We want to move house very soon and had an estate agent round to value our house but suggested that i don’t bother putting the property on the market untill I have found something I want to buy. his reason for this, is that once I’ve sold or got an offer on mine, then the pressure is on for me to find somewhere fairly quickly and there being a shortage of suitable houses might mean you buy something which is not quite what you want. He seemed to think that chains were now being built from the top down as such. All the previous houses I’ve purchased have worked that once I accept an offer on mine then I’m in a position to make an offer on the one i want to see and so the baton is passed up the chain. Anyone had any experience of accepting an offer from someone that has not yet sold?

Houses are selling slowly in most places – I would always sell before buying unless I was prepared to use a bridging loan.

its a buyers market – round here anyway

We’ve just sold our house after 9 months and 55 viewings. About half expressed an interest in buying but couldn’t sell their houses. Eventually we got two offers, one from a couple in rented, one from a couple who had just completed who had been messed around for 4 months by their buyers.

We didn’t even look at a house until we had an offer. We would have dismissed offers from anyone who hadn’t at least got a offer on their house out of hand.

So… I’d say your estate agent is an idiot.

If they don’t sell and need to sell to buy another property = you’re stuck unless you put the house on the market again.

If it is priced right, you will find a buyer within 2 weeks.

Deffo sell before you buy.

I didn’t think it sounded right, how could anyone take the property off the market, while waiting for the buyer to sell. Out of interest, have you had to take much of a hit on yours and had any success with the price of the properties you’ve bought?

Ours went on at the lowest valuation and we were assured it was ‘priced to sell, no offers, will start a bidding war’ etc. We dropped the price a couple of times and eventually sold at 15% under our original asking price (over 20% under the highest valuation).

Pretty much the same story for the house we bought though, so it worked out OK.

We didn’t even look at a house until we had an offer. We would have dismissed offers from anyone who hadn’t at least got a offer on their house out of hand.

This.

We’re buying currently, the only other ‘offers’ on the place we’re buying were from people who still needed to sell so weren’t thought of as offers at all

My wife wants to start looking around but there’s no point in wasting peoples time untill we are in the correct position, otherwise it’s just window shopping.
Just read a forum on house price crash and they suggest offering 40% off the advertised price and working up from there….. you got to have thick skin for that.

Just read a forum on house price crash and they suggest offering 40% off the advertised price and working up from there….. you got to have thick skin for that.

That forum is perhaps a touch tainted by the tin foil hat brigade though 🙂

I don’t see there’s any harm in having a look around – you’ll get a feel for the market and maybe a better idea of what you want. It’s possible that you could judge the value of your house more accurately with that additional knowledge. If there’s a chain then it’s quite likely that someone in it will be still looking for a buyer. Why shouldn’t that person be you?

It’s all about being “proceedable” at the moment.