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Property/DIY

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Original poster

Putting offer on house before ours is even on the market?!

21 replies

Itsfineactually · 14/10/2019 19:50

Is this a normal thing to do, or do you not even consider looking at houses until yours is on the market?

We want to put ours on, but to get the most we can we just need to do a bit of work to it. Nothing major, just a spruce up so hoping it’ll be on before Christmas.

We’ve seen a house we like, dh wants to go view it and potentially put an offer on it. I think this is inappropriate as we haven’t even got ours on the market!

The house is cheaper than our current one so he says that if they accept we can just put ours on in the state it’s in.

Surely you can’t put an offer on a house until you’ve had an offer on yours?

OP posts:

UnderTheSleepingBaby · 14/10/2019 19:55

Some estate agents won't let you view if you say you don't have an offer yet, some will. They might accept an offer but as you are unproceedable then an offer from someone who is ready to go will trump yours, the only time it might help (as far as I can see) is if someone else makes a lower offer that they would have accepted otherwise, then they might hold out for you instead.

Original poster

Itsfineactually · 14/10/2019 20:28

Thanks.

The estate agents around her don’t seem bothered about you viewing houses without and offer. Don’t even ask if house is on the market. Dh has viewed a couple already.

OP posts:

NumberblockNo1 · 14/10/2019 20:32

I dont think they will take seriously any offer that is not from someone who can proceed. Unless you instantly put your house on the market (ideally with them 🤔)

TrixieFranklin · 14/10/2019 20:34

It's an absolute waste of time. I was an agent for year and the amount of vendors who would take their property off the market for an offer from someone who wasn't proceedable was a joke. They never had any idea if their house would ever sell, what they'd get for it, the chain details.. a lot of the time the people who offered wouldn't get what they expected for theirs so would try and chip their sellers on price and by that time they'd already lost a lot of time and taken theirs off the market so would lose out.

We didn't allow non proceed-able buyers to look round ours when we sold.

TrixieFranklin · 14/10/2019 20:34

For years *

TrixieFranklin · 14/10/2019 20:35

Oh yeah the agent will definitely badger you to go on the market with you and sell quick (cheap) to secure their double commission.

Toodeloo · 14/10/2019 21:19

It’s exactly what I did - and I am writing this now on the couch in my new house.

I went to view it and handed in my offer a couple of days after, I spoke very openly with the owner and explained my situation (very similar to yours) and told him that I was very keen to get the house but understood it wouldn’t seem as good a deal to him so put another 5k on top. Kept him updated on the process of selling the old house and it all worked out perfectly.

SalamanderOnHoliday · 14/10/2019 21:50

We viewed before ours was on the market. But were open about it with everyone. We fortunately got a private sale almost immediately just before we found the one we liked.

caringcarer · 14/10/2019 21:55

We viewed and put in an offer just before our house went on to the market. As it happened we sold and had to move out before the house we were buying was ready as they were in slow upward chain. Also when we put our house on market the first people to view offered full market value and bought house.

AnchorDownDeepBreath · 14/10/2019 22:07

We did, last month.
They took us pretty seriously, we're now in a chain and ours sold unbelievably fast once they'd accepted our offer.

Yoohoo16 · 14/10/2019 22:09

We liked a house back in June but agents wouldn’t accept an offer until we were on the market and sold. Can’t proceed otherwise.
We took 12 weeks to sell (bloody brexit) but the house we wanted held on for us.

Slightlysurviving · 15/10/2019 00:16

We did in this house, we had only just started discussing moving pulled up Rightmove, saw a house and viewed the next day. Offered that evening. Put ours on the market a few days later at a keen to sell price. We sold in 24 hours. We were very open about our situation and I think we would have got more for our house had we waited. All worked out well for us, no harm in having a chat to the E.A, although if you offered and said you wouldn't immediately be on the market let's say a week or so I wouldn't accept.

Zenithbear · 15/10/2019 10:12

I would go and look but putting in an offer is ridiculous. I let people look at my house who hadn't sold at the time but they received an offer on theirs a few days later and so were able to put an offer in on mine and ended up buying it.

Puffthemagicdragongoestobed · 15/10/2019 10:41

I think it all depends how much interest there is in the house that you offer on. You can always put a sensible offer forward but it’s unlikely that the vendor will take the house off the market until you are proceedable. What we did was to tell the vendor about our situation, express our interest and ensured that the EA would keep us updated if any offers were coming in. This was indeed what happened and there was another interested party offering. Once we were proceedable we did put an asking price offer in. Unfortunately the vendors went with the other buyers as they weren’t in a chain. So it all depends if you are competing with someone else. But don’t bother putting in an offer until you have a buyer for yours, otherwise you may find yourself in a situation where you can no longer afford what you offered.

Original poster

Itsfineactually · 15/10/2019 16:37

@TrixieFranklin this is my thinking too, but dh thinks it’s atleast okay to offer, then it’s their choice to accept.

OP posts:

Original poster

Itsfineactually · 15/10/2019 16:43

That’s good @Yoohoo16

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DontMakeMeShushYou · 15/10/2019 16:46

It's exactly what we did.

I put my house up for sale immediately though, and also told the agents that it was the house we offered on or nothing - i.e. I would take mine straight off the market if the house we wanted fell through.

Original poster

Itsfineactually · 15/10/2019 16:46

The house I’m due to see tomorrow is on for a lot less than what ours is valued at. Ours is in a very sought after part of the village, they very rarely come on the market too.

But if we put it on now we wouldn’t get as much as we could. I want to wait and try to max out. DH just wants to get moving to reduce our mortgage.

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Original poster

Itsfineactually · 15/10/2019 16:47

There’s no guarantee that ours would sell quickly, but it is a popular spot

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Heronwatcher · 15/10/2019 17:12

It could work to show you’re interested but it’s risky. If your house doesn’t sell quickly and other people are interested in the property then the estate agent could use your offer to push others into making a higher offer and if market conditions fall you might find it difficult to “lower” the offer without bad feeling. The only way I would consider it is if you had a cast iron guarantee that the seller would take the house off the market and no estate agent would advise them to do that if your house isn’t even on the market. If you’re keen to get going I would do as much as the work as possible and get your own house on the market ASAP.

MrsWooster · 15/10/2019 17:24

Selling yours as a fixer-upper would probably net you nearly as much as you’d get for it ‘done up’ AND you get to reduce your mortgage AND get the house you want... sounds good to me.

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