Selling and buying

[Fleurchamp]

We have just put our house on the market, we have been getting ready to do so for the past few weeks but didn't hurry because there wasn't anything on the market we were interested in and so didn't see the rush
Anyway, we had our particulars drawn up and were about to push the "go" button when the most perfect house came on the market - we viewed it, loved it but they wouldn't even consider an offer from us until we had an offer on our house (fair enough!)
It turns out that 7 people also loved the house and 3 were chain free so we wouldn't have had a chance anyway.

My question is - how does this all work? Our house is now on the market and we have had quite a lot of interest and some second viewings booked in for next week. However, nothing else has come on the market in our area/ price range/ requirements. We are staying in the same area but want a bigger house (4 bed). I assume that if anyone makes an offer on our house we will have to inform them that they will have to wait? This has put one buyer off already as they have a deadline to move. Plus the fact that so many people went for the house we liked means that there will be stiff competition for anything that comes on in our range (houses round here tend to be 3 beds like ours or massive 5 beds that are out of our price range).
I don't hate where we live, a fourth bedroom would be ideal (we have relatives staying quite frequently and we really need a small office area as both DH work from home from time to time) and a bigger garden would be great for the DC and so selling and renting for a while doesn't really appeal to me.
I just don't think I can be bothered with all the aggravation and disappointment, I really liked the house we missed out on and the houses we are being sent to view (which we are doing anyway, mainly so as not to piss off the estate agents) are just not what we want (mainly 3 beds which have a larger sq footage than ours) plus I am the one that has to race around tidying and cleaning before viewings - it has only been a week and I am exhausted! (And the house is looking lovely which makes me less inclined to move ).
Any advice/ stories to help me deal with this?

This is the house buyers conundrum isn't it?

The way to 'win' is to be chain free yourself so look for somewhere to rent short term between selling and buying. Not easy when you have children at school.

Some people are waiting to see what Budget 2020 throws up re stamp duty before committing but i can't even remember if there's a date set for that.

Good luck

I think it you really want to move then you just have to keep your house on the market under you accept an offer and then cross your fingers that you will be able to find something else. When we put our house on the market we did loads of drive-byes in the areas we were interested in and then narrowed it right down. Once we had our house under offer we realised that there was only one house which was totally suitable in an area we liked. So we viewed a few days after ours was under offer, put in an offer which was accepted by the vendors. There were some scary moments along the way, our purchaser pressed us and because we didn't want to lose the sale, we exchanged on the sale before we exchanged on the purchase. But we knew our vendors situation and as they were moving into a family property, we were fairly convinced that it would proceed and it was just their useless solicitors dragging their heels. Anyway a couple of weeks later we did exchange on our purchase and the pre-agreed completion date happened. It's a huge leap of faith, sadly, with our property regulations in this country - but if you're serious about moving I would suggest you proceed with your sale regardless, cross your fingers that something suitable will come up in the meantime, and if not, then be prepared to go into rental for a while. Best wishes - it can and does successfully happen all the time!!! You'll get there if you're totally committed to it!!!

Thanks both. We are in London so there are quite a few rental opportunities but the thought of moving twice.... and school is an issue. My eldest has started school but my youngest hasn't (starts in September) so our search area is a mile around the school (which doesn't seem far but it's a dense housing area and any further becomes harder for the school run).

I think you are right though, if we are serious about it we probably just need to sell and go from there.

I'm not sure when the budget is, it was supposed to be soon but was moved. I hate that they keep messing with stamp duty, unless they reduce it!

It’s tough, once you are under offer you will probably have to go with whatever is available in your preferred search area, ticks most of your boxes and that you can afford. Usually people at the bottom of the chain are willing to wait for a bit. When we went under offer in London the FTB had set a completion date over four months ahead, which was reasonable. We lost out on our dream house to a chain free buyer though but then found our current house. It’s by no means perfect but it’s in a better area and fulfilled our main criteria which were size of garden and proximity to schools. We did look into moving into a rented property but the logistics put us right off. You would probably be locked into a rental contract for at least six months, what are you going to do with your stuff, rents will be much higher than mortgage etc etc.