How many houses did you look at ?

Joannaclaire

We must be a bit fussy - we've looked at over 100 (have lost count now) over an 18 month period and have put in offers on about 10, but have been outbid/gazumped etc on all og those, so sadly are still looking....

Edna_Bucket_2

OK - here's a question for all you kind knowledgeable people (and especially those in the south of the UK.)

If location in the Southern and Northern Home Counties wasn't an issue and open - as long as we could fairly easily get into London 2 or so days a week, what are the best towns to live in?

Schools are the consideration (and online league tables have been gone through) - period property is important (which rules out some places just in terms of housing stock.)

Quality of life, nice town, facilities, and all those other good things are the issues.

Any suggestions (or places to avoid!) warmly welcomed.

biblejohn

Dukes_of_hazard wrote:

A simple question.

How many houses did you look round before you found the ONE !

We are about to offer on the 2nd house we looked at. We have looked 6 in total .

Happy house buying

I looked at 5 or 6 places in person and bought the 2nd place i saw. It wasnt a case of "falling in love" with the 2nd place, but i figured it would do for a few years. 5 years on and im still here, but was planning to sell this year. Unfortunately due to house price rises, that plan might not happen as i cant afford anything better than what I have at the moment.

loopylisa

we looked at one and put are house on the market the next day!!! and were moving in next friday :j

Rikki

Had thought about moving but not really decided until I saw 'The One' in the estate agents window viewed the same day, put an offer in the next day, moved in eight weeks later.

safesound

We viewed about 8 actual bookings but we spent nearly 6 months trawling the local estate agents websites for something that fitted our requirements and budget.
Funnily enough this house (the one we're currently living in) hadnt even been on the market for a day when I booked a viewing (hubby got bored of looking at houses that never "fitted" what we wanted so I did allot of the viewings alone) they hadnt even had time to put a for sale sign up. I was so excited about it I made an offer there and then! We haggled for a bit with the previous owners, and ended up having a firm offer accepted that evening (and hubby still hadnt even seen it )
He does love the house though, and it has felt like home ever since we moved in. Its almost like we've always lived here.

saver6

I remember being totally stumped at all the houses I was seeing. Some were instant no-no's, and after looking at about 20 houses, we narrowed them to 3 choices. One had the kitchen and living room we always wanted, but the upstairs needed real renovation. Another was fairly overbudget but was very well kitted out and had a show-piece garden and patio area, but we would have been struggling to pay. The third was the perfect size, ok area of town and had dropped the price for a quick sale, but was in a road of elderly people.

We were indecisive for about 2 weeks when the agent rang us to say they had 2 more properties for us to see. The 1st was rubbish and we were tempted to not bother with the 2nd, but as it was nearby we thought we may as well, and lucky we did because the instant we left the place we knew it really was the one. Best area of town, just the right size and with a great price attached for a quick sale. And have been very happy there.

The only dampener was the real reason they wanted a quick sale. They'd told us they were relocating because of a new job. But after we kept getting odd letters thru the post for them from debt collectors, and even the bailiffs threatening to knock our door down if we didn't answer, we sussed it and had to sort them all out. I'm just glad to say that all the debt agencies seemed to be really nice and were fine with it when we said we weren't the previous owners. And even luckier it doesn't seem to have affected OUR credit rating!