When to put house on market

[Themostwonderfultimeoftheyear]

Many thanks to the people who helped me out with tips on things I need to do before putting my house on the market. Sorry I have so many questions but never done this before and obviously Covid means things are a bit different.

We are moving to North Wales and have a holiday booked there for May half term which will give us an opportunity to view houses. We understand that the agents really want people to be under offer before allowing viewings at the moment so we are trying to think when would be the best time for our house to go on the market to give us a good chance of being under offer but not so early as to annoy our buyers at waiting around for us to find somewhere.

I am told the market is very buoyant at the moment and other houses in our area seem to be going under offer quickly.

How long would buyers likely be happy to wait for us to find somewhere? I have no idea how long the process takes. I guess worst case we could sell and rent.

Exciting. I love N Wales. Good thing there is the property market is much slower so if you sell first you should then have a reasonable choice. Which areas are you thinking?

That's good to know On. I was surprised that some houses on our saved list have been on since last year and they look lovely! I was worried that meant there was something wrong with them but maybe it is just the slower market :)

We are looking at the North East as DH's family are in Manchester and we want to be within 1.5hrs of them. So Llandudno and Conwy are the furtherst West we are looking. We have heard good things about Hawarden and there are some lovely houses in budget there and it is less than an hour from Manchester.

So do you think we should get it on ASAP so we are in a strong position when we go up or are we likely to piss off our buyers if we sell in the next 3-4 weeks but then they have to wait until the first week of June for us to put an offer on a house?

@Themostwonderfultimeoftheyear

So do you think we should get it on ASAP so we are in a strong position when we go up or are we likely to piss off our buyers if we sell in the next 3-4 weeks but then they have to wait until the first week of June for us to put an offer on a house?

It’s just the slow market leaving houses sitting around there, lower priced ones seem to go quickly but anything more expensive sells much slower. Might mean though that your chain (if you end up in one) is slow. Worst case scenario can you move into rented or stay with the Manchester family while your purchase goes through?

At the moment Manchester wouldn't be an option as BIL is in the spare room but he is planning to move out soon so if he has we could ask the ILs and I don't think they would refuse.

The estate agent mentioned static caravans work for people just needing a few weeks in the summer but I am guessing they will be sold out this year! I think if we were ending up homeless we could make things work with ILs. Worst case scenario we could sleep on an air bed in the front room but that would have to be very time limited.

Put your house on the market now - we are already in the second half of April and the agents usually need several days to arrange photographs and floor plans, and you need an EPC done. So say you contact an agent (or several) on Monday, they all visit by Wednesday, you decide and sign contract Thursday...your house is not going to get on rightmove until the following week, last week of April, though any agent should be ringing up their list of buyers if your house meets their needs.
That leaves you about four weeks to find a buyer, which may be plenty of time, but you never know. But wait any longer and you risk not being qualified to view. Also get your mortgage sorted should you require one.

Thanks changing. Just set up 3 valuations for next week :)

With the mortgage am I correct that you get one in principle first and then a final one once you have put an offer in?

I think put your house on the market now and just be honest with your buyers. It's not long between now and the end of May so I don't think that's an unreasonable time for a buyer to wait for you to put in an offer. I'd be happy to wait longer as long as I was kept up-to-date with my vendors' situation.

And yes to your mortgage question. Get an aip, put in an offer then make a mortgage application. Be aware that an aip may not be an accurate reflection of what the bank will offer you so you may want to leave a little leeway. Our mortgage offer was about 10k under our aip.