Strategy for securing a house before ours has sold

[MOBB]

Found our perfect place, so put ours on the market a month ago, possibly asking top money for it,

Probably 7 viewings in that time, no offers, no mention of it being too expensive though. Market seems to have gone quiet generally, probably brexit etc

Our mortgageability is roughly double what we would need, both houses around the 380k mark, equity in current house around 120k. No major savings as we tend to overpay the mortgage rather than save cash

We thought it would just happen as our house is lovely, and we can afford the new one easily

But we are now at the stage that we just want the new one. Do we have any real options?

Obviously dropping our asking price is probably the first step, but my frustration is we can probably afford to pay both mortgages. Is that a thing?

Don’t want to take panicky measures and obviously dropping our price like a stone would resolve it, but is there anything else sensible we could do?

Can you have 2 mortgages for 2 properties? Not really interested in renting the current one out

Can we just buy the new house with a 95% mortgage, empty ours and wait for it to sell?

Thanks in advance for any advice!

[AndrewT1275]

Getting a bridging loan so that you can buy before selling is fine. You will pay a higher than normal interest rate and possibly have to meet more stringent affordability checks.

Sarnie will be able to give a more detailed response and will have insight into providers' current appetite.

[NDA]

Tricky... there's also additional Stamp Duty to consider when buying a second home.

I am selling my house at the moment and I have not allowed any viewings from people who were not in a position to buy - i.e. accepted an offer on their own house, or in rented. It's a waste of my time otherwise as it's a big house to prepare for viewings for casual (not prepared, 'proceedable' buyers)

Depending on what and where, you might find it takes a while to sell. It has in my case (although I'm now under offer) largely due to massive Stamp Duty costs killing off the market at certain prices.

[AndrewT1275]

You'd get the additional stamp duty back when you sell your first house. The time limit used to be 3 years but it has reduced to either 18 months or 2 years I think.

[MOBB]

Thanks, will look into bridging loans to see if they are reasonable

Also going to reduce the price of ours today to see if it generates any more interest

[Mr Pointy]

Speake to Sarnie & see what is possible with mortgages etc.

[CubanPete]

We bought before we sold. Had to take the hit on stamp duty (which will hopefully come back), but it was an estate sale, so we got it for a very good price.

Depending where it is...

We had to drop the price of ours to significantly below 'what it is worth' to get people in through the door.

[MOBB]

And just like that we get a close to asking price cash offer, and the place we want is still available

Was starting to think it wasn’t going to happen but over the moon today

Cheers for all of the advice and comments above

Happy Mobb

[CaptainSensib1e]

If you want to sell your house quickly you need to price it keenly, especially in the current environment.

In a simialr sitution a couple of years ago, we went quite aggressive with an 'offers over' price which was less than property was really worth but drummed up a lot of interest. Had an open day with 3 interested parties at the end. Went to sealed bids and hey presto we got a decent, if not top of market price.

All that took place in just over a week.

If we'd taken our time we probably could have got a few thousand more but I have no regrets. We are in our forever home and on a monthtly mortgage payent a few thousand extra on your mortage works out as very little.