How to Avoid the 10 Worst Property Selling Mistakes Mistake #5  Not Selling Before Buying Another Home  England/Wales

One of the more disappointing mistakes you can make as a home mover is to set your heart on a new home, have your offer accepted and then find yourself in a position where you need to rush to sell your current property.

This is a poor situation to find yourself in on 3 counts:

1. You will now be shackled to a “property chain” & the success of your purchase will be reliant on the performance of your buyer, your buyer’s buyer & your buyer’s buyer’s buyer (etcetera ad-infinitum).

2. Because you’ll be so anxious to sell, you’ll reduce the strength of your negotiating position as a vendor. 

3. Because you’ll not be chain-free, your negotiating position as a buyer will also be reduced. This makes you a likely candidate for being gazumped over your preferred choice of new home by buyers that are chain-free.

Of course you could take out a “bridging loan” so you can buy your new home before you receive the cash from your sale however, this is an expensive & risky strategy. What happens if your current house doesn’t sell as quickly as you thought it would? You can quite easily find yourself in a position where you’re required to pay-off two secured loans at the same time (and remember the interest rates for “bridging loans” are more expensive than regular mortgage rates).

The best remedy is to wait until you have received an offer on your current property before you start any serious house hunting (that way there’s minimal chance of “falling for” your new home until your sale is well & truly underway).

Up until this point limit yourself to general research only & before you put your house on the market make sure you know:

• Where you want to move to?

• What kind of property you’re looking for?

• If that kind of property is available (i.e. often comes up for sale)?

• That you’re pre-approved for a mortgage?

• That the properties you’re looking for are within your price range?

Alternatively (and we realise that at first this may seem like an unpopular idea) the safest course of action is to sell, rent and then buy.

The only downside (besides the added hassle of organising a rental) is that if it takes a long time to find a new home (say 3-4 months) prices could have moved on to such an extent that your buying power may be reduced.

To avoid this, answering the 5 questions mentioned above is essential. It’s the best way to ensure your house hunting efforts are fast, focused & effective.

Written by Gavin Brazg - www.TheAdvisory.co.uk

Use the links below to see the other mistakes

Mistakes 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 6 - 7 - 8 - 9 - 10