Feeling deflated with house buying:(

jacko74

Ironically I expected the selling of my last house to be the stressful part of the process, but that sold for full asking price after only 3 months on the market (which is quick by local standards)

I was then looking forward to being a cash buyer... being in a strong position to pick and choose from the selection of properties available, but I've been looking for 10 months now and if anything the selection is becoming more and more limited.

Considering Easter is generally regarded as the peak time for the property market I'd say there are fewer coming up now than there were in Dec, Jan, Feb... just where are all the sellers??

ognum

jacko74 wrote: »

Ironically I expected the selling of my last house to be the stressful part of the process, but that sold for full asking price after only 3 months on the market (which is quick by local standards)

I was then looking forward to being a cash buyer... being in a strong position to pick and choose from the selection of properties available, but I've been looking for 10 months now and if anything the selection is becoming more and more limited.

Considering Easter is generally regarded as the peak time for the property market I'd say there are fewer coming up now than there were in Dec, Jan, Feb... just where are all the sellers??

Do you think one of the issues are the many second, third, forth home owners all stepping into BTL. These houses don't come back on the market very frequently.

I have no data for this its just a thought

Simon354

I'm in the South East and found the same. Months of searching and it was a real struggle to find something to offer on. I was told the General Election being round the corner puts people off selling ATM. Overall a general lack of quality houses. It's definitely a sellers market.

jacko74

ognum wrote: »

Do you think one of the issues are the many second, third, forth home owners all stepping into BTL. These houses don't come back on the market very frequently.

I have no data for this its just a thought

Yeah that's possibly one reason, also low interest rates meaning fewer repo's or forced sales, plus being an election year which is supposed to suppress the housing market

goodwithsaving

This was us but we found somewhere courtesy of onthemarket automated notifications.
Sign up to every agent, every website for automated notifications AND check them too (I did this for reassurance). If you do see somewhere - be quick.

It will happen. It's hard to feel positive - but keep at it.

stator

Also getting quite depressed. Had one purchase fall through last year and can't find anything new

p1nky

stator wrote: »

Also getting quite depressed. Had one purchase fall through last year and can't find anything new

We had 2 fall through and 1 non starter and I felt exactly the same as you. We started going to see EVERYTHING. Mainly just to get back in the game as nothing to our taste or in our price range was coming up. We have ended up buying (process of) a house 30,000 dearer and completely different from anything we have liked previously. The time spent waiting for "the one" meant we saved more money and the stamp duty going down meant we were able to stretch ourselves.

Just try to remain positive. It will happen!

rosie383

It is intensely frustrating. I'd echo the others. Get friendly with the estate agents so that they know that you are a good and ready buyer. Where we are there are many buy to let investors who are jumping on many of the houses coming on the market before they even appear on line. We are even seeing houses coming back on the market around 5-6 months later for 20% more than before even with nothing done to them. If like the OP you have been watching prices rise while saving for the process it just feels very unfair.
Also I think you need to go and see everything within reason which comes on the market. You may be surprised to love something that you wouldn't have previously looked at. It is also worth asking the EAs about houses that have been sitting on their books for a while. Most people look on RM for properties coming on in 24hrs, so there may be one that you missed a while back that may have an owner happy to take a decent offer.

lindsaygalaxy

Thank you everyone, I now feel a lot less alone. We are in the SE. A friend of mine is an Estate agent and so we have seen a few before other people but sellers seem to be holding out for the highest price rather than those being in the best position to buy. We ideally need a 3 bed but have been looking at 2 beds we could extend but as it stands there are 25 properties within a 10 mile radius in our price range/ 3beds, 21 under offer and 4 in less than desirable locations (which is why they haven't sold). We are on all the agents mailing lists but I think tomorrow I will give them all a call just to try put us back in their minds. Agents don't seem to be in any hurry to to go out their way but they don't really need to as buyers are fighting over properties!

Doozergirl

lindsaygalaxy wrote: »

Thank you everyone, I now feel a lot less alone. We are in the SE. A friend of mine is an Estate agent and so we have seen a few before other people but sellers seem to be holding out for the highest price rather than those being in the best position to buy. We ideally need a 3 bed but have been looking at 2 beds we could extend but as it stands there are 25 properties within a 10 mile radius in our price range/ 3beds, 21 under offer and 4 in less than desirable locations (which is why they haven't sold). We are on all the agents mailing lists but I think tomorrow I will give them all a call just to try put us back in their minds. Agents don't seem to be in any hurry to to go out their way but they don't really need to as buyers are fighting over properties!

It does sound like you're looking at the very bottom of the price range for the type of house you want. That's where the fiercest competition will be for the few that do pop up and people will pay much closer to asking price if they see it provides better value than most others.

Patience, hoping that the market doesn't run further away, or a straight compromise are the keys.