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Original poster

Finding a house before putting your house on the market

23 replies

Lulu298 · 05/12/2021 19:04

Hi,

Has anyone got an estate agent to find them a house before they've put their own house on the market? Just wondering if it's a common thing to do.

The people we bought our house off did this: they found a house they wanted and then sold their house (the one we're in now) through the same estate agent.

I just wondered if this was a way to get estate agents to find you a place that fits your criteria.

We want to move to a bigger house with its own driveway and bigger garden but I would be worried we wouldn't find anywhere that fits our criteria round where we live after accepting an offer on ours as houses like the the one we want don't come up very often...

Any advice?

Thanks in advance x

OP posts:

Morechocmorechoc · 05/12/2021 19:05

I would not accept an offer from someone who was in a chain and their house wasn't even on the market.

Allthatglittersandgold · 05/12/2021 22:23

My first question and the question I ask the estate agent to ask before booking a viewing is; are you on the market?

If the estate agent tells porkies and sends you round, I'll still ask the question to you and if it's a no I don't continue with the viewing.

Been there, done that, usually got no time for it.

sarahc336 · 05/12/2021 22:42

You can't do this in todays market op, houses are selling too quick, you need to be sold before you start putting offers in tbh xx

WomblingKnobhead · 05/12/2021 22:47

@sarahc336

You can't do this in todays market op, houses are selling too quick, you need to be sold before you start putting offers in tbh xx

This,

areyouhavingagiraffe · 06/12/2021 09:56

Yup, agreed with all comments. I have sold (completed) and now living with family. Viewing houses, and most EA telling porkies (i.e the vendor has already had an offer accepted on a property as they knew theirs would sell quite easily)......I then put myself in another vendors position, and I would never accept an offer from someone who was not proceedable.

witsendeverytime · 06/12/2021 12:54

It's not only the current heat of the market but covid is making it so people are not happy just having 'looky loos' wander around their house. They only want serious buyers and that means buyer on the market, preferably under offer. And if you found your dream home without being able to proceed, you are setting yourself up for disappointment.

Orangecrisp · 06/12/2021 13:07

Echo posters above,

However as there is so little on the market, if you accept an offer they’ll probably be more patient waiting for you to find somewhere.

Loti92 · 06/12/2021 16:47

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Whammyyammy · 06/12/2021 17:52

@sarahc336

You can't do this in todays market op, houses are selling too quick, you need to be sold before you start putting offers in tbh xx

This with bells on. I insist on knowing buyers positions fir viewings, a house not on their market at minimum, you wouldn't be viewing

areallthenamesusedup · 06/12/2021 18:32

Where we are most agents wouldn't even begin to show you a house.
Friend begged an agent just this week but he wouldn't entertain it.
Market buoyant where we are.

Twocandlelady · 06/12/2021 19:50

You’ll get a million people telling you this isn’t how it works but we offered before listing our house and are now sitting under offer waiting for our sellers to find somewhere so … go figure! In this market selling is more certain than buying!

Twocandlelady · 06/12/2021 19:52

@Loti92 exactly what we did!

Paranoidandroidmarvin · 06/12/2021 22:19

I wasn’t allowed to see houses unless mine was sold!

emmathedilemma · 07/12/2021 10:10

Maybe it depends on the market but it's quite common near me to have an offer accepted before you have your property on the market (but the Scottish system is different and houses round here are selling within 7 days of going on the market). My friend had an offer accepted recently on the condition that she put her own property on the market within 7 days.

Original poster

Lulu298 · 09/12/2021 06:40

@Loti92

We have just had an offer accepted on a house before ours was on for sale however we had explained that we had our house valued and were just waiting to have the photos taken. (Which we were holding off until after viewing this house incase we decided it wasn't for us). As soon as our offer was accepted we out our house on the market we are getting final offers and will be accepting one tomorrow. We had a lot of interest and have offers £10000 over our asking price. We knew.we would possibly sell quick and were worried we wouldn't find anything if we sold before finding something for is first. We were very lucky as I think most people want you to have sold. If you put your house on and sell but don't find anything you can always stop the sale if someone is unable to wait for you to find something. It's not ideal but that's just how things are at the moment. Good luck!

Thanks Loti. Did you sell/are you selling through a different agent to the one that the house you're buying is listed with?

Thanks

OP posts:

Original poster

Lulu298 · 09/12/2021 06:42

@Twocandlelady

Thanks, are you buying and selling through the same agent?

OP posts:

ETgo · 09/12/2021 06:49

We did this 7 years ago. We weren't actively looking to move at the time but a house came up where we ideally wanted to move to so we viewed and offered. We didn't want to put our house on the market if the vendor was not interested in our offer as no other houses we wanted to buy.
The vendor conditionally accepted our offer but (sensibly for them) wouldn't take their property off he market until we had offers on our house.

We had 3 offers on our house within 2 days of it going on the market as we were very sensible/realistic with our asking price.

All worked out good for us.

GrumpyLivesInMyHouseNow · 09/12/2021 07:27

I might agree an offer off someone who's house was not on the market, but I'd make it clear that my house would stay on the market and if another buyer came along, in a proceed-able position I'd proceed with them.

It's a sellers market on the uk at the moment. A lot of estate agents won't even show you round a house without yours having been sold or have the cash to buy

eurochick · 09/12/2021 08:39

It seems unusual in the current market but we have just done it. However, we had our marketing details ready to go and expected to sell quickly as it has been on the market a little while before and it had been snapped up in a few days but we couldn't find anything to buy so the sale collapsed. Also, we showed that we could go ahead without selling if we needed to (although this would have been a huge financial stretch).

Loti92 · 09/12/2021 11:35

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This has been deleted by MNHQ for breaking our Talk Guidelines.

Original poster

Lulu298 · 09/12/2021 11:48

Yeah that's what I worry about. Good luck with your purchase/sale!

OP posts:

msgloria · 09/12/2021 13:37

This does happen, even sometimes in a hot market. There was a house near me that was marked as sold last summer, with the condition that the buyers must sell their own house within two weeks. In this case, the sellers had accepted the buyers' offer because it was the highest one on the table.

The buyers actually met the two week deadline, but then their own buyers lost their buyers and the chain broke, so the sellers pulled out and relisted.

I know all this because I went to view the house when it was relisted. I'm so glad with hindsight that I didn't buy it, but that's of no relevance.

Twocandlelady · 09/12/2021 16:50

@Lulu298 yes we are but not sure if we would have had to have been. That’s just how it worked out.

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