Best to sell, rent, then buy?

[NinaMimi]

We’re thinking of selling our flat then moving into rental accommodation to break any need for a chain. Then we’ll hopefully be in a stronger position when buying. Is this a good idea? Or just more hassle?

This seems to be becoming more common but it does sound like a lot of hassle and potentially a lot of expense. Are you finding that you're missing out on properties due to being in a chain? As not all sellers will mind.

This is what we are doing. In a way it is both - hassle, yes, but stronger position to be chain free when buying. We are relocating so makes sense to rent and we can get to know the area. Plus although our house sold straight away we struggled to find anything we liked and would rather wait!

If you can afford it do it.

We’re lucky in that my family have a self contained property on their land that we (offspring) can use when between houses, so that’s what we’re doing. The way the market moves around here (very desirable Sussex commuter village) family sized properties under £500k are incredibly rare, so you have to be in a strong position and ready to go straight away.

I think it depends on the market in your area.

If we had no dependents we'd have considered this as it would definitely take some of the pressure off finding somewhere and allow you to potentially sell high and buy low which would be pretty good. We had an asking price offer from a cash buyer on our house but turned it down as they stipulated they'd want us out within 8 weeks into a rental if we hadn't found and completed on something else... Something we thought about but decided wr couldn't face with a 3 year old, a dog and me being 33 weeks pregnant at the time 🤦🏻‍♀️ I guess it also depends on the rental market where you are, here it's really dead so we'd have struggled to find somewhere anyway!

We did this. With a primary schooler and a young baby. It was hassle but it was absolutely worth it. We are just about to move out to our new house next week.

We were in a better negotiating position for sure. And we were at the bottom of the chain which in some way dictates how quickly the chain moves. From offer to completion it will have been 7 weeks for us which is quite good in the current climate.

It worked so well for us that we wouldn't hesitate to do again in future.

We did it.
It also meant we could do repairs and changes before moving in

I was going to do this. The sums just no longer stack up as the rental market is just as mad where I'm looking to move to, with 12 month rentals being the norm currently. And BnB short term I don't fancy either. No family to move in with etc.

It puts you in a more proceedable position for sure, but just do your sums first.

Absolutely, I'm doing this now.

Sold my current house within 3 days of it going on the market. Buyer wants to complete by June for reduced stamp duty. I'd already planned to either stay with family or go into rented following as houses in the area I want to move to go extremely quickly, some are sold even before the estate agent pictures are taken!

Having my deposit and AIP ready means I'll be in a much stronger position when it comes to bidding on the new property, and will hopefully be able to complete on a new house before the end of the summer holidays.

You may be at the bottom of the next chain, but there will still be a chain.
Looks like we are going to move in to rental as my seller has, after more than two months of looking, yet to find a place to buy. I need to move some distance for my job. I do not want to lose my buyers, but my vendor doesn't seem to mind the risk of losing me as he refuses to move into rental, despite a cash incentive if we can complete by end of June. I was misled by the EA who said he would go in to rental (and the property was on the market for a while, so i don't think he'll get a new buyer quickly). So I'm looking at tying myself up for six months in a London rental, disrupting my daughter's schooling, potentially kennelling the dogs, losing out on the stamp duty, paying movers to move me twice, getting a storage unit, all because one person, single, refuses to inconvenience themselves. I figure I will become a cash buyer though, and if something better comes on, I will have no hesitation in going for that instead.

We are doing this and it was the best decision.

We are probably going for something without a chain and I think that will become more common. We are in such a brilliant position to negotiate and its given me time to decompress. Having not rented for decades it's also quite freeing because its temporary and I can be anonymous

We sold and live in rented now. We will also be cash buyers. We haven't really seriously looked yet as we are living out of our target area and restrictions ruled out viewings. We are renting near family for pandemic reasons. Now that we can book a b&b for a few days and do some viewings, we're hoping our strong position pays off. The endless threads on here about it being a sellers market with 45 over asking price offers 2 days before the estate agent took a photo are causing me to doubt.

Pre covid.
Wanted a big move to a place we used to holiday in . Decided not to sell or rent out our house in case it was all a big mistake and we wanted to return.
Rented in new area , settled in and enjoyed it . Put house on the market ( it took awhile , as was empty of most furniture ) sold house , bought in new area as cash buyers.

Did this the last couple of moves and will do it again next time. Relieves so much pressure and made me a very attractive buyer in a tough buying market, especially as I was buying a 4 bed house.

It be probably depends where you are selling and looking to move to, but round here (Very popular South-East commuter spot), all the properties we know of have sold to people who are ready to go. Our neighbours put there house on the market two weeks ago and had four offers within 48 hours, all over the asking price. They didn’t go with the highest offer, but the one from a couple who had already completed on their sale. They also only got their next house as they are cash buyers and don’t need to sell before completing on that.

We did the opposite and have rented our old house, so no chain our end. Only possible because we had a decent amount of equity and were not trying to move up the property ladder. We had a school application deadline plus taking a big step of moving area.

We have tenants who wanted a 2 year agreement, so at the end of that we’ll decide what to do. If we sell at that point we get the extra stamp duty back. Rental income vs costs of rental and extra mortgage payments will probably work out neutral over the 2 years.

On the other hand my mum is trying to move, her sale is ready to go but I think her purchase might fall through. I was looking to see if she could rent but there is nothing available at all, only one in the area currently for rent and there’s so much interest that they’ve stopped any more viewings after one day. She could stay with me but her cat can’t stay with ours, plus she can’t stand children’s noise for too long!

And then of course you run the risk of being priced out of the market. A few months ago I was still betting on it taking a dive about now, but clearly not!

Stupid stupid house buying system!