Selling house

[StarlingFlight]

Hello lovely dibbers!

We bought our first home 4 years ago and it is becoming apparent we now need more space. Can anyone offer any advice on selling one house and buying another?

I assume the first step is getting our house valued? Then putting our house on the market?

Do we need to do this before looking at houses to buy? At what point do we look at mortgages? Once the house is on the market?

Sorry I have a lot of questions but we are the first people in either of our families to buy a house... so upgrading is brand new territory!

[Lisa123wm]

First step is putting your house on the market. So get some valuations and choose an agent.
They’ll want to know if you are getting your own solicitor or theirs etc.
Until you’ve sold, there’s not much else to do other than view some houses you like. You won’t be in a position to offer on a house until you’ve sold yours.
Mortgage will be applied for when you’ve had an offer accepted on a house you want to buy.

[pinkbelle]

I would contact a mortgage advisor first, or at the very least do a couple of online “how much can I borrow” calculators. Just to be sure in this changing market you can still get a good rate etc.

You probably have a rough idea of the value of your home based on recent local sales, but next step would be valuation and on the market.

Good Luck

[FlorayG]

Get it valued - ask at least three different agent. Two that I asked valued my house at £20k less than the third and the third got me the price he set it at. Also make sure the agent you use has good reviews and does the work they should do.
Then look on the internet at the sort of house you want BEFORE you market yours and see how much more money you will need. Speak to a mortgage adviser and make sure you can afford the extra required because if you can't then there's no point in selling. Then apply for a 'mortgage in principle' which means you don't actually have the mortgage but a mortgage company has agreed that they WILL lend you the money.
At this point if all is OK put your house on the market. They are selling really quickly ATM so start packing and decluttering! Where I live agents won't let you view other properties in person until you have an offer on your house but in other areas I understand you are allowed to view before you are in a position to proceed so check that out where you live. Then just tidy your house and...wait...

[Fluffypenguin]

Just don’t do what the owners of our house did. Basically when we went and viewed it the advert said, “no chain”. When we got to the house they explained they were moving into their nan’s house and that she was buying a bungalow in a couple of years, okay all sounds good so far.

Scroll forward to when we are near to completing on the house, we keep getting hold ups from their solicitors who keep telling ours that there is a hold up in the chain (what chain?), to the point where my partner tells them we will be pulling out if they don’t complete on the house within a week (everything on our side was done and as there was “no chain” there was nothing more to be done except set a date for the keys) and my partner also kept saying, “what chain, there is no chain?”

Anyway eventually we complete and all is fine. Fast forward to a couple of years later, I see the man who we bought the house from on our village Facebook group talking about something and he puts his full address on there. I do some digging on right move and discover that the house was bought and completed on a week after we completed on ours...

So basically they’d told us there was no chain to try and increase their chances of a sale, but what they had actually done was gone off and bought a house after we had our offer accepted and that was what the hold up was!

I can’t believe it was even allowed, you don’t think these things can even happen, but hey ho.

Anyway you’ve already received good advice, as others have said, check out what you can lend mortgage wise first so that you can get an idea of properties you want to purchase and get your mortgage in principal. Then make sure there are properties available you’d like to purchase if you do get a sale. Then get yours valued and put on the market. Good luck, we are looking to do the same too at the moment.

[StarlingFlight]

Thanks everyone. I have done affordability calculators etc for the mortgage. We don't want to go up too much in price and my salary has almost doubled since we bought this house (which I am very grateful for). We have a lifetime membership with our mortgage advisor so have emailed this morning to ask about initial steps with her.

I have contacted a number of estate agents to see about getting the house valued so just waiting to hear back from them. I got an online report last night using the AVM and I was happy with the projected value on there but obviously that is not as accurate as an actual estate agent. We have made improvements to the house so fingers crossed we are in a good position.

[FlorayG]

When you choose an agent ask them to market your house with a 'guide price' not an exact asking price. That way you can accept the guide price if somebody offers that to you but if you have two people both want it they may go above that and can't get annoyed with you for not accepting the price marked ( Does that make sense?)

[Mr Tom Morrow]

Haggle the Estate Agents commission down. I have never paid them what they want.

If they want to market your house they will drop. Better in your pocket than theirs.

[FlorayG]

Originally Posted by Mr Tom Morrow

Haggle the Estate Agents commission down. I have never paid them what they want.

If they want to market your house they will drop. Better in your pocket than theirs.

See more...

Yep certainly don't pay more than 1%

[parisdisneyfan]

All great advice, never easy knowing which to do first! Pop online and get an EPC certificate booked, only about £30 and last for 5 years. Estate agent and Solicitor will ask for it so get ahead of the game. Good luck x