Finding a New Home Seems Impossible

AfromanJ

I am desperately trying to find a new home for my family.

Here is my situation. I have a family of 3 (including myself, son and partner), we have been looking for a new house for a year in South-East UK around Hampshire. Since then my savings and salary have increased, we can now afford a property to the value of £180K with a 5% deposit. I am a first time buyer and the mortgage is a single application as I have no one else to rely on financially. I am also happy to by somewhere that needs lots of work.

After saving for over 4 years I finally thought I could get a new home although the market seems so volatile now its like ive been left behind.
e.g All properties we have offered on go over asking price by about £15K (over 180K).

We rent 2 bed flat currently (for 3 years now) that is too small for us and with our son just turning 3 we need more space. Id love a 3 bed house but was willing to compromise for a 2 bed but still cannot seem to find a home.

I'm not sure whether I should give up and invest my savings into something else, if so what?
Or if anyone had some advise to give?

I don't really want to rent again because i might as well be throwing money in the bin.

If anyone is interested here are my offers for 2016
3 bed, octavia road 179K
Offered 177K
Sold for (unknown cash buyer)

3 bed, quayside road £169K
Offered 175K
Sold for 186K

2 bed, poplar road 175K
Offered 177K
Sold for (unknown)

AnotherJoe

Move out further to somewhere 10% cheaper.
Save up more. 5% saved isnt much if you've been saving for 3 years.
Buy a "do-er upper" and live in squalor for a while.
Have you got family that will give you a long term loan of say 10% repayable only when you sell up?
Are you using Help To Buy scheme?

Foxriver8

Don't really know what practical advice I can give as I don't know the area you are looking etc but I would say don't give up.

Is there something you can compromise on? Or get something that needs a bit of work that you can do yourself? Something small with scope to extend in a few years once you have the money?

Hope you find something

AfromanJ

AnotherJoe wrote: »

Move out further to somewhere 10% cheaper.
Save up more. 5% saved isnt much if you've been saving for 3 years.
Buy a "do-er upper" and live in squalor for a while.
Have you got family that will give you a long term loan of say 10% repayable only when you sell up?
Are you using Help To Buy scheme?

Unfortunately the further out of Southampton I go the more expensive it is to live, this doesn't include the commute costs i would suffer.

It took me 4 years to save £15K but saving should be a bit fast now I have a new job.

I'm willing to by a property that needs work, these also attract interest of cash buyers though. We've been out bid by them a few times.

I have no one else to rely on financially and have tried all routes. The Help to Buy scheme seems good but new builds around my area still require a minimum of a 200K mortgage.

AdrianC

I can't help thinking you must be being FAR too fussy, unless there's some local wrinkle that I'm not understanding...

A quick look at Rightmove shows over a thousand <£180k 2-bed or more properties within 15 miles of Southampton. Nearly 250 of them are 3-bed. Take the budget down to £170k, and there's still nearly 200 3-bed places listed.

Yes, some of those are on the Isle of Wight, but ignore those, and there's still plenty of choice.

Tygermoth

Hi Afroman,

I am in the same boat. Have you tried mortgage guarantee HTB? then the house doesn't need to be a new build.

I am looking in hants (london side) and most everything under 200K is in the wrong area or to far out for commuting, doesn't have parking or needs serious work doing - (which as we will be commuting will take time we don't have!)

To get a 2 bed that's under £230K we are looking as far out as a extra hour commute time.

To make it worse we are saving a grand a month and houses are going up by a grand and a half so we are losing pace. The market is so hot that as soon as its on a website and you call its already has a offer in.

I was hoping it was going to calm after the BTL but i not noticed any slowdown.

AdrianC

Tygermoth wrote: »

The market is so hot that as soon as its on a website and you call its already has a offer in.

So why is the EA calling that other person before it goes public, and not calling you?

dc197

AdrianC wrote: »

So why is the EA calling that other person before it goes public, and not calling you?

Indeed. Make sure you are on the books of all the local estate agents, and that they have your requirements accurately recorded.

marksoton

As Adrian says you have options.

The Eastleigh area should present options with a minimal commute.

AfromanJ

Tygermoth wrote: »

Hi Afroman,

I am in the same boat. Have you tried mortgage guarantee HTB? then the house doesn't need to be a new build.

I am looking in hants (london side) and most everything under 200K is in the wrong area or to far out for commuting, doesn't have parking or needs serious work doing - (which as we will be commuting will take time we don't have!)

To get a 2 bed that's under £230K we are looking as far out as a extra hour commute time.

To make it worse we are saving a grand a month and houses are going up by a grand and a half so we are losing pace. The market is so hot that as soon as its on a website and you call its already has a offer in.

I was hoping it was going to calm after the BTL but i not noticed any slowdown.

Hey, sorry to hear you are in the same position. I haven't tried mortgage guaranteed HTB, I'll have to look at that.

It's good you can still save, I'm able to save more this year but houses in my area went up about 8% last year! Hopefully we'll either find something quick or the market will calm down a bit.

I believe that some estate agents do a good job but there is a lot of pre-selling that goes on before the property is listed on the market and those cash buyers are a pain in the !!!!.

One user said about being too fussy but as I'm sure you are aware, it's not as easy as picking a property out of a hat. Good luck!

Physics

AfromanJ wrote:

It took me 4 years to save £15K but saving should be a bit fast now I have a new job.

You don't want to hear this, but £300 a month (less than 4k a year) is way too low to ever hope to amass a deposit in a reasonable timescale. You need to be doubling that. Probably more.