To sell or not to sell?! New build reservation

[BlackBoyMum]

To sell or not to sell?!

We’ve found a new build plot we like but were told it wouldn’t be ready until December and we have to have sold our property in order to reserve it. We decided to prepare to put our house on the market specifically to reserve this plot. We are supposed to go live on the market this week, however the developer called yesterday to say they’ve had another proceedable buyer with interest in the plot and wanting to reserve but they are in a long chain so the sales progression team are going to do a “chain check” then this plot could be reserved.

Now stuck on what to do? We do want to move to that area regardless but if this plot goes we would be selling with no onward purchase. This is the last house type by this developer we actually like and so far not seen any old builds we are sold on. Unsure whether to still go live on the market this week.

Apprecuate any advice!!

Who is going to wait until December for your new house to be ready?
What type of house do you have? Something a ftb will be interested in?

There could be so many things go wrong between now and December , and if you’re already sold your house what will you do?

My DD was supposed to move into a new build apartment last March and she’s STILL waiting for it to be handed over from the building company. Nearly a YEAR she’s been waiting . It’s been problem after problem with the whole block . They’ve basically been told now to look elsewhere , I mean she’s renting from a housing association so they’ve put her into temporary accommodation but so much goes wrong with new builds all the time , I don’t think I would trust selling my house before they have been started … it’s a massive risk ?

Been here.

It is possible to have a long term between E&C (several months), we did this very thing when buying our NB property but I admit it is unusual and would not suit everyone.

Most of our neighbours (who were in the same situation) moved in with family or took a rental for 12-months.

@Mcdhotchoc It is ambitious I know but we can’t reserve without being on the market so it’s a catch 22 situation. It is a relatively big house for a ftb (although we did buy it as ftb knowing we were growing our family)

@Icouldwriteabookonmydisastrouslife Yes I totally understand what you’re saying, and it’s a shame that developers put people in these impossible situations. But the plot is released and clearly getting interest so it almost feels like if we don’t try now and reserve it we could miss out

@Nourishinghandcream thank you! Good to hear others have experienced it. I mean we could go into a rental (family don’t live nearby) but it would be a huge inconvenience with 2 young kids, moving twice costs etc. I guess we’ll cross that bridge when/if we get there.

We’ve bought several new builds. We rented a friend’s house for three months once, we bought when the house was released as a show house once, so bought and sold at the same time, we rented for six months once, so sold in March, moved to the new one in September and this time, bought a house already built.

@Buscobel looks like there are many ways this could play out! Thanks for sharing

Think about this from both sides: what and who is buying yours…and their potential chain and how are they going to feel about this? How many sales of yours will fall through or not materialise at all because of this? Then your home sits around on the market and gets reduced and the price chipped. You get increasingly stressed.

if you desperately want a new build and all the snagging and so on, sell yours, get it out the way and move into rented and wait.

Or sell to your and your buyers and purchasers time frames in a conventional way.

We wanted a specific plot on a new build development and were told that we had to be able to exchange contracts within 8 weeks after reservation.
we decided to sell our house and go into a rental.
We sold our house and moved into the rental in the May( 6 month minimum)
Our plot was released in the October, it was built but had no windows etc.
We reserved it straight away but didn’t actually get to look inside it until the December. We actually didn’t get the keys until the end of March.
It was quite stressful trying to find a rental property as we couldn’t sign the lease until we had exchanged on the house we were selling incase anything happened and we would then have to pay rent and the mortgage. Decent rental houses go really quickly around here and we had a cat that not all landlords would accept. We hired a storage unit and only took what we needed to the rental house.
It was a gamble as we might not have got the house we had set our heart on but definitely worth it in the end !

@Tortephant that’s fair, we either have a very small pool of buyers or the inconvenience of moving into a rental

@Pinkybike glad to hear of a positive experience! And yes aside from the cost of renting, it’s actually very hard to find one that’s decent (and would fit our family). Just hoping this all works out!