Does anyone want to join me waiting to find a house to buy?

Cheery_Daff

Hi all,

I'm going to join this thread (hopefully not for long! :rotfl: ) We've been idly looking for a couple of years while we decorated/revamped our own house ready to sell. Finally found somewhere a couple of weeks ago, offered, rejected, but then second offer accepted :j Lovely house, very exciting - but they wouldn't take it off the market as our own house wasn't even on.... :eek:

Our house went on the market, 16 viewings this week (!), several offers (and some messing about already).

Sadly, we spent quite a lot of the weekend out near our 'new' house and decided that we just can't live there We've been several times before, so we know what the crowds/traffic etc are like, but one night there was music from the pub (which is about half a mile away) rattling around, and another night there was a wedding with really loud live music outside the local 'quiet residential hotel'.

So I think sadly we'll have to pull out NOT what I wanted - was just getting ready to get started once we accept our own buyer on Monday. But at least they never took theirs off the market for us, so no harm done (even though I expect they'll be cursing us for raising their hopes )

Feel rotten about it, but it's very expensive and a long way from work and a big decision to make

So back to the drawing board... albeit with an offer on our own house so the clock is ticking... :eek:

Pumpkim

Hi Cheery:D
Aww it's a shame the house hasn't worked out, but better you decide now than after everyone has spent hundreds of pounds. As people keep telling me, the right one will come along eventually!

We saw three today, two no's for various reasons, just not right for us and the one I expected to like and hubby loved from RM listing, met all our expectations really. It's a really good looking house from the outside, lovely outlook to the front, great space inside, good kitchen and new bathroom and en suite, hubby still loved it, almost perfect you might say but you know there's a but coming....

BUT my heart still wants to be in our original search area
A house with an identical layout to this has unbelievably just come up there today :eek: but without the rear extension that today's had and also semi detached rather than detached... can't decide if that's a sticking point for me or not... I think it is We've also already viewed another on the same estate and thought the houses were all a bit crammed in, although on street view this one doesn't look too bad as it's a corner plot. I could be swayed by the fact that its asking price is more than £40k less than the one we viewed today !!!

Feel like my head is about to explode with all these things to think about, as well feeling like time is running out, we've also got the next two weekends away, which means viewings are impossible :eek:

Update 18/07/2017
After lots of discussion and weighing up pros and cons, we've gone for the house we saw on Sunday, I am super excited now that my head is in the right place. It's actually a much nicer area than our original search area and the house is so gorgeous. Fingers crossed for plain sailing!!

hazyjo

We've come full circle and offered on the one we initially loved last year. I sent her a letter and she said she'd taken it off the market as she was going to be away for a few months. Said she was selling again from April-ish, but I didn't have a buyer for ages.

We were going to buy another, but they've not accepted our (very reasonable!) offer and the EAs have been ignoring us, so I'm looking forward to telling them where to shove it when they eventually ring me to say they'll accept (which I'm sure they will).

Not as big as we wanted, but it's literally in the middle of Leigh-on-Sea, about 0.3 mile from Old Leigh.

Very excited, relieved and happy so know it's the right house.

I also feel my dad (no longer alive) has given his approval :)Weird one - my mum has always used a bloke for her tiling, decorating, etc (weirdly again, with the same name as my dad - Terry). My dad liked him, he's not great on timekeeping(!), but is very trustworthy and does a good job. He's also been of great support to my mum since as he's had his own probs and my mum's a very good listener so they've become friends over the years. He actually popped in for a cuppa with my mum last week and said he was working in Chingford where I live (10 miles/30 mins away from where he lives so hardly on the doorstep). Mum asked if he'd give a quote to paint a house in Leigh-on-Sea as we may get it painted when we move in. He said okay. In the meantime, OH walked round the corner to the shops and noticed a house a few doors along from ours being painted and the bloke had done a good job. Got chatting, asked if he'd consider a job near Southend, and took a card (you know where it's going). I'd not told him about the conversation with my mum, and Terry didn't twig it might be the same house.

Mum told me a couple of days later about her conversation with Terry and I said, that's good, we've got two to quote now as 'im indoors has got the number of a bloke painting a house round the corner.

Obviously, turns out it's the same bloke.

Yes, I prob made that a much longer story than I needed to :rotfl:

I think my dad sent him What's the chances of him working in my street!!!! Bizarre. And for my OH to get a card and our two quotes are with the same bloody bloke! I can hear him now going 'Well, if you have to move out all that way then I'd be happier if you used Terry cos we know he won't rip you off and will do a good job...'. My dad fussed with things like that
Good luck all :beer:

Cheery_Daff

Aw Hazyjo, that's a lovely story So glad you've found the right house

Fingers crossed for you too Pumpkin :j I know what you mean about head feeling like it's about to explode :eek: Hope things settle down soon :j

We've nearly-but-not-quite decided against the house we've offered on - and have offered on another :eek: Not been accepted yet (and as soon as we are we'll withdraw from the first one of course!) This one's been on for a while and now reduced - we've offered under the reduced price and I suspect they're just waiting for a better offer Suspect they won't get one given the state it's in, but we love it

Fingers crossed...

Our buyers have had an offer on theirs now :j which they've not accepted yet :rotfl: I think they're just giving it a week on the market like we did - at this stage I don't mind - we accepted them (rather than one of the first time buyers who offered less) to give ourselves a bit of breathing space, which we certainly need with all this indecision...)

My poor brain is worn out with all the thinking and deciding :rotfl:

hazyjo

Cheery_Daff wrote: »

Aw Hazyjo, that's a lovely story So glad you've found the right house

Fingers crossed for you too Pumpkin :j I know what you mean about head feeling like it's about to explode :eek: Hope things settle down soon :j

We've nearly-but-not-quite decided against the house we've offered on - and have offered on another :eek: Not been accepted yet (and as soon as we are we'll withdraw from the first one of course!) This one's been on for a while and now reduced - we've offered under the reduced price and I suspect they're just waiting for a better offer Suspect they won't get one given the state it's in, but we love it

Fingers crossed...

Our buyers have had an offer on theirs now :j which they've not accepted yet :rotfl: I think they're just giving it a week on the market like we did - at this stage I don't mind - we accepted them (rather than one of the first time buyers who offered less) to give ourselves a bit of breathing space, which we certainly need with all this indecision...)

My poor brain is worn out with all the thinking and deciding :rotfl:

It's hard isn't it. We loved another, but it was more of a project. It had a back boiler, needed decorating, carpets, etc - bit of a doer-upper. Been on at offers over £450k for 3 months, and a higher price for a couple of months before that, and actually been on and off the market for two years. Reached an offer of £443k but they wouldn't accept - nor would the EA ring when they said they would and I don't think treated us particularly well. We're now back to the much smaller original house we liked and I really think fate has intervened. We've come full circle over the course of probably nearly a year (well, around 9 months) when we first viewed the one we're buying.


Good luck - hope the newly chosen one all works out for you!

phoebe1989seb

Great to hear your latest news, Hazyjo :T Sounds as though it's fate, which I'm also a firm believer in. We once had to wait over a year for the right house and I can say hand on heart it was the best move we ever made

Cheery Daff, we pulled out of two purchases last-but-one time we bought. It was very soon after having our offer accepted and in both cases there was something that just didn't feel right. You have to go with your heart.......hope it all works out!

Cheery_Daff

Thanks folks Sadly we had a call today to say our offer wasn't accepted on our 'new' favourite house As expected they were waiting for a better offer - and they got one both higher than ours and immediately ready to go.

Partly kicking ourselves for accepting someone who had to sell their own house first (against all advice - but we did it to give ourselves a bit of breathing space!). But we really could NOT have offered more for this house anyway, it needed SO much doing.

Still disappointed though Not yet pulled out of original one (it's still on the market anyway til our buyer sells) but at this stage I think we will.

Which leaves us with a sold house but nowhere to go... which I suppose is better than last month with a house to buy but no buyer for ours :rotfl:

Back to the drawing board. Good to hear that we're not the only ones waiting for the right 'feeling'

Cheery_Daff

And now our buyer's house has sold :eek: so we are officially procedable :j :j Which is great, but also quite frightening as we're still wibbling about the house we offered on originally (which is still on the market and has had no other offers)

Any idea how long it's reasonable to our buyers (and their buyers) to wait for us to find somewhere?? I mean, I know it's up to them how long they wait... but in your experience do people start getting antsy after a week? A month?!

I can see why people go into rented to break the chain - I already feel like I'm holding everyone up and it's only been a couple of hours since we were told we were ready to go :rotfl:

Pumpkim

There was about a month between us accepting the offer and finding somewhere, and that's only because we changed our search area. If we were still fixed on the original one we would still be looking :eek: I still check RM, can't help myself even though I am super excited with the house we are buying. My 6 year old and I call it 'the fancy house' :rotfl:

We had decided in our own minds just before we found it that we were going to start looking for a rental to give us some head-space and to not feel so pressured to find what is going to be our forever home. TBH though at that point there was no pressure from the buyer, it just felt like we were under pressure.

copperjar

We had two months before we found our house after accepting an offer (the reason for this thread actually!). We had made a vague agreement that they'd give us a couple of months but I was flapping after a couple of weeks! We progressed things (slowly) with solicitors which worked out exceptionally well as when we finally did find somewhere (bang on two months!) we negotiated a great price as they wanted a quick sale and we were well along with our sale.

Good luck! I think that things usually work out in the end. Having being originally set on a location for a house at a price that didn't exist, we compromised on location and are in our dream home. Great to see other people in here also successful!!