How many did you view before buying

neet87

Another just one. We narrowed down the ones we wanted to see online and knew when visiting the first and favourite that it was the house for us.

catshark88

We recently bought a holiday home by the sea and visited 6 houses.

We did a lot of area research first though and went through rightmove pictures and floor plans endlessly, so we knew pretty clearly what we were looking for once we got to viewings.

I found that being very open minded at the rightmove stage, was very helpful as it made us really analyse our wish list.

teddysmum

Just one.


It was a pre-war semi and still had some furniture, including the 'breathing tubes' used by the deceased occupant; enough to give me the shivers and decide to have a new build, with no history.

Chanes

About 9 or 10. We pulled out of one purchase at the cost of the survey and legals because it was just too much work *and* the EA lied - a lot. The irony is we are doing nearly as much work on the house we did buy!

Anatidaephobia

Not many, approx 12-13. We made three offers on the first house (all rejected; they changed their mind about selling) and tried to buy another house later as well but that didn't work out either. The house we actually bought was second to last to view, only reason we saw another was we had three viewings lined up that day and the house we bought was the middle one.

Also looked at every house that went up for sale in the area for about a year, drove past a lot of houses too and then ruled them out and didn't bother to view if they were too near busy roads, schools; bad parking, etc.

skippie

Think it depends where you are looking to buy and the speed/movement of the local market.

When my wife began looking a couple of years ago for her flat, it took her well over six months. In that time she made contact with all of the estate agents in the area (about 12 in one specific area of east London), would phone on a Monday/Tuesday and again on a Thursday afternoon.

She would go to viewings on Saturdays and some week day evenings and must have seen upwards of 70+ properties.

She had one property fall through because she could not agree a revised price following the survey. A second fell through because the loft conversion was illegal and the property was considered to be £40K overpriced and the owner would not budge. Finally got luck with a vender who had gotten a little greedy with the previous buyer and jacked up the price only for them to pull out leaving her with no buyer and no interest before they eventually accepted a lower offer than the one they had previously accepted from my wife.


I must have seen 40 or so and again had one fall through. The place I bought was purely by chance and because of the relationship that I had built up with the estate agent- they got me in and I secured the property.

As much as you may hate them, building a positive relationship with the estate agents and communicating what you want and what your budget is will stand you in good stead. Likewise be reliable, a noshow is a sure fire way to ensure that they won't contact you first when they get a new property in!

chelseablue

We're buying in the South East, very expensive!


Its looking like we may have to increase the mortgage amount and term to get something we would be happy living in long term

Hoploz

chelseablue wrote: »

We're buying in the South East, very expensive!


Its looking like we may have to increase the mortgage amount and term to get something we would be happy living in long term

I think this is the best strategy. Stretch to buy something you can stay in for the longest time. Because in expensive areas you lose out big time on EA fees and stamp duty every time you move. So the fewer steps you take the better off you'll be.

Also buying as high up the market as you can afford means you get the better house which in 2 years time you might not be able to afford as % rises in prices are usually more than your income goes up.

deviruchi

We viewed 5 properties in as many days - we did have another 4 viewings booked but these were cancelled due to the vendors accepting offers on the properties. We had done a lot of thinking/research on particular areas so knew what we wanted in terms of location. We weren't picky in terms of semi/detached/terraced/bungalow (had viewings for all actually) and as long as it was in one of our desired areas, ticked the essentials and the pics looked decent we booked a viewing. The house we ended up going for had maybe the least engaging pictures of the ones we saw, but they didn't do it justice. I think it's good to see a variety as it helped us refine what we did want.

It was my first time viewing properties to buy and was initially disappointed I didn't get the 'this is the house for us' feeling on the first property viewed as it was our favourite from the pics, but it did happen with the 3rd property we saw. We booked a 2nd viewing for the fifth day that we were looking at houses - offer accepted on the sixth day.

amy26

We bought the second house we viewed which sounds mad but it is perfect for us and we love it

We did look at hundreds online however! In the area we live, properties were selling within a day or two so we had to move very quickly.