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Original poster

Do you list your own house before looking for others

27 replies

TulipVictory · 02/12/2021 13:59

Would you list and sell your own house before looking for others? The reason I ask this is what I want is very particular, I've been looking for a good year and nothing has quite matched my criteria yet other than one house that was sold before it hit the market. I've had my house valued and been told it will sell quickly. However, I can't see a buyer would want to wait however many months it would take us to fin the one?

I am being particularly fussy because I want this to be our forever house, this is our criteria:

4 bedrooms (up from 4)
Parking
Garage
Hopefully not on main road but don't mind too much if parking available
Edwardian/Victorian hallway & features (fireplaces & cornices)
Good sized garden
Have a good sized lounge as well as a seperate room for a play room
Toilet downstairs
Bath & shower
Office (but not a deal breaker)

OP posts:
FinallyHere · 02/12/2021 14:06

I'd heard of people with specific requirements do a leaflet drop to any house matching the criteria. Not pushy, apologies if disturbing etc Admiring their house and asking them to let you know if they are ever thinking of selling, to contact you first.

What harm can it do.

I'd be ready to put mine on the market immediately. Not just to contact EA but with photos etc already taken and ready to go.

SheWoreYellow · 02/12/2021 14:10

It depends how quickly yours will go. When we had a nicely extended, not too big, nice condition, good location semi, we looked before we sold and found a buyer in ten days.

If you think your house might be a bit more niche or the market is slower then it makes sense to do it the other way.

You can always get an offer and see how it goes. Your buyer might not wait if it takes a while, but you might find one quicker than you expect.

Heronwatcher · 02/12/2021 15:20

It really depends on the market where you’re moving to. In some areas estate agents won’t show people around unless their own house is at least under offer and most sellers won’t take the house off the market unless the buyer is proceedable (under offer/ cash buyer/ in a rental). Some estate agents also have a list of people who are proceedable and they get the first look at new stock. So if you’re moving to an area like that then yes I think you’ll need to get your house under offer first and either hope that your buyer is understanding on time (which is risky), or go into a rental (many people are having to do this). But if the area you’re moving to is a bit sluggish you might be better off, but TBH I can’t see anyone taking their house off the market unless you are at least under offer, so you’d always be at risk of someone else coming in at the last minute and offering more- it sounds as though the house you want might be quite in demand.

Valerie77 · 02/12/2021 16:37

I think I'd do the opposite - work out where I could go and get some viewings/meetings set up, then decide an option is worth pursuing and trying to minimise the gap between listing/buying to become as small as possible, although I appreciate that might only work in an ideal world!

redandwhite1 · 02/12/2021 16:43

We couldn't view houses until ours was on the market!! Could be a local thing / Covid thing that's maybe more relaxed now

Maybe randomly try to view a house and see if they say anything?

3cats4poniesandababy · 02/12/2021 16:46

A lot of sellers won't accept an offer and take house off the market unless tbe buyers are proceedable (ie offer accepted or no chain). As you said yourself only one house in a year and sold before reaching the open market.

Will your buyers wait or not completely depends upon their situation and the likely the price agreed. It could be a while for you to find somewhere and then also time for your sellers to find somewhere if they have particular requirements.

Megan2018 · 02/12/2021 16:47

We have had to sell ours this week to get a sniff of what we want, it’s all selling prior to marketing here. We don’t need to move and have a very limited search area.

We sold very quickly with only a discreet listing and chose a buyer in rented that is happy to wait. We might still have to pull out but we have been very clear at the outset. We accepted their offer which was just over our minimum as they were a good candidate.
But we have still not viewed anything. We will give it as long as the buyer will to try though.

We had other interested parties but for the sake of £20k it wasn’t worth risking a complicated chain, at least below us!

Rrrob · 02/12/2021 16:56

Depends on area. We couldn’t book any viewings until our flat was on the market last year. We knew it would sell quickly (really good sized victorian conversion, 2 mins from high street and in the middle of 2 stations going in to London in 20 mins) and told agents this but they didn’t care. We got an asking price offering on the first viewing and at 5 months pregnant (with twins) we were homeless. We had a 3 month gap before moving into our new house. If you have no children I would do it, you will be in a strong position. If you do have children, I wouldn’t do it but be prepared for some agents to decline you viewings, especially in this super hot market.

Earwigworries · 02/12/2021 16:58

There is nothing worse than finding your dream house and then not being able to sell .

Megan2018 · 02/12/2021 16:58

@Rrrob

Depends on area. We couldn’t book any viewings until our flat was on the market last year. We knew it would sell quickly (really good sized victorian conversion, 2 mins from high street and in the middle of 2 stations going in to London in 20 mins) and told agents this but they didn’t care. We got an asking price offering on the first viewing and at 5 months pregnant (with twins) we were homeless. We had a 3 month gap before moving into our new house. If you have no children I would do it, you will be in a strong position. If you do have children, I wouldn’t do it but be prepared for some agents to decline you viewings, especially in this super hot market.
Why did you move out?! We have a toddler and have made it very clear that we will not complete the sale if we don’t find another house. So we have accepted an offer but are not starting the sale process yet.
CafeCremeMerci · 02/12/2021 17:01

Agents are pushing me to put mine on the market now & are saying the market for buyers will be better in the new year. It does make sense, but I'm reticent because there's not been anything come on the market that I'm interested in & this I'm not exactly motivated to sell mine (I'm going to need something that excites me before I can bring myself to sell mine).

They keep telling me how quickly mine will sell, so I can't see the rush. Except maybe IF there is more in the market in the New Yesr, I might sell mine quicker or get more for it if I sell now...

(Head is a bloody mess with it all)

Plantstrees · 02/12/2021 17:01

I think you should list and find a buyer before you start looking otherwise you are setting yourself up to be disappointed. The property market is moving fast now and not many sellers are willing to accept offers from buyers that don't have a buyer lined up.

oohmama · 02/12/2021 21:03

What area? That literally describes my house and we are moving 😂

tattychicken · 02/12/2021 21:10

I wouldn't and haven't considered an offer unless the buyer was under offer themselves and in a decent position to proceed. And as a buyer myself, I need to be in a strong position , ie under offer, reasonable chain, in order to negotiate a price with the owner of the property I'm trying to buy.
I don't see how you can negotiate without theses factors being known.

traka · 02/12/2021 21:14

We specified that only viewers with their house for sale could view our's, FTB's or cash buyers

If your house isn't for sale you won't be allowed to view most houses and you certainly won't be taken seriously if you make an offer

lemontova · 02/12/2021 22:15

We were in same position and everyone advised us to sell first but we didn't want to end up homeless as there are so few rental properties where we are. In the end, we found a great house and got ours ready to sell by its closing (photos and listing all ready to hit publish within an hour of acceptance), made a good case to the seller's solicitor, and then pushed the boat out on our offer. They accepted it on basis that we had a set deadline to sell ours and complete with them. We would probably have got it for less if we'd already sold ours and were less of a risk, but there's been nothing else on the market since that would have suited so I think it was the right decision for us. If it's really rare for you to find a house you want, might be worth doing the same and offering over the odds as a recognition of the higher risk?

Christmasbutmakeitspooky · 03/12/2021 09:52

Your list is literally the same as mine!
Lots of sellers don’t want viewers who aren’t on the market yet. We had to list ours before we could start looking.

IgneousRock · 03/12/2021 09:56

We put our house on the market, sold very quickly and then had to pull out because we couldn't find a house to buy. So next time we waited until we'd found the house first and it all went smoothly that time.

YanTanTetheraPetheraPimp · 03/12/2021 09:59

Ours is ready to advertise and we’ll start seriously house hunting once we have an offer. There’s little point in doing anything else imo.

ISaidDontLickTheBin · 03/12/2021 10:10

Like pp in my area you have to at least be on the market to view most properties (some agents/vendors want you to have accepted an offer before viewing). It's really annoying as we were in the position of having an extremely saleable house but quite niche requirements for our onward purchase.

What we did was put our house on the market at too high a price - then dropped the asking price when we found somewhere we liked! You have to make sure your EA is really up front with any potential buyers that you aren't in a hurry to move until you've found the right house.

That said it didn't totally work - our buyers said they were happy to wait, but did eventually ask us to break the chain and go into rented (no thankyou) then pulled out. So we had to go back on the market but got new buyers within 48h. Our EA did pressure us quite a bit to break the chain as they wanted their fee! But the rental market round here is dire so it made no sense to do so.

Skysblue · 03/12/2021 10:25

I know some estate agents who won’t allow buyers to view the propertt hnless they’re already under offer. Most expect you to be on the market.

I chose to sell and then rent when we aearched for a property. Means that when the ideal property comes up, you definitely get it as cash buyer. But it is an expensive way to play the game.

IamwhoIsayIam · 03/12/2021 10:41

Depends how prepared you are to miss out on the dream house when you find it.

We accepted a cash offer from someone in rented even though that meant turning down a higher offer from someone who had not yet put their house on the market but were 'confident of a quick sale'

We weren't prepared to sit around waiting for them to get a buyer.

HoyaSaxa · 03/12/2021 10:43

It really depends on how attractive you are to the vendors.

If your area is one of the ones that you need to be on the market to even see anything then you better list first.

However, if there is a bit more flexibility, then you may just have to go big with your bid. So then, it comes down to how competitive it is to get your ideal house.

So, if your dream house is at the top of your budget, your chances are slim. However, if you can do a big bid with a deadline for selling your own, then I would go for it.

There is also always the nuclear option if you can afford it - could you get bridging finance so you do not have to sell your house as part of the chain? It's scary, but if you are willing to take a bit of a risk for a few months, it could be worth it.

Sweetsaremyfave · 03/12/2021 10:44

Can’t really view houses until yours is on the market. Maybe put yours up for sale and if it sells you could move into rented until you find what you need?

sarahc336 · 03/12/2021 11:01

At the min you need to be sold to progress as things sell so quickly you wouldn't get a chance. This is the problem you'll face though, we sold nearly 6 months ago and nothing right has come up yet so we'll probably just have to re sell, the housing market is not normal at the monent I'm afraid, good luck x