How many houses did you view?

RLG

I have viewed 4 and am going for a 2nd viewing on saturday for the most recent one.

How many repeat viewings do you think is about right?! I am going for this second one as it will be during the day, the first time I went was in the evening. It was raining and dark and you could hardly see the garden for starters. Plus things look different in the day dont they?!

skinnyman9000

At the minute we're fairly open minded.

On the one hand we'd like a small, low maintence 2 bed new build, on the other we'd like a 1950's 3bed semi with a garage (obviously in different areas for both to be in our budget), so I think we really need to get out there and see what's what.

My old housemate has a new build, but it doesnt feel empty and hollow like most new builds I've been in, it feels very homely, although he hasnt scrimp when decorating and buying furniture, so that probably helps.

We're hopefully viewing 2 next weekend. One is a 2 bed new build, but has been on the market since May 2011 without a single price drop. The other is a 2 bed semi, but with potential to extend in the future. That's been on the market since June 2011 and has had a 10% price drop in that time.

Will be interesting to have a look around and try to figure out why they haven't sold yet to be honest.

Bluemeanie_2

RLG wrote: »

I have viewed 4 and am going for a 2nd viewing on saturday for the most recent one.

How many repeat viewings do you think is about right?! I am going for this second one as it will be during the day, the first time I went was in the evening. It was raining and dark and you could hardly see the garden for starters. Plus things look different in the day dont they?!

I think the standard is 2? However, I wouldn't mind a third viewing to be honest. If the vendor thinks I'm a pain then fine, I won't buy their house! It's not like you spend that kind of money every day so you have to be sure.

oldMcDonald

We were looking at houses a four hour drive away so we were very fussy about the houses we chose to look at. We spent a long time talking over what we were both looking for in a house and drew up a list of things that the house must have and things that we would be prepared to compromise on.

We spent over three years looking on Rightmove and being sent any old crap the EA had on their books. Once we found something that looked interesting we would look at the house via Google maps and then have a long discussion over the phone with the EA about the house and we easily crossed another 30-odd houses off of our list this way.

We ended up viewing nine houses, two twice including the one we bought. We made sure that we asked for the vendors contact details so if we had any questions when we were discussing it later we would be able to double check with them rather than piddle about through the EA. All the vendors were happy to give us their numbers.

As others have said, take your time and make sure that you know what you want. We found it very helpful to have our list of what the house must have as it made us stop and think when we started to 'fall in love' with a property that really would not have been what we wanted once the honeymoon had worn off!

Bluemeanie_2

oldMcDonald wrote: »

We were looking at houses a four hour drive away so we were very fussy about the houses we chose to look at. We spent a long time talking over what we were both looking for in a house and drew up a list of things that the house must have and things that we would be prepared to compromise on.

We spent over three years looking on Rightmove and being sent any old crap the EA had on their books. Once we found something that looked interesting we would look at the house via Google maps and then have a long discussion over the phone with the EA about the house and we easily crossed another 30-odd houses off of our list this way.

We ended up viewing nine houses, two twice including the one we bought. We made sure that we asked for the vendors contact details so if we had any questions when we were discussing it later we would be able to double check with them rather than piddle about through the EA. All the vendors were happy to give us their numbers.

As others have said, take your time and make sure that you know what you want. We found it very helpful to have our list of what the house must have as it made us stop and think when we started to 'fall in love' with a property that really would not have been what we wanted once the honeymoon had worn off!

That is exactly the route I intend to take when choosing my next house. I know that if I fall in love with a house that does not meet my list, I will convince myself it will be ok. Then, as you say, once the honeymoon period has worn off it will bother me and I will have to live with it!

billybear1

We are up to 14ish, we are very open to area and guided heavily by price......

Seen two we like and offered on one. Knocked back.

elsien

Four.
Mainly because there was so little in my price range that by the time I'd ruled out the really dodgy areas that really didn't leave very many to go on. So the plan was to look at everything I could afford that fitted the minimum criteria, as up till that point I had no idea of what I could realistically expect for my money.
Having said that, I broke every rule in the book and went straight from viewing number 4 to the estate agent to make an offer, didn't even do the second viewing. Never regretted it.

stormCat99

I lost count at around 50 houses, I'd say we viewed at least 60 if not maybe 70 before finding the right one - we are quite picky

I'd say that, initially, it's worth viewing a range of properties, including ones which you think are outside your preferred criteria i.e. different locations, different layouts, etc. I don't mean view something you think you'll hate, but you must have your 'ideal' criteria, and then things which fall just slightly outside the perimeter of that, and it's the latter I am suggesting to at least view a few of.

This will really help you to work out what is important to you, and formulate/confirm what your real criteria are.

Once you've got to that point, I don't see any point in viewing anything other than things that do meet all of your requirements. Once you've viewed a certain number of properties, you'll be in a much better position to make a confident decision. We are both very cautious, and even so, we made an offer on our eventual property after just a single viewing because we were so certain by that point of what we wanted.

duckandcover

Two *embarrassed face*! I saw them both on the same evening, and was already in love with the first before I even viewed it. The viewing of the second place took all of 10 mins!

To be fair though, this is my first place and I haven't got family/schooling/gardening requirements to consider so it was much easier!

poppy_f1

viewed 3

i was quite picky about location but was staying in the same town so had a lot of background knowledge - was picky about parking (did actually drive past a few houses to get a feel for the parking situation and immeidaitely excluded them)

the first house i viewed i put an offer in on, was accepted but the seller didnt want to complete for approx 5 months which i wasnt budging on
second house was a repo and from the pics looked okish....how wrong was i, it was a hole would have cost 20k+ to sort out so that was ruled out
third house ticked all the boxes for me, was in walk in condition so wouldnt have needed to do anything to it - I had actually slightly ruled this one out as the photo on the estate agent website didnt make it look like there was a driveway - so did a drive past and saw there was and called and made an app to see it