Right from the beginning of January, many people’s thoughts begin to turn to moving house either in the short or long term. Whether they’re up-sizing or downsizing, there’s nothing like the dawn of a New Year (perhaps it’s Christmas with the family) to inspire or force us to consider changing the space we live in. The spike in the numbers of people looking at online property over the Christmas period is testament to this, even if many of those are just fantasising…
The timing of your sale is all important and doing your research is vital. Many people planning to move house often choose not to put their own property on the market until they’ve found a suitable property to buy – it feels more comfortable that way and they’re usually made to feel confident that their own home will sell fast anyway.
But in our experience (that’s several decades’ worth), we’ve seen very few people succeed at this. Sometimes their house may not sell as fast as they/we think it will (despite the assurances or all the estate agents) meaning they often lose out on that house of their dreams. But even if your own property does get interest quickly, the other one you are after is often snapped up by someone in a better position (already under offer for example). If you’ve already set your heart on a particular property, it’ll also be very stressful selling under pressure which goes against our efforts to maximise your selling price.
Better options may be either of the following and these are particularly true if you’re moving out of London but also hold for up-sizing or down-sizing locally.
1. Bite the bullet – sell up and commit to renting in your new chosen area initially. Yes, it means moving twice but it negates the problems highlighted above and is something which may help you find your preferred location before committing to a purchase.
Or
2. Market your house for sale first – get the buyer in position and then start looking in earnest for a house to purchase (having done groundwork/research on the web in advance). Be clear from the outset to your agent (who in turn should inform all potential buyers up front) that you will not move until you find somewhere yourself – when the local market is short of stock (which it generally is) most buyers are happy to give that a chance and wait for a reasonable time period. This makes you a strong candidate with the agents you’re looking through and they are more likely consider you more seriously as a purchaser.
If you’d like any more detailed advice or a free valuation of your property to get you started, please follow the link here or contact Austin Thorogood on 020 7228 7474.
