How many houses did you view?

PParka

jee wrote: »

I would visit as many as possible. Some that don't look good on paper or on the website turn out to be lovely inside.

I've got to agree with Jee. We looked at about 6. I rejected one on paper because it looked too small and an odd layout. My dearest wife kept going on about it, so I agreed to have a look.
Got inside and realised it was perfect, but the owner had far too much furniture inside and wasn't utilising the space.

Put in a cheeky offer; it was accepted; bought it; love it.
Hopefully it's our 'forever' house.

Hectors_House

We viewed (as in made an appointment and looked inside) six houses, and went to look at about three more.

We already had an idea what we wanted (Victorian terrace or semi) so didn't bother looking at new builds.

We only booked appointments to see the houses we REALLY liked (after taking into account price, access to local services and public transport) as we didn't want to waste anyone's time.

From the viewings:

- two of the houses were too small
- one we actually had an offer accepted but we pulled out when survey pointed out nearly £30k needed spending on the roof and they refused to negotiate on price
- the others were in a bad state of repair for what was being asked
- the viewing that cancelled on us when we were stood on the doorstep waiting to go in was the house we finally bought (after it was repossessed shortly after)

I think your parent's advise is good as it will help you to narrow down what you are really looking for.

I wouldn't book a viewing for a place however if I knew it was out of my price range just so I could see inside.

janey183

I viewed 12 before I bought mine.I knew I wanted outside space, nice size kitchen, 2 beds and own entrance.
Some of the ones I looked at had the right space, the right kitchen but not all in the same property.
Was getting a tad upset, then I looked at this one and I knew just KNEW the minute I opened the door.
We have had a loving relationship now for 16 years!!:rotfl:

skinnyman9000

Being an organised sort of person I've created a spreadsheet for house viewing. I've listed our requirements in order of importance, and cross referenced with any houses that we find on the net. I'm hoping this will narrow down the list, as potentially there are hundreds of houses in Derby that meet some of our requirements, this should make it easier to find one that fits them all.

I can't decide what to do about price though. For example, if my top limit was £xxx, is there any benefit in viewing houses that have an asking price 10-15% higher than this? When i see the asking price for a house I often assume the realistic selling price to be 5-10% lower, is this sensible? Or am I just kidding myself that I could afford these houses when I cant?

abankerbutnotafatcat

I've just counted 17 and there could be a couple I've missed. It was over a 2-3 month period. I was actually giving up hope when I found a property that met all the criteria on my checklist.

Like others I had a specific checklist with mainly 'must haves' and a few 'nice to haves'. I'm glad I did because desperation could have led me to make a compromise where I shouldn't have otherwise.

My checklist was something like below. A couple of EAs queried the exact mileage but they understood better when it was stated as a time. As you can see, it could have been a flat or a house. I concentrated on fundamentals i.e. obviously double glazing is nice but I can always add that myself.
Must haves:
2 double bedrooms (both measurements at least 2.5m)
Max 0.7miles/15 mins walk of xxx train station
Off road parking
Reception/living space of at least 25sqm (whether open plan or in total)
Good to haves:
Outside space/garden/patio
Extra room/space to act as a workspace

Oxid8uk

The first house I bought 7 years ago was the only one I viewed.

My second house I bought last year was the 2nd one I viewed (first was a new build that wasn't even built yet..and still isn't). Only really viewed the new build to make it clear to me I didn't want one! I now have a bigger house on a plot three times the size and for £15k less (and not under a flight path!). Ok it isn't brand spanking new and does need some work doing to it but at least there is the scope to add value rather than losing value on a new build.

I knew exactly what I wanted and spent hours (over many years) trawling Rightmove and discounted any that didn't meet my criteria. I didn't see the point in wasting my time looking at properties I knew I had no intention of buying and also wasting sellers time and getting their hopes up that I might be the person that would buy their house - I've been there and it isn't nice, especially when you knew as soon as the potential 'buyers' walked through the door that they were only carpet treading!

Caroline73_2

We had specific criteria so only viewed 5 as that was all that fitted the criteria.

I needed to be within walking distance of my boys school, 4 beds, 2 separate receptions, 2 bathrooms, off road parking, room for a table in the kitchen and detached. It didn't give me much scope!

I viewed this house twice. Once on the day it went on the market and then the next day. We made our offer immediately after. It was ideal and far superior to the others we saw. It had been on market 3 months previously for £15k more.

ohblimey

We have just bought, we offered on five, all in the same village, the one we ended up with was always our fave, we offered on it back in July but withdrew a week later because we did our homework and realised it was overpriced. We then put in four cheeky offers on four others (through desperation) but luckily our fave house came on with another agent last October at a much lower price so we snapped it up.

The mad thing is we would have paid more if only they had been on at a reasonable price the first time.

Check out the land registry for "actual prices paid" so you know the real value for your area. Many sellers still think they are worth 08/09 prices and are sticking it out hoping a mug will come along.

Put in very cheeky offers, we went in £35k lower and it was accepted, however we withdrew and ended up getting it for £75k less in the end

If they tell you they have other interest in their house, put a low offer in just to buy some time.

dorset_nurse

Am I the only person that viewed one?! lol
I got a job 2 hours away and looked online a for bit, used google maps and researched into the area plenty.
Then I booked a viewing and spent about 15 minutes in the house. (I also viewed some rooms to rent in the meantime, in fact I think I looked at 3 houseshares before I decided on one lol)
It took me about 5 days to decide to put in an offer on the house and secured a 14% reduction in price
I haven't regretted a thing.

caitchbee

We've seen 4 so far but to be honest the first one we saw is our dream house and every other viewing has been a desperate attempt to find a backup/alternative in case it doesn't pan out (looooong story) as the whole eggs in one basket thing is making us nervous. We've failed to find anything that comes even close to the first house and I'm not sure we will as we're looking in a very small area that we are very familiar with (lived in the area for 10 years) and there just aren't many houses that tick the boxes.