Can anyone offer any advice on the above please, regards house buying and selling in England?
The circumstances are that I live in my own mortgaged house that I bought in 2006 and is my first property. I was in the RAF in Scotland at the time and my mum a mortgage advisor and so she did all the leg work and I wrote the cheques.
At the minute I want to buy a bigger house and so I approached an estate agent who sent round a valuer, we agreed a price and the house went on the market a few days later.
Now, herein lies my confusion. I'm hearing lots of stuff about what position I'm now in and where I stand. For example, I went to view a property, the estate agent met me there and a few days later I said I wasn't interested and that all seemed fine.
A few days after that a house I liked came back on the market and so I called to arrange a viewing and explained to the estate agent that I had been to see the mortgage people and they had given me the nod for a certain amount, that my house was on the market and indeed had had 4 viewings within that week and things were looking promising. I was refused a viewing on the basis that it was pointless because I wouldn't be able to make an offer because my house hadn't sold. This kind of struck a chord with something someone said who viewed my house when they asked if we had bought another property yet which I said no to on the grounds I hadn't sold the one she was stood in!
So, in essence my understanding is that I have to wait until someone puts an offer in for mine and then have to quickly look about, find the right property and put in an offer myself.
Last night at work though a colleague mentioned that she had seen a nice house and had put an offer in. She had a mortgage in principle and had arranged for an estate agent to come to hers today and put her house on the market.
How is it that she can make offers and I can't even get a viewing? What is the usual route, do I indeed have to wait for offers on my house before making offers on the one I like?
There doesn't seem any simple guide that I can find and my estate agent isn't very helpful and I'm reconsidering keeping them and I don't want to miss out on a nice house (with garage) and I don't want to end up renting.

No reason you cant put an offer in, but the agents are likely to be under instruction from the seller they want a buyer who is primed and ready. If its come back on to the market they have probably been let down by the previous prospective purchaser.

Yes. My understanding is that they had been. I couldn't make an offer without them letting me view it first though but perhaps it was the seller wording them up maybe.

I can only think that either the seller has genuinely directed the estate agents to only allow people who have already sold to view (seems unlikely to me) or the estate agents have enough demand they have decided to prioritise who they spend time dealing with.

Presume your colleague wasn't dealing with the same agent?

No. She's dealing with posher folk than me. Hers is £430k, mine £160k

Just been through this myself (house on market last April, eventually moved the week before Christmas!)

First thing to do is get a formal mortgage in principal. You’re not “proceedable” until you have this plus offers on your house - ie with 2 similar offers on the table, the seller will always take the one who has his ducks in a row.

Best bet is to sell yours and rent/MQ? Then you’re in the best position possible as a proceedable cash buyer.

Anyone who refuses a viewing doesn't deserve to sell!!
We viewed almost a dozen properties before we move 3 years ago without having any offers on ours.

Scimjim. That's how I understood it. I have the mortgage in principle and thought I had to have offers on mine before I could put in offers myself but my colleague, conversely seems to have put an offer in before hers in even on the market.
I want to avoid renting for various reasons and MQ isn't an option as I've been out the RAF for some years now.

When we sold our last house We told the estates agents that we only wanted viewers who had either sold or were cash buyers

The idea was to stop 'day trippers' or folks coming around for a nose who weren't really that interested

The house sold quickly and it all went through smoothly

a neighbour where we live now didn't do this and has been messed about no end with folks wandering around for 5 mins and then saying they didn't like the colour scheme or the colour of his kitchen and "by the way we haven't even put ours on the market yet..."
Errrr the house details were all in colour, So why not have a look first before arranging a viewing?


Each to his own, but we'd rather not have an 'open house' unless we knew they were serious...

Nothing to stop you putting in offers (if you can view ) before you have offers or have even advertised your house - but having those offers accepted is altogether different. I put offers on 5 houses before the one I eventually got, 2 were accepted but fell through for other reasons, one rejected because they went with the more proceedable offer and two houses were taken off the market. I can see why renting would be out but I factored it into the budget as an option in case completion dates became a deal breaker.

(I expect to be criticised for this and fully accept that!!!)

I would say that: As a buyer, if getting the house is that important to you, say what you need to say to get the house. Unless you are both selling with the same agent they don't know your circumstances. Once you've started to proceed the seller probably won't want to loose you. So the 'offer someone had definitely made' which meant you got your viewing can 'unfortunately be withdrawn'...

I know this is not nice and would not be pleased if someone did it to me. But if getting your ideal home for the next 20 years depends on it....

When I sold my home recently I requested only people with cash, I did this because I became ill and had to make the move quickly before the Halifax did it for me.

Just yesterday my 'buyer' pulled out at the signing of the exchange..

Ive spent the last two weeks emptying my garage and house into a container 12 miles away near to the house we were buying...

So, I dont see the point of refusing any viewings or what ever because the sh1t law in this country allows anyone to string you along til the last second