Does not having a house to sell really out you in a better position to buy ?

[Rosmah1511]

Just that really.

Looking for stories on how this makes a positive difference as a buyer ?

We are looking to sell and then rent . Will this put us in a much better position? Or does it only make a small difference?

Thank you

Quite a massive one- as the person you buy off isn't relying on your buyer which is another added risk of the chain falling through.

If you have the option to do it you should,makes you much more attractive to sellers and also with the stamp duty holiday fast approaching speed is important

Yes it would make you a more attractive buyer as there would be much less uncertainty around the chain. We lost out on a house last year to a chain free buyer, even though we offered much more!

Christ if we had had to sell something during our buying process I think I would have been on the verge of a breakdown.

When we bought our previous house, the vendors already had a buyer but were sick of waiting for them to sell their house. So they put it back on the market, and accepted an offer from us, explaining we would be in a contract race with the other buyers - whoever got their shit together first would get the house. As we didn’t have anything to sell, our paperwork rocketed through while the others remained stuck. We got the house.

Easier to sell to someone not in a chain, they should be able to move quicker. Less risk of to all falling apart,

When we offered our current house, there were 2 other offers and I do believe they accepted our offer because we were 2 weeks away from the completion of selling our old house. They wanted a fast sale with minimal issues and we were able to provide that.
The whole process took 6 weeks including the Christmas break.
The smaller the chain, the less likely it is to fall through.

We sold and rented & I know it was the reason we got the house we now have. And we had an offer accepted which was lower than the highest offer because of it.

It's a bit of a pain in that we had to move twice and we put a fair bit of stuff in storage , but yes I think it mostly puts you at an advantage. Lots of people aren't prepared to do it - and their choice - it is a bit more faff , but you have the money in the bank & good to go.

It should in theory. I had a house to sell this year when my mother died and I was advised to only accept offers from people with a sale agreed. It has still taken seven months to complete.
DD is a FTB and so in the same position as you would be. He had an offer accepted in June. The vendors are buying an empty house so only two in the chain and she still has no completion date. In fact she is in danger of her mortgage offer expiring.

I opted for a chain free buyer over one that offered £25k more, but had a house to sell......

It's not always as cut and dried.

If you don't have anything to sell and are a committed, genuine buyer of a desirable property, then that's a great situation for all parties.

However - people with nothing to sell also (sometimes) have nothing to lose and nothing to make them do things at a good pace, change their minds and generally hold all the cards..

Ideally you want buyer(s) and seller(s) to have equal skin the game.

Usually the pace is determined by when they terminate their rental agreement. However lots of the faff has been removed! You know they have the money! You know they are serious buyers. They are not holding out for an unrealistic price in order to buy yours. Generally they are like first time buyers but of course things can go wrong - adverse survey, difficulty in getting a mortgage etc.

I've been chain free twice now as a buyer and both times didn't feel like it gave me as much advantage as everyone seemed to make out. I lost out to investors once, and paid asking 2nd time and over asking the 1st time! But I was very naive and young then.

But, it is infinitely less stressful I would hazard as you don't need to complete and move in the same day and you're not stressing about half the chain falling apart. My ex had to complete and move from our marital home and he didn't get the keys until 3pm! The removal company had messed up and he only had a large van, so needed to do more than one trip. The new owner was putting his stuff outside the house and moving hers in!

So, don't expect to save money but you might save some grey hairs!

Oh, and you can stay in rented while you do work if you've sold already too :)

Ime I agree with what MyGazeboisLeaking said. In theory it should but only if the buyers are serious. In reality it can be very different. When I sold my main home a few years ago chain free buyers with nothing to sell where the biggest pita. They looked at every single property for weeks on end, some did a second viewing weeks later, had no urgency because they weren't worried about their sale falling through, were really slow and low with offers, more likely to pull out, reduce their offer, mess around. Some lose touch with reality and think because they are chain free they can call all the shots.
Give me someone who has just sold and therefore a timescale/something to lose if they mess around any day of the week. Which is buyer I eventually sold to.

Massive difference.

I have bought and sold numerous houses. I have only ever accepted offers from people who have already sold (and preferably from people who have the cash). I would take a lower offer from a cash buyer any day over a higher one from someone who has something on the market - or even someone who has sold but is in a chain.

I accepted a lower offer from a cash buyer over someone who was in a chain.
We were also chosen by our buyer because we'd sold to a cash buyer.. people like to avoid long chains as increases the risk of something going wrong and all the delays it can cause.

Huge difference as chain stops with you. The probability of a delay of chain collapsing is diminished compared to any buyer who is in a chain

I'd add that in this market chain free buyers are even more attractive.

The post Covid rush in my area has since resulted in about 25% (or more since houses that have been STC for up to 4 months are being added daily) of proeprties coming back on to the market.

Banks tightening their lending criteria has resulted in a lot of failed chains with first time buyers and those moving up the ladder failing new affordability ratios.

I too would accept a reduced offer from a chain free buyer over one in a chain any day. We had a sale fall through 2 days before exchange because of something at the bottom of the chain. In the end we sold to FTBs without half the hassle.

Lesson learned.

We were cash buyers (selling current house after ) and buying an empty property, it still took 3 months . Having cash dosnt speed up the process .

those who accepted lower offers from cash buyers / no chain buyer, how much are we talking in percetage?

I know it make a difference but I wonder if you mean just a marginal difference in price?

I think it does but mainly if offers come in at same time you are likely to be preferred offer even if lower for a lot of sellers as less risk of deal collapsing.

Having said that we thought we'ld only agree an offer at £600k or below to a cash or chain free buyer but then first offer came in at £590k from a buyer with one person buying there's 5 weeks in and we accepted. I did though look up their house and check it was easily saleable in case it falls through. If I'd had two offers at same time would probably have taken around £10k lower for cash / chain free buyers.

Yes, I do think being chain free can help. So many sales fall through for various reasons - I’ve read that it’s even 50% - so it’s one less reason for things to go wrong.

I don’t think it will usually mean a lower offer (anything more than marginally lower) will be accepted, though - not unless they’re really getting desperate.

There are always some sales that are difficult - even with cash or chain free buyers. Nothing is going to be quick if there is an adverse survey, a mortgage offer that isn’t high enough, or the vendors cannot move into their new house for whatever reason (or haven’t found one) so speed of transaction isn’t always gained.

But worrying about your chain ceases and the vendor knows you do actually want to buy. Vendors do usually like chain free buyers and I think it also stops kite flying. The buyer looking at houses they can only afford if they get full asking price for theirs which is an inflated price anyway. It stops the vendor sitting about for months waiting for the buyers to sell.

Sometimes, even as a cash buyer, the vendor cannot find another suitable property and the completion date slips and slips! We found this out a while ago. So nothing is ever easy but reducing the stress helps!

It's less stressful and allows YOU to move fast, but if your sellers are in a chain (which ours were), it doesn't actually change much in terms of speed of purchase, etc. Our sellers were buying a bungalow from an older woman who wouldn't sell until she had secured another bungalow in her chosen village - it took months.

So they put it back on the market, and accepted an offer from us, explaining we would be in a contract race with the other buyers - whoever got their shit together first would get the house.

@VenusClapTrap What a crappy thing to do. I wouldn’t want to deal with vendors who treated people like that personally. I hope in the race to beat the other buyer to it, you also managed to get a survey done...