Moving into rental for 6 months to break chain...are we mad?

[sianyb83]

So we finally got a good offer, 2% under asking price, the catch is they want us out by the end of the month (our buyers buyer mortgage expires on 31st Aug)
We intentionally didn't view anything until our had sold, as we've missed out before - so have nothing we'd like to offer on.
We have a rental house we can use (that belongs to family friend) but still not ideal situation.
We hope this will mean we are in a great position, and can negotiate better price on our purchase, plus things go very quickly in our village.
Another factor is so many predictions house prices will drop...so we are hoping this could go in our favour.

Are we crazy?

Has anyone else done this?

I'd say the chances of the sale completing before 31 Aug is pretty close to 0.
So, while breaking the chain and going into rental is not a bad idea, are you going to loose buyers because you are sstc on a sale that us highly likely to not complete - the mortgage will get withdrawn.

@Mildura

Our buyers will have no mortgage (they are buying ours with cash and proceeds from sale of current property), their buyers have the mortgage offer due to expire...but they had the offer accepted last November, so that part of the chain is ready to go...

I think its a massive long shot and would obviously prefer if it pushes back a bit!

We did it at the end of June and are now in a 6 month rental. Our purchase fell through due to COVID and we couldn’t bare going through buying/selling at the same time again so thought it’d be easier just to break the chain. It has worked in our favour though. We viewed a house which was insanely popular - in the end it had about 10 offers. It’s our forever home really; a character 1930s semi that has been refurbished and retained all the character features we love. It’s on a gorgeous tree-lined road in a conservation area with both front and rear gardens as well as off street parking + outhouse. We ended up offering £30k over asking as it was very competitively priced. The agents told us after that several offers had come in at what we had offered, but our position being chain free is what clinched it for us. As long as the sale goes through it’s been 100% worth it for us.

It went to best and final and we ended up going 30k over asking

Another advantage is that you can overlap the moves so you have time to go into your new house and get any little jobs that need doing done before actually moving in. That might open up the option of a cheaper purchase that's not perfect as you'd have time to put it right before moving in.

It's a great idea, a bit more in terms of moving costs and hassle of moving twice but sets you up well for your next purchase.

I plan to do this if my buyer wants to move quicker than I can. Like you I'm not starting to view until an offer is agreed. I think it's a really good idea. It gives you time to decompress from the stress, really think about what you want and you can move quickly when you find something

We have just done this (not a family house but a very flexible private arrangement). It was brilliant as it took a lot of the stress off of us. We found somewhere (and were in the strongest position), bought it and then stayed in the rental while we did it up. Your only real risk is if your employment circumstances change and you struggle to get a mortgage in the coming months. We also kept most of our possessions in storage for the whole rental period (we took the bare minimum to the rental) so only one lot of unpacking (and the storage is cheaper than the moving of it).