Feeling deflated with house buying:(

rosie383

The market is moving so fast in some places that you may have to make some compromises in case you do get left behind. We ended up having to pay asking price on the property we wanted even though there were no other interested parties and it had been in the market for a few months. It seemed overpriced by at least £20k due to the work it needed but if we were to try to buy the same thing now, just 4-5 months on, we literally couldn't afford it and it is looking like a bargain! If the sale falls through we are stuffed!

thequant

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!

I'm in London and would like to live in South Kensington But have to accept I can't.


The house buying process will be so much easier if you made your expectations more realistic to accommodate your budget.

makeyourdaddyproud

jacko74 wrote: »

I'm also looking to buy and I'm also utterly dismayed and despondent at the complete lack of choice on the market at the moment.

I've got 3 search areas in 3 different parts of the country but there's just nothing at all other than overpriced dregs.

I've been casually keeping an eye on these search areas for a couple of years on Rightmove and have seen literally dozens of properties come and go that would have been ideal... but now I'm actually in a position to buy the market seems to have just completely died.

Is there any reason why there seems to be such a lack of properties coming on to the market at the moment?

Good homes are usually off the radar of RM : many agents already have buyers lined up with ready cash and that means theres little point in putting onto RM.

Try registering with agencies in your area with your requirements and not just rely on RM, which in my opinion, is the last vestige for not so VFM properties.

ognum

makeyourdaddyproud wrote: »

Good homes are usually off the radar of RM : many agents already have buyers lined up with ready cash and that means theres little point in putting onto RM.

Try registering with agencies in your area with your requirements and not just rely on RM, which in my opinion, is the last vestige for not so VFM properties.

Make sure when you search RM you have the sale agreed box ticked in the last 24 hrs/3days/7days search. that will give you an idea of the agents who sell before they list on RM.

You need to target them with a personal meeting with one of the prominent agents in your price bracket. In my experience EAs have agents who work in different price brackets, usually the more junior ones do the cheap houses. Try to get to know them.. I have bought a couple of times from and agent who wants to up his figures and needs a quick sale decision today.

cns06

We are in a similar situation. We have been looking for a couple of years, very seriously for 12 months. In that time the market has moved away from us meaning there is less and less choice. I keep telling myself at least we are on the ladder but I just wish when we bought this house 10 years ago we had just pushed ourselves and got something a bit bigger. What a mistake this is turning out to be.


We were looking for 4/5 bed det with good garden in a nice area - £300-£350k. That now £500k. That's our max budget already. Our income is not going to go up much more so if we don't move in the next 12-18 months I can see is having to settle for a semi which is what we are in now so its almost pointless moving. The issue is our house is in a cheap (read rough!) area - so its not going up very quickly. Its probably still worth roughly what we paid for it 10 years ago.


Yet 5 miles up the road houses have gone up 30%.


Sigh.

ognum

cns06 wrote: »

We are in a similar situation. We have been looking for a couple of years, very seriously for 12 months. In that time the market has moved away from us meaning there is less and less choice. I keep telling myself at least we are on the ladder but I just wish when we bought this house 10 years ago we had just pushed ourselves and got something a bit bigger. What a mistake this is turning out to be.


We were looking for 4/5 bed det with good garden in a nice area - £300-£350k. That now £500k. That's our max budget already. Our income is not going to go up much more so if we don't move in the next 12-18 months I can see is having to settle for a semi which is what we are in now so its almost pointless moving. The issue is our house is in a cheap (read rough!) area - so its not going up very quickly. Its probably still worth roughly what we paid for it 10 years ago.


Yet 5 miles up the road houses have gone up 30%.


Sigh.

I read you pain but it also makes me wonder, you say you have been looking seriously for a year but have you actually put your house on the market and got a buyer?

If you haven't then you are not looking seriously because no one will take an offer from you seriously until you house is under offer. If you have a buyer have you kept them waiting for a year while your look?

Unless you have a pile of cash if you are seriously looking then really do it otherwise you are just playing with an idea.

makeyourdaddyproud

cns06 wrote: »

We are in a similar situation. We have been looking for a couple of years, very seriously for 12 months. In that time the market has moved away from us meaning there is less and less choice. I keep telling myself at least we are on the ladder but I just wish when we bought this house 10 years ago we had just pushed ourselves and got something a bit bigger. What a mistake this is turning out to be.


We were looking for 4/5 bed det with good garden in a nice area - £300-£350k. That now £500k. That's our max budget already. Our income is not going to go up much more so if we don't move in the next 12-18 months I can see is having to settle for a semi which is what we are in now so its almost pointless moving. The issue is our house is in a cheap (read rough!) area - so its not going up very quickly. Its probably still worth roughly what we paid for it 10 years ago.

Yet 5 miles up the road houses have gone up 30%.

Sigh.

£500k - yikes!

Some houses definately sell on both ends of that margin simply if they are near good schools or have better amenities. That margin call can equally apply to properties on more rustic streets and on the outskirts of urban metropolitan areas. Heck, recent news shows that simply having a Waitrose near you increases value by 15%.

Owning, selling and buying property either for profit or residence is a gamble of epic proportions as a simple mistake usually costs tens of thousands of pounds.