How many houses did you view?

Emmazom

Just wondered how many houses everyone viewed before purchasing their home? Hopefully this will encourage rather than dishearten me.

Little info, we're FTB, finance and MIP all sorted, ready to move. We're looking in the midlands and can borrow a decent amount (within our means) for the area however we're really struggling and I'm not sure if we're romanticising the whole situation.

We've currently viewed around 25 houses, a mixture of what we want, and more sensible options. I feel the main issue is that we love older homes, victorian and edwardian especially, but we need car parking space. Obviously these houses we're not built with drives in mind.

However all the ones we see that on paper tick all the boxes, we just don't like!

marksoton

Emmazom wrote: »

I'm not sure if we're romanticising the whole situation.

If you even suspect you are, you probably are!

You're a FTB so the chances you'll stay there forever are slim. I'd just go for the least objectionable one going.

3 properties to answer the question.

Emmazom

I hope we're not, we saw a property yesterday and the house itself was more than we could have wanted, but there was no parking so we didn't go any further.

We're aware that we won't be there forever, that's not our plan, however we will still be there a number of years so I don't want to purchase a property just because i believe it will sell quickly, or increase in value. It will still be my home for a number of years.

Mizenberg

I think we viewed 3 properties as a FTB in 2004- this time we viewed around 10.

Zeebs90

We viewed 4, although we'd pretty much already decided we liked the one we bought from the pictures.

spadoosh

About 4 or 5, spent months on rightmove looking at houses. When we decided on one we wanted to view we thought best to look at other houses so hand picked some ok ones but knew all along we would view and buy the one that we did.

Pros and cons with every style of house. Weve got a 50s built ex council house, con most consider it a bit ugly, pros its well built and has huge gardens. A close friend has just bought a new build cons, i consider it ugly and boxy (coming from someone who lives in a council house!) has tiny garden. Pro, the !!!!!! (lol, another word for sodomy is expleted yet sodomy is ok?!) never has to do any DIY and his utilities cost pennies.

One of my main concerns when buying was that i couldnt be sure on the market when i was buying (peek or trough) so the biggest deciding factor for me was that it was somewhere i could live until the day i die if i have to.

My mum always said i'd know when i picked the right house when you walk in. I couldnt really tell you if thats true, in honesty i had already picked it before seeing it.

Depends if your buying for somewhere to live or if its an investment. Investment go for hte place that ticks the boxes, if its somewhere to live, go for the one that 'feels' right (ie the one you like).

Emmazom

To be honest as long as we don't loose money when we sell then we're more than happy. We plan to overpay on the mortgage a good amount (if things stay the same) so would save money that way.

We won't buy a new build because of the lack of space, and we don't mind "ugly" houses as long as the property is right. I don't feel we have a particularly high list of necessities but perhaps I'm wrong.

Flosmum_2

I think we offered on the 7th x

ElsieMonkey

First property I bought, it was the first one we saw and just went for it! It was shared ownership new build though, so they are all much the same as each other, and I loved the location of this one, so don't think I really thought about looking elsewhere.

Second property (which I'm in now), again a flat but full mortgage this time. I knew I wanted to live in this development a year beforehand and as soon as one came available at the time we decided to move, I got in and saw it before anyone else and before the pics were even on rightmove! The EA did show us a couple of other things same day, at their suggestion, even though we weren't interested.

We're now moving out of London and to a house, just had an offer accepted. We have been looking in our new area for over a year, and we counted recently that we must have seen near 20 houses in that time. We did start looking before we were ready to move though just to get an idea of the market there, then our sale/purchase fell through last year, so we had to start again this spring, so that's added more properties to our list than usual I think. This purchase is for the long term though - maybe forever, so we wanted to fully explore our options. We even went to see things which we knew would challenge our thoughts on what we want/don't want etc. By doing this we worked out through a process of elimination what we are prepared to compromise on and what not etc.

I think it's a good thing to look at as much a possible. But you'll probably get to a point where you end up looking at repeats of what you've already seen - there are normally only so many house styles in a particular area. Once you get to this point it's probably time to have a word with yourselves and start making some decisions about what you are prepared to compromise on. Sounds like you might need to make a decision between off street parking or style or property (obviously more than this will come into it). It's a balancing act. But don't wait for the "wow" factor. I really don't think this exists (unless for those lucky few with mega bucks to spend). I think it's more about a house feeling "right" and comfortable, you'll probably surprise yourself about what you WILL compromise on in the end.

Tygermoth

FTB in the same position as you. Been to see seven - most on open days as this style of viewing is very popular here. Most go on the open day and way above our budget as bidding wars start. Never mind the daily vetting of houses via estate agent calls/emails/rightmove/zoopla for suitability.


Offered on 3 that were not on open days - at asking price - and in each case the seller wanted more (up to 40K more)


Still looking.... and really beginning to hate the whole process.

Grenage

Just got with your gut.

We saw about 20, and while parking was important to me, the one we are buying has no drive (garage at the back), and it's off a single track lane. The house is lovely, and such a house with a drive would have been another 70k+.

You can have everything you want, if your tastes are simple, or you're very rich.