Put your own on the market first or...?

Just wondering what people think is the better order to do things in when going to move house

a) put your current house on the market & then go looking for something so that when you find it you're in a good position

b) find the house you want first & then put your own on the market but risk loosing the house you want because you haven't managed to sell your own in time

We were in a similar position as well, these are the steps we made.

1) Contact your solicitor to get title deeds of existing house transferred to them.

2) Put your house on the market.

3) Start house hunting.

It is probably a good idea to have your house with one of the big estate agencies. When you come to making bids on the other house, it could be with the same agency and may have a better chance getting your offer accepted.

We were bidding on a house in Febuary and got Sale Agreed because our house was on the market for a week or two beforehand. The other bidder hadn't even got their house on the market and thats what swung it for us.

However, doing it this was around, we felt more pressurised. Even if you go sale agreed before finding somewhere else you can always give back the deposit or explan to your bidders that you need a bit a flexability.

Thanks for the opinion Redo

We tried it as you suggested but got outbid on the house we wanted.
In the meantime our house has gone Sale Agreed with contracts due to be signed later this month.

Our ea suggested a "long closing" while we keep looking but doing this we risk loosing out on the potential increase our house could have got while watching the houses we do want increase in price.

Once we do sign contracts what penalty would me (the vendor) be hit with if we didn't complete?
We'll see what happens before we have to sign - hopefully the house for us will come along 7 the sale can go through.