What do you do when what you’re looking for rarely comes on the market?

[Chiikichik]

We are looking for a bigger home, but what we want very rarely comes into the market. We are thinking of listing ours soon, but what happens if we sell and what we want just doesn’t come on the market? For context there have been two houses in the last 12 months which would have been suitable.

how does this all work?!

You put yours on the market and explain to your prospective buyers that you haven’t found anywhere yet. You then accept an offer from flexible buyers, eg first time buyers or people in rented. Being under offer makes you best placed to move forward should a property come available. If nothing comes available, you either lose your buyers and get new ones or you withdraw your house from the market but are able to move quickly to get it back on should you see a property you like.

Interesting. I have just offered on a house and I think the sellers may be thinking similar to @dreamersdown scenario.
Might withdraw offer and go for something more certain.

Sell and rent while you wait.

You rent. Lots of people I know in our village rented first as they particularly wanted something in this village and it is very hard to get anywhere. They needed to be ready to proceed straight away in order to be in with a chance.

We didn't, but that is because our buyers actually wanted to complete a long time after exchange for their own reasons. However, we had just reached the limit and were about to look at rental properties when we found this one.

How quickly might yours sell?

For our previous move we saw and offered on a house when ours wasn't on the market. They accepted on the basis that we found a buyer in 1 month (we did).

This only worked because their house was hard to sell.

We're in the same boat, we are lucky to see one house come up a year that would suit us. That said we recently found a perfect house, then listed our house for sale with the same agent. It's a risk as someone else may come along and buy the house we want but it's worth a try. They haven't accepted an offer from us of course but we have spoken about an appx acceptable figure (It's also been on the market a few months and wasn't selling so that's played into our hands).

If we put ours up for sale before finding something it's very unlikely something will come up in the area we want and we are waisting our buyers time.

In the current climate there are a lot of people going to be contemplating selling due to mortgage rates or wanting to downsize because of energy costs.

In your position I'd put notes through doors or signs up in shops saying what you're looking for. What do you have to lose?

I'd definitely sell yours first it puts you in a much stronger position. I'd also put letters through the doors of houses you like the look of and let everyone you know know about what you want - you never know who they might know who is looking to sell. Also can you be more flexible about what you are looking for? Even if a house isn't perfect it can be extended or altered. Maybe you are being too specific in your requirements?

I think the big question is what are you looking for? And why is it so rare?

We moved in 2021, we had very set ideas on what we needed for our next home too, however, our circumstances were slightly different as we were downsizing and relocating.

We put our family house on the market sold quitequickly, and then started to view suitable looking properties, the first weekend after we accepted the offer, it was really disappointing, none of the properties were we needed, I was constantly refreshing RM etc, my week involved booking the hotel, and booking in more viewings for the following weekend.

DH & I agreed unless we could find what we were looking for and our buyers started to pressure us, we would have just backed out.

We initially thought about breaking the chain by renting, we decided against this option, for many reasons, it would mean moving twice, in a short space of time, the lack of properties to rent, also as we were relocating, we needed the home to be ours to help us settle properly.

We we’re very fortunate to find the perfect property for us, within 3 weeks, everything went through fine, although it was stressful, moving always is.

Without doubt it’s the best move we have made, I am the sort of person, who thinks if it’s meant to be it will happen.

Good luck OP, wishing you all the best.

This is going to be me in a few months' time. I'm absolutely dreading it 😭

"@dreamersdown · Yesterday 21:07
You put yours on the market and explain to your prospective buyers that you haven’t found anywhere yet. You then accept an offer from flexible buyers, eg first time buyers or people in rented."

Sorry but it does not work like that.

I sold my property and now in rented accommodation while I house-hunt.

I have no intention of lingering in my rental for months or a year while a seller finds something to their taste.

One of my first questions to a seller is always ''have you found somewhere to move to?'' if they say no I walk away.

It is obviously much easier in cheaper parts of the country, and if not fully committed in mortgage debt, but we secured enough mortgage, and had enough cash, to purchase the new house without selling the (unmortgaged) old house.
As soon as the offer had been accepted, ours went on the market.
We had a pretty hairy 4 months with both properties, but then completed on old house, and are back to a sensible number of houses!
This was when houses were selling much faster 9 months ago tho.

One of my first questions to a seller is always ''have you found somewhere to move to?'' if they say no I walk away.

How does that work when agents won’t even let you view until you’re under offer?

If you’re going to list yours and wait, please be honest with your prospective buyers.
2 1/2 years ago we were proceedable, found a house we loved, had offer accepted and then the vendors left the entire chain hanging for months. There were loads of houses on the market which seemingly fit their requirements (stamp duty holiday had just started) but it turned out they were feeding stories to everyone about actively viewing. They were actually waiting for one of about 6 houses to come up on a particular street and wouldn’t compromise.
When we discovered this, all of the stress fell on the rest of the chain who had mortgage offers running out or other personal reasons to move by a certain date. Even the EA was getting hugely p-off with them.
It still pains me that we had to bail and find a different house after so many tears and expense. Ultimately they did find their next house and a new buyer 18mth later. They got everything they wanted, as did our buyer, and we were the ones who lost out by having to find a quick alternative property. I would never never never again let an EA persuade me to wait for the vendor.

Thanks all, it’s not that what we are looking for is rare, it’s just that they don’t come on the market and when they do they’re snapped up!

We rented for years before we purchased this house and never again. Crappy landlords, crappy houses and then being told we have to move with a months notice. With two children there is no way I would do that now!

a house has come on that could work but I think it’s still priced high and needs a full ground floor extension, new kitchen, plus cosmetic.

the EA has said our house is beautiful, it’s just on the small side but will sell quickly. I think he’s trying to price it too high to they the business but let’s see.

@Blossomtoes its massively changed in this part of SE London, before you couldn’t get in unless you were under offer. Now EAs are happy to show you round, we’ve done it on the basis that they will get our house to list if they show us and we like it. It’s been a good motivator so far, but not for the sellers I appreciate.

@Chiikichik were in a similar position. We need to move for move space as due another child but what we want is few and far between within our commuting range but looking at 3 counties (NW) but ours isn’t yet on the market, every EA we’ve had in the past when we’ve been tempted to put it on has said it’ll sell quickly (could be a sales tactic) but at the moment there’s none of our size house, position and detached etc for sale where we are so could be quick but sooo worried we won’t find anywhere and we really want to go into renting as that’s just astronomical near us.

A couple of EAs aren’t keen to allow us to view but we’ve gotten round this by saying we’re having pictures taken etc next week and to be honest we could if we needed to move quick.

Lots of lots of new builds but it’s really not want we want! Frustrating, should have done it pre DC!

Slightly different market then now but we spent 5 years looking, found the perfect place and put an offer in before ours was on the market, with the provision that we would sell at lower than asking to get a quick sale. Our house sold within 2 weeks and everything went through fine. It was a buyer's market though and the house we were buying was a renovation project so not all that much competition for it.

That’s really good news. I’m delighted to hear the market’s becoming sensible again. We lost a sale because potential buyers thought we weren’t “motivated” because we hadn’t found anywhere else because we couldn’t even view anything. The idiocy was that they didn’t even make an offer, we could have had viewings if they had. Idiots.

Our neighbours were in this position. They put their house on the market. They lost 3 or 4 buyers who didn't want to wait for them to find their perfect house, but everything aligned in the end.

I was in this position - I was looking for a property, preferably character, with 5 acres+ and ideally equestrian facilities.

Our budget doesn’t stretch to 95% of them. After year of keeping an eye out, I found the perfect properly and it come into our budget as being reduced.

Our officer was provisionally accepted after we offered over asking price and we asked for a 2 week grace period to sell our house. We were confident of a quick sale. It all worked out and we are on the cusp of exchange now!

This may not work if you are looking for a highly sought after property though

It’s crazy. You have to ‘sell’ your house and be under offer and then string buyers along. Apparently this is the right thing to do.