The Full Victor Meldrew

Back in a gorgeous warm spell in February 2019 we were tempted to look at a bungalow in one of our favourite roads. It was nice, but the layout wouldn't work for us. The owner said that a neighbour was considering selling and her bungalow would suit us better. To cut a long story short we fell in love with the property, agreed a private deal and put our house on the market.
Unfortunately the market was exceeding slow and eventually 'our' bungalow was put on the open market. It sold within a few days, but then the buyer disappeared and it sold again within a few days. We kept in touch with the seller but eventually it all went through and we lost 'our' bung. and took our place off the market. 
A few weeks later, in October, we saw another place we liked and turned our place back on the market. Again a very, very dull market, but our hopes were kept alive as the place we wanted remained unsold too. We had a flurry of viewings in January and two said they wanted to buy our place, but needed to sell theirs. 
Then it happened. Last week the place we wanted went SSTC on Rightmove. A call to the agent confirmed an offer had been accepted and the chain was a 'firm' one. Doh! Reluctantly we told our agent we were taking our place off the market. There was nothing else that appealed within our search parameters, we are socially distancing and the chances of either of our wannabe buyers selling with the virus around has to be pretty slim. 
Then this morning the agent rang. One of our wannabe's HAS sold and wants a second viewing. Again, even more reluctantly we said we weren't interested. Victor, I know how you felt.

Have you thought about doing what my sister did in a similar position and is going through with the sale and has taken a short term lease on another property

If you can live with it that may not be such a bad idea in the current circumstances, I would put money on the fact we will shortly see a substantial drop in house prices.
We have been planning to sell 'hog castle for a couple of years now but can't find anything that we would want to move to and in normal times would never have sold unless we had somewhere else to buy. If someone walked in the door now with the right amount of money I would be tempted to look at renting for a while.

We've discussed renting, to see if something suitable comes up, but I'm not sure I could manage two moves, if you know what I mean. Call us picky, but only two properties have measured up to what we want in the last year, so I might be a long wait.
A bungalow would be good for both our knees or a house, like our last three where the ground floor is larger than upstairs but most are either equal up and down, or smaller downstairs due to an integral garage. Then there's the open plan problem, which is just not practical with two bearded collies, who need a big utility for keeping them secure and for grooming - oh and the list goes on. Secure garden. Room for the motorhome. Not to big a garden. Etc etc etc

UPDATE
Our agent rang this morning. They'd told our potential buyers that our house was no longer on the market and they were devestated. Apparently they'd set their hearts on it being their 'forever' home. The agent said that their buyer was a first timer, living with mum and dad and ivo the virus situation they were in no hurry to move. They were offering us our asking price and saying we needn't worry about proceeding with the sale 'til the virus situation settles.
That gives us plenty of time to try and find somewhere, but, of course, no viewings before the 'all clear.

Offering the Asking Price....grab it! You can then buy at a post virus price as I bet the market is going to go down, if not collapse.

Lancy wrote:Offering the Asking Price....grab it! You can then buy at a post virus price as I bet the market is going to go down, if not collapse.

With you 100% Lancy, take the deal a drop in house prices is inevitable.

Theoretically selling now and buying later would probably be good otherwise as Lancy and the Hog say. However in the current crisis I very much doubt anyone is moving anywhere. The thought has occurred to me that if prices do fall and I agree that's fairly inevitable, then the price we've agreed today may be reduced.