Bidding and selling your own home

Vim Fuego

This might be a silly question and I am sorry if it comes up a lot (though I couldn't find much with my searches).

I am just about to put my own house on the market as I have identified a house that I am keen to bid on. From talking to various estate agents at viewings, it seems like they don't really start to take a bid seriously until you are sale agreed on your own home.

I understand this - no-one wants to be subject to a chain. However, I am concerned about being in a situation where my home sells faster than I can find another home (or the house I want to bid on is sold to someone else). It's in an area that has been popular for a few years and has very little supply.

There's no such thing as bridging finance any more so how do people manage this risk or get the timing right?

superleedsdub

I was in a chain last year and no estate agent would entertain selling a house to my wife and myself until our house was at least sale agreed. We nearly lost out on our new house because of this, in the end we had to accept a lower bid on our home just so we could go sale agreed on the new house.

The best option for you, if at all possible, would be to sell your home, move into temporary accommodation and then start looking for a new home. If you are not in a chain then that would make you more attractive to someone selling a home.

If you cannot do this, then my advice to you is to put your current home on the market as soon as possible. Your estate agent would then inform any bidders that you are in a chain and that you will only complete the sale when you have a home to move to. Most bidders will be ok with this, especially if it is in a high demand area. I wouldn`t start bidding on other houses until you at least have some credible bids on the table for your home. In my case, we found our perfect home at a great selling price and didn`t want to risk losing it so we accepted a bid for our home a little under our asking price. We could have held on for more money for our house but decided that the risk was too much.

Make sure you have a fantastic solicitor as he/she really has to be on the ball in regards the sale and purchase of the 2 homes. There will be delays and you will lose a lot of sleep due to the stress of all of this. However, you will quickly forget all of this once you are settled in your new home:-) It really is worth it in the end if it works out.

Also, before you put your home up for sale, ask your solicitor for a full comprehensive list of all that is required from you to complete the sale. Chasing certs of compliance, NPPR clearance, water charges letters etc. etc. can take time and there will be multiple requests from the banks, solicitors, estate agents of you before you get your keys.

Best of luck:-)

Vim Fuego

Thank you - that all makes sense.

Our home is going up next week - I am prioritizing getting a good price for our place, so I will have to be prepared to let that other property go if needs be. Our solicitor does appear to be on the ball - she has already stated what she needs from us in order to complete the sale on our side.

wordofwarning

OP you can always get a short term let. IMO a lot of landlords will happily rent to you. You have a huge cash reserve in the bank and you will want to move out within a few months.

Vim Fuego

Very true - I had naively assumed that there would be very little out there in terms of short term lets but this is not the case.