Our house is on the market - hhh

I had a leaflet through the door today from an estate agent, looking for houses to sell!

We sold settled on our house last week. We had not been able to find a house we wanted to buy so are now living in a rental. While it is comfortable and we have a 12 month lease, we had hoped to have bought and moved into our real house within 6-8 months. That now looks unlikely given the situation. However we will keep looking online and if something comes up we will then decide what we do.

I also know of a family who were staying in a caravan park temporaripy as part of a move. The caravan park has now shut. They had to move into rental and need to complete their move before they totally run out of money

A friend of mine and her family "temporarily" moved into her parents before all this as part of a move.

Luckily neither she or her husband are keyworkers, as her parents are vulnerable to covid.

If they were then they would be looking to finish their move ASAP

Thats fine if youre already in suitable accomodation

Not so much if youre squeezed into inadequate temporary accomodation paying £££s in storage fees

BBC News 27/3/2020
The government has urged people not to move house to try to limit the spread of coronavirus across the UK
Buyers and renters should delay moving while emergency stay-at-home measures are in place, it said

Thats true our house mirrors many on our road (except the ones that have been internally gutted)
Even all of the extensions match because of planning

Yes, Grammaretto, that sort of story is possible. In our DD's case they live in a desirable (London) area where the houses in the road are all very similar semis. They are right on a tube line too. Ok some houses have extensions or loft coversions but anyone wanting to buy one could probably visualise the floor space and the local agent probably has previous measurements on file.
As far as solicitors are concerned I assume they could set to work immediately and take things as far as exchange.
Not so easy if you want to buy an individual character property or in an area with a variety of styles.

We barely viewed one of our purchases. We were already sold on location and it had some of our "must have" features. We bought having only viewed once.

We offered on our next place on the first viewing. Pretty much as soon as we were in the door.

In both instances the clock was ticking and we needed to move ASAP

You wont get any tire-kickers at the moment at least

We once bought a house without viewing it. It was 1970s. We had no time to house hunt and after one visit to the new area 500 miles away, we couldn't find anything just right for us so we had the property pages sent to us, scanned the pages until we saw, but no photos in those days, a house in the right area. We asked our lawyer what he thought. He was based in the house's area. He approved. We made a bid which was accepted. It was nerve wracking when we first saw it. It turned out to be a very nice house where we lived happily for 5 years.
I don't think we would have bid if we had seen it because it was quite ugly but the location was perfect.

Our passports etc were already on our solicitors files so when one sale fell through I dont think we had to bring all that back in.

There will still be some purchases. Less, but some. And I doubt anyone will pay full market value at the moment

Our previous buyer didnt "upgrade" they just had the lender's basic survey.

My last purchase the mortgage company didnt send a surveyor they used google earth (I paid for my own) and the purchase before that our lender just did a drive by valuation (again we chose to hire our own). But it is possible to buy, even with a mortgage, without an internal survey

Will anyone be able to get a surveyor? How will the paperwork be signed at the solicitors? You have to take your Passport in when you buy/sell a house, how will that be done? As we have been advised to halt all completions and house moves I assume that it isn’t classed as essential work.
Our solicitor is working from home, but definitely won’t be making house visits any time soon and we can’t visit them.

People with existing mortgage offers have an extension on those offers. There are now NEW mortgage offers for anyone without a huge deposit. People may wanna buy before their offer expires.

I wonder if any people might even make an offer from just viewing a property online. I guess if someone desperately wants a particular road or school catchment area for example? Our DD and sil had their house valued 3 weeks before lockdown and were due to go on the market tomorrow. Sadly they hadn't quite instructed the agent to take the photos because they wanted to do some redecorating. I'm wondering whether they could take their own and email them to him.

shouldn't should

We put our house on the market a year or so ago and then withdrew it after having second thoughts. As a consequence we have the estate agents who originally marketed it ringing us from time to time, we are still toying with the idea of selling. Just before complete lockdown, possibly the week before when it was becoming quite apparent that life as we know it may be restricted, estate agent rings and speaks to my husband "are you still thinking of putting the house on the market?" reply "well not at the moment" E.A. "why is that?" husband "Coronavirus" didn't think there was any need to expand. Estate Agent "are you seeing that as a problem?" husband "well yes, because we're being told over 70s shouldn't stay at home" him not me" so can't visit potential properties we would consider buying, also don't want people traipsing in and out of our house at such a time" E.A ….."errr yes I see, it could be a problem" As Bill Clinton uttered Denial isn't just a river in Africa

Oh my goodness- I hadn’t realised that this had actually been posted - I thought I had been wholly inept! Thank you for all the responses that are interesting to read and I’ll look on the houses for sale thread! They did come and video the house, it’s a large space so we were not in close proximity and no need to touch anything - then came back with the drone the next day as he’d flown it into a tree and damaged it on day 1!! The idea is that by having a virtual tour people sitting at home have time to do their research and so when we are no longer in lock down they will rush to view and we will be overwhelmed with offers - ha ha!! Where the money will come from to buy is another matter altogether. I’m now secure in the knowledge that no one will be viewing for the foreseeable future so I can return to my slovenly ways - enjoy the garden making dresses for the grandchildren (4 girls 8 boys, who don’t need dresses and 2 more on the way) and being creative with the food people deliver to us!

People who got stranded in temporary accomodation before all of this will want to have a home again as soon as they can!

People are not going to view right now but some buyers will be poised to buy as soon as they can.

Mortgages are extremely limited at the moment. You need 60%LTV. So it'll be cash. People who have alrrasy sold with equity. Not likely to be first time buyers

Made up scenario

Mrs x is desperate to sell, but has health issues, she cleans every surface of her home with Dettol , exhausted, she opens the doors to the EA and the buyers and stands well back, when the potential buyers have left, she thoroughly cleans all surfaces and door handles, opens all windows to let out whatever bugs have dropped off of the buyers, showers, puts all of her clothes in the wash and slumps exhausted.
Then she does it all again the next day when the EA rings and tell her another couple want to look around.
And again the next day.........
The potential buyers , leave the house, wash their hands, go home put all clothes in the wash, then shower. They do this each time they view a house.
Or, maybe they wait a while until things get back to ‘normal’ ?

Don't get me wrong, there'll be LESS buyers. But there will be buyers.

E.g. made up scenario: key worker couple who relocated just before all this. Now stuck in their temporary accomodation with most of their belongings in expensive storage. Mr&Mrs made-up will still be keen to buy as soon as they can!

Mr & Mrs Alsomadeup who are in an adequate house but were thinking of maybe moving to a slightly posher area or to somewhere with a bigger garden, nope they'll probably decide to make do and not have the expense of moving in uncertain times.

You really couldn't credit it (if in the UK) as we are all in lockdown.

Nobody is going to be moving house that is not already committed, the length of this crisis is so unpredictable we are all conserving our cash until there is light at the end of the tunnel

That only applies to people moving by choice.

Some people still HAVE to move: into homes that can be adapted after injury, downsizers who cant manage big properties, people who are paying through the nose for rentals and will pay less on a mortgage. People with nightmare neighbours. People who are in temporary accomodation after relocating for work (maybe from abroad) etc

Yes the people who just fancy a change will put it on the back burner indefinitely. But there are others who still need to move AS SOON as we get the green light..