When's the earliest we can sell after buying?

[casaberry]

Please be kind. I know I'm lucky to have a nice house and it takes time to settle into a place/area but ...

We bought a really nice house in an area of London that I really don't love. Been here eight months and I think every day of selling and trying to move back to where we were even though there's rarely anything affordable available there, so we would have to downsize for a place that would probably need a lot of work. And of course the bleak economic situation doesn't give me much optimism for being able to move anytime soon.

But if we did manage to save a bit this year, could we feasibly put the house on the market so soon after buying? Or would that raise any red flags and make it harder to sell? It's near some good schools (though slightly out of catchment for the best secondary) and it's a really great period property in very good condition.

I'm so homesick for our old area and really do not want to live here very long. It's more suburban than I'd like, you have to drive most places. I knew before we bought that I wouldn't love it but for various reasons, we really needed to buy when we did. I'm relieved that we're building equity but I really want to move on as soon as we can.

Please be kind.

Just put it on the market, life’s too short to be that unhappy when there’s an easy solution.
People may ask why you’re selling so soon, just have a standard answer ready for the estate agent.

It’s only a red flag if you make it

You could say the reason for the move is an unexpected change in circumstances ( many people suddenly have to look after a relative / become a grandparent and plans change)

I am sure in the location you are it will sell

It does take time to settle into a new place - we did the opposite to you and there are days when I wonder if we made a mistake and then I think of what we have gained
Be kind to yourself - change is difficult

It would only be a reg flag for me if the house had sold every few years for many, and similar patterns in the road/area, which I can find on Land Registry. Otherwise I just assume circumstances change.

I’m in zone four east London so probably your definition of suburban. Also I am on Mat leave so I spend an unhealthy amount of time on rightmove. I’ve seen 2 x properties here that were sold only about 18 months ago (sold price can be seen on rightmove sold properties) that have since gone up for sale at a higher price. Both turned to sstc very quickly so I’d assume they went for asking price or more (family homes here are like gold dust and still are selling for 10% above asking price at times). If you’re in a similar area based on the above your property would sell. What’s the harm in trying?

We put a flat on the market less than a year after buying it ended up going to sealed bids and we sold it at a profit! This was 2011 though and we’d done work. But we hated it and were miserable (nightmare neighbour). Best decision! Just stick it on the market. Worst case it doesn’t sell and you take it off again. What’s to lose?

We sold ast year after 14 months, moved from village to town, hated the suburban hubub, cars and relentless DIYers, sold at a profit luckily just before the market took a turn and moved back to the very same street we'd left in the old village.
We were asked why we were selling so quickly and said exactly as a PP said - an unexpected change in personal circumstances meant we needed to sell and return back to the area we'd moved from. That was the end of the conversation.
Best thing we ever did, so happy even tho the whole saga cost us a fortune! Once you get the ick about a place and pine for something else there's rarely any recovering from it.

The last owners were here for over ten years, so it hasn't changed hands a lot in the last 25 or so. Change in circumstances or moving to be closer to our schools is probably what we'd say.

Unfortunately, I don't think it's as easy as just putting it back on the market straightaway, but I think if I'm still feeling this down about the location in another six months, I'll definitely be leaning towards selling early next year.

My friend sold his house to a family who resold about a yr later, but they had really renovated it. It looked stunning. The thing that i thought was odd though was the slight increase in selling price couldn't really have given the buyers much return on their investment, so they must have needed to move for some other reason. I'm sure this happens all the time.

Most sales are for personal circumstances for one reason or another, so I don't think it would be a problem if you really want to do it. However, I think with the time you bought and the way things are now, the costs to move so soon would be horrible - house might sell for less than you paid etc. I think really would be a good idea to try and find ways to make the best of where you are. If you landed in the new house knowing you "wouldn't love it", chances are you really haven't emotionally given it the best go.

We put our first flat on market 12 months after buying it. But we were moving for a new job, a great work opportunity that had come up 200 miles away. We just told viewers the reason.
It was in a rising market so we still made a bit of money on it even after we'd paid the costs involved in buying/selling

What’s the area OP? And which area will you move to?

your biggest issue will be having to pay stamp duty again… depending on the value of the place thats tens of thousands down the drain and will impact your budget for next time.

We put ours on the market about 15 months after buying.

Nothing wrong with the house at all or the area or the neighbours. Just didn’t work out for us and we ended up relocating 200 miles. We sold within 2 weeks despite a cooling market at a 70k profit.

Life is too short.

With all due respect, wont happen for the OP in this market 8 months after buying.

@casaberry some mortgage companies don’t like to finance a house bought and sold in under 9months. One of those not advertised often rules. Can you stick it out for 12 months?

Not necessarily - we literally moved a couple of weeks ago! I guess it depends on area, our buyers also sold within days.

We bought mid covid boom.

Gosh - you got lucky. Feels like your buyers overpaid.

In almost every area (every area?) house prices have stagnated or dropped a little and the direction of travel means it's very unwise to give sellers that type of profit under these conditions. I'm actually surprised it wouldn't have been downvalued.

I guess it somewhat depends on how much the house was worth and what 70k is as a proportion of that. On a £3m house, possibly understandable. On a 500k house, not so much.

If a house is bring resold within. 2 years I have to say it is a red flag for me as I assume it's something like terrible neighbours.

definitely can’t generalise on all areas. Still going to best and final over asking price with significant interest for certain large family homes where we are. Granted, back at the peak houses were getting 40 viewings and 20 best and final offers and it’s down from that. But still not falling.

We’ve just had a mortgage valuation on one of the houses I refer to and the lender didn’t even do a visit. Signed off with no issue at over asking price.

Our house sold in December 2021 and we bought it in November 2022, so our vendors put it on the market 8 months after buying. It needs work they were honest they were overwhelmed by the task, we suspect as cash buyers they didn't get a survey.
We were cash buyers, but got a level 3 survey including drone photos of the roof so we knew exactly what we were getting into.
They had told us this - friends, of friends, of friends, but our solicitor also asked in the enquires without us requesting it.
We love the house and can't wait to get the work done and create our dream home.

@instantpotnoodle yes - this was still slower than when we bought it which was 3 offers over asking on first day of viewings. Our buyers sold theirs at 10k over asking within days as well!

Anyway regardless of profit or loss or whether they overpaid , my point was our short ownership didn’t put the buyers off. I showed them around their second viewing and they did ask why we were selling so soon and I just explained the area didn’t suit us and we wanted more rural. The house we were buying (we viewed before going on the market) was/is a complete dream property for me and I’m still pinching myself