Must we sell before bidding on a new house?

We have been living in our home for 10 years. A house is up for sale (executor sale) in the same estate with a bigger garden.

The house was sale agreed but the sale fell though. We expressed interest to the EA (with an offer) and asked them to take the house of the market while we sell our own. It is a risk for them but we thought they might be happy to agree a price in a falling market.

They refused saying that they wouldn't consider our offer unless we were sale agreed on our own. We love the estate where we live (Dublin 7) and we don't want to live anywhere else. If we put our own up for sale and the other one sells we would have to withdraw our own.

Are we foolish? Is this going to be a problem in the future every time a house comes up we like?

It's prudent of the EA in this market. Houses are taking longer and longer to sell. What happens if it takes a year to sell your house (not unusual in this climate) - you expect the EA to keep the house off the market for that long?

I think you know the answer. Unless you can sell your own house, you are not a practical potential purchaser for any property. You are a wannabee potential purchaser.

I think if you are serious about moving, then you should try and sell your own house ( and you may well be horrified at how little interest there is in it) and only when you have sold your own house, can you consider having an offer accepted on any other house.

Unfortunately, this is not what you want to hear but it is the reality of the current economic climate. The old days of bidding on a new property in the almost certain knowledge that your own would sell are gone. And yes, it is hard to co-ordinate sales and purchases with so much uncertainty.

mf

We were in the exact same boat - needed to move because of growing family and saw a house we really liked at a reasonable price.

EA of the new house said they wouldn't entertain an offer until we were sale agreed, and would really only take that offer seriously when contracts were signed on our own (as soooo many buyers these days pull out of the purchase at the last minute).

We were so sure we would sell ours in record time but its been over 3 months now - lots of viewings but no concrete offers. The whole thing has been headwrecking really. You absolutely have to be so committed and 100% certain that moving house is something you have to do. Moving in this climate just to get a 'bigger garden' would be alot of hassle I reckon. Do you really have to move? Do you have kids? If so getting ready for viewings is a NIGHTMARE - you are looking for stuff for ages afterwards. If you REALLY have to move you have no choice only to get your house on the market as soon as possible, if you price it right you might be lucky and get a quick sale.

We have our eye on one house and if that sells we would also be withdrawing ours from the market. Its just a risk you take........

There is no problem in what you propose as long as you can afford to pay for both properties at the same time.

Won't buying a house entail paying stamp duty and all? Including that and other costs, is the extra garden space really worth it? I mean, work it out at the price per extra square foot and you might be shocked.

Thanks for all of the replies. It's great to get independent advice.

The house is slightly smaller than our own but we would be planning a 40 square metre extension at the back. It's something we would like to do in our own house but would be left with a postage stamp garden.

We had another valuation by an EA this morning. The first one estimated 380k. The one this morning estimated 330k. The latter one is probably the most accurate. We couldn't fault his logic at arriving at that price. We have another evaluation on Monday.

The house we were bidding on had a bid of 460k that was accepted but fell through. We believe now that it's way over priced based on the valuation of our own and some others that were pointed out to us by the EA this morning. He also said that executor sales are a nightmare because expectations are generally very high.

Hi OkeyDokey,

How about putting both properties on an interest only mortgage until you sell your first house.. That's what i'm doing in a sense at the moment ..

Also on the house value..Take the high price from your estate and knock 40% off it , that'll give you a realistic price.. I had to do it with my own.. Once reached 370K , now I'm asking 225K .. But the same goes for the house I buying .. That too dropped by 40%..

Best of luck

CP