Frustrated FTB in London

meadow408

I'm getting more and more frustrated with my house search lately and the London house market seems pretty crazy at the moment!
So I've been looking for a 3 bed property since November, I'm not fussy about layout or property features/age and as I'm not particularly tied to any London area I'm spreading my search to 3,4 areas in zone 2,3,4 both South and North. I have set up alerts on the main property websites and visited the main EAs in the areas I'm interested in. I tend to do my research and homeworks on a property before going for viewings (as per MSE teaching) so that I know what to expect in terms of property value, sold prices etc. I'm about to make the largest purchase of my life and I don't want to make a very expensive mistake. But I'm starting to feel like the only FTB who does that! So far I put in 4 offers: 1) first one was on a 3 bed modern terraced house in zone 2 that had been on the market for 6 months, I started 7-8% below asking price and my offer was already considering recently sold prices in the street/area plus a bit more to factor in growth rate in the past few months. The vendor made very clear that they were not interested in anything below asking price, I walked away and after a few more months they decided to take the house off the market, well their loss I say; 2)second property I offered on was a 3 bed Edwardian terraced house in zone 3 that need a bit of updating (new windows, new carpets etc) the asking price was right at the start of the second stamp duty threshold, no second viewings were allowed and the vendor was asking best and final offer after the first (15 minuts slot) viewing. I really liked the house and the area so I factored in the cost of work and offered 15k less. I was turned down as another FTB had offered the full asking price at 9am the morning after the fist viewing. 3) third property was a Victorian terraced house in zone 3, they had an open day with loads of interested parties, the second viewing was another 15 minutes slot the day after and the again best and final offer. I really liked the property and despite being probably 10-15k more expensive than similar ones in the area I offered the full asking price but again I was turned down in favor of a FTB who offered 20k over asking price just to secure the property. 4) fourth property was a cottage in zone 2, one of two very similar cottages for sale in the same road, this one had a nicer newly fitted kitchen and a more manicured garden and was going for 65k more than the other one. I offered 55k less then asking price considering the cost of the new kitchen and again the vendor said that they only wanted asking price and probably to avoid the competition with the other property in the same road decided to take if off the market. I thought about offering on the other one and change the kitchen myself etc but a cash buyer beat me to it.
Last week on Thursday I received the alert for a new property that was ticking all my criteria, although 100k higher than most recently sold houses and I booked a viewing for saturday;but on the friday morning I get a call from the EA saying that the house is now under offer as someone went in the previous night, offered there and then the full asking price and now it's off the market.
I'm really getting frustrated will this whole process! I mean people seem to just drop everything they are doing when they get an alert and rush to offer the full asking price regardless of the house/area value! and most of the time after just the first viewing! It's all well and good to advice to go for 2 or 3 viewings at different time of the day, check the taps in the bathroom, the gutters in the garden, the electricity switches etc but it seems to me that the market it's so fast at the moment that there is not time to do all of that!
I really star to wonder if I'll ever succeed in this house buying race! I've seen 20 properties so far and made 4 offers, I don't think I'm too fussy or indecisive but I really dont' want to make a rushed and very expensive mistake does anyone have any coping tactic to suggest or any advice for a increasingly frustrated FTB?
thanks!

jc808

whats your budget?

can ypu edit your post to make it easier to read?

newbian

Between offer and exchange, don't you have the chance to walk away? That's our situation - although it's a new build so not sure if that makes a difference.

In London I would not wait to do several visits, you will miss out unfortunately. In this city there are a lot of fools with money who will offer asking price and just deal with the costs of repairs later. We have been back out to our property 4 times since offer to check details with the clear view that any nasty surprises would mean no deal.

Also in the area we were looking (south east London) lots of properties are still sitting on the books, and a few were cutting their prices. Where have you been looking?

isisini

I completely feel your pain! It took my partner and I over a year to buy a house in London and it was an extremely painful process. Prices were going up so fast that the areas we looked at in the beginning we were completely priced out of by the end! However we did it eventually and I’m really pleased with how it all ended up. If we’d have got some of the places we put in offers in at the beginning I think we might have had regretted it in the end. My advice would be:

1. You know what kind of house you want, which is really good. Don’t go and see things that don’t meet these criteria. It will sap your energy.
2. If anything, maybe focus even more. Can you narrow down where you want to live to one or two very specific areas? It might be that your current approach is too scattergun. The better you know an area, the streets you’d like to live in in that area, the estate agents in that area, the more confident you will feel when putting in offers and to take calculated risks on the asking price if necessary.
3. Try and get to know a couple of decent EAs in the places you want to buy. They can then get you into a viewing the day before, or alert you before things go on Rightmove. Finding a good estate agent and convincing them that you are a serious buyer is really helpful! Especially because so many FTBs don’t really know what they can afford to borrow or what a house is really worth and EAs are very wary of purchases falling through. Again, this is where being very focussed on a couple of specific areas is useful, you can build better relationships.
4. Keep the faith! It may take a while, but eventually you will find somewhere you really like, you will feel comfortable that you’re getting value for money. The housing market varies so much within London that the best thing you can do is find somewhere you’d really like to live for a long time, make sure it’s worth what you’re paying for it now, and try not to worry too much about what you cannot predict (the future).

Hope that helps a bit!

BitterAndTwisted

It seems to that you need to stop making offers of less than the asking-price. At appears that vendors in London are confident of getting the asking price, and are getting it.

starsky27

I'll be interested to find out where it is in London the OP has been looking.
I have also been on the lookout in South East London/Kent borders and properties similar have generally not been selling at full asking prices.

AlexMac

Very interesting; a sign of recovery? Or just that good places go fast?

To get anecdotal- we were delighted that our place sold; at a great price, in 3 days 18m ago and assumed that was because it was the cheapest flat in a posh street in a desirable area. But late last year the kids' house (a very undistinguished 3 bed ex-council house in a tatty part of zone 3 in SE London) went within a few days; again at a price well over expectation. Then, last week, the brother in law sold a modest 3-bedder in a North Kent village in 2 days, so before it hit the websites.

In his case and our own, the agent had a buyer up their sleeve, so although its difficult as you don't have an are in mind, is it worth persuading a few EAs in key locations of your bona-fides as a prime buyer? You get a lot for your money round here in parts of SE3, SE4, SE7, SE13... all zone 3 commutes with decent transport to the city. The agent John Payne sold our and our kids house via 2 of their SE3 offices

hethmar

The OP does seem a bit haphazard though about pricing? Are you just going for repos or empty houses as the "open days, 15 min slots and final price offers" would suggest?

What is your budget, what do you want in the house/area etc.?

South east London is booming a bit at the mo and it would be prudent as Phil and Kirsty says, to check out the areas next to the posh areas to buy in.

meadow408

thank you to those who posted.
The properties I offered on were not repos, the vendor was still leaving in them: two had no chains as they were relocating to another part of the country and two were in a chain. The 15 minutes slots were just a EA trick I suppose to create a false feeling of pressure on buyers.
My budget is max 500k as I don't want to end up in the next stamp duty bracket.
I'm looking in the South East (East/North Dulwich, Honor Oak Park, Crofton Park, Herne Hill), in the South West (Wimbledon, Merton Park, Haydon's Road) and North West (Pinner, North Harrow).

I've noticed that between November/December and January very similar properties have increased in price by 50-75k and I struggle to understand the reason for such a sudden increase in such a short period of time; irrationally enough, imo, some properties that didn't sell in the second half of last year are now been re-marketed at 10-15% more, which seems to me totally crazy.
I find that very rarely the asking price reflects the actual value of the property, EAs have all the interest to inflate prices and when they see that they can get away with it and ppl still buy it can spiral higher and higher.
It's true that you can always pull out before exchange but by then you have probably forked out for survey/solicitor fees and it'd be a bit a waste of money if you do it just because you didn't have the time to find out some macro issues at the offset.
Anyway thank you for the good advice: it's a learning process and I'm learning who the good and the dodgy EAs are and hopefully I'll manage to get ahead of the queue when the next good house comes on the market!

starsky27

Hi,
Interesting as i was looking at a property in Beckenham which appears to have taken on a new estate agent and is now being marketed at 20k more than it was previously !
I hope my flat in Crystal Palace sells as fast as other properties mentioned when it goes on the market !
As i have been looking in the Beckenham/West Wickham/Hayes areas i haven't really noticed a boom in South East London. I have only been looking at properties up tp £375k though. Properties in Dulwich always sell well and i can i magine this time of year there are more people looking to buy than there are actual properties on the market.This would of course cause offers to be higher.
Excellent advice about getting your details to the EA's etc.

There should be more properties coming onto the market now Spring is coming(ignore the snow ..)

Good luck.

jc808

Nunhead is quite nice too