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

[Chancingtheirarm]

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?

The teeny number are those available to rent not buy , to explain that’s why we wouldn’t sell first and rent.

With regard to viewings maybe because agents rarely ask your position and we know a wide circle who are all in the position of being in houses 25 years plus and we all have the same story., those who have sold recently have all bought before selling, or at least offered. We have viewed about 8 or 9 in the past 12 months and have only twice been asked neither were bothered that we were not in the market. We also offered on this house before putting our previous house on the market .

This is what we did in 2017 when the market was moving quickly. We were the ones offering and we accepted the first offer we received because the agreement in principle gave us the certainty that we could afford to accept it.

i didn’t realise you meant rental properties as the op wasn’t referring to the rental market 🤷‍♀️

I was just making the point that if you sell first then you risk having to rent and that’s seems very difficult in our local area. I thought it was clear from my post

i didn’t find it so

I apologise then

No it's not normal, and your EA should have explained their position to you before you agreed to a viewing. We are very strict that they have to be 'proceedable' before we are tidying up for them!!

No need to apologise @cyclamenqueen . Your post really was very clear in saying that there were only a few places to rent within a short distance of where you live, so you wouldn't want to sell first and have to move out into a rental property.
There was nothing confusing about it at all.

I just think it "weird" because it isn't the way it is done here. However, our whole buying and selling of houses is so much more simple, with much less paperwork, and a sale generally progesses at a faster pace, with less hassles.

Legally the estate agent has to report every offer so they're doing just that. A good agent would advise you not to accept or decline until they're sold.

Good advice.