Trading up advice.

We have put our house the market and gone sale agreed and are now going looking at houses. Does anyone have advice as to what or how we put a deposit on another house when we have no cash available until we complete the sale of the house.

What do lenders usually suggest or offer - is is a bridging loan or other process? We are meeting two lenders this week but I wanted to have an idea of what is possible so that we can look for the best options when deciding what to and where to go for the mortgage.

TIA

You might be offered a bridging loan if contracts are signed, rather than sale agreed and if you indicate that you will be placing your new home loan with the lender. Another alternative is to borrow against your existing property by way of a top up loan that will be cleared when you sell your house. It may only be needed for a couple of months and is probably not worth your lenders time but with the possibility of a new home loan on the horizon they should be tempted.

Usually 10k booking deposit to go sale agreed on the house you want to buy. 10% of purchase price on signing of contracts. Remaining amount on closing.

A good solicitor should be able to juggle this for you, if the properties are in the same price bracket. Bridging is probably your only solution (unless you have SSIA) as releasing equity involves the title deeds on your property going back to your lender from your solicitor who should have them at this stage.

Although 10% is a traditional deposit it's not mandatory. You, or your solicitor, could explain to the selling agents or the vendor's solicitor that your funds are tied up in your current house and negotiate a lesser deposit. The last time I move I paid a grand total of £1000 as booking and signing deposit and stuck it on a credit card!

Sarah

www.rea.ie

We accepted a reduced deposit when selling our previous house as we were dealing with a FTB and they agreed to close the sale quicker for us if we accepted a lesser deposit. It suited us to sell quickly and it worked out fine.