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Moving House

Changing properties is a bit more complex than it was buying your first home. You might have questions like "should i buy or sell first? What happens to my mortgage when I move? Will I need a bridging loan?" 

If you’re looking at getting into your next home, talk to us first. It’s a great time to review your financial position and make sure you’re getting the best possible deals and advice.

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A tale of two houses

When you're considering a move, there's a lot to think about. We can help.

  • Should you buy or sell first?
  • How do you sort out bridging finance? 
  • What IS bridging finance? 
  • Should you pay to stage your home for selling? How do you choose a good agent?

Check out the video of Courtney's story, she's one of our favourite clients and we helped her and her family into their second home. 

 
Moving house - bridging loans

Bridging finance

In a perfect world, you'd sell your house one day and land the perfect gem the next, then settle both on the same day. But we live in the real world where that's not usually the case. If you end up buying first, there are two kinds of bridging loans you could go for:

  • Open-ended bridging is where you buy first and intend to sell (but haven't sold yet.) Banks are reluctant to do open-ended bridging finance unless you are in a strong enough financial position to support both mortgages.
  • Closed bridging is where you buy, and before settlement your existing house is sold under unconditional contract but is yet to settle. This is generally easy to finance.
Find out more about bridging finance
What happens to my mortgage when I move house? Let us explain in 2 minutes and 5 seconds:

Should you buy or sell first?

What comes first, the chicken or the egg? It can be a bit of a juggling act. Lets weigh up the pros and cons. 

Buy first
  • Buying first is a riskier strategy, but you can mitigate the risk by negotiating a long settlement (say three months) then putting your house on the market.
  • The other option is to buy "subject to" selling your place. This is unlikely to work in a market that has a shortage of listings or on a popular property – vendors will probably not accept a “subject to sale” offer unless it is the only one they have.
Sell first
  • Sell with a long settlement so that you have time to buy.
  • Sell "subject to" finding another house. This is unusual but we have seen this where our client was the buyer. In a market that is short of listings, buyers will be more open to a long settlement if it means buying the right house.

Have a gander at our blogs

You'll find some useful insights on the joys of moving house. 

All articles
moving-house-illustration
Lifestyle
What happens with your mortgage when you move house?

There are a few different ways your mortgage can work with in your move, as JB explains.

View article
Chair and shelf in living room
Lifestyle
Should you stage your home for sale?

Staging: It's something of a divisive subject in the property world. Namely, should you do it, and if you do, how mu...

View article
Buy or sell? Blackboard next to light bulb
Housing Market
Buy first or sell first?

When you have established yourself on the proverbial property ladder you will at some point come to the decision to ...

View article

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