Trading up process from Apartment to House

Hello,

Just looking to get some information on the process of selling our apartment and purchasing a house.

We are not in a position to purchase the house without selling the apartment. (The apartment should sell for in the region of 250k. It currently has a 34k mortgage. The homes we have identified are in the region of 550-600K. We have enquired and we could get a mortgage of up to 430k.)

We have engaged an estate agent and will soon advertise our property for sale as a first step. Unsure of how the next steps go. At what point would we be able to start placing offers on houses? Would be great to get some information from someone who is experienced with this.

Thanks in advance for you help.

Elderflower said:

We have engaged an estate agent and will soon advertise our property for sale as a first step. Unsure of how the next steps go. At what point would we be able to start placing offers on houses?

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I've never done it but generally the advice is to do the opposite. Go sale agreed on the purchase then advertise the apartment and aim to close both sales the same day.

Apartments usually go sale agreed quicker than houses and are less likely to lead to delays (surveys and title usually simpler).

NoRegretsCoyote said:

I've never done it but generally the advice is to do the opposite. Go sale agreed on the purchase then advertise the apartment and aim to close both sales the same day.

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I think if things were a bit cooler in the housing market, that would be a sensible course of action, but from experience of the market at the moment, vendors won't really take you seriously unless you're already sale agreed on your own place and showing signs that you'll move quickly with the purchase.

We've been in the market to trade up for a few months and even being sale agreed is sometimes not enough. There's a lot of competition and vendors want chain-free purchasers where possible, and they often get them.

This is Dublin in the 850-950k range, but I don't think things are much different across any of the in-demand areas across the country.

Talk to a few estate agents locally, they'll give you an idea of what it's like.

NoRegretsCoyote said:

Go sale agreed on the purchase

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Unlikely offer will be considered unless you are sale agreed on the property you are selling.

It's hard but not impossible I did this process last year.

Get solicitor first, make sure your block insurance and is in good order, make sure fire cert is valid and in date, make sure no outstanding property tax or nppr charges on your account with your local co council.

Get mortgage approval in place before you go house shopping it will make it easier placing bids when you know what your limits are. We put apt on the market in April, sale agreed on our apt and our house in the same day.

Drew down on mortgage in September so managed to do it all within 6 months. However I did sign my contracts to sell my apartment and the contracts to buy the house on the same day without my vendor having signed her contracts to sell to us so it was a bit of a tense time and you need to be prepared to do that.

Being out of a chain will always benefit you. Any questions just shout I know I am missing stuff here but I can't stress the importance of having the things I mentioned about sorted before you even think of doing anything.

You just have to bite the bullet and sell your apartment first. You may find that it takes longer to sell if a purchaser finds that the management company is not properly managed or if there are issues with fire safety first. Having cash in your pocket will enable you to buy at auction etc

When we traded up years ago we were able to get bridging finance, It is impossible to get bridging finance now.

Thanks all for your comments. Very helpful

talofv said:

We've been in the market to trade up for a few months and even being sale agreed is sometimes not enough. There's a lot of competition and vendors want chain-free purchasers where possible, and they often get them.

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Very much so - many vendors looking for a "quick sale" right now and they will go to the second highest bidder if the first isn't ready to complete the sale quickly.