Page 2 | Would you accept an offer from someone who didn't yet have their property on the market?

Dawnofanewera · 2020-12-26T12:13:41+00:00

I'm in a bit of a twist about this one. Currently living in a perfectly nice house (a bit small but enough for us). Want to move a bit closer to preferred secondary school but houses local to their rarely come up for sale. Anytime one comes up it goes really quickly in a matter of days. I'm reluctant to put my house up for sale until I've found a house on one of the selected street I want (near the school) If I found a house I would put ours up for sale immediately within days and willing to price competitively so it sells quickly. But would you if you were selling be prepared to accept my offer if my house wasn't yet up for sale?

Ilovesausages · 26/12/2020 13:39

No. Our estate agent wouldn’t have let us I don’t think!

We did have an offer from someone who hadn’t sold their house so we knew we had that one, but we didn’t accept it, and we got an offer from someone else in the end who wasn’t in a chain.

bilbodog · 26/12/2020 13:48

If you want to buy in an area where properties sell that quickly then you need to have an offer on your own, at least, before offering. I think you will need to have sold and be in rented to have a good chance.

We were living in a house in a very sought after street and were downsizing 10 years ago - received 2 offers before the brochure had even been sent out, one family who were already sold and living with family with mortgage arranged and another slightly lower offer from a single woman who was also in rented but was a cash buyer. We went with the cash buyer because we felt that should anything untoward come up on survey she was better placed financially to cope and also she had expressed how much she loved the house and she had been sitting in rented waiting for a house like ours on this particular street to come on the market. The young family had viewed and kept very quiet when walking round and although they offered the next day they had not shown any enthusiasm for the house.

Having said that the house i am sitting in now we bought 18 months ago having fallen in love with it when our house wasnt on the market. We put our house on the market, took about 8 weeks to get an acceptable offer and lucky for us this house was still available. We didn't put our offer forward until we had an offer on ours.

You could also put a letter through the doors of the area you want in case anyone is thinking of selling - but again it might be better to wait until you have an offer on your own.

Daisydoesnt · 26/12/2020 14:06

OP if the houses/ roads that you want to move to are as popular, sought after and rare as you indicate, then TBH even being on the market isn't going to be enough. Why would a seller do that to themselves, when there are likely others that are cash buyers, or at least exchanged/ about to exchange? We've just sold a very desirable house - we had one viewing from a couple that had exchanged, and were completing the next week. We accepted their offer and that was that. We wouldn't even have entertained the idea of people viewing that were not proceedable. We might have said, "come back next month once you're under offer and you can view if it's still on the market." But it wouldn't have been.

I think the only way to handle this is to sell your house, and hope something comes up after you've accepted an offer on your own, or if not move into rented. Someone has to accept a shed load of hassle & uncertainty when moving/ selling houses and I think it's more realistic to take the burden of that yourself rather than your vendor, especially when the vendor is selling something that is in such limited supply.

Good luck!

Zenithbear · 26/12/2020 14:30

No I wouldn't. You'd have to be proceedable.
All you can do is put your house on the market and then start looking.

user1471538283 · 26/12/2020 14:47

No I wouldn't. In your shoes I would sell and rent in the area you like. Something will come up and you are then in a brilliant position

NovemberR · 26/12/2020 14:52

No. Like others I'd only accept an offer from someone who was proceedable - either sold or a cash buyer. I've not been prepared to accept viewings from someone who is not. It's a waste of time.

I don't care if you like my house and want to buy it if you haven't got the money to do so at that point.

PurBal · 26/12/2020 15:04

I completely empathise OP. And for what its worth neither mine or DHs parents ever put an offer in on property when they were "proceedable", my parents have owned 20+ properties between them. But we have been unable to even view anything without being under offer. We also have very niche ideas about where we want to move and have had to agree to go into rented. Because we didn't know how the market had changed we didn't think twice about getting another fixed term on our mortgage and porting it when the right property became available. We're now at risk of losing £10k if we aren't able to port, or moving somewhere totally unsuitable.

NannyGythaOgg · 26/12/2020 15:42

The first one that offered on mine was not on the market and she wanted me to take mine off the market before she would even consider putting hers up for sale. She got told a very definite NO!

the people that bought mine were not currently on the market but they were ready to go. They agreed with the EA selling mine to go with them and made an immediate appointment for photos etc. I said that I wouldn't stop others viewing but I wouldn't take any other offers for 2 weeks. Theirs went on the market and sold within 2 days and the purchase went ahead. Nightmares with solicitors but that is another story.

SacreBleeeurgh · 26/12/2020 15:52

Totally depends on the area you’re both buying and selling in IMO. We’ve done this three times but that’s been selling in an extremely desirable, fast moving area - and having to buy at the ‘going rate’ so to speak - not aiming for a bargain. It’s perfectly possible depending on market behaviour and whether you’re willing to pay a premium to make sure you’re the top offer by a margin which convinces the sellers to wait for you. That said, it’s always worked out for us as the areas have continued to appreciate and we always buy renovations anyway so vastly improve the properties for the next buyer...

SacreBleeeurgh · 26/12/2020 15:53

(I should add this is in Scotland, whether or not that makes a difference as to whether this is the ‘done thing’...)

Original poster

Dawnofanewera · 26/12/2020 16:38

Thanks for all the advice everyone. I hadn't even considered renting. That's something to throw into the mix. We've decided to go on the market at the end of Jan and see what happens!

OP posts:

Roselilly36 · 26/12/2020 17:00

Definitely not, unless they could purchase without selling their property.

SilkiesnowchicksandXmastreecat · 26/12/2020 17:04

No I wouldn't unless I had a property with no other offers for months and then I would keep on the market until yours sells and obviously could get a different offer then.

Our agent would let buyers who were not proceedable view but when people accepted offers from them (always in above category) the houses remained on the market - the one by us fell through.

A lot of people are trying to meet stamp duty deadline of end of March and average deal once agreed takes 12 weeks to go through so people want things which are certain and can proceed very fast. Mine has sold and we are going through this now - going through very fast but will still take around 11 weeks in all.

Melonlover80 · 26/12/2020 17:06

A remotely decent Estate agent would be obliged to pass on but would urge vendor to keep house on market

WanderingHopefully · 26/12/2020 17:07

No, I wouldn't accept an offer unless the buyer was in a position to proceed, ie is either a first time buyer, has already got a buyer for their own home or will be moving into rented accommodation.

CousinLucy · 26/12/2020 17:11

Yes.

We were that offer. They accepted for six weeks. Got our house on the market, got asking price after four days. They got impatient and reneged on our in September. In October we found a better buy, so got over the upset.

In January their estate agent rang me up early one Saturday to ask us if we could cancel our 'second' choice house and buy theirs again. I declined. By early March we were in our new house (better than theirs by far, but to be fair we had to spend £55,000 more) and they didn't move till mid-April.

You can never tell whose chain is going to work first time. Ours did. Clockwork, with reliable people. Except them. I found out through the powers of Rightmove that they'd sold in the end for about £302,000 or thereabouts. Wed offered £350,000!!!!!!!!! So they also lost out through the market somehow too. (We didn't get to our survey on the property, the price may have reflected that.)

Go with your gut, and stick to it.

Didiusfalco · 26/12/2020 17:19

No, I wouldn’t either.
Although I did try this once when a perfect house came on the market. It was empty so we got let in the agent. All that happened was that they used our offers to push the price up for the person who eventually bought it - pointless bidding war really.

Melonlover80 · 26/12/2020 17:26

@CousinLucy

Yes.

We were that offer. They accepted for six weeks. Got our house on the market, got asking price after four days. They got impatient and reneged on our in September. In October we found a better buy, so got over the upset.

In January their estate agent rang me up early one Saturday to ask us if we could cancel our 'second' choice house and buy theirs again. I declined. By early March we were in our new house (better than theirs by far, but to be fair we had to spend £55,000 more) and they didn't move till mid-April.

You can never tell whose chain is going to work first time. Ours did. Clockwork, with reliable people. Except them. I found out through the powers of Rightmove that they'd sold in the end for about £302,000 or thereabouts. Wed offered £350,000!!!!!!!!! So they also lost out through the market somehow too. (We didn't get to our survey on the property, the price may have reflected that.)

Go with your gut, and stick to it.

If you had an offer after 4 days.... I’m confused how they gave you six weeks but for impatient and withdrew. What happened between the 4 days and the 6 weeks?

Melonlover80 · 26/12/2020 17:32

@Didiusfalco

No, I wouldn’t either. Although I did try this once when a perfect house came on the market. It was empty so we got let in the agent. All that happened was that they used our offers to push the price up for the person who eventually bought it - pointless bidding war really.

@Didiusfalco

Why was it pointless? You both wanted the house.
Only pointless if you had absolutely no intention of actually buying and was just messing around

Tootiredtogotobed · 26/12/2020 17:40

Another No from me - the best local estate agent wouldn't make viewing appointments for people who weren't in a position to proceed here

EdgeOfACoin · 26/12/2020 17:44

We had accepted on offer on our place. The estate agent was keen to establish that - I'm not sure he would have shown us the property if we hadn't been proceedable.

bluebluezoo · 26/12/2020 17:51

I would. On condition I can keep showing potential buyers round and be open to other offers.

Our last house we knew it would sell quickly because of the location. We offered on a house we loved, but the sellers went with a lower offer, but those buyers had an offer, and as the house was empty they wanted a quick sale.

We put our house on the market the next day, had sold it within 10 days, and completed in less than 12 weeks. The other house we’d offered on had still not completed a month later. So they could have had more money and a quicker sale.

Maranello4 · 26/12/2020 17:55

No definitely not. We’ve sold ours and found that many sellers and estate agents wouldn’t let us do viewings (never mind put in an offer) unless we’d sold.

makingmyway10 · 26/12/2020 18:16

No. We have recently moved and we turned down an offer from a couple who had not sold their house. They really loved our house and viewed it twice, measuring it for their furniture and making plans for it. Their house is actually still on the market and we sold ours and moved in the Spring! We would have still been waiting!

organisedmother · 26/12/2020 18:23

No, I think u may need to sell your home and rent for 6 months while searching so u can snap up the best properties as u won’t have a chain you would be the perfect buyer!