to those buying in these difficult times! AKA buyers support network

Lady1981

Hi Marlasinger

I'm experiencing the same blah sort of feelings when looking at houses.

We have now seen 16 and I haven't got excited about the majority of them.

We are spending a lot of money (to us) and I want to absolutely love the house we buy. But I'm starting to wonder the same, should we just buy a house which suits our needs instead of finding one we love? We have a flat we love which I think doesn't help because the house we buy has a lot to live up to.

Having said that, I looked at a house today which was perfect internally, such a great layout, well proportioned etc! But it is very close to gasometers and you can see them from the garden and some rooms (although there are very well positioned blinds to overcome this and the house is still nice and bright). I don't know the area v well but I don't think it's as nice as other areas where we are looking.

Does anyone have any thoughts on this? Could the gasometers be unsafe potentially? Would it stop you from buying a house? Any thoughts would be appreciated. It's so difficult deciding where to compromise!

Lady xx

Sphynx

Hi Marlaslinger. To be honest I haven't been excited about house hunting at all. I knew it was going to be difficult to find something we liked with our budget but I want something with enough space to last us the next 15 years or so. We have offered 10% under on a house which was over our budget but the only thing we have seen in the area we want which is half decent. We are now considering a cheap house with room for an extension. The thought of that doesn't fill me with joy either. My husband doesn't help as he never sees the negatives in any house and I am always the one to have to point them out which makes me feel like a right misery guts!! Not much help but I can empathise.

Lady1981 I have no idea about gasometers, but the house sounds nice. Is it priced to reflect the gasometers?

bella1985

Hey! Can I join this one?

I've had an offer accepted (offer £164, asking price £167.5K), survey has been done and mortgage application has finally been accepted. I'm a FTB so am a little (i mean a lot!) panicky about the whole thing...

The survey highlighted issues with damp and said we should get the timber inspected. I've had a contractor go round on Friday to look at the damp (and give me a quote since I very much doubt he'll not find a problem given thats his job!). I get the report back next week.

I haven't had the timbers checked out (me and my dad had a look at the floorboards and they looked ok) so I'm still worried I should be paying someone to look at them.

Hoepfully we'll be able to renegotiate the full cost of the damp with the vendors (but they might insist their mate the builder fixes any problems!). I'm still worried we're paying over the odds (the house is lovely - but we're paying 98% of the asking price in this market!!).

My boyfriend is the armed forces so will only get back in the country on the day we need to exchange (21 May) to be able to move on the day everyone wants to complete (28 May), my lease expires on 2 June and I'm trying to revise for an exam next week!! The joys!!

:eek:

bella1985

Oh, what documents need signing in the run up to exchange?

Do I need to sign the mortgage offer?

That could pose a problem!!

marlasinger

Hi,

Glad to hear what I'm feeling is not that unusual. We viewed another house today, a repossession at just over our price range; it ticked pretty much all the boxes, but had loads of interested viewers (it was an open house), so I don't think we would have a chance with it.

We've decided to rethink our 'must haves'. Initally, I wouldn't look at anything without off-street parking and a garden, but unfortunately those within our price range (and we've now viewed all 3 of them ) that have the parking and a garage have other pretty major disadvantages. :mad:

So, we've decided to forget about whether it has off-street parking, and have seen a nice little bungalow on the market for £10K less than our maximum. It has ample on-street parking, and is in a pretty nice area, and on paper looks to be very good value for money. I'm going to try to book a viewing for Monday....fingers crossed that it is ok, as I think I will lose my mind if I have to view many more disappointing houses. Oh, and it is opposite a huge cemetary (the front rooms overlook it!), which I find quite unusual and interesting.

marlasinger

marlasinger

Lady1981 wrote: »

Does anyone have any thoughts on this? Could the gasometers be unsafe potentially? Would it stop you from buying a house? Any thoughts would be appreciated. It's so difficult deciding where to compromise!

If it's a safety issue, then it would stop me, but for purely 'cosmetic' reasons, it probably wouldn't, as long as I felt positive about the rest of the house. But I guess you have to think about resale value. It's so tricky! I think unless you have shed-loads of money, there will always have to be a compromise.

I went from being ecstatically happy on Thursday, when we got our AIP, to being utterly down in the dumps when we have seen the calibre of property that we can afford. Now that I've got it in my head that I will compromise on certain things (like the parking space), I'm feeling a bit more positive. I just keep telling myself that we should be grateful we can afford a house.

Sphynx wrote: »

We are now considering a cheap house with room for an extension. The thought of that doesn't fill me with joy either. My husband doesn't help as he never sees the negatives in any house and I am always the one to have to point them out which makes me feel like a right misery guts!! Not much help but I can empathise.

Empathy is good! Yeah, I keep telling myself that whatever house we find, we can change it to something that is ideal for us, but I just have a hard time seeing the real potential in the houses we have viewed. I just can't see myself living in any of them. They all seem to have far more negatives than positives, and I don't think of myself as a particularly picky person, or someone with unreal expectations.

I'm sure we'll all get there in the end. :A

marlasinger

Synonymous

RacyRed wrote: »

Sorry, I know that I cannot properly explain the whole situation here but am so fed up and just really need a rant. I'm so wound up I'm sure my own judgement is unreliable now.

If you made it all the way through this, thanks for reading this horrible ramble.

Aw poor you, have a good rant - that's what we're here for! Hang in there and you never know it might turn out alright - even if you have a look at some other properties. Don't know about you but I'm quite an independent person and like to sort things out for myself so all this back and forth between the solicitors with me on the sidelines is driving me barmy!

My solicitor only works part time too so I don't know when I'll get any answers, they've written to ask if the vendor will pay for the gas and electricity checks after I told her my concerns about all the money I'm spending that might go down the drain.

Tomorrow I'm going to be up and down the high street in and out of the banks - need to move all my deposit about in readiness, but being a moneysaver its all over the place in different accounts - my money trail for the laundering checks is going to be a mile long!!

To you guys who aren't finding much you like - do you have to move now? What's stopping you building your deposit a bit longer until something better comes up and you have a bigger budget? I can't say I fell in love with this house, but I don't plan on living in it forever and may even try to keep it when I next move and rent it out. My big compromise has been a garden - I did want my own but this house has a shared back yard and is all block paved, but I'll pretty up my area with some tubs and hanging baskets

sundin13

Hi all, do you mind if I join you from the sellers board. We've sold our house (well, haven't seen survey results yet, so maybe not), and I'm now a completely obsessive rightmove addict.

It was really good to read some of the other posts about how demoralising/uninspiring house hunting is. I didn't think it was supposed to be like this! We only put our house up for sale as we saw one that we wanted to buy - of course it sold a week before ours. C'est la vie and all, but now I'm really struggling to find anywhere else in our price range that I'm the least bit interested in.

Just like sphynx, we're looking at cheaper houses that are extendable, and like lady1981 and marlasinger, I'm feeling totally blah. ]

Hope that now the election's over lots of people will get moving. Either that, or I may have to go out leafletting!

S13

RacyRed

Synonymous wrote: »

Aw poor you, have a good rant - that's what we're here for! Hang in there and you never know it might turn out alright - even if you have a look at some other properties. Don't know about you but I'm quite an independent person and like to sort things out for myself so all this back and forth between the solicitors with me on the sidelines is driving me barmy!

That is exactly how I feel

My solicitor only works part time too so I don't know when I'll get any answers, they've written to ask if the vendor will pay for the gas and electricity checks after I told her my concerns about all the money I'm spending that might go down the drain.

Tomorrow I'm going to be up and down the high street in and out of the banks - need to move all my deposit about in readiness, but being a moneysaver its all over the place in different accounts - my money trail for the laundering checks is going to be a mile long!!

To you guys who aren't finding much you like - do you have to move now? What's stopping you building your deposit a bit longer until something better comes up and you have a bigger budget? I can't say I fell in love with this house, but I don't plan on living in it forever and may even try to keep it when I next move and rent it out. My big compromise has been a garden - I did want my own but this house has a shared back yard and is all block paved, but I'll pretty up my area with some tubs and hanging baskets

It's the not knowing what is happening that gets to me the most.

In my (short, as far as I am aware but who knows?) chain I'm the cash buyer at the bottom, the one coming up with the first injection of cash needed to make the whole thing happen. And the last to find out exactly what is happening.

RacyRed

sundin13 wrote: »

Hi all, do you mind if I join you from the sellers board. We've sold our house (well, haven't seen survey results yet, so maybe not), and I'm now a completely obsessive rightmove addict.

It was really good to read some of the other posts about how demoralising/uninspiring house hunting is. I didn't think it was supposed to be like this! We only put our house up for sale as we saw one that we wanted to buy - of course it sold a week before ours. C'est la vie and all, but now I'm really struggling to find anywhere else in our price range that I'm the least bit interested in.

Just like sphynx, we're looking at cheaper houses that are extendable, and like lady1981 and marlasinger, I'm feeling totally blah. ]

Hope that now the election's over lots of people will get moving. Either that, or I may have to go out leafletting!

S13

I'm sorry you missed the house you wanted, have you expressed interest with the EA in case the current purchase falls through?

Be prepared for lots of time spent nodding your head considerately in houses you knew were unsuitable the moment you walked in, (if the sellers are doing the viewings).

Good luck house hunting