Does anyone want to join me waiting to find a house to buy?

copperjar · 4 September 2016 at 9:02AM

MeandO - that's really poor form the EAs not turning up! I'm finding some EAs seem to find the whole thing a bit of a chore! One never got back to me about viewing a house that is still on the market now (6 weeks later!).

I'm in a bit of a dilemma. Our buyers said they were happy to wait (end of Sept has been the timescale both of us happy with) for us to find somewhere. Then obviously it would take the usual timescales from then to exchange etc. But. They also think that we will go into rented if we have not found anywhere by then. And we've now decided against that. Do you think we need to be honest now and tell them, potentially losing the sale? Or continue as we are in the hope that things do pick up and we get somewhere by the Sept timescale? Do we start with the legal stuff now or wait? We haven't sent anything back to solicitor yet. I feel like we're being dishonest.

Spoke to our EA who said these things take time and this situation is common. He advised against him contacting our buyers so as not to "spook" them - but said he would if we asked him to. Not sure what is the best thing to do.

amateur_house · 4 September 2016 at 9:23AM

That's a difficult one copperjar. I guess it depends on your buyers situation, if they are renting they probably do need to know as they might need to extend their tenancy agreement. I've not been on the MSE site long but have already read a few threads from people who are unhappy about being told the vendor of a house would vacate a property and rent but have now changed their minds. If it's only going to be for a short time I would think most buyers would be understanding though. Your estate agent is probably in the best place to know how the buyers will take the news.

copperjar · 4 September 2016 at 10:12AM

Our buyers are cash buyers, purchasing for their son. Part of us accepting their offer was being clear that we needed time to find somewhere, they were happy with that. But like I said, we put an arbitrary date of "end of Sept" on it. I guess we are still well within timescales, I'm just feeling guilty because I'm now really panicking that we won't find somewhere in time!

Our EA has advised against saying anything just yet. Our buyers haven't contacted the EA to chase up yet.

phoebe1989seb · 4 September 2016 at 2:15PM

Can I join the thread too?

We viewed our first couple of houses earlier in the week.

Controversially we are selling our current house at auction - don't shoot me - so are not SSTC, but as we're looking for a change of pace/lifestyle and are moving from the W Midlands (originally from Hampshire) to S W Wales and want somewhere with at least an acre, preferably several so we thought we ought to start checking out potential locations/what's on offer, in order to be in a position to act quickly should we need to!

Really loved both the properties we saw, but one had galloping Japanese Knotweed in the garden

I have alerts set up and expect more [STRIKE]wrecks[/STRIKE] projects to come onto the market over the next few weeks so will be off on another road trip soon, I guess. Meanwhile I have organised spreadsheets and a complicated points system by which to score interesting properties

copperjar · 4 September 2016 at 11:34PM

Been doing a lot of research this evening via rightmove, mouseprice etc and I'm really astounded by the price increases in my area over the last few years. I don't know if people are being completely unrealistic but it seems people are adding about £10k per year to houses they've bought over last 5 years. Example - 3 new builds from 2013 are up for sale on a nice little development, £35k more than their new build price. Aren't new builds supposed to lose money in the first couple of years?! Others in my preferred location honestly seem at least 20k overpriced based on trends and other local sale prices last year. I can't get my head round it!

I'm not in London or any other particularly highly desirable area. We're talking West Yorkshire here!

iantojones40 · 5 September 2016 at 6:52AM

Your observations are pretty much correct Copperjar... It feels like just about the whole market is currently made up of kiteflyers at the moment and asking prices bear little relation to achieved sold prices.

I recently attended a local auction just to get a feel for what prices are actually being achieved, 3 of the auction properties had previously been for sale on the open market...

1. Rightmove asking price £140k - Auction guide price £130k - Sold price £116k
2. Rightmove asking price £115k - Auction guide price £110k - Sold price £98k
3. Rightmove asking price £125k (Originally £169k) - Auction guide price £120k - Sold price £90k

I wouldn't even say that these sold prices were ''auction bargains''... none of these properties had anything specifically wrong with them, they were just stupidly overpriced when on the open market and what they achieved at auction was simply an accurate reflection of what their true market value is.

skywalkerme · 5 September 2016 at 9:23AM

Currently looking for a house in portsmouth and using RightMove. Don't you just hate it when the house you love is between 15k to 20k above what you can afford. Its really depressing and you start thinking how you can raise such money when you know its impossible.

copperjar · 5 September 2016 at 10:11AM

skywalkerme wrote: »

Currently looking for a house in portsmouth and using RightMove. Don't you just hate it when the house you love is between 15k to 20k above what you can afford. Its really depressing and you start thinking how you can raise such money when you know its impossible.

Yes! That's exactly me. Mind you, when you do consider upping the amount available, the houses you like are £15-20k over that!

skywalkerme · 5 September 2016 at 10:48AM

copperjar wrote: »

Yes! That's exactly me. Mind you, when you do consider upping the amount available, the houses you like are £15-20k over that!

Lol. Exactly, when i started thinking about buying a house, my budget and ideal house were around the 150k mark. that was two years ago. Now they have all gone up to almost 200k. Its like trying to achieve a dream and when you get close, it moves further away. I'm really praying the price of the house i am looking at comes down(wishful thinking). Its just perfect for my family

copperjar · 6 September 2016 at 10:03PM

Well we went to see a house in prefered location this evening. As usual, my partner loved it and I'm more cautious. I think that is just going to be the way it is for me - I won't have the head over heals feeling but will be more considered for any property! So I think we are going to make an offer. It has location, parking, 3 beds - all on the wish list. Only downsides is outdoor space is smaller than we wanted and it's a cottage (positive) so doesn't have the light and airy feel.

Anyway, we are thinking of offering 92% of asking price. We think it's a good offer and we're in a strong position but no doubt it will be declined at first. We can't go anything over 95% of asking price so will see how it goes! Feel a tad more anxious than excited, it's rubbish being me sometimes!

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Does anyone want to join me waiting to find a house to buy?

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