Need to downsize - also wary of moving!

it all depends on how fast properties sell in your area. We had an offer on our house and despite looking in very hard over several months we could not find a home. We had to take our house off the market in the end and the poor buyer had to find another home. so we then thought we found a new home and put our home on the market. We were offered way above market value - a horrible experience- but when we could actually put in an offer we found that the new home came with lots of restrictions . thankfully our buyer pulled out. so no pressure on us to move. Third time lucky and we found somewhere and then had a buyer. If the house market is slow where you live then put your house up for sale now but if it moves fast then start looking now.

llizzie2 if underhand things are going on in your area - especially if changing to lots of rentals- is it worth speaking to your local councillor for advice?
Or local trading standards?

The OP cannot just find another agent as I understand her problem to be that she is not being allowed to VIEW

To all suggesting OP finds a different EA it is well documented that some Estate Agents in certain areas are advising viewings are only granted to those in a position to progress to completion. Whether it's right or wrong is irrelevant, it's what's happening and there's little way round it. In the areas where there are too many prospective purchasers for too few houses Estate Agents can and are setting the rules.

We put our house on the market and looked for our new home at the same time. We put an offer on the one we wanted before we had a buyer for our house. Find another estate agent.

You hold the purse strings - tell them what you will and will not do, end of.

NannyKnit you say not permitted officially. What official rules are estate agents using to direct people they cannot view a property unless they have, say, have a solid buyer for their existing property or a cash buyer. As a buyer can pull out at the last minute, there really is no such thing.

DS and DD have both moved within the last eighteen months and the estate agents were not prepared to let them view anything until their own properties were on the market with active viewings and likely sales. Its common in this area where the market is buoyant and it wasnt just one agent, it was most of them.

All good advice above. Don't be bullied by the Estate Agent. Some of them have set themselves up as if they have the same status as Lawyers - when they are just market traders who want the easiest process for their eventual fee. Also the time to process house sales (clocking up even more fees for buyer and seller) has become a scandal and should be reviewed by the Government. Of course you need to look at other places while yours is on the market. Why not just knock on the door of any property for sale which you like? - and inform the owner of your decision. Good luck with the move.

Could you look for an Airbnb instead of a rental? It’s not a pleasant business, but, it’s far better to do it sooner rather than later. Get help to go through your items, and get rid of what you don’t need. I sold quite a lot on Gumtree. You may be lucky, and everything will fit into place. Moving into something smaller will be easier to maintain.

Both sons have move recently and a friend. In their cases there were long long waits between accepted offer and completion (6m, 8m and 10m). So I wouldn't feel "I have a buyer, I need to get out", I'd stay put & if they really want your house, they will wait. The mortgage arrangements are usually valid for 6m, but can be re-arranged although the rate may change.If they don't there'll be someone else.I don't think it's quite such a seller's market atm as it has been, but your buyers will probably know that it's not going to happen fast, & be prepared to wait.

The estate agent will probably tell you there is an offer from a cash buyer under the asking price, but recommend you accept it.

That is up to you. I believe they are discussing cash buyers because there are a whole lot of landlords who would do anything to get a house cheap in a popular area. I am not on the coast. I am on the edge of a London commuter belt. It is supposed to be a sought after location. It is large, detached Band E, with disability extension and size will change to Band F when I am not living here. I cannot sell it, or release equity. I am almost 84. Someone wants the house, which is probably why I cannot sell it or raise a loan.

Renata1079

I'm near the south coast. Our local estate agents insist we get a buyer before even being allowed to go and view anything else (apart from on-line) or make an offer on the next place. That means if people buying my place get impatient waiting for me to find my next place, they and the estate agents will bully me to move into rented accommodation and put my belongings in storage, so my buyers can proceed and move in. (It's happened to other people I know.) I would become a cash buyer for the next place, and could make an instant offer on something I want. But as an elderly widow I can't afford to rent and pay storage fees. There is a minimum of 6 months rental contract to sign. Then rent is payable monthly after that, with a months notice. I feel trapped by this system.

That is horrifying. I am very wary of estate agents. I am an elderly widow too. I have a detached house with a disabled living extension. In 2018 I did much the same as you are being asked to do. I listed the house for sale at a price recommended by the estate agent. I didn't even get a copy of a brochure. Viewers were turning up with builders, and no wonder. I discovered they were selling the house as in need of complete remodelling. It is not. They even took it off the market over a bank holiday. I didn't even find that out until after the contract had ended.
Then the manager left and a new one came. He had never seen me or the house, nor did he want to see the house. He sat on the sofa and me in a chair and began to speak in a very rude way. I had received one offer of £100,000 less than the asking price, which the previous manager had suggested. I refused. I moved into this house in 1986. I first bought a house on this estate in 1968.
That man started shouting at me, telling me I was 'deluded if I thought the house was worth more than the offer'. He started toward me, red in face, and I asked him to leave or I would call the police. He did. I wondered why he was so angry. I googled his name and came up with it in Companies House. I found he had started a company the year before and had taken out charges, on a house is another county, the month before my house was listed,

A week later he said someone offered the ASKINGPRICE, but wouldn't tell me their name. Eventually they gave it to me, That offer was made by another property management company. He said he sold his house in ,,,,,, When I accepted that offer, because it was the exact list price, I discovered that he was living on this same estate in a house he - supposedly bought. I had a feeling that the offer wasn't genuine. When the contract ended, they withdrew that offer.

During covid, in 2020 a number of elderly on this estate died. Their homes were sold, but not listed for sale. I am disabled and housebound so I don't get out much, but I could see that the detached houses were being bought up. My carer told me that some had a small extension and were turned into two homes - a and b - and rented out. The were all given the same cladding, as on the TV programmes, and the same front doors. It is possible that the property managers and letting agents in this town want the estate gated. It has the most detached houses on it anywhere, and the small new builds surrounding it are for shared ownership.

My plot is 58ft wide and almost as long, the largest, at the end of a cul-de-sac, no traffic noise or pollution, view from the front bedrooms, nothing in front so gets the sun all day, set right back from the other houses in the row. 5mins level walk to primary school, 10 to secondary, 15 to shops and services. Parking for 6 visitor cars. No noise, not overlooked. 1900sqft. Nothing structurally wrong. Old fashioned bathrooms. What's not to like?

I have made two attempts for equity release, which will enable me to live comfortably with more care, because I was diagnosed with macular degeneration last year, and had GBS in 1987 and CIDP now. I was turned down. The surveyor each equity release company sent valued it as £NIL! There was nothing on the report about any structural defect!

I am pretty sure now, that the houses are being bought up, divided and rented out. They have to buy them cheap to be able to completely update them. I think I am being forced to stay here, die here, without being able to make the house comfortable by releasing equity. If I redecorated etc. it would raise the value and those property managers (and the partnership includes local tradespeople so I cannot get quotes on work).

My daughter will not be able to sell it when I am gone. They will not let outsiders buy these houses, and anyway there are still new builds to sell. They will sit on her until she cannot pay utilities, and buy it undervalue, at the IHT cut off. It is how landlords make their money.

Sorry but this seems quite common in the South. We have been told pretty much the same. Even if we look, it is unlikely that any offer we made would be accepted until we had 'sold'. This seems to have become a thing during the stamp duty relaxation after COVID and has remained in place now the stamp duty offer has stopped.

I downsized last year and moved to a different area. Before I had an offer on my house I did view properties, explaining that because of the distance involved I had no real option. Your local estate agent sounds a real bully, I do understand there are time wasters, I had a few viewing mine despite the agent supposedly vetting them, but you need to actually see a house to make a decision.

Definitely change agent, and do what works for you. I had a shortlist on rightmove, and kept sifting through the properties to try and find one that met my criteria. Good luck

We put our house on the market in March & moved 3 months ago. Our understanding was that you couldn’t view anywhere officially unless your own home was on the market. Which is fair enough, it shows you’re serious about moving. But needing a buyer before viewing is ridiculous. I do understand if a seller has exchanged or moved out but there seems to be no justification for this otherwise. I wish you all the best. It’s a big step downsizing but also a great relief once it’s all done.

We downsized just over 5 years ago. The market was very slow at the time - we couldn’t put in an offer on another house until we had an offer on ours although we could view other houses once ours was on the market.
I asked the estate agent what would happen if our buyer started pushing us and we couldn’t find anywhere suitable. She said find another buyer (this is bearing in mind it was very slow at the time). As it happened our buyer did threaten to pull out towards the end if we didn’t complete on a certain date but I ignored that and their threats came to nothing, There’s no way I would be bullied into going into rental I’d rather the chain collapsed.

I want to downsize. I have looked at 5 houses so far though my own house isn't ready to put on the market.
I go on Rightmove. I email for a viewing, explain my position and I get shown round my the agent.
Nobody minds. I even take a friend or two with ne to help ask the right questions and to have someone to discuss it with.
Surely if a house has plenty of viewings, it looks more likely to sell.
4/5 houses I have viewed have since sold.

It’s not your agents fault. It is the dire housing system we find ourselves in. There is a huge shortage of short term lets available which in the past have been traditionally used when the chain can’t complete intact. Several of my friends have experienced this situation. Massive amounts of downsizing financial gains have been ploughed into rentals and storage costs rendering the financial benefits of downsizing questionable. My SIL is now technically homeless because the chain broke down and couldn’t afford to stay in the home she shared with her partner prior to them separating. There is no social housing available either. People who never imagined they would be homeless are now finding themselves in this awful situation. Much harder to cope with the older we are. I eu sad h you all the best for the future.

See if you can find an agent who is independent and not part of a large chain. The large chains are run from head office and seem to employ the bully boy tactics and one size fits all.

My friends were told this too, it's quite common these days for agents to be demanding, find one who isn't.

You can't put a 'proper' offer on a new place without having the funds lined up, even if that means you're in a 'chain' of buyers and sellers however, there's no legal reason you can't look at properties before you get a buyer as long as you aren't misleading the sellers about your position. We move house a lot, restless souls, but when we put something on the market we have been astounded by people who are really just looking to pass the time out of curiosity with no intention of actually buying the place and maybe that's what the agent is concerned about. When this sort of viewing happens it is upsetting as it means we have spent a couple of days cleaning and tidying, finding somewhere to go while the viewing takes place - which in the past meant sorting out the kids and all their toys etc - and generally disrupting our lives for nothing. I can understand why people may not want someone coming round who isn't in a position to put an offer on their house. In the past, with small children, we have stipulated that buyers must be 'proceedable' before we allow them to view. This comes from us not the estate agent and would not be reasonable as a blanket rule as properties might be uninhabited, or open for all day block viewings and it wouldn't always cause problems for you to look round. If we were looking to buy I'd probably take a dim view of the inflexible attitude taken by your agent and find another one. Before doing that I would ask the agent to explain their logic though and if it's because your house isn't anywhere close to being in a position to go onto the market and will take months or even years to prepare for viewings - cluttered, needing maintenance, updating etc, then the agent may have a point, it may be a buyers market but you will still need to find a buyer before anyone will accept an offer and take their property off the market. I agree it's possible you'll lose a buyer as people wont wait in a chain indefinitely but unless your place will sell really quickly what better option is there if you seriously want to move? One of the problems seems to be that many landlords and now selling vacant properties, so quick moves can happen and you are competing with that. I think you need to quiz the agent though as they don't seem to be putting your best interests at heart and if you sell with them you do pay a lot for that. If they are just doing this because they are short staffed it's not good enough but if it's because they don't feel you are in a good enough position to be worth the vendors while that's different. Anyway, there is always competition so maybe don't try to buy and sell through the same agent.

The OP has stated that it's the position of the agents in her area full stop. If that's the situation, whether right or wrong, it's what the local agents seem to have agreed between themselves and they're sticking to it, probably makes life a lot easier for them but no help to the OP.
Even going to an agent out of the area won't help if viewings have to be arranged via local agents.

Take your business elsewhere.

Tennisnan

Im interested in the posts where people ssy "estate agents cant do that" "you should bec allowed to view sny property you wish". Where are they getting their views from as what the OP says is exactly the situation out there right now. Its slso rsther tude to suggest she is getting her wires ctossed. They can not have bought/dold a property in a long time. Things have certainly changed and agents are behaving exactly as described.

Yes they are countrywide!