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Original poster

Worth viewing a house when ours isn’t on the market yet?

17 replies

BunnyMum2000 · 25/10/2024 15:29

We are hoping to move house in the not too distant future. (Our house is not on the market yet as we have a few things we need to do first to get it sellable)

I have a look on Rightmove pretty much every day (addicted!) to see what’s available.

ive seen a house that would be pretty much perfect (well about £30k over budget - it’s on at £850k)

is it even worth trying to view it/ speak to the agent, when we’re not on the market yet?

I remember asking to view a property a few years ago, and they wouldn’t even let us view it without having an offer on our own house first.

The house has been on for about 2 months now (and they also tried to sell it 2 years ago) .

OP posts:
UltramarineViolet · 25/10/2024 15:33

There is no harm in asking to view it. They can only say no. Very unlikely they could except any offer you make though so is it really worth viewing it?

TheyAllFloatDownHere · 25/10/2024 15:35

A friend just viewed, made an offer and had it accepted on a house - then came back home and put theirs on the market. In that order. They've since accepted an offer on their old house.

So it's worth asking.

ForPearlViper · 25/10/2024 15:44

If you view it and like it, it's unlikely the vendor and their estate agent would take an offer from you very seriously. Even if they accept an offer, I doubt they'd take it off the market. You could just be setting yourself up for a lot of disappointment.

EagerHouseMover · 25/10/2024 15:58

What do you need to do to make your own house sellable, and how long with that take?
Couple of weeks? Start work on your own place now, and see if the agent/vendor will let you view. They may even accept an offer on the provision that you sell your own house pretty quickly?
A few months? I wouldn't bother.

Any possibility you could put your own place on the market without making any changes? You'd likely be needing to agree a cut on price though, but would that be possible, or would you need the full amount of valuation of your property to buy the next one?

Original poster
BunnyMum2000 · 25/10/2024 16:36

Thanks for the replies.

It would probably take a few weeks to get ours ready. Need to do a big declutter and sort out a few minor repairs like a whole in the wall etc. Garden needs a good tidy up as well. Which doesn't sound too bad, but there's not much free time around work and children.

Thanks

OP posts:
Tupster · 25/10/2024 17:34

A big problem with viewing when you aren't on the market is you run the risk of falling in love with a property and then finding you can't get yours on the market and sold fast enough to secure the property you love. You'd have to be ready to price yours low to get a fast sale, which if the one you like is already over budget is likely going to cause you problems. You've got a much better chance of moving without too much heartbreak if you get under offer first before you view and offer.

DurhamDurham · 25/10/2024 17:52

When our house was on the market we wouldn't accept viewings from people who didn't have their own home on the market.

SparkyBlue · 25/10/2024 18:01

Around here they wouldn't entertain any offer if you hadn't funds in place

bilbodog · 25/10/2024 18:08

Its worth a try. We did it 5 years ago and are now living in our dream home. We hadnt done any of the things we were going to do to our house before marketing but went mad de-cluttering, tidying and cleaning then put on the market as soon as we could - and it was this exact time of year!

we had lots of interest but no offers so reduced the price and got a first time buyer - 5 months later we moved here.

Standin · 25/10/2024 18:37

My MiL ‘bought and sold’ in a morning!

My DM had been an estate agent, so I was quite well versed.

MiL rang me early Saturday morning to ask advice about putting an offer in, on a bungalow she was about to see.

I thought she didn't understand the process and gently explained that it wasn't likely that she could put an offer in on the bungalow as her house wasn't on the market.

However, she viewed the bungalow,, spoke with the EA, who had a list of potential buyers for her house. Potential buyer visited same morning. Both offers accepted, ( new bungalow, own house) by lunchtime! 🤯😵‍💫

So much for me talking to her as if she were a bit of a batty old lady that hadn't a clue…go girl, what did I know!🤔🤣🤩

HellRazr · 25/10/2024 19:27

Some sellers prefer a protracted sale; I'm one of them and would accept your offer. You won't know until you ask.

sarahsandy · 25/10/2024 19:30

We did this, even put an offer in and it was accepted!
The house did need some work though and obviously other buyers were off put by this.
Anyway, we used the same estate agent that was selling it to sell ours, so that also helped the situation. It took ours about 2 months to sell but we weee lucky the sellers of the new house weren't living their and it was their inheritance so they were prepared to wait for us.
Then; when our house did sell for less than we wanted; the estate agent managed to negotiate another 5k off to help us out a bit.

zebranotzeebra · 25/10/2024 19:32

We're doing this, offers subject to sale are pretty common here, but I'm in Scotland so aware things are different with house buying here! However we do have marketing photos done so we're ready to go on the market as soon as we have an offer accepted - is that an option for you? If not for this house, then just in general while you search?

TerrierOrTerror · 25/10/2024 19:57

We did earlier this year and moved in over summer - it worked out well for us. We had already contacted estate agents for valuations and knew who we would market with, and we were able to view on the Saturday, had an offer accepted on the Monday which is when we formally asked our agents to start marketing ours with photos taken on the Wednesday. During those days we did gardening (by head torch) and painting as late as possible without annoying our neighbours. Our first viewing was before photos and we had wet paint.

I will say though because we had fallen in love with our purchase it was incredibly stressful and we did end up taking a lower than ideal offer.

AcceptAllChanges · 25/10/2024 20:06

There are sensible ways of doing things, and non-sensible ways of doing things. Against my better judgement, things seem to veer towards the latter in my life. Our house isn't even on the market yet and we've just completed on the purchase of our ideal next home. Made possible by taking out a whacking great mortgage and using every cent of savings as a deposit. Now keeping fingers crossed that house sells soon!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I think it depends how certain you are that this house ticks all the boxes. In our case, it did, and it would be hard to imagine a better option that we could afford. Of course you never know, really. It's a calculated risk.

Ineedanewsofa · 25/10/2024 20:15

Be honest about your position and let them decide if they are happy for you to view.
We called the agent, told them we weren’t yet on the market but if we loved the house we’d get ours on in 48 hours - which is exactly what happened!

beachcitygirl · 26/10/2024 07:04

We literally just bought a house (moving date this week) we made an offer subject to sale of our house (wasn't on market yet) but we just loved it. We did slightly overpay
Offer accepted. Ours sold quickly.
You've nothing to lose by offering

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