Put house on market or wait until we find a property

[hopsy1]

We’re keen to move and have had our house valued, but there isn’t currently a single property on the market that we’d even consider viewing.
Would you put your house on the market anyway and hope something suitable comes up soon, or would you wait until there was at least one house you were genuinely interested in? While we are keen to find somewhere a bit bigger within the next
6-12 months, we aren’t desperate at all and do like our current home, we’re just outgrowning it now although it does make me sad! First-time sellers, so would love to hear what others have done!

This is really tricky. We had the same conundrum. We started viewing properties (that we weren't all that interested in but were the closest to what we wanted available) while getting the house ready for viewings. We then found that one was way better than we realised and we found we couldn't offer on it and be taken seriously without having found a buyer for ours. We then put ours on the market and luckily had an immediate offer on first viewing which we accepted from first time buyer. So we booked a second viewing (two weeks after the first) and could put in a proper offer after that.

So all in all it's worked out (so far, still in progress, touch wood) but I still have no idea what I'd do in that situation again! I think it's better to have a buyer for your house before you find a property you love because there's no guarantee of you finding a buyer so quick as we did. And then if you find your dream house, it could go to someone else before you can sell yours.

There's so little on the market round here although it is picking up a bit, which makes it hard.

I’d get it on the market as houses aren’t selling quickly. No point falling in love with something if you aren’t in a position to offer.
Most estate agents won’t let you view if yours isn’t on the market.
We saw two we loved whilst ours was on the market but they went before we had an offer on ours.
Shortly after we accepted an offer we viewed our perfect downsize property. We love it here.
Give it a go and see what happens.

Several agents round here won't allow you to view newly-listed properties unless your own property is under offer. They're a bit more relaxed about houses that have been on the market for a while. It really depends what the market is like in your local area though.

As PPs have said, we were taken MUCH more seriously once we had a buyer lined up for our house!

Get it ready for sale and an open day in sept and go for it then. You have to be under offer to be able to put it decent bids on anything else

The vast majority of agents round here do allow you to view without having your house on the market, so that’s not really a concern. The thought of viewings and constantly keeping the house spotless while looking after 2 small children and solo parenting (partner works away) and working is filling me with dread and is the one reason why I’ve put it off for so long, I keep thinking we could go through all that hassle just to take it off the market or we don’t find anything.

Get it ready and go on the market now and list it straight away in September. You need to have interest in yours/have a buyer to be taken seriously by the agents of houses you will view.

However, you don’t want your house to sit on right move for weeks while the market drops over summer, as then buyers will be suspicious of it being on the market for a long time. You will also slip down the right move grid.

If you have good photos and prove realistically you should have a good chance when the market gets going again in September.

I’d be happy to do an open day, my parents did this once and had lots of people in and an offer the same day (took it off the market though as couldn’t find anything suitable). They do live in a very popular area though. So could I request that any viewings are all on the same day because that sounds so much more appealing than people coming in dribs and drabs. Not sure if this is something that all agents do or only if they know that the house is going to be popular.

It's a tricky system to navigate and I'm just starting the process of trying to sell my house, so I'm by no means an expert, but these are my thoughts two weeks into going on the market.

It's definitely best to put your house before you start looking. That way you know what sot of interest you'll get and how realistic the valuation is. We did turn down a few low offers which came in during the first week, as there isn't anywhere on the market we wanted to view at the time. We've now seen somewhere we like the look of. It's been on the market since last year without going sold and has just been reduced, but the vendor is away for a couple of weeks, so not doing viewings until after that. Hopefully, this buys us some time and we can get a decent offer on our place in the mean time. We've got some people coming for second viewings this week.

The agent should let you choose how you want to book viewings. We had 12 requests in the first couple of days of the listing going live, so I asked to do them back to back over the weekend.

It's so hard. I put mine on and sold it quite quickly but couldn't find anywhere to move to so buyer dropped out. Back on, another offer, but same issue and eventually they dropped out as well (completely understandably).

I wasnt being particularly fussy either - I went to see loads of house and offered on at least 5 most above asking, but the sellers wanted to go with FT/cash buyers or even higher offers, 1 offer was accepted but then survey came back with issues. Unfortunately even if there are a lot of houses on the market most people are chasing the same ones!

i think my estate agent got really fed up with me! So i took it off for a while and am going to try again and accept I'll have to break the chain if it comes down to it and rent somewhere.

At the end of the day you can only try. I would just say make sure you are upfront with your EA and they pass it on to the buyers, and dont just go giving them the shpiel that youre happy to move ASAP.

You tell the agent you want an open day. If you agree it soon they then have plenty of time to gather interest and make bookings for the day. It suits them too.

We’re in exactly the same position, we’ve decided to just go for it and put it on the market. Nothing suitable on the market for us yet! We’ve been up front with our EA and he’s relaxed, says that lots more things are coming to market now but that if we lose a buyer due to taking too long we’ll find another. It’s making me tense but he said you have to be selfish and you are in a much better position to offer if you are on the market.

It has taken my mother 11 months from decision to sell to exchange of contracts. Her buyer it has taken him 10 months. South of England £480,000.
Start things moving ASAP.

We were in your situation a year ago. We made the decision to put ours on the market once we found somewhere as we had been looking unofficially for a while within a specific location. Once we found somewhere and offered, of course the agent/ seller wouldn’t accept our offer and take it off the market until ours sold so we stuck ours on the market and it sold within 3 days. The market was much more active at that time though and the viewings were stressful even though they were booked in bulk, the constant having to clean morning and night to keep it looking like a show house, I was glad to accept an offer on ours to stop the viewings.