Selling your house before buying the next – advice

You have options for when to buy your next home when selling a house or flat

Typically when you’re selling your house or flat you’ll be planning to use the proceeds in full or part to help buy a new home. But there’s no rule that says you have to already buy a house, or start the buying process, before the sale of your existing property is complete. And even if you have tenants at your house or flat, you’re still able to start the selling process.

Benefits of not buying a new house before you sell your existing home

If you decide to sell your existing house or flat before attempting to buy your next home, you could be several benefits that might help your timeline, budget, or both.

You won’t be rushed into selling your home at a low price – Because you are selling your property and not already in negotiations for a new home, you have complete control over your sale. This means you don’t have to rush to accept a low purchase offer quickly because you need to cover the cost of buying your next home. This means you have total financial flexibility by waiting to buy.

The proceeds from your sale will inform your purchasing budget – If you wait to buy your home until after the sale of your existing place is complete, you’ll know exactly how much cash you have in the bank as a result of selling. This should help you to more accurately budget and plan for what is an acceptable and affordable price for the next house that you buy.

You might have a stronger hand in talks for buying your next home – Because you will already have the cash from selling your current home in the bank, you might be able to improve your standing in negotiations with the owner of the next house or flat that you want to buy. That’s because they’d rather sell quickly to someone ready to proceed with the purchase, rather than someone who has to wait until their existing home has sold.

Houses prices may drop before the time you start looking to buy – Waiting until the sale of your existing property is complete can also be beneficial if overall home values go down during that period. Depending on how the property market’s doing, you might get lucky and the price for your next dream home might be much lower than it was when you started the work of selling your current place. You can always get an idea of prices in your area through property websites like Zoopla, but only use these as a general guide and not for an exact valuation.

You’re more likely to avoid being gazumped when buying your next property – Gazumping is what happens when you’ve started the process of buying a property but another buyer makes an offer and the owner switches to selling to them. If you wait to buy a home until after selling your existing house or flat, gazumping is less likely because the owner knows you are ready to buy without having to wait for a sale.

Drawbacks of selling your house before you buy the next

While there are many perks to selling your home ahead of buying your next one, there are a couple of potential drawback that it’s also important to consider.

You run the risk of having to rent for a while – Should your house sell before you have a new home lined up, you might be forced to rent a place until you can buy your next property – and depending on how long your search takes for a new home, this could take a while. Having to look for a new home while also browsing and viewing places to rent can be stressful and time-consuming. And rent money is cash that could instead be going toward your mortgage on your next home, so it might not be an ideal situation for your finances either.

Home prices could jump before you’re ready to buy – Another risk of waiting until you’ve sold your home before buying a new one is that the price of properties could jump in the meantime. We all know that the housing market can be unpredictable, and your dream home might suddenly be much more expensive at the end of the sale of your existing property compared to at the start of that process. If you’re working to a strict budget this can be a major problem.