Advice on buying a property when in a chain

[KandN]

Dear all

Sorry but we don't have much experience with buying a property and being "in chain". The last property we bought, we were lucky to be living with family and the seller had already found somewhere so basically, when we "completed", we were handed the keys to our new flat and we had all the time in the world to move all our belongings to the new flat.

Different circumstances now, we are looking to get a house and we will need to sell our flat. So basically we are in a chain. In terms of "logistics", ie getting the keys to our new house and then handing over the keys of our flat to the new owners, does that mean we need to aim to have the SAME completion date for everyone involved? (Probably unlikely...But just though i'd ask).

And if we do manage to complete the sale on our flat before getting the keys to the new house, when would be the best time to start moving out ALL of our furniture and other belongings? My wife thinks that it's actually feasible to complete on the sale of our flat (i.e hand the keys over to the new owners) and get removal companies to move ALL our stuff on that day?!...I think that will be nearly impossible and the stress!!!....Is this typical? How and when do people actually start moving their stuff out? Presumably they either store it at friends/family place/storage/rent a place? The question is WHEN would be the best time to move the things out? (Surely not on the day of completion right?) I can also appreciate that we can't move the things out too far in advance (otherwise we will be sleeping on the floor inan empty flat).

I would greatly appreciate if others could share their own experience of house buying and moving out etc.

Please no cocky or rude comments, if you don't like the question or don't want to share, please scroll on.

We’ve been in a chain twice. I don’t remember much about the first one other than we completed at 11.30 and we weren’t quite out.

2nd time we had packers in the day before , they packed everything and loaded pretty much everything other than the beds. They came back next morning to take the rest. DH and movers set off and drove the 100 miles. I picked up DD from nursery later than followed. Keys weren’t available until 2.30 at which point they unloaded and set off about 7pm.

You don’t have to have the same completion date but many people do as storage is expensive.

IME the whole chain completes and moves on the same day. You book your removals for that day and everyone waits around for confirmation that completion has taken place so that you can collect the keys for your new place and move in.

Yes, it is always quite stressful.

But otherwise you run the risk of completing on your sale (and vacating the house that is no longer yours) without knowing for certain that your new home will complete and become yours.

And most people can't complete on their purchase without receiving funds from their sale. Different if you can buy cash and aren't worried about your sale completing I guess.

There are different ways to do it.

We, for various reasons, needed to prioritise our sale so we completed on that before our sellers were ready, put belongings in storage and moved in with family for a few weeks. That simplifies things.

Generally most people I know went for everyone completing on the same day. So the solicitor for the first buyer sends the money to the next, once that solicitor has the money cleared they complete the next purchase sending the money through, and so on. It is doable with instant money transfers. You absolutely must have completion confirmed on your sale before your purchase!

You get packed up in advance in order to be out of your flat by the time completion goes through on the day. This is part of the reason that many people prefer to pay for professional movers, they’re very quick and would easily pack your flat one day then empty it within a couple of hours the next. Doesn’t always work - we completed on our purchase by 11am, but they were moving themselves and didn’t get out of the house until mid afternoon.

As an aside, it’s also why it’s often recommended to complete early in the week, in case things get delayed by a day - if you’re aiming for a Friday and there are any issues, nothing will happen over the weekend.