 or 1/2% off the commission, although that may just be rumour. A good estate agent is worth their weight in gold though. Don't forget they don't get paid until the sale is complete, so, both times we have moved, they have worked very hard to make sure the sales went through.

Re buying, it is definitely worth starting to look round, and getting a 'feel' for what the market is like by you, what 'a bargain' represents, what you can do in the future to houses that are certain styles, etc. Go and look at some houses to do that - pictures on the internet can be deceptive.
Vendors accept lots of people will look who aren't ready to move yet, but most won't take their house off the market until you are ready to move. (Once you have an offer on your Mum's).

Exciting times!

Didn't want to read and run

No personal experience of this
But I would sell your mums house first, get the money you need, get a mortgage in place and then start viewing
You will be in the BEST position
First time buyers in rented!
If you made a decent offer on a house most vendors would be very keen to go with you rather than someone in a massive chain..

If tepilo are awful then if it was me I'd cancel with them and go on with a different agent (not purple bricks!). I always think in this day and age it looks desperate to have two agents as in most cases they are literally advertising in exactly the same places to the same people. Having more than one agent also then means you get charged a higher rate from both agents as you've reduced their chance of a sale.

When I sold my home I negotiated on fee and refused to enter into a minimum contract. The most I agreed to was a 2 week notice period as this gave them 2 weeks to try and pull a sale out the bag (they didn't!)

I'd do a traditional guide price as opposed to OIRO as that phrase confuses and puts off many buyers. Equally many people see that as the price you'd like to achieve then offer below so if you have a minimum price you'll shoot yourself in the foot. People like to feel they've got a bargain so if you leave no room for that then it could well put people off or they try and reduce sale price later down the line nearer exchange. Equally expect a likelihood they may try to negotiate following survey.

You can make offers now on a house however until your mum's house has sold there's a high chance a seller would say 'thanks but come back when you're in a position to proceed'. Equally you could view houses but you risk falling in love with one and losing it

Thank you for such helpful answers

I'm veering wildly between feeling excited and feeling terrified. It's been so awful losing my mum that I can't quite believe that anything good can happen from it. I'm usually very good at making decisions & negotiating, but I'm so clueless and confused by all this.

I think its best to focus solely on selling your mums house first. You have an idea of value and if the market is good you should be able to get a 1 percent deal.
Once you have sold and got cash in the bank look at what you want to buy.
I say this because it is emotionally challenging to buy and sell at the best of times and you are coping with bereavement. Also it isnt a massively rising market so you can be cool about making the right decision. I am sorry about your mum

Look on rightmove to see what price houses in your mums area achieve - you can put in the postcode and there's a section on the right hand side which will take you to other properties that have sold in the area.

In addition when you search for your mums postcode tick the add in box to include sold properties.

Set up an alert to receive other properties in the area that are for sale. You can also see when they were first added to the site and also check out which estate agent seems to have most properties for sale.

Set up an alert for your search area so you can see what prices are like there too.

Thank you both. And thank you for your kind words about losing my mum, AJ.

My mum's house is quite unusual and there's not really an equivalent house in the town. It's also much smaller than other houses on the market, so difficult to get an idea.

Went to view a couple of houses to buy, it was really useful to understand how far our budget will go. LOVED both houses but of course won't be buying either of them, so need to get used to that feeling

Am going to talk to agents tomorrow to see if I can persuade one of them to knock the VAT off their commission, and will take the advice about concentrating on getting my mum's house sold first- although prices in the area I want to buy are rising, so I think we need to price it for a quick sale.

If they've provided a poor service you can complain and get a discount on their fees if you change estate agents. We did this once but it was donkeys years ago. Just paid them a flat fee for what they said was their advertising costs. You can't really buy a house without selling your Mum's unless you have the required deposit and a mortgage offer in place. AFAIK.

Sorry to hear about your mum, Tethers.

I guess it must make you feel quite mixed. I suppose that's another argument for making the house-sale your main priority: it will help separate the two things in your mind. As well as being pragmatic in terms of putting you in the best position when it comes to being a buyer.

Which areas are you looking in? It is exciting. I hope you can allow yourself to feel excited and happy without feeling bad about that. There's a lot of stress in house-hunting; you need to be able to channel the exciting bit to carry you through!