When people sell houses, are they looking to move straight away?

[Sabee]

Hello

We are thinking of moving in a couple of years. Our circumstances have changed, and we need a bigger house etc.

I don’t want to move unless I find a house that I really like, because it will be our forever home.

I like character properties, and that is what I would look for, but there seem to be a lot of newer properties etc which I would not consider.

How do you approach this situation? How can I start looking if we haven’t started the sale ourselves?

If I saw a house that I really really liked, and I hadn’t put our house on market, would that be a problem for most sellers?

I presume a seller would want to be moving somewhere else so wouldn’t really be wanting to ‘hang around’.

Is there no choice but to wait until our house has gone on the market? Or have people even moved into rented while looking for their forever house to come up?

Thank you

If I saw a house that I really really liked, and I hadn’t put our house on market, would that be a problem for most sellers?

Depends on the sellers and how soon they need to move. It would mean you'll be in a chain and things can be a bit more stressful with a chain - because things can go wrong (one party in the chain might pull out completely and the chain breaks or they gazunder or circumstances change etc.).

If you want it to be smooth, then sell up first. That way you'll know your buying power for sure. Then either rent somewhere or stay with family/friends (assuming they have a big enough home to accommodate your family for a few weeks/months) while you find and secure the ideal home.

From this forum you'll get a sense that it's not a great time to be selling tbh. So, maybe sit tight and look around for a while to get a sense of what you want for certain - character properties are great but they can sometimes require extra work and hidden costs (factor that into the price too). The newer properties will be at a premium because you won't need to do work to them since they're already 'ready to go' - but you've already ruled them out so that narrows down your criteria.

It's a massive commitment so it's important to get it right, so take your time to be diligent - and good luck!

Thank you 💐

Definitely can’t move immediately but I do want to keep my eyes peeled.

Don’t know how feasible it would be to rent - so much to think on 😑

We were selling our house before this all happened and we had put a deposit on one we loved. We had a few people interested in our house but had not put theirs up on the market. We had to decline their offer because we couldnt wait for them to get sorted. We sold to first time buyers and that has taken a while couldnt imagine what it would be like with someone trying to sell too.

If we had to move again we would definitely sell first, find somewhere to rent and then look.

Gogogone221 - from your perspective it makes perfect sense!

I would put your on the market first and be under offer before you started really looking in earnest. Keeping an eye on the market is a good idea, but you always risk falling in love with something and not be able to proceed. When selling you want a buyer who has financing in place and their own house sale well under way. If someone made an offer who hadn't put their own house on the market I would not take them seriously at all, and if their house was on the market but not under offer I would maybe consider it but with the proviso that I'd still be marketing my property until they had a buyer.

Following. We are considering a house move at some point in the next few years. We’re not in a position to sell right now (like most) but we’re using the time to explore areas/roads during lockdown walks so we can draw up a shortlist.

Our next home would be a forever home. We are looking at more expensive houses for the area so they would likely be on the market for longer anyway.

We don’t need to sell but we would like to raise our DD in a nicer location. The locations we like don’t have houses come up for sale often so it’s likely to be a long term project.

If you see something you like it might be worth having a chat with the agent to see what the vendor’s position is. Some might need a quick sale, others may be happy to wait.

You'll be a much more attractive option to a seller if you've got your own buyer lined up. Nothing to stop you looking around now though to get a flavour of what's around (though might not be too much at present).

Everyone's circumstances are different though. We were in the process of trying to sell FIL's house just prior to lockdown (he died last year), so we weren't trying to move ourselves, just trying to sell on his property, therefore the urgency wasn't there.

People who are able to own two or more houses at a time:
The independently wealthy
People who have inherited property from their own parents or grandparents etc
Landlords who are owning the property in order to rent it out.

If they aren't living in the property as their full-time residence they would be able to consider your offer but as PP says, you wouldn't be an attractive buyer compared to someone who had a sale agreed, or was a first time buyer, so you would need to do something to make yourself more attractive - e.g. by offering a significant sum more than the next-highest bidder, so that their choice is between £X now or £1.1X in a few months. Some sellers might well entertain such a notion, but they would probably expect you to take some of the financial risk by having a contract which made you liable for their losses if they waited for you and then you didn't manage to sell in a reasonable amount of time.

no such thing as a forever home.

if you aren't proceedable (i.e yours isn't on the market and preferably under offer) and don't actually want to move for TWO YEARS, then limit yourself to rightmove. Don't piss people about.

EA's round my way won't even show you a house if yours isn't on the market already.

Definitely look on rightmove but don't do actual viewings until you go on the market.
We are now progressing after 4 offers and nearly 3 years trying to move. We have been off and on the market after being SSTC 3 times which failed for various reasons.
In the end I had to say no to viewers who weren't actively selling as some wanted 2 or 3 viewings before deciding.

We saw the house of our dreams, hadn’t even thought about moving. Approached the vendors and made an offer based on the fact we would go to market immediately.

They accepted our offer and gave us 6 weeks to sell.

To be honest I knew our requirements were such that we needed to find first. It meant though that we had a bit of a fire sale on our house and we had to accept a cheeky offer.

We were refused viewings on most houses until ours was on the market, which miffed me. But once my house was on the market i totally understood how frustrating it is to have someone come look at your house whose not in a position to move.

I think it varies a lot locally and with what the market's doing. I've moved twice for a specific house - as in, hadn't really thought about moving, saw a house unexpectedly, had an offer accepted and put ours on the market the day afterwards. But both times in London, in fast/rising markets where our own house sold for asking price on the first day. The only time I was ever told I couldn't even look at a house without having my own under offer was by a very snotty agency in Fulham, and I was quite miffed. Very different times at the moment and if I was selling now (I'm not, thankfully) I wouldn't be keen on anyone who wasn't proceedable.

We have just gone on the market and we will not consider anyone who isn't either under offer or ready to buy. Too many variables otherwise. If there's no proof of funds, it just time wasting.

We've made it clear to the estate agent that we're not interested in entertaining "tyre kickers" who might be thinking about moving at whenever point in the future. It's serious buyers only, ready and willing to move.