Should you sell your Romford home before you buy?
Are worried that you if you sell first you may not find anywhere to move to?
Are you thinking it may be wise to find a home first and then put your home on the market?
These are the questions that 1000’s of Romford home owners are asking themselves at the moment.
However, there are 5 important reasons why you should put your home on the market first.
Firstly, lets look at the downside of finding a property before putting yours on the market.
Lets say you find an appealing home so you contact the agent for a viewing and if that agent is doing their job properly, they will ask what your position is? As part of their due diligence and duty to their client, they need to establish if you’re in a position to buy.
When you say your own property isn’t on the market yet, that agent isn’t going to regard you as a ‘hot’ buyer. That’s a huge disadvantage when you’re competing with other buyers who may have nowhere to sell. So if you want to view the property and make an offer on it at anything other than the marketing price or even above, it’s likely the seller wouldn’t accept your offer as you are simply not able to proceed. They wouldn’t want to delay their sale by effectively making the saleability of their home reliant on the saleability of yours. If they are going to do that it would have to be worth their while so you would be expected to pay top dollar.
But, let’s just say though that the seller does accept your high offer, well suddenly you’re under increased pressure to sell your home which may mean you accept an offer less than you would have accepted just to be able to buy the home you want to buy. So you can end up paying more for the purchase and losing money on your sale.
Thirdly, it’s been reported that as many as 1/3 of sales happen ‘off portal’ and these are properties that don’t make it to Rightmove and Zoopla etc. As a buyer that hasn’t put their home on the market, you aren’t considered to be a ‘hot buyer’ meaning an agent is unlikely to offer these exclusive off portal properties to you. Now this may be why you believe there isn’t a lot of property available. Actually there is, but unless you’re in a strong position, it’s highly unlikely you will get to hear about these properties.
But if you list your property first, your home becomes one of the exclusive ones that agents offer to the best buyers. You are then in a strong position and you find you have more opportunities that open up.
If you’re trading up in a rising market, then you absolutely should be selling quickly in order to avoid another potential cash gap. Let’s say the market has risen by 10%. So a £400,000 sale is now worth £440,000. Fantastic, you’ve just made £40,000. But don’t forget that your £500,000 purchase is now worth £550,000. So you’ve made £40,000 on your sale but your purchase is costing £50,000 meaning a cash gap/shortfall of £10,000. So if you’re trading up in a rising market, the key is don’t wait, move fast.
So these are 5 good reasons to list your property before you find your next home. If you would like a confidential chat about your plans to sell and move, please contact me on 07969 638349 or 01708 766241 or duncan.kaye@keysandlee.co.uk