I hate looking for houses - a rant

Engelbert

Any-one have any words of comfort for a FTB? There are about 4 houses under 200K in our area viewed one this week which needs work, on for 185k tentatively asked about offers at stamp duty rate - no chance apparently. Houses are apparently selling at asking price (we have viewed, been told they will only accept asking and it has later sold). I thought houses were falling in price?

Looking at the houses I think they are overpriced but I must be wrong as they are selling. So should we stretch ourselves in the full knowledge that we are going to start a family an our income will go down or keep on this depressing house search?

mahoney

I'm a FTB too, so whilst my advice may not be the best, I can certainly sympathise. I wrote a similar post a few weeks ago, just hacked off with the whole house hunt.

Are you sure the houses are selling? Sold signs go up very easily (at least where I am - Surrey). But the sale doesn't always complete, usually due to issues with securing funds. Have a look at the sites which show real sold prices maybe.

Stick with it and be strong!

struggling-breadwinner

deep breathes! Where we libve house prices are lower tthan 2007 but not going any lower now. A lot of sellers are placing a lot of hope int eh reports (misguided or otherwise and i am sure others on here will have views on that) that prices are on the rise again.
Can you draw any comparisons between the 4 whoch would indicate if they were offering more than any one of the others in terms of value? if for example you likes the location of one more than another but the other seemed better value for moeny use this as a tool with the EA.
We tried tog et a seller to drop a price and they said no. Some people just are beyond negotiating. the house will still be for sale next year or someone will do themselves over by paying more than its worth.

On the stretching yourself point all I will say is thatmy father always told us to push ourselves as far as we could with a mortgage. This worked very well for us for 6 years of married life then we had kids. Children are an expensive commodity (although an enjoyable one) and I had to cut my maternity leave short because of our outgoings. we might not be a great example but be very careful doing your maths cause you can't get their childhood back and it flys by every quickly it would be a shame to be stuck in work cause you stretched yourselves for a house. Tis only bricks and mortar
house searches can be depressing but there is a house out there for you!

Engelbert

Thank-you. It helps (a bit) to know others are in the same position. I think the houses are selling they don't seem to be coming back on. None of the houses are ideal but we would be prepard to compromise if sellers would negotiate.

They are only 2 bed houses as well and we are earning well over average wage, good deposit. I don't really want to stretch too much but even a bog standard ex council is v expensive...

PasturesNew

My experience - and seeing friends/family buy houses over the years - is that it can take a year before you find one you can afford and like.

I think prices will go down more. They won't be rushing up, so there's no rush.

struggling-breadwinner

I agree with PasturesNew. A house down the road from us had an offer on it and the EA put "sold" ont he house within minutes! the vendor went mental cause the offer hadn't been verified or anything! EA's trying to make their figures look better to get more houes on their books in these hard times.

I still maintain though - kids are an expensive commodity

EagerLearner

I know what you mean Engelbert - MrEL and I are in the same situation - we have the deposit but wherever we look, prices are still high. We feel that as FTB we are supposed to have this 'advantage' over other buyers, but it just doesn't seem to be the case in our area.

I am hopeful that September will show a more balanced horizon, as surely all those sellers holding out through Summer will feel the Autumnal chill of still having not sold...

Framps

You will be fine Engelbert, just don't panic! Prices are likely to stagnate for a period of time and autumn / winter is peak season for negotiating on prices.

I would recommend tracking the sold prices of houses that you have seen - just take note of the details and then watch them come through on the Land Registry data. This will take a couple of months but you may as well, just in case you do not find anywhere in the next few weeks. This makes for interesting reading and gives you a pretty accurate view of the housing market in your area.

Also, don't make tentative offers, make formal ones. Agents told us that vendors "would never accept 250k" for a handful of properties that we were interested in - so we never made the offers. LR data subsequently showed one went for 237k, another three went for 245/250k - only one went for more.

We got lucky in the end and found a place that ticked most of our boxes and at a very sensible price - it took seven months though, so just hang in there!

PS - if you do your research and you think a house is overpriced, then it probably is. Make a sensible offer and see what happens!

Ditto

There's nothing worse than Engelbert getting the hump, I think?