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Original poster

What happened to only being able to view houses when yours is already listed??!?

86 replies

Chancingtheirarm · 14/11/2023 16:31

We’ve been on the market since mid October. Not a huge amount of viewings but a second viewing today from an interested party.
It was all very positive, just had a call from the EA. They’ve offered 30k under asking price (final offer). When I asked are they able to proceed I was told no, their house is going on the market in the next day or two.

Eh?? So you want us to accept your offer, remove our property from the market and wait for you to sell yours?

Have I missed something here? I’ve not sold in many years but previously you couldn’t even view a property unless you’d sold, had a property on the market or was in a position to proceed. Certainly you wouldn’t make an offer unless you could proceed?

Is this normal now?

OP posts:

Pleaselettheholidayend · 15/11/2023 07:23

We have literally just had an offer accepted on a house before we were to market. We were fast getting listed and we've gotten 8 + viewings booked in the 3 days since listing, feeling positive about selling quickly. We didn't intend to but this house we'd viewed previously back on the market as much, much better price and we just went for it. I think the 'rule' of selling first only applies when the market is red hot, got to be more pragmatic in slow times 🤷🏻‍♀️

Afteropening · 15/11/2023 07:58

ithinkthatmaybeimdreaming · 15/11/2023 07:03

I think it all sounds very weird. I'm not in the UK, but no-one here cares if someone has listed their property before they look at yours.

Show quote history

why is it “weird” to only want to open up your house to viewings where the people are clearly serious and have already made their property sale-ready and secured an EA and it’s on the market?

My home is in a very popular SE town. if i didn’t set parameters - then i’d get day trippers having a nose!

Added to which, many people want to sell their home… quickly. Couples that are divorcing for example. they don’t want to add weeks to the process waiting for the vendor to sort out their house to make it sale ready etc. they want to accept an offer and get the ball rolling immediately

PabloandGustheGreySquirrels · 15/11/2023 08:01

Newusernames · 14/11/2023 16:41

It’s the same in quite a lot of places. We’re currently looking to buy but won’t put our house on the market until we’ve found somewhere. Places that we are viewing are the same - only gone on the market as they’ve offered on somewhere else!9

That's ridiculous! It could take years to sell yours

Afteropening · 15/11/2023 08:11

@Newusernames you can’t live in an area with a thriving market then. You wouldn’t get through the door inmy area

cyclamenqueen · 15/11/2023 08:23

Afteropening · 15/11/2023 08:11

@Newusernames you can’t live in an area with a thriving market then. You wouldn’t get through the door inmy area

I think it depends on what what bracket you are looking in. Most people in our area selling a ‘forever ‘ home will only sell if they have something to move to and they are fussy. I would much rather have a buyer completely focused on my property.

We would not rent, partly because there is very little rental around here , just searched on rightmove and there are less than 10 properties within 5miles radius most are terraces in the nearly town and we have animals and adult children at home . Plus elder care responsibilities. We are also mortgage free and could bridge fund if needed for the right property.

obviously in the second house stage that might be different .

Afteropening · 15/11/2023 08:28

@cyclamenqueen your area seems quite rural if so few properties available on such a large area?

Newusernames · 15/11/2023 08:35

PabloandGustheGreySquirrels · 15/11/2023 08:01

That's ridiculous! It could take years to sell yours

Show quote history

It won’t! All houses in our street have sold in days.

Gardeningtime · 15/11/2023 08:41

I think this is fine, they clearly didn’t wish to go to market unless they found something they wanted. Just accept but say it stays on the market till they sell and are proceedable. You’re hardly awash with offers.

cyclamenqueen · 15/11/2023 08:44

Afteropening · 15/11/2023 08:28

@cyclamenqueen your area seems quite rural if so few properties available on such a large area?

Semi rural . Just think rental property is in very short supply , upwards of £900 a month for a two up two down and we are not around London . We know several people who sold over a year ago and are managing in a mixture of airbnbs and hotels , no way are we leaving our home of 30 years to take a chance . Tbh there’s no problem here in our budget looking if you are not on the market .

Afteropening · 15/11/2023 09:36

@cyclamenqueen how would you know given less than 10 properties for any budget for sale in a 5 mile radius?! how many of this 9 are applicable to you?

3peassuit · 15/11/2023 09:42

We did this. We saw the house we wanted, it was rural, niche and would only have limited appeal whereas houses like ours were snapped up. I dont know if that would work now, everything seems to take an age to sell.

Applesaarenttheonlyfruit · 15/11/2023 09:57

Also, we bought a house we wanted. We weren’t moving otherwise. It was that house or nothing. EA ‘got it’. We got the house.

randomsabreuse · 15/11/2023 10:19

It depends what you are selling and buying.

If you are selling a classic executive estate home in a popular estate and looking to buy something more interesting/individual then it probably makes sense to find something you want to buy before marketing yours at a sensible price.

If you are selling a character cottage and looking to buy a classic 4 bed detached on the local popular housing estate then sell before buying.

I'd prefer to sell to someone who specifically wants my house rather than needing "a house" and my house mostly fits their criteria as in the English system they could see something they like more and bin me off at any point up to exchange.

If I'm living in a house that works for me, is comfortable, well maintained and does what I want/need in a house I'd not want to go on the market without having something better to buy, which I would have viewed and discussed price on (everything short of a formal offer!)

SnapdragonToadflax · 15/11/2023 10:26

It was never a rule until the boom of the last few years - the market has changed now. If someone wants to buy your house, and you're not in a hot area, it's probably a good idea to consider any offer you get. You don't have to take it off sale, just have it as offer accepted and see how fast they move. If someone else offers more or is proceedable in the meantime, great.

I see it as a big benefit for people who don't need to move, but are looking for a specific house or area - which will be us in a few years. I know exactly what I want, but it's only available on a few roads around here so I wouldn't want to put my house up for sale until I knew there was at least one I was interested in buying available. At the moment the market round here is dead and there's nothing!

Notyetthere · 15/11/2023 11:37

We sold our house during the covid madness in summer 2020. Our house appeared on Rightmove on Friday morning and by Monday morning we were discussing which offer to accept. We couldn't find anything to buy. Our buyers had to wait for us to find a home to move. We moved not too far from our previous house.

However, I reckon this isn't the case now and now being a buyer's market, you have to be more flexible and accept that your potential buyers will also be in the same position as you. Whilst the market was hot during covid, with houses selling before they went on Righmove, the houses on the market now are staying on for weeks. Even when prices are dropped, they are still not selling. One near me started at 850k -950k. It needs work. It is now at 750k and still not sold. Normal size family home. I don't see how people with normal salaries/wages can afford these houses unless they are using inheritances. We were lucky that we had accrued equity in the previous house purely from market forces rather than doing work and that enabled us to buy this one. There is absolutely no way we could afford to buy our house now.

cyclamenqueen · 15/11/2023 11:46

Afteropening · 15/11/2023 09:36

@cyclamenqueen how would you know given less than 10 properties for any budget for sale in a 5 mile radius?! how many of this 9 are applicable to you?

What do you mean how did I know ? Those are just the rightmove results so I know because I read them off the screen, and none of them are applicable . Also that was to rent not for sale

WickedSerious · 15/11/2023 14:03

A friend of ours has her house on the market and hasn't been able to view a single property because the vendors are insisting that she must sell her place first.

A bungalow she wanted to view has been on the market for over a year.

Moltenpink · 15/11/2023 14:14

I don’t recall ever being asked my position before viewing houses, and I’ve bought three so far in my life.

BountySunshine · 15/11/2023 14:24

So when we last sold/bought in October 2015 (SE) the position generally was that you couldn't have a viewing unless yours was on a market and some even insisted you had to have an offer on yours. The market was crazy and things were settling quickly (although sales collapsing as well, lots of people offering on properties and then applying for mortgages and not getting as much as they thought you would get).

In terms of this offer, you could accept, but say it will stay on the market until they have got an offer on theirs (or negotiate more and do this). Or you could just say won't consider offer until they have an offer on theirs.

I certainly wouldn't accept and then just wait for them to sell. What happens if they don't get what they want on their property? Will be they be knocking you down further?

Is your EA selling their property? If yes, they are probably keen to try and get 2 commissions. You could say you only want people viewing who have their property on the market.

museumum · 15/11/2023 14:33

In my city it's easy and quick to sell a 1-2 bed. So if you own one and are looking at bigger homes you find the one you want first, make an offer, then stick yours on the market (usually to a ftb or investor with no chain) and bob's your uncle.

Afteropening · 15/11/2023 14:53

cyclamenqueen · 15/11/2023 11:46

What do you mean how did I know ? Those are just the rightmove results so I know because I read them off the screen, and none of them are applicable . Also that was to rent not for sale

Edited

Show quote history

you misunderstand

how do you know that vendors are absolutely fine with viewings from people who don’t have their home on the market.

Given the teeny tiny number of houses that meet your requirements in your area… how many have you actually viewed to know how vendors are feeling?!

Pezdeoro41 · 15/11/2023 14:59

There’s no rule OP! It depends on the market, and what you’ve said to the EA.

Also at the moment a lot of buyers don’t want to put in offers unless the vendor has found somewhere, otherwise they can get stuck waiting for ages because their vendor can’t find anywhere they like amid this current dearth of properties.

So no this is not particularly weird! It would have been at the peak, but it’s not a sellers’ market anymore. You are of course completely within your rights to ignore offers from people in such a position though, it depends on how quickly you need to move and whether you yourself have found somewhere.

DiscoBeat · 15/11/2023 15:19

We did this because we were very particular about the kind of house we were looking for and knew they didn't come up very often. Although we could have paid cash at a pinch so that might be the reason the EA let us look around (and the owner took it off the market - although they ended up deciding to stay so we didn't get it in the end anyway!)

Chypre · 15/11/2023 15:37

Well we did just that - viewed the house in South West, put on an offer, offer got accepted and THEN we put our London house on the market. This was back in January, we've since completed in June. Smooth sailing.

floofbag · 15/11/2023 15:38

We did this and it's going through now.. we were up front about it though saying we love the house and wanted to view and would market ours if we liked it .

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