As your family grows, it’s time to consider scaling up from your first home to a larger property. If you’ve never had to sell your current house and buy a new one at the same time, it can seem like a daunting process.
Hull offers great opportunities for families looking for more space in a thriving city full of culture, great schools, and activities for everyone. Follow these steps to juggle the sale of your current home with finding your next family home in Hull without too much stress!
Seek expert advice before selling your home
Upgrading to a larger family home comes with obvious – and hidden – costs. When you bought your first home, you only had the costs associated with purchase to consider, such as searches, conveyancing, and mortgage arrangement fees.
Now, you have those costs plus vendor expenses. This includes paying your estate agent a commission fee, a solicitor for the sale paperwork, and possibly costs for changing your mortgage agreement.
Before you consider moving home, seek mortgage advice. Your expert mortgage adviser in Hull will help you to decide a suitable financial strategy for buying your next home. This could involve porting your existing mortgage to the new home or remortgaging if you’re out of your existing fixed term.
When assessing your mortgage and finances, remember to add in the extra costs for both selling and buying a home in your budget.
The property chain: how to buy and sell a home at the same time
Unlike buying your first home, which is fairly straightforward, purchasing your next home involves putting yourself into a property chain. This chain can be quite long if your buyer is also selling their property, and that’s being purchased by someone also relying on the sale of their property, and so on.
Putting your house up for sale while also looking for, and offering on, the new house you want takes considerable time. It’ll usually take longer than buying your first home did, as you have to manage both the sale and purchase processes, so make sure you leave plenty of time in your annual plans to move house.
Put your house up for sale first. The valuation on your property will help you to work out your budget for the next home.
Once you have your house on the market, you can start viewing houses you’d like to buy. You will need to wait until you have an offer on your existing home before you can make an offer on the new place.
Then both the sale and purchase happen simultaneously. You’ll need to carry out surveys on your next home as you did when you bought your first property. There will also be some paperwork for you to complete for your buyer, such an independent Energy Performance Certificate.
What happens if your buyer pulls out?
Being in a property chain like this means there are risks: if your buyer retracts their offer before you’ve exchanged contracts, you might have to pull out of buying the house you’ve put an offer on. This is because you will no longer have a sale to fund your next purchase.
If this happens to you, it’s imperative to find a new buyer for your home as quickly as possible. Depending on your financial circumstances, you may be in a position to apply for a bridging loan. This is where you can borrow the funds you need until your house is sold. This is an expensive option, however, especially if it takes longer than expected to sell your house. Seek mortgage advice before taking this step.
Exchanging contracts and completion dates
Most people try to exchange contracts on both their current and the new house at the same time.
You can use the deposit you receive from your buyer at exchange towards the deposit you need to put on the new house. If you need a higher deposit at exchange of contracts for your new home, make sure you have the difference saved and readily available for the day of exchange.
Much like the exchange of contracts, try to arrange the same completion date for both the sale and purchase of your properties. When you’re in a property chain of several transactions, this will involve plenty of negotiation between each vendor and buyer to coordinate the same date.
It means you can do the same as your exchange date: funds received for your property can be used immediately towards the purchase of your new home. It also means everyone moves house on the same day, so nobody is left hanging between properties waiting to complete on their new home.
Transferring your mortgage to your next home
Buying a new family home in Hull is an exciting time – but make sure you’re fully prepared for the financial implications of moving home.
Your mortgage options will depend on whether you have an existing mortgage, how long you’ve had it for, your financial circumstances, and whether your new home has a higher sale price. It’s hard to know what’s right to do when you’re juggling family, work, and selling your home; speak to a mortgage adviser before you act to make sure you’re in a good financial position.
Find out more about our Mortgage Advice service in Hull