Trading-up without renting - is it possible?

Paulossi

We are looking to trade up but we were recently advised by an Estate agents that we would have to sell 1st then rent for a period.

We need to sell and use the equity from our existing house to part finance the new purchase. I thought we could see agree a sale date for all properties and exchange contracts / money on this date and do a change over with relevant parties.

I was informed that any solicitor worth his/her salt would not recommend this course of action as you'd be leaving yourself exposed having paid a deposit (10%) and should the sale of our house should fall through it could be lost.

My question is has anyone actually done this without moving out in recent times? Say past 5 years.

If you do move out how difficult is it to find short term (1 to 3 month) rental properties for a family?

Apologies if in the wrong forum.

DOCARCH

Just popping this in here (from C&P) as I reckon OP will get more appropriate answers.

MarkAnthony

Nonsense advice from the EA trying to make their own life easier.

It's called a chain and is the norm in house buying. It's a pain in the arse for all involved but it's easily accommodated by a solicitor that knows what they're doing. However it will make you less attractive to potential vendors and even purchasers if you're upfront about being in a chain. If you're not any with half a brain cell will assume you're in a chain anyway.

Best of luck!

Finding short term family rents, in Athlone I assume it's possible; Dublin, Cork, Galway et al not a chance.

Paulossi

Thanks for that, Yeah that's what I thought as we did it on 2004 without any issues. I thought maybe some legislation had changed and I don't want to be caught out. We hope to buy a new property so that should make like a bit easier.

PaulM1977

Currently going through this process on behalf of my sister who is selling and buying on the same day. As long as all parties, including solicitors, are aware when everything is to be completed, i.e. sales finalised then there should be no reason why it cannot be done.

As stated above it is all part of a chain and if contracts have been signed, legal documents back with the different lenders and any further conditions satisfied then there should be no reason why it can't be done.

Thanks,

PaulM

NinjaTruncs

It's not impossible but as Mark mentioned it does complicate the deal. However many estate agents won't consider bids from buyers who haven't yet sold or at least exchanged contracts.

I'm closing on a purchase on Tuesday and the people we are buying from are closing their sale and purchase on the same day. However I'm fairly flexible and have been able to accommodate a few closing date changes from them, however if I was also trying to close a deal I wouldn't be so flexible and that is where the issues usually arise.

You'll probably find when you are about to bid on a property the agent will probably ask if you have a property to sell. With the property we're buying we weren't the highest bidder, we were outbid and refused to increase our bid anymore but we were the preferred bidder as we weren't in a chain.

Paulossi

Thanks all, it's all reassuring. Never thought this would be easy but it does seem possible.

Inquitus

Paulossi wrote: »

We are looking to trade up but we were recently advised by an Estate agents that we would have to sell 1st then rent for a period.

We need to sell and use the equity from our existing house to part finance the new purchase. I thought we could see agree a sale date for all properties and exchange contracts / money on this date and do a change over with relevant parties.

I was informed that any solicitor worth his/her salt would not recommend this course of action as you'd be leaving yourself exposed having paid a deposit (10%) and should the sale of our house should fall through it could be lost.

My question is has anyone actually done this without moving out in recent times? Say past 5 years.

If you do move out how difficult is it to find short term (1 to 3 month) rental properties for a family?

Apologies if in the wrong forum.

We moved house earlier this year, the deposit you receive for the sale of your house, offsets the exposure on the deposit you provide for the purchase of your new house. It's a pain in the arse, and getting the day set and all the parties aligned is challenging, but we sold ours and bought the new one on the same day.

You need to be sale agreed on yours to start the process, so that you can put down the deposit on the new home without being exposed. That is the only key requirement imo.

April 73

We did it earlier this year & we were in a chain involving three houses & four solicitors. It was stressful enough especially trying to agree on a closing date & it helped us that the EA involved acted for all three property sales (small town!). Our sellers accepted our bid on condition that we put our house up for sale straight away & they waited for us to sell.

We didn't get the keys to our new house until after 4pm on the closing date. I was getting worried at that stage!

We did have to have the funds for the 10% deposit separate to our buyer's deposit though.

Inquitus

April 73 wrote: »

We did have to have the funds for the 10% deposit separate to our buyer's deposit though.

My point was more if you have money down as a deposit that's not covered by someone else having money lodged with you, you are exposed to the extent of the deposit you have put down should things go south. If you have 30k down and have received 27k on your property then if it falls apart you are only exposed for 3k not 30k.

April 73

You shouldn't be exposed for the 10% if your solicitor does their job correctly.