Moving can be stressful and managing a sale and a purchase can be even trickier. Often homeowners think they’ll sell quickly and then will feel pressured by their buyer or agent. So, we’ve put together a guide to help you manage this situation, and why waiting to find a home first can be so costly.

So, do I sell first or find a home first? This is a huge question and a massive dilemma for a lot of home movers. So do you sell first or find first, it feels like a catch-22 but what we recommend is to find a buyer first. Here are the reasons why: Firstly, once you receive an offer you know where you stand financially, so you know what you can afford, you may get more than expected for your home, so you could offer that little bit more to secure or there are occasions where you may achieve lower than your expectation and you can then adjust what you are looking for before wasting your time or losing that dream property you have falling in love with. Secondly, it puts you in a much better position when viewing and making offers. Be aware, that some agents may not even let you look at a house if you are not under offer. Your offer position changes drastically when you have secured a buyer yourself, it could put you ahead of the competition or just get you back in contention. From a money side of things, we have also found that you end up offering more than you would like to secure your dream home and you end up rushing to sell your house. 10k either way could pay your stamp duty! Read on if you want a bit more detail and 3 handy steps which will help you make your decision.

You've seen a home that you could see yourselves living in, the dream home, so the natural progression is to make an offer. However, you’re not sold yet, so the seller is going to have some question marks. Additionally, if you find yourself in a situation where there's other interest, then to make your offer more attractive you’re likely to have to pay more for it to be considered.

There are a number of reasons why a seller might decline your offer: if you sell for less, how does it impact your offer, how long will it take you to sell, and is your situation the best suited to theirs? In this scenario though, let’s assume they accept your increased offer and give you time to sell; you now have a deadline and, in a rush, to sell your biggest asset. You may find yourself in a place where you are not able to appoint the agent who’s the best fit, the one you have spent a lot of time and effort to choose and that will take you and your home through a comprehensive process to achieve a premium price to the most suited buyer. Instead, it’s a rush to stick it on Rightmove and this approach will likely cost you tens of thousands of pounds.

If you want to avoid that, here is what we recommend:

 

Step 1 – Appoint an agent to sell, who you think is suited to deliver you the best results and experience. Tell them your position and they'll be able to guide you in the right direction.

Step 2 – Once under offer, the next job of your agent is managing your buyer's expectations; they should have clear and transparent discussions about your position to manage timelines and keep them informed of progress. From our experience, most buyers are happy to wait for a home, if they are on the same page from the very beginning and communication is maintained. No one is going to force you out of your home.

Step 3 – When you see a home you love, discuss it with your agent. They should be able to offer you some useful advice on how to position your offer. We offer this service to all of our clients, with many of them saving thousands just by having a quick discussion about it with us beforehand. Now when making an offer, you are in a far stronger position, giving you more leverage, as you are proceedable, your position is more desirable, giving you a far greater advantage of securing the home you love, at the price you want to pay.