Possibly stupid question about buying/selling houses.....

[BuyingHouses]

My Mum is looking to move to another area. She has lived in the same house for about 40 years, and I have never bought a house whilst having to sell another house (have bought two houses but was in rented accommodation both times), so we are new to all this.

She has had her own house valued and is ready to put it on the market, but some vendors of houses she is looking at will not allow her to view without having accepted an offer on her own house. How is this supposed to work? Is she supposed to put her own house up for sale, accept an offer, and THEN start viewing houses to buy? This seems really unfair on the people buying her house - what if it takes her ages to find somewhere she likes enough to put an offer in on? And yet I get why vendors only want offers from buyers who are ready to proceed. Does she just tell prospective buyers her situation so that they know they may have to wait?

What is the done thing here please/what are your experiences? TIA.

Hi we are in the same position. Out of 10 local houses we have been allowed to see 1 as all the others want us to have sold ours first. We're letting anyone see ours. I'm hoping ours sells quick or we are going to miss out on what we want ☹️

We were in the same boat. We have now found a house to move to but given the timescales involved we now have to break the chain in order to not lose our buyer. In turn, the sellers of the house we like have said they’re prepared to break the chain not to lose us, as they’ve only just found a house they like. Unfortunate side effect of this ‘no viewing until you’ve got an offer’ policy!

It's I think to stop time wasters spreading covid

@Dollywilde What do you mean by “breaking the chain”?

There are always some vendors (sellers) who will only let proceedable buyers have a look round, usually people will let serious potential buyers have a look but people like your mum who haven't got their house currently on the market don't appear to be serious buyers - and at the moment, with the stamp duty holiday, houses in some areas are going so quickly that if you are not able to move quickly you may lose out anyway.

Obviously if you are a cash buyer then you don't need to sell a property first. If there are houses she is interested in viewing, she could try again when her own property is up for sale.

Break the chain means she will sell without buying , ie move short term into rented or similar then buy , puts the buyer into a stronger position as they can be more flexible

Exactly, thanks @boredwithmylastusername we’re moving in with my parents to bridge the few weeks in the middle.

What you describe is normal where I live. It’s like going into a shop with no money, you can’t actually buy anything if you haven’t sold. It’s perfectly normal for purchasers to wait a short while for the vendors to find a property.

A few years ago no one questioned us about our selling position, but it is not uncommon for people to insist their viewers must have their own place at least on the market, and maybe actually sold STC

We had to do this..sell before we can start to view. We were lucky in that we've sold to a nice young couple who are renting so they said take your time in looking. But it was frustrating!

Sorry forgot to add to that...some estate agents are even asking for ID and proof of mortgage in principle before arranging a viewing

This had become a lot more common since Covid. It's very annoying. I was able to view some houses before we'd even got ours on the market by suggesting the estate agents selling it come round to do a viewing for us so they 'knew we were serious' .

We are currently in the ridiculous situation of having put an offer in on a house which the vendors are happy with but can't accept until we've accepted an offer on our house, because the vendors of the house our vendors want to buy won't accept THEIR offer unless everyone lower down in the chain is proceedable. Feels like a lot of pressure on us to sell asap at the minute!!

I can see why as people only want buyers in a position to buy. I had 3 viewers when I was selling my house. Only 1 couple were on a position to buy and they bought the house. It's hard work trying to keep a show home and have folk round all the time when your working etc.

We sold our house and we ended up buying in a location I wasn't so keen on. Few years later though we really like it. We did have to move in with the in laws for a month and put everything in storage. So it was quite expensive, moving costs twice and storage fees. It's quite normal though.

I would only sell to someone that hadn't sold if they were selling in a very competitive area where any house sells within a week or so but I wouldn't take it off the market until they had sold.

What your Mum is experiencing is totally normal.

You just need to get her property ready and on the market, in tandem with keeping an eye on properties for sale that you'd like to view.

It doesn't hurt, if you're close to getting it onto the market to let agents of properties she'd like to look at, know that's he's very interested and likely to have her property on in a few days, plus won't need a mortgage. And if it takes a little while for her to get an offer, keep emailing any agents that have properties you like on a weekly basis to remind them you are very interested. Sometimes they will then let you look, although they won't be able to accept an offer you may make until you are 'proceedable'.

Being proceedable means you have a buyer whose financial status has been verified by the agent (mortgage offer in principle, deposit in bank etc) and that your financials have been verified. So as well as getting the property ready, make sure you are also sorting out paperwork so your mum can be ID checked quickly, prove she has no mortgage on the current property and that you have the name of a solicitor you will use.....all these things make you proceedable and can mean you beat an alternative offer. If you're helping your Mum, make sure she knows to let you know whenever a request for info comes from the EA or slocitor and try to get replies sent on the same day....speed is very important in securing a buyer or having an offer accepted and also in keeping things moving and reducing the risk (which can never be fully mitigated) from falling through.

It’s normal here as well. Some sellers will let potential buyers view and place an offer but they will continue to allow others to view and offer if the first person doesn’t already have a buyer for their property.

And regarding her potential buyers.....they will know that she needs the offer from them, before she can get an offer accepted. It's just the way it works and no-one will be surprised.

People are usually patient ...to a point. With the stamp duty holiday people will be more keen to get a shift on. So unless your Mum has very specific requirements, once she has an offer she's accepted, she really will need to be very proactive in viewing properties and not faff about. Keeping an eye on the market online now so she's very familiar with what's about and exactly what she requires, along with being on the mailing list of local agents (who will often tell you about properties before they reach Rightmove) is important.

Buying and selling is very time consuming at the start. You can easily be looking at a couple of hours more per day spent on it and if you do t put the time in, you simply often find getting a buyer or getting an offer accepted yourself takes far longer. It's hard if you're helping someone else you do t live with and if you do t live very locally and if they need a lot is support. You won't be able to move as fast as some people, but you will need to commit to regular catch -ups and paperwork sessions or totally take over that element of it yourself, if that's best and acceptable for your Mum and depending on her situation.

Forgetting the Covid side of things for a minute I think this approach is really shortsighted, my last house I bought I had no intention of moving house, but I then saw my dream house advertised. After viewing the dream house I put my house up for sale immediately and secured a buyer on the first viewing and bought said house. Some people don’t move because they are need for an extra bedroom or bigger garden some of us move because a unique property catches our eye and are only looking to sell for that specific property. I certainly wouldn’t sell my house on the off chance that a property I might like might appear, I will put mine on the market when I find one I want to buy.

We saw a few properties before we sold, but they were all on houses that'd been on the market for a while that agents were keen to let someone see even if we weren't proceedable. This let us cross off properties we weren't interested in but also let us meet a bunch of estate agents where we could have a chat about what we were looking for. We ended up choosing a house that we wouldn't have even seen if we hadn't met the agent at a different house. You can't just rely on rightmove to give you an edge in finding the right house. This is the third house we've bought and each time we have gone outside the "look on rightmove and view house" rule.

Perfectly normal for Covid times.

Some agents even want to see your mortgage in principle before you can view. It does mean the chain is stalled at each stage, but at least it means no time wasters traipsing through your house. If she is serious about moving before the stamp duty deadline, she will need to really really get a move on.

I agree @ZaraCarmichaelshighheels so short sighted. If a non proceedable person sees your house and likes it then once they become proceedable they will put an offer in. Then you have a buyer lined up. There's no guarantee proceedable people will want it, so you have no one lined up and potentially no buyer. I just don't get it

Thank you everyone, that makes things a lot clearer. Knowing that potential buyers will understand that she needs their offer before she can offer on anything else, is reassuring.

That’s interesting re breaking the chain. I think it is unlikely that Mum would consider that, but I’ll explain it to her anyway.

@WombatChocolate Thank you for your excellent advice re paperwork, having solicitor lined up, and giving speedy responses to all enquiries. I hadn’t really thought about that side of things, but it makes a lot of sense.

Also great advice from @WombatChocolate and @MrsJamin about getting to know agents, as you might then see things before they reach RightMove. I had assumed things went on RightMove pretty instantly.

@ZaraCarmichaelshighheels - I totally agree that it seems weird and stressful to agree to sell your home without knowing if the “right” property for you will even come onto the market . But I do also understand people not wanting time-wasters traipsing through, especially during Covid times. I guess worst case scenario, your buyers might pull out if you took too long?

We have sold but prior to that we only accepted viewings from people who had sold. This was in August. One couple said they had sold but their house is still on the market. I know it seems rushed but your mum needs to sell and then look. She will find something or she could rent

You only have to have accepted an offer - you haven't legally committed to selling your house. If you can't find somewhere you like, and your buyers aren't happy to wait any longer, you can pull out of the sale (obviously don't let your buyers proceed with costly things like surveys etc until you find somewhere to buy).

I think that allowing only people who are SSTC is a bit over the top.
But if that’s what your mum is up against, then she’ll need to patient. It can really drag out the chain if every person needs to be SSTC before viewing.

For reference, it’s not the case in my area so it isn’t like that everywhere.

It’s also not the case in my area so do check with agents. We had to have our house on the market, ie. on Rightmove but after that, we were able to view houses from a wide range of agents & similarly, we had people see our house.