What do I need to know when selling and buying at the same time?

[tealandteal]

We last moved nearly 10 years ago and broke the chain as we were relocating. I have looked online for lists of things we need to remember but they never give as much detail as mumsnetters! So far our offer has been accepted and we have accepted an offer on our house. I have instructed a solicitor, got an AIP and proceeding with sorting the mortgage. I have requested quotes for van hire and removal company and for a survey. What else do I need to do?!

That’s exciting! Your solicitor will send you forms to fill out, property information and fixtures and fittings. Have you had memorandum of sale through yet? When you have surveys back, you’ll know a bit more, you might want to get further surveys then get searches underway. Good Luck!

Theres a buyers and sellers waiting room thread here too.

Thanks will look for that! I have had a memorandum of sale for our sale, believe we have provided everything needed for our purchase so they must be waiting on something from the seller.

How long is the chain? Are you in the middle? It can be a very long and drawn out process sadly..

Sorry if I am teaching you to suck eggs, but so often people seem to not realise this.
You have to pack everything up and be out of the house you are selling and then wait homeless for a period to get the keys to the house you are buying. There will be a time in the contract that you must be out if the old house.

Are your buyers and your sellers in a chain? As exchange will depend on all the documents being ready up and down the chain, not just you providing your initial information. Your solicitors should do all the searches and everything, they may then have further questions or need more searches. They may also have a surveyor they recommend. Be prepared also that when the survey on your current house comes back, your buyers may see things they want to negotiate on or ask to be done which you may need to do - e g give them a discount of 10k to fix something, which means you then have to go back to your mortgage offer & need to change it etc etc.

Also what usually happens is that as you get nearer the day the buyers or sellers get more twitchy and you have to field calls from your estate agents or theirs or do some of your own interventions, for example I had to chase up the Land Registry because of an incorrect document. It's not that my solicitors weren't doing it, it's that they would say calmly "We will look into this next week" when I had the estate agents for my buyers on the phone saying why can't we exchange today?? There seems no way to move without this hassle so I'd just resign yourself to something like that happening at some point.

So really I'm saying it could be ages til exchange and there's a lot of steps; there's nothing for you to do as such right now, but there likely will be things to be done off and on so you need to keep close to the process and ask your solicitor and estate agent for detailed and regular updates.

Um no this is not true. You exchange contracts. Then you agree at that point a completion date, which is the same day for the whole chain. On that day you book your removal so you leave your house in the morning and go to the new house and yes, "wait homeless" to get the keys. But it happens on the same day. If you are moving far away the logistics might mean an overnight stay somewhere, but unless the chain falls apart totally you're usually in on the same day. The money moves around from your mortgage co to solicitors etc on that day too.

@Dontsparethehorses The house we are buying, the seller left to relocate and has rented out on a 6 month contract which finishes at the start of October. I hope this isn’t going to make it more complicated. Our buyers have a first time buyer buying their house.

@Needanadultgapyear yes have experienced this when we moved into our last house, although I had sympathy then as it was an elderly lady leaving the house she had shared for many years with her husband so it was emotional for her. I have read threads on here about people not realising the house isn’t theirs anymore so we will be out promptly!

@Immemorialelms sorry yes I meant the info they need for the memorandum of sale, I appreciate it will be a while before we get to exchange. We are not moving far at all, I can see the house from the window which makes it harder I think.

Main thing you need to know is you could be entering a world of stressful hell from here on in! Have a read through the Buyers/Sellers Waiting Room thread on here and you'll see the range of things that can go wrong/drive you nuts from here.
You've are going to get a lot of questions to answer about lots of weird things on the place you are selling.

Your solicitor will advise anyway but as the house you're buying has tenants in you must not exchange while they're still in there. Worth booking a second visit when the seller says they've left to check for yourself. I also would not be spending too much money on your onward purchase yet in case the tenants don't leave, the current owner will have a drawn out court process to evict them if they haven't left and you don't want to have spent £££ at that point.