Potential house move

[lovealongbath]

My heads mince and I can’t see the wood for the trees so hoping for some objective advice.

I have been thinking of moving for 4 years and in March, I got the heads up that a friend’s house was coming on the market which was of great interest to me.

My current property is niche and has a limited appeal to a small section of potential buyers. I put my house on the market in April fully aware that it could take a long time to sell. In the first few weeks I had an influx of viewers, but no offers or any interest shown.

In May, my friend’s house was marketed, a huge amount of interest was shown and very quickly an offer was accepted.
Given that I put my house on the market in order to get my friends house, I was disappointed and looked at the housing market in my area but there was nothing that ticked my boxes. I decided to keep my house on the market just in case my friends house sale fell through.

Throughout June, July and August, I have had no viewers or interest and my friends house officially sold 2 weeks ago and the new owners have moved in.

I decided to take my house off the market and contacted my estate agency, it was a junior member of the team I spoke with as the person dealing with me was on 2 weeks holiday. She explained to me that she didn’t know how to remove my property from the rightmove portal and I was very relaxed about it and said, no worries, there is no interest being shown so we can wait until person had returned from holiday. Not a problem.

Now, I am getting to the point….
Last week, out of the blue, I had 3 different viewers. All 3 have expressed an interest but only 1 is in a position to make an offer.

But, there is nothing out there for me so what do I do? As my property is niche/difficult to sell, do I sell whilst I can but have no where to go or stay put?

If you've been thinking of moving for 4 years I think you should sell if you can. I say this as someone who has just, finally, sold a niche, difficult to sell property and it's been a nightmare. We sold in April last year, it fell through in August. We sold in September last year, it fell through in December 3 days before completion. We sold in March this year and we completed 3 weeks ago. While all of this was going on we lost the house we were buying as, understandably, the sellers had enough of waiting for us. C'est la vie.

We're now renting. It's not ideal, but puts us in a great position to buy. Property prices are falling in our area, so we should get a good deal and all the hassle will have been worth it.

Try to forget the house you wanted. It wasn't meant to be. Think about what's motivating you to want to move. If it's been 4 years, you must have reasons other than your friend's house.

Good luck!

@TheRavagesOfThyme

My main reason for thinking of moving is to downsize and release equity.
At the moment I can afford to live in my house but there are no luxuries or holidays and I can’t afford to invest any further improvements to the property.

I would sell now.
If you don’t then you will likely see a property you’d like to buy, put your house on the market, fail to sell before the one you want goes…rinse and repeat.

See what the offer is, if they have been told you're having trouble selling it may not be a very good offer, but if you're not that bothered to sell you may be able to push them up a bit. Play it by ear really. But selling when you have a buyer rather than selling when you have something to buy may be the best option in your position.

in order to get my friends house, I would have accepted a cheeky offer, but not now, it would need to be a reasonable offer.

Take the offer. Even if it means you need to go into rented in the short term. If your house is niche/ difficult to sell then don't lose the opportunity.