Please help me present ourselves as buyers!

[megafish]

Looking for opinions and admit I'm a bit clueless here.

Background is DH bought our current house just as we were getting together, so I've never been through buying a house. We've paid the mortgage off on our current place and depending on the price of next place we buy, we might have enough to buy our next property mortgage free.

We are looking for a detached house with a reasonably sized south or south west facing garden in a relatively small area. Over the last year only 2 potential properties have come onto the market.

The estate agent asked us about our position, I naively said we have a property to sell and were not currently on the market. This led to one of the vendors refusing to let us view the house. My DH thinks that it's the fault of the vendor of cutting down the potential market, but I'm concerned this might be more of a problem if vendors do not see us as proceedable and we'll be stuck in this house forever.

Should I be presenting our circumstances differently if a potential house comes up? It's possible we could get a mortgage and pay it off once our current house sells. Moving into private rented is not an option we are prepared to do.

Any advice on how best to present ourselves so if something does come up we have a chance to see/offer on it.

I think without your house on the market you really aren't proceedable are you?

I think most buyers would be less inclined to be in a chain with you.
If you want to move why haven't you got your house on the market?
I think you will come across as hobby house lookers...

I wouldn't let you view my property or consider accepting an offer from you - unless I'd been on the market for months and there was literally no other interest at all. It doesn't sound like that is at all likely given what you are looking for.

Why should I wait for you to have valuations, market your home, wait for viewers and a proceedable offer? I have done all that to sell my home in order to be able to then make a viable offer on my next property - that is the custom. It could take months for you to get an offer - no vender is going to hang around waiting for you.

If you're able to buy without selling your current house, you need to get a mortgage in principle to prove that. Estate agents will consider you proceedable once you have that.

I think you need to get your house on the market or you're just wasting people's time. As a vendor I wouldn't want to show people round who hadn't even got their house on; I'd just think they weren't serious.

It wasn't naive to say you have to a house to sell if you do! Only a CF would lie about that. It's very important any vendor knows that when considering a viewing or offer.

If you need to sell you need to get on the market, if you are hoping to buy without selling then you just need to demonstrate your financial ability to do so with an AIP. You may not be accepted for a viewing if you cant demonstrate proceedability.

If you're able to buy without selling your current house, you need to get a mortgage in principle to prove that. Estate agents will consider you proceedable once you have that

OP I think this pp sums up your situation, I think? That you would be able to buy without having to first sell your current home. In other words you'd borrow to buy any new house, and then once that's gone through sell your existing home to clear the debt. If that is your position then yes you need to get a MIP.

Either that, or you have enough cash in the bank already to buy a new house from cash (no mortgage, and without first selling your home).

We are all slightly guessing so if we're a not entirely clear what you mean then I can see how the estate agent got the wrong end of the stick!

Most agents won’t let you view if your house is not on the market. You are simoly not proceedable and you’re showing no willing. I’m surprised anyone allowed you to view. It’s usually a total no go.

It's not clear if you need to sell your current house or not in order to purchase your next property? I presume you do, in which case you weren't being naive, but truthful.
It may be that you won't require a mortgage once you sell your house, but that doesn't make you proceedable now if you are not even on the market

I read it as ‘ideally we’d sell and buy the new house with the proceeds but if we need to we can buy this as a second home with a mortgage and clear the mortgage down the line when house 1 has sold’.

I’d explain that you’re purchasing this as a second home and agree with PP that you need to get a mortgage in principle to illustrate that you could afford the house. I wouldn’t mention the hope of selling house 1, just say you’re ‘looking to move to a new home, that you have an existing property but will be keeping it as an investment, and have a MIP from XXX bank showing that you are eligible for a mortgage for X amount’.

I also wouldn't let anyone who didn't have their own place under offer let alone on the market come and view my house - especially with Covid! For all I know your house could take months and months to sell so I wouldn't risk that and would be a waste of time to let someone see if as nothing in the chain could move forward until yours was under offer, so might just be stuck for ages. What if you then accepted an offer from someone without theirs under offer and we had to wait months for that etc etc etc.
If you can buy without sellign then as others say get a mip and funds to prove this then you're an extremely attractive buyer without a chain!

You say you're concerned that the vendors won't see you as proceed-able - however if you're going to need to sell your house then frankly you aren't proceedable!

It is completely normal for the EA to try and ascertain your position. I'm not surprised the viewing was declined, if your house is not even on the market yet then unfortunately you may be viewed as time wasters even though you're not. It's not entirely clear what the position is from what you've said though, why don't you want to put your current house on the market?

I think like previous posters have said you need to be showing commitment to moving so I would expect your house to be on the market at least. Unfortunately there's a lot of time wasters out there (who just view house viewings as a bit of a hobby), and it often takes quite a bit if preparation for a house to be 'viewing ready', so many vendors want some confidence that someone is serious about moving before putting in the effort.

As Panda says - go and talk to a mortgage boker, get confirmation you are financially able to buy without selling your current home and tell the estate agents that.

Otherwise be prepared for this situation to repeat itself.

@PowerslidePanda

If you're able to buy without selling your current house, you need to get a mortgage in principle to prove that. Estate agents will consider you proceedable once you have that.

This is what we did. We knew that once we sold our house we would have enough cash to buy outright without having t have a mortgage but we went through the whole process of applying for a mortgage in principal so that we could view. In the end due to our sale falling through we did take out the mortgage for 6 months then paid it off when we sold. We just had to pay extra stamp duty but we claimed it back when we sold.

Honestly, take it from someone who learnt the hard way last year- you really do need to be on the market first. We got ourselves into a situation where we found two houses that were really great and lost both of them- one as they got a matching offer from someone who was proceedable so went with them and the other who said if we were sold they'd have accepted our offer but were looking to move quickly. We did put our house on the market but then covid hit and we weren't able to sell in time. We could have saved a lot of stress and heartache. Now we are looking at going back on the market again and I've made it clear to DH I'm not viewing any where before this and ideally not before we've sold.
(and I have to say when we were in the seller position it suddenly all made sense to me how viewers who aren't on the market don't look like they're serious about buying (even if they are), and when it takes me hours to get the house ready for viewings with a toddler and dog in the mix I wanted to feel like it was being done with a genuine possibility of a proceedable offer being made).

I would let you view but i wouldn't acceot an offer from you until you were proceedabale

The op isn’t saying she can buy without selling. In fact she specifically said they need to sell their house. Thr funds from that would enable her to maybe live mortgage free

Agents don’t let peoooe view who aren’t on the market normally but who have to sell to proceed.

@Bluntness100

The op isn’t saying she can buy without selling. In fact she specifically said they need to sell their house. Thr funds from that would enable her to maybe live mortgage free

Agents don’t let peoooe view who aren’t on the market normally but who have to sell to proceed.

OP said, "It's possible we could get a mortgage and pay it off once our current house sells."

There is a mini housing boom going on at the moment, and a pandemic.

This means that it is a sellers market, so they have no need to sit around and wait for a bird in the bush - a buyer who has a house not yet on the market, let alone under offer, and also viewings are done under strict COVID safe protocols, in our area vendors leave the house and the EA does the viewing...no one will let you in if you are not a strong contender with a proceedable purchase.

There are still buyers rushing and hoping like mad to beat the SDLT holiday deadline...and you can't help with that so you aren't a strong buyer atm.

However. This will calm down over the next couple of months. It might calm down to the point where, if an EA recognises your own house as a likely quick sale, they will arrange viewings once your house is on the market.

If the market grinds to a near halt you might even be able to view whether or not your house is on the market. But in those circumstances the chance of you selling also goes down.

So you have to decide whether you are willing to put your money where your mouth is.

Does your search area have to be so very specific? I had some very definite search criteria...and am buying a house that is the opposite of one of them, because when I viewed it, it worked! This has happened to me once before when buying, too.

The mortgage idea is a good one, if you can borrow against your income and / or value of your existing house. But check what the costs would be, for getting the mortgage and then paying it off after a very short while.

If you own two houses for more than the specified amount of time you will pay the higher SDLT rate for the new house. If you buy while you still own your current house you will be charged it - but can claim it back if you then sell your first house within the allowed time . Look it up on .Gov.UK under stamp duty.

Things that make you a strong buyer:

Not being in a chain, or being in as short a chain as possible
Being a cash buyer
Buying from the proceeds of your current house without needing a mortgage
Letting it be known that you really want the house and will proceed efficiently and not mess them about.

So both approaches have pros in terms of presenting yourselves as credible proceedable buyers.

Also, once you are ready to go be pro-active. Sign up with lots of local EAs and tell them what you are looking for. They will then often tell you about a property before it has even arrived on Rightmove.

Thanks all. This is useful. If not everyone on here is following, potentially estate agents won't understand either.

We don't want to be on the market and then find we can't find a suitable property then be pressured into finding our next move given the lack of availability.

Not being involved in selling before I hadn't understood the need to be on the market, although we've seen a few properties without having been listed.

It sounds like the best thing we can do is get a MIP and combine that with existing funds to present ourselves as second home buyers.

If you put your house on the market, find a buyer and then find a suitable property to purchase, then surely that’s the ideal situation? This won’t happen unless you do it.
If you do sell yours but don’t find something, yes, there may be pressure - and you may lose an impatient buyer. But if your buyer is currently in rented or a FTB, for example, they may be ok to wait if your property is what they are looking for.
You may find that your estate agent is happy to canvass targeted properties on your behalf, once sold, as they won’t want to miss out on their commission(s).
Yes, there may be pressure but you can say no. Unless what you are looking for is unrealistic?
If you do buy a second property with the intention of selling the original, and do not sell straight away - DH may have CGT implications. Just read up on this first.

It sounds like the best thing we can do is get a MIP and combine that with existing funds to present ourselves as second home buyers

Don't say you are second home buyers, say you are so keen to be in the best position to buy your next house that you have decided to have a MIP rather than wait for yours to be sold, and as such are a chain free buyer. And will market your property as soon as you fond one to buy.

A second home buyer...well, the house is more optional, isn't it?. You might change your mind, get flaky, it's less of an imperative.

It is true that EAs will look out for their sellers to keep a sale moving ahead. When I have sold properties ( 4 so far) and had a vendor drop out , the EA who was selling my property did all they could to find me a replacement property. And if a buyer drops out, they will funnel all buyers towards an ongoing sale to keep it going and get their commission. So it is good to be within the system.

Thanks @MedusaElectronica

I think that's the wording we want to use, and you make great points.

It's not going to be our second home, it's our primary home, it's just our preference to go manage it this way as we have no idea when the house we do want will come up.

We don't physically need to move, but we do very much want to for the right house.

Just be aware though that if you do find the 'right' house and present as chain-free buyers that you may have to go ahead as that and pay the additional 3% stamp duty costs. Although I believe you can recoup this if you sell your current house within 12 months I believe

You've got 36 months to recoup the additional 3%.