How many houses did you view?

[Deleted User]

My OH and I have just started the search for our first house. We put an offer in on the first one we viewed as we loved it. It needed quite a bit of work but was liveable and had stunning views over open countryside from the back garden. However our offer was rejected, which we were surprised at as it wasn't too much below what he wanted. We didn’t feel the house was worth any more, taking all the work needed into consideration so left it. The vendor was a businessman who rented the house out previously and the EA said himself that he thought the guy was playing a game.

Since then we have viewed one other house which we didn’t like and have two more viewings for this weekend. One I know my OH will HATE as it’s a fairly new build and another which actually looks like it has potential.

Out of interest, how many houses did you view before you found one you wanted to buy? Did you compromise on anything or did you not stop until you found the ‘perfect’ house?

Madbags

We viewed about 6 houses before we made a choice.


We viewed them all in the same day.


We viewed the one we fell in love with again 2 days later, then made an offer. Now we live in it.

swindiff

We also viewed about 6, thankfully one stood out above all the others.

Ithaca

I viewed 6 houses. Three of them I knew were "wrong" but I wanted to see exactly what I'd get for the money and location. Two houses looked OK on rightmove but just didn't feel right. The house we eventually bought was number six, ticked all the right boxes and didn't have any of the drawbacks the rejected houses had.

I wouldn't say it's the "perfect" house but it is a very good compromise given (a) our budget, (b) where we wanted to live (i.e. we could have had a bigger garden if we'd moved out of town, or a larger driveway on one of the main roads, but walking distance to school and a quiet road were more preferable).

FrustrationFull

We viewed about six. The one we're in the process of buying wasnt actually one we had seen online. I rang up the estate agents to book a viewing of another house, but the seller would only allow viewing on weeknights between 6-7 (surprisngly still on the market!) and i work late shifts so couldnt do it. But the estate agent recommended looking at 3 they had on market and as we were FTB's couldnt see the harm in looking even if it showed us what we didnt want.

Long story short...we went and saw our (soon to be) new house first and loved it. The second one was a lovely house, bigger, more room for expansion but we just didnt feel like it was the right one for us. Third one was an absolute wreck that we didnt think was safe to be standing let alone lived in. The estate agent described it as 'habitable'.

Second viewing a week later and made an offer that day.

I wouldnt say we compromised, we just loved the feel of it when we walked in and felt like we could make it our own. I know it sounds cliched but i think you just know when you walk in somewhere whether its right for you or not.

[Deleted User]

Hmmm, 6 seems to be a popular number!

chelseablue

I cant remember exactly but I'd say about 8.


The one we are buying was the only one I walked into and had a nice feeling about. Not sure if that's the right way of buying a house haha.


The purchase is going through at the moment so I hope I still like it when we're living in it!

seven-day-weekend

We looked through windows of about four (only ones which we knew were empty!) and physically viewed three others in our chosen locations.

The compromise was loss of a third bedroom, but we didn't mind that to get a bungalow. We were supposed to be downsizing anyway and didn't ever believe we would get a bungalow with a large garden within our price range.

It needed a lot of work, but again we didn't mind that as we could do it to our taste instead of having to live with someone else's.

Never regretted it for one instant.

csgohan4

6, first 3 were testing the waters and it confirmed what we knew. EA photos seem bigger than in real if and ended up increasing our budget range a bit higher and found something nice for us.

ibizafan_2

My present house, which I've occupied since 2000, was the only one I looked at. It was in a good location, in a cul de sac, faced the right way, and felt 'right' as soon as I walked in. The compromise was a small third bedroom, which wasn't a deal breaker. I've never regretted my choice and when my OH moved in a couple of years ago, we decided to stay here, although we had considered buying something else between us. We just couldn't justify the cost of moving when we had something pretty ideal.

suki1964

First house I viewed about 30

This house I saw just the four