please help a beginner

[mustsleep]

ok so we were looking on rightmove yesterday and have a seen a house that wiuld be perfect for us

dh does not want to arrange a viewing becuase he does not want us to fall in love with it and then lose it

the problem is that our house was a council rigt to buy and so we cnnot sell for three years without aving to pay a penalty to the council, our three years is at the beginning of march

could we in theory out an offer on the house we want and then put ours up for sale after

what happens if ours taks ages to sell and could you end up paying two mortgages? and how do you go about arrnaging estate agents and everything....... help!!!!!

If you put an offer in when you are not in a position to sell, you are effectively just showing an interest. IME it's better to wait until your house is at least on the market before you start viewing. When we moved last time our house took a while to sell and in the end we didn't look at anything until we'd accepted an offer on our house from someone who was in a position to proceed.
Although you can make sure that you have a mortgage offer of sorts in place so that you know how much you can spend, you wouldn't end up paying for two mortgages because the money from your sale will pay off your old mortgage.

Once you start looking to buy a house, any estate agent you deal with will want to know what position you're in - most won't take you seriously if you aren't in a position to buy, ie. house on the market or a cash buyer.

First of all, the market is terrible at the moment so please don't get your hopes up too high of a quick move. We went to see a house in November, fell in love with it and then put ours on the market at the end of November. We have not had a single viewing yet.

I am sure you could put yours on the market now though, even if you found a buyer quickly a sale takes about 8 weeks, so as long as you didn't exchange contracts before the beginning of March I'm sure you wouldn't have to pay the penalty, (a solicitor should confirm this for you).

There is very little point making an offer on a property until you are in a position to proceed, ie got an offer on your own.

I would suggest asking 2 or 3 estate agents around to value yours. Get them down on their fees and go with the one you think best. See what happens. If you are getting some interest you could start viewing other houses, but try not to set your heart on one until you at least have serious interest in yours.

get your house on the market first and show you are serious

as a seller i would only want people to view who were in a position to make a serious offer

also, market is very flat ATM so i don;t think you are guaranteed a quick sale by any means

Think Helenn has good advice WRT getting the proces started

thanks everyone, have talked to dh and we are going to try and finish all the bits and bts that need don and then hopefully put it on the market within and fortnight and see a mortgage advisor

then we will go a view the house we were after (if it's still for sale) and see about putting an offer in etc

thanks again

oh and just one other quick quesiton how many estate agents do you get to value your house do you just get the one or get couple and pick the best price? any reccomendations?

At least three, ask them all what they're basing their valuation on and how many house like yours they've sold recently. Ask them what they'll do to sell your house, and whether viewings will be accompanied. I live in London, where virtually all estate agents are no sale no fee and accompanied viewings, but it might be different where you are if not London. Check what the charges might be if you don't manage to sell - some charge for adverts etc - this happened to my MIL in the Midlands where a useless agency didn't manage to sell her house but still charged her for the rubbish set of photos they took. Oh and check the wording of any contract you sign very carefully - you don't want to be locked into a a long sole agency contract with them - some agency contracts can have you paying them even if you sell the house privately later on!

wait til yours is under offer for a stress free life!Doing it the other way is for nerves of steel ime and unlesws you can afford both mortgages don't risk it,There will be other houses although you may not believe that now HTH

mustsleep if you want to talk your options through with a mortgage advisor my dp can help here

we have recently used this mortgage advisor and she is absolutely fab, very easy to talk to, and seems to have saved us some money. i like the fact that she's a woman who clearly understands other women, especially ones with kids!