Selling and having to rent before we buy

[LemonSorbetCone]

Our house is under offer and the sale is progressing. We have been looking very earnestly but cannot find anything we like.
Our buyers offered above asking and it’s a very good offer so we are keen to keep going but that means we are likely going to have to go into rented until we find somewhere.
we spoke to an agent last week who said that with the new renters rights act we just rent and then give 2 months notice. Ok that seems straightforward enough but do you think we‘ll struggle to find a LL who will accept us? The agents all know we are looking to buy so I’m concerned no LL will rent to us knowing our position?
how soon should we start looking for rentals?

We took a 6 month rental. It gave us time to relax, find the perfect house, win at the closing date despite not being the highest offer and then make whatever renovations we could afford - all before moving in.

I'm sure it happens all the time.

In almost 50 years of house selling/buying, we have never moved straight from the house we were selling to the house we were buying.
As pp said it gives you time to do all sorts usually at a pace that is comfortable for you.

The agent won't tell the landlord you are looking to buy.
Agents love short term tenants, they make money every time they let to someone new.
I don't think you'll have any issues on that front at least. Good luck with onward purchase and sale!

I never knew this to be a thing until we couldn’t buy and sell at the same time and then everyone told me it was a thing. In a falling market I would rent, it’s much more dangerous when prices are rising and you run the risk of not finding something and getting priced out of the market.

Thank you for the reassurance everyone! Really good to hear from people who have done this.
I hadn’t thought of it being in the agent’s interest to keep quiet about it not being a long term thing. Good point!

is there anything you wish someone had told you before you went into rented. Anything practical that may not be obvious?
I’m planning to set up some savings accounts before we move to split the sale proceeds for the FSCS limit. Anything else I should be thinking about?

Does the cost of moving twice, storage etc work out worth doing re the offer price.

Im a landlord OP, I'm not sure about the agent keeping quiet, we do quite extensive background now to make sure tenants will be reliable.

However, that said, I'd be delighted, its guaranteed money (after all you suddenly have a lot of it), and when you give notice I know you will be going - really nothing not to like.

The one thing I would say is, are you looking for the type of house that comes up regularly so you won’t have to be in rented too long? Are you extra fussy re houses, if so it could take months for a house to be on sale to suit you. If your search area is huge then that gives you more choice and more likely to find a house. Another thing is your perfect house could come up for sale whilst you are renting and then you put an offer in immediately it comes on the market and you have delusional sellers who aren’t ready to accept an offer that is reasonable. It would suit me to sell before I bought though (obviously most people don’t have the funds to do that) but I wouldnt do it the other way round. What I have experienced with people is that although they say they will rent, very often a house comes up in the process of selling and there may be just a few weeks between the 2 and they live with family or do an air b n b. Good luck.

I’m on the fence about renting out my lovely 3 bed house. The income would be lovely, but the potential downside huge.

For that reason, I’ve decided to put it on Airbnb for long term - 2 months minimum rental. A lot of landlords are now doing that. So I would recommend looking for an Airbnb, checking the availability and contacting the owner.

With that in mind, you won’t have to pack up and move twice. Just start making a list of what you will need, day to day to take with you, what’s going to storage, friends to look after garden stuff etc. Work out a budget for renting via Airbnb as it will include your council tax, utilities, internet and possibly a cleaner and gardener (depending on how much you negotiate for a longer stay.

So AST (as was) with removals cost & utilities etc vs all in Airbnb.

You have an extra allowance for savings being protected after things like a house sale. It's much higher.

Can you find somewhere like serviced apartments in your desired area? DH and I did this a number of years ago between sale and purchase. It’s obviously more expensive than a regular rental but the cost includes all utilities, council tax etc so you don’t have the hassle of setting up a bunch of new, short-term accounts. The flats also included pretty much everything you need so you’re not trying to divide out all of your belongings when you pack. We brought a couple of extra mugs, table mats, favourite casserole dish etc, but apart from that it was just our clothes. We actually really enjoyed renting with no responsibilities and the cost even included a weekly cleaner who changed our bedding and towels – luxury.

"I’m planning to set up some savings accounts before we move to split the sale proceeds for the FSCS limit. Anything else I should be thinking about?"

While it makes perfect sense to get some interest while you are between houses, don't forget that with proceeds from a house sale you have added protection.
£120k per individual is the new standard upper limit but when it comes to proceeds from a house sale, you have protection up to £1.4m for 6-months.

Same. Yes, people will argue the extra cost, BUT that far out weighs it for me. It takes away the moving stress, you can plan, clean move in your own time frame. I always have around a two week cross over to allow for that (eg not hand the rental back the day you complete).

it also gives you breathing space to find the right property for you. And puts you in a strong buying position.

As a continuation from my previous post regarding the proceeds from the house sale (security & interest), we used NS&I Direct Saver.
We already had PB's so setting up a DS account was the work of minutes. Had to go into the bank branch to make the transfer (daily £25k limit so it would have taken a while to do on-line) but that was it.
Transferring back was dead easy and as with PB's, your funds are in your account within 3-days.

We were between houses for 6-months and apart from the double move, changing of address etc it was fairly painless.
In our case we moved into a house we already owned (had been used as a rental) but the principle is the same and it gave a good gap between selling & buying.

I'm a landlord too. But I'm remote from my flat so have to use agents and their vetting process is often sloppy. I had the refs through the day before the tenancy began last time. And it had been empty of weeks, not because it's difficult to let, but because the first agent was an utter waste of space. I much prefer handling it myself but I can't always.
I realise that the OP's future LL will be able to find out that she is looking to buy but refs often come in so late that as long as tenants pass, LL are happy to take them. The agent isn't there to get the best tenant for the LL, they simply want to let the flat. And short term suits them very nicely thank you.

Thinks it’s £125k. You also have extra protection if it’s the proceeds of a house sale whilst you are looking to move.

I am currently renting an 'Airbnb' whilst my house purchase progresses - hopefully only another month. I was quite surprised by the number of Airbnb which host long-term lettings - often at quite a significant discount. I could not go the traditional rental route as have a dog and found it very difficult to find any rental which take pets. My house chain was on the verge of breaking again - 2nd time as there were issues with my onward purchase - so chose to break the chain. For my own sanity after 12 months in some sort of chain chose this route!

We went into a flat ( a large one) but had the bulk of our contents in storage. We couldn't find anything for two years so it cost us nearly £20k!. Be careful of this as the initial costs are low for eight weeks only.

Thank you everyone! Super helpful intel on the FSCS and Airbnb as an option. I’ll look into NS&I saver too!

The double removal costs are annoying but the offer really is very good. It’s clear the market is stagnant/falling so we want to lock this in rather than getting less of someone else if we pull out.

There’s just not much coming to the market. Don’t think we‘re overly fussy. The school catchments are restricting us though. We liked one but it turned out there were structural issues and the vendor wasn’t very transparent on the solution they had put in place.

I'm in a similar position OP - can't find the right house to offer on. We can't go into a rental because we have elderly cats and don't want to move them twice, but I would if we could. I think it would save money in the long run with the market as it is now. Good luck.

We went into a short term let for 10 weeks, perfect for us as we had an end date as moving into a new build. I guess it was similar to a serviced apartment - all utilities/council tax was factored into the weekly rate. It wasn’t cheap but it was functional.
We had looked into a 6 month rental, even looking around a flat with my then 1 year old in my arms. The agent told us children were not allowed in the rental!

If you live close-ish to an airport, there will likely be more short term/serviced rentals around.

Oh my goodness! I fear this scenario. I’m sorry that was the outcome. Did you at least find a property you love?

What on earth?! That’s ridiculous!!

I did this a long time ago and it was my estate agent who I sold through who helped me find my rental, knowing I needed short term. It was brilliant! They waived all the usual checks too as they'd got to know me quite well whilst I was selling.

We relocated from London to Somerset 18 months ago. We sold our London home and moved into a rented house while we looked for somewhere else to buy.

we took out a years lease but had bought somewhere within 8-9 months. It was straightforward to get out of our rental agreement, though cost us 2 weeks rent. Our town has a shortage of rental properties though so the landlord knew he could find other tenants quickly and easily.