Buyer wants chain free... are we mad to consider moving interim rental property

[okthenwhat]

We have a potential buyer moving from Scotland who has a hard deadline for moving because he has accepted an offer on his property (I somewhat envy the Scottish system right now due to being messed around by buyers gazundering us) so needs to have certainty of moving

Are we mad to consider moving into rented accomodation because it means we'll definitely sell?

Cons:
Rental properties might want minimum term that is too long for us - what if we miss a house we want
Rates/market might shift (we have a decent deposit)
Lose money/hassle of moving twice
Waste money paying rent

Pros:
We're moving to an area we don't know well. Gives us time to suss the area out.
Market might shift in our favour
Chain free buyers are attractive
I've looked and there are properties available for rent that would suit us and we can afford the rent
Market slowing so no guarantee we would get a buyer if we turn Scottish buyer down without taking a hit to property value so it's best to have a bird in the hand
He has to move so less likely to quibble, fanny around or gazunder

You would be mad to do it just to suit your buyer. BUT there are actually in your pros a lot of valid reasons that suit you. If you don’t know the area taking time to figure it out and make the right decision may well aid you.

I would seriously consider it as being the best option for you

When we moved areas we rented for a bit and there was the benefit that then we worked out exactly where we wanted to live and where we didn’t. It also meant that we were chain free when we came to buy so made it simpler. We were in the rental property for at least 6 months because of the terms of the agreement though then moved to a monthly rolling tenancy.

I did this. I figured if I lost my buyer then the whole house move was off.
It makes a lot of sense based on your “pros” list - particularly scoping out the area.

The major con is how appallingly competitive the rental market is at the moment. You will pay a fortune and potentially be tied into a longish lease. I would also look at options where you move all your stuff into storage, keeping only the bare minimum and look at the smallest rental you can find to keep costs down (or longer term air b&bs for flexibility)

Yeah, just doing it as a favour is like no way mate. It'd be easier if we had family in the area we live in or the area we're moving to but we don't.

Another con is we have a golden retriever, so getting rentals might be hard but she could go live with my brother for a few months (his kids would be in seventh heaven).

We wouldn't increase legal costs or stamp duty, it would just increase the time between expenditure for selling and expenditure for buying.

Unless I'm wrong, I only see the additional cost of moving twice instead of moving once.

We could be cheeky and add 2k on to the price of our house as compensation for moving twice. I looked online and full packing, dismantling, moving 50 miles (we'd be moving 40 miles or so) costs around £2000.

Hmm, competitive rental market is tough. We'd be trying to squeeze a three bed's worth of stuff into a much smaller property.

We did this as it was a long distance move and we needed to be in new location by a certain date.

It's not without its problems - rental market is very competitive, you're unlikely to find a tenancy for less than a year, two lots of moving costs, upheaval etc.

But we did find there were big plus points too. If you don't know the area you can live there first - kind of 'try before you buy'. We ended up buying in a different suburb than the one we thought originally just on the basis of knowing the area better.
It puts you ahead of the competition as you're chain-free and avoids all the chain stress. You also then don't need to move on a certain day as can have a bit of an overlap - to get the new house clean, maybe decorate a bit. We actually bought a house that needed renovating and did it up whilst living in the rental! Conveyancing was taking quite a while when we did it so we ended up with 18 months in rental whilst getting sold, finding property to buy, getting through conveyancing, planning renovation and then doing the work.

I can't recommend using pod storage more highly - do as PP says, pack up most of your stuff for 6 months while you find what you want - it takes all the stress of moving day away.

The pod people I used brought round a pod (or more - basically a big wooden box), you or they filled it (depending on what you paid for), then they just take it away and store the whole pod until you want it back. It made moving with a baby and a toddler a breeze, because I prepped over the course of a few weeks, they brought the pod and loaded everything into it, then we rented for a bit (we found a short term rental for 6 weeks - these days you could probably airbnb), moved into the house with just the bare minimum using a van then had the pods brought round when we were ready for them. So much better.

Depends on what rental bracket you're looking at. I'm seeing a massive number of reductions in the £1,000-1,500 rental bracket - the likes of which I've not seen for the last two summers.

There are a reasonable number of properties that are only available for six months because folks want to sell, who might accept dogs because it's really hard to find tenants when you have to tell them upfront you can only offer a really short lease.

As an aside, fork me did I get a shock when I last looked at storage (May); 200sq ft, £670 a month, N Yorks, outskirts of major town.

I think it's a great idea, even if you rented for a year, the money you pay on rent you can save in your next purchase a you'll be more likely to be a able to negotiate a great price.

We could potential store stuff at my parent's house which is 1.5 hours' drive away. Too far to move in temporarily unfortunately.

I did this! I wanted to only rent for 6 to 12 months but it ended up much longer because of my health and finding the exact thing I wanted.

You can have a 12 months rental with a break clause at 6 months.

When I moved I ended up paying both rent and mortgage for a month.

It was worth it because I had a fire break to recover, no stress and I knew I could move whenever I wanted.

I've done this, not because of the buyer's needs but because after having my house on the market for a full year and finally getting a buyer, I couldn't find anywhere I wanted to move to! Although we did it the other way around, stayed in the old area so we didn't have to move DC's schools while we investigated/waited for the right place to come on the market in new area.

We moved into furnished so put our own furniture in closed storage which is really cheap. Interest rates are high now so you'll make some money on the sale funds too.

In your shoes, I would take the sale.

My husband wants to rent in the area anyway before we buy, so this would suit him.

We have a 2.5 year old and I am pregnant and due in mid-January 24. Move October, rent for a year, move again wouldn't be bonkers. Ideally we'd move once before child no.2 arrives but what if we don't get another offer, or the market turns again and we have to cut our house price?

The preschool and primary catchment area of the school in the town covers the whole small town so it's not like we'd miss out on a school place by moving to the 'wrong' area IYSWIM and the panicky part of my brain is saying take it take it take it you'll figure everything out later.

Our buyers wanted us to do this, we were top of the chain. We did consider it, but in the end decided against it for the following reasons, the costs of moving twice, the lack of available rentals, the feeling of being unable to put down roots in a rental, as we have never rented in the past.

I can see the benefit in someways, but as we were downsizing we were buying cash from sale in any case, our sale was in 2020/2021 so we had lots of buyers that wanted to buy our house. We decided if our buyers put pressure on us we would withdraw from the sale. Thankfully, it worked out fine in the end.

Good luck OP.

@Roselilly36 That's what I'm wavering about. I think if it were 2021-2022 when the market was very bouyant and we were comfortable we'd be able to find other buyers without the risk of rates rising and property prices falling then it'd be an easier no.

In today's market it's very different.

Two further pros

you could invest your equity in a 90 day notice account and earn around 5% interest
As a buyer with no chain you’d have a lot more power which would likely mean you’d be able to negotiate a decent discount on the price.

With the market on a long slow decline, I'd take the buyer and move into rented, especially as your husband is keen on the idea. If you can find something you want to buy, great but otherwise it gives you breathing space. You could always Airbnb for a few months if you're stuck.

Check availability of rentals before you make a decision, to chain break would put you in a better position to purchase, but unfortunately not much is coming onto the market atm in my area. So weigh up what you will be paying in rent, storage, x2 removal costs etc. Wishing you all the best.

It's easier, possibly cheaper moving too, you can take the rental a week or so ahead to enable you to move yourselves or move on a less desirable day of the week. You can then go back and clean, pick up last few bits etc. I've done it both ways and I hated moving from owned-owned

We're going to say we're interested, but if we get an offer it needs to be high enough to justify the additional expenditure. We'd have to do some number crunching.

To be honest, I think the buyer should be moving into rented accomodation instead of asking sellers to take the risk on for them or buy a chain free property or a new build.

Done it for the last two moves and I’d never do it any other way in the future. Becoming a chain-free buyer is a great advantage once you’re up the property ladder a bit.