Sell ours first but there's nothing to buy?

[movingquandry]

Hello wise MNers. Sorry this is long.

We live in SW london and have been trying to move since 2018. We have a lovely house, but titchy garden and small master bedroom. We can't reconfigure to solve these issues, so will move. We want somewhere to retire into and it will be our final house. (5or so,years to retirement)

The idea is get a house with a much bigger garden and big master or loft that can be converted. This fits with my love of gardening, and being fed up,of bashing into DH in the cramped bedroom.

We've missed out on 3 perfect houses so far. Once when we had buyers but were outbid, once where we had no buyers and were massively outbid. (£200k over asking price on £1.2m house), and once when we put in an offer but couldn't get a buyer in time. All in 2018\19 when the market was alive. We've been looking ever since and only 1 has come up that's suitable.

The issue is there is NOTHING on the market locally in our price range and 1-2 houses a week only coming on. So when/if a suitable place comes on, we probably need to be proceedable. BUT we did that before and after 6 months of not finding anywhere we took ours off the market and told our buyers to find elsewhere as there was no end in sight.

So. Should we
A) market now, and get a buyer then hang on, maybe for 12 months or more given current slow market ?
B) keep looking no sell ours fast once we have an offer accepted ?
C) wait and see what covid does to the market once things normalise a bit more?

What do you think wise house buyer seller people?

At this rate I'll be retired and too decrepit to move anywhere

This is causing issues for us too. Our vendors cant find anywhere. Took us months and we are in rented. I think there may be a little slump due to missing out on stamp duty so people just sitting tight waiting for prices to reflect that as still super high here, or just waiting for craziness to calm down - well I'm hoping so anyway! There's no fun in going to see a house and knowing that you will be competing with 20 other viewers.

I would wait for the current situation to level out. It has been driven by the SDLT holiday, it seemed like half of England was in the move in March, and everyone who wanted to sell last year has done it by now.

By autumn people will be going into new jobs, back to the office so may want to be closer, moving for school catchments, all the reasons people move. And prices might level off as the SDLT holiday frenzy subsides.

Much of the current ‘you can only view if under offer’ is due to COVID protocol and only letting ‘proceedable’ people into the house or contact with the EA. This has driven the speed of offers, and will presumably calm down as things go back closer to normal.

But that’s just my thinking without benefit of Crystal ball or expert knowledge.

We had similar and decided to sell and rent so that we'd be in a strong no chain position when something perfect comes up.

I was in a similar position - started trying to move July 2019 and finally completed on our new house a couple of weeks ago. The house we bought was the 4th that we offered on and in between there were periods where there was just nothing suitable.

The problem isn't just the lack of options though, it's the fierce competition when a good one does come along - not just in terms of price, but position. So I can't see that option B is even viable at the moment. We separated our sale and purchase and lived with family in between to make ourselves more attractive. Our vendors ended up doing the same. Is that an option for you? If not, then I think it has to be C from your list (buyers aren't going to hang around waiting).

I'd sell then rent - I'm having to do this anyway as my seller hasn't found a place to buy. I have to move some distance, no relatives and wouldn't impose on friends (maybe if it was just me, but not kids and dogs too). I figure I'll have the cash in the bank and if this purchase falls through I'll be ready to jump on anything that comes along. It will cost £££, I hate that I was misled by EA (said seller would go into rental), and I'm missing the stamp duty deadline unless some sort of miracle occurs. But I've committed to moving, my daughter starts a new school in the Autumn.
But you don't have these constraints, so either sell and rent, or wait until next spring and see what the market is like then.

Thanks everyone. Good (or not!) to hear that others are struggling with a crazy market.

We were looking for a doer upper so we can get it how we want it but have found that in our area these go for more than ones already done. Madness. So now looking for either done or not.

I'm not likely to head down the rental route this year as DS is leaving for uni in September and I don't want our 'last summer' with him to be in temp accommodation.

If I could find a plot I'd build one but this is london and every square cm is already taken

So looks like I'll sit tight and keep pouncing on anything new that comes in.

If you sell now and rent, you might find prices continue to rise and you are priced out of the market. If you hold fire, your home will rise with the market too.

As a kind of compromise, you could look to sell now, with the offer of going into rented once you have an offer accepted elsewhere. That way your buyers won’t have to wait to your purchase (and your vendors’ purchase and so on) to all be ready before they can get in, but you have some security in knowing you have found a property to move to. It might save your buyers a few months and make you a more attractive buyer for your onward house, as you have already sold. There is a risk of course that you could sell and move out only to have your purchase fall through though.

If you aren’t prepared to compromise then right now isn’t the time to move. With such little new stock coming onto the market you will find searching for that ‘perfect’ home nigh on impossible currently. I’d be waiting until next Jan/Feb tbh.

Similar situation here. Most of the buyers I've met are in the same position too - sold/renting and have spent weeks or months unsuccessfully bidding on the few properties that go up for sale. The competition is insane and people are offering well above valuation in most cases. This bodes well as a seller but only if you've got something lined up after!

You could sell now to take advantage of the hiked up prices and keep your profit/equity squirrelled away while renting or staying with family, if you have that option. I'd like to think that supply will increase gradually and bring prices down at some point in the near future! Fingers crossed!

We have moved recently, we got a buyer quickly, luckily for us we found the property we wanted but if we hadn’t we would have pulled out of the sale.

It sounds like the best thing might be to wait until your son has gone to uni as moving is so much upheaval either way.

We sold and stayed with family. It put us in a very good position when a nice house did come up. We had to pay close to asking, but as cash buyers with no chain they were very keen to have us! We couldn't wait to sell as we couldn't get a new mortgage so needed the cash in the bank while the prices were good. If you have a bit if flexibility then I'd probably wait for a short while.

also in London moving to Surrey. We put our current property up for sale and couldn’t buy what we were looking for as other buyers just pounced on any stock that came up. we are going for a budget that’s just slightly lower than yours. we are looking for our forever family home.

so we are proceeding with the sale of our smaller house, going into nice rented and want to pause a bit for the market to calm down.

but if the perfect house does come up we will pounce on it.

i don’t think you will be able to do B - each house we have viewed had another 18 viewings on the same day and 5-6 offers. it’s a seller’s market and they won’t wait for you unfortunately.

so personally i think it’s either compromise and rent now or wait until next year.

we are also looking at properties under budget now and may do work —it’s the done up houses that are flying off the shelves.

We are in the same position and have sold. The new owners are allowing g us to stay until they relocate at the end of June. However we’ve found that there is a dearth of properties on the rental market too. Worried about being stuck renting somewhere not very suitable/nice while waiting for the elusive ‘forever home’ to come on the market

@Sweetmelody72

We are in the same position and have sold. The new owners are allowing g us to stay until they relocate at the end of June. However we’ve found that there is a dearth of properties on the rental market too. Worried about being stuck renting somewhere not very suitable/nice while waiting for the elusive ‘forever home’ to come on the market

yes unfortunately the rental market for 3/4 beds is also crazy. just need to call a few estate agents and view and offer asap as soon as an ok one comes on.

Yeah - I’ve been relying on marketing and it’s also a bit early, but I’m going to call around now to make sure I’m registered for rentals as well as sales. Thanks

An update (in the unlikely event that you may be interested!)

Spoke to a couple of agents who think that supply might start to increase again. So we've decided to keep an eye on the market and if things look like they might be opening up again, we will market ours. View is ours will sell very quickly and we can be open with buyers that they need to be able to wait for months. What we are looking for is rare though, so it still likely to take ages. But we have a plan !

So my quest to,chat up all local agents begins. Again.

Good to hear you've got a plan OP! Hopefully more properties will be available soon. We had around 15-18 viewers for ours and ALL of them were in rented, living with family, or cash buyers, who'd been searching for months. It's just not sustainable - something has to give!

Also, we've found relating to agents really tricky because of course they are saying all the 'right' things to try and get £££.