Buying and Selling on Same Day??

[homeseller]

Hello,

We are planning to close on the sale of our own house and move into the new home on the same day.

We need to have the sale in order to have the new mortgage.

We have spoken to solicitor who doesn't seem to see it as a problem.

We are trying to figure out how it will all work.

Any advice is much appreciated!!!

Thank you.

 

[mf1]

Two schools of thought.

1. No bother.
2. Oh heck - no margin for error.

I tend to go for number 2.

For number 1 to work there can be no hitches of any kind. Your purchaser must be certain that their funds will be in place at least a day or so before the agreed closing. No-one ( vendors, solicitors, purchasers) can get sick, be involved in an accident or have any personal difficulties ( small children or elderly parents needing emergency care). Removal people have to be organised and flexible - just in case. Searches have to be clear.

The sale should go through in the morning and then your solicitor can deal with the purchase. The same rules apply.

Anyone who has managed it will tell you its easy peasy. Anyone who has ever had the nightmare of anything going astray or wrong will tell you its a nightmare or crying children, sick cats in removal vans and solicitors getting increasingly fraught with out of control and stressed clients. My favourite is the screaming client who tells me " I don't care what you do, just close the deal" while you try to remind them that its not their money but the banks that they are spending and the fact that they "forgot" to organise their stamp duty IS a big issue!

So, all in all, not my favourite as it eats into the whole day as you try and track everything down. I personally advise clients to close their sale in advance so that they are not putting themselves under stress. But then they have to move out and store furniture in advance of buying. More stress.

mf

 

[sadie]

Speaking from experience, it can be difficult. When I was selling a house for a relative, the buyers mortgage cheque was 'in a queue to be processed' and the sale that was supposed to close on a Friday didn't close till the following Wednesday. Sometimes things like the the mortgage provider needing a copy of the life insurance to be faxed to them (or some other detail that seemed really small) can hold things up.
If your own mortgage is contingent on the sale of your own house - do they mean the contract being signed or the actual closing? From the time you sign the contracts your mortgage provider may take two weeks to issue the cheque.
If your buyers are flexible then you could see can you stay another week in your own house if you need to. You could always arrange to pay a weeks rent to the new owners. I would try to build some flexiblity in there, it's stressful enough moving without creating a house of cards dependent on one day...

 

[mf1]

There is a major problem with staying in your own house after you have received the closing funds. Practically, the payment of funds is in exchange for keys, deeds and vacant possession. If purchasers need to move in straight away ( because they are in a chain), its a non starter. If they don't need to move in straight away, its a possibility but its not recommended.

If everyone was very decent and honest, it would be ok. But unfortunately the world is full of very selfish people who will happily screw others over if given half a chance. I have also regularly had vendors in chains who expect everything from their vendors while being unwilling to give any leeway to their own purchasers.

So our advice always is : no vacant possession, no funds.

mf

 

[greenfield]

IF you have to do this (and I did some years back) try to avoid arranging it for a Friday. I tried to do it on a Friday - my sale went through ok but there was some issue with my purchase which couldn't be sorted until the next working day - which left me homeless until Monday.

 

[ontour]

.... sick cats in removal vans ......mf

As a rule you should avoid packing animals and small children in the removal van ! I can see the benefits but it may alienate you from your new neighbours when they see the van being unpacked.

Sale and purchase on the same day is fine but have a backup plan. Use a removal company that can put your stuff in to storage or if moving yourself, know where the nearest self-storage is, opening hours etc. Have a plan regarding where you can stay for a couple of nights.

Also it might be possible to have a clause in the contract regarding delays to the moving date. Nothing like a financial penalty to get people motivated.

 

[homeseller]

Thanks very much for advice!

Solicitor seemed to think no problem but we are looking at now giving a wk between selling and buying.

It is a pain as we have lined up houses not to have this problem and do have young children (no cats thankfully) and will definitely take advice about young kids in removal vans...

Interesting times ahead...

 

[Brendan Burgess]

Why not go for it, but check and double check that everything is in place?

Also, assume the worst and have a Plan B in case something goes wrong. For example, can you use a removal company which has storage facilities or can you line up storage facilities to be on standby?

There are lots of vacant houses at the moment, so maybe you can get a friend to lend you their house if something goes wrong.

Brendan

 

[michaelm]

Why not go for it, but check and double check that everything is in place?

I did this and it went swimmingly, although I moved all our belongings the day before, into a friends house, and spent the night elsewhere also. The next day we had a straight run in and out of solicitors and then moved our stuff that evening from my friends house to our new house. I'm planning to to the same again soon so hopefully it all works out.