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

juniordoc

Finally had a response to our offer, thryd had another "very similar" offer so it's fine to best and final, we submitted that this morning so more waiting now.
I'm not in too much of a hurry after hearing so much in the news this week about the need for stamp duty reforms again. It would be just my luck that we'd but our first home and then they'd get rid of stamp duty for FTB in the autumn statement or something. That would be such a game changer in the south west where prices are so high and stamp duty is a huge barrier to moving.

katebl

We have a house to view! Thanks to a reduction it's now almost in budget, has been a month at the original asking and not sold so assuming seller is motivated. After months of nothing about a combination of a flurry of new listings and a lot of reductions mean I'm feeling optimistic!

hazyjo

Slinky wrote: »

Where in the chain are you hazyjo?

Third from bottom:

- My buyer's buyer (who started the process a while ago (July I think) and is ploughing on in the hope to be in quick)

- My buyers (who are lovely and happy to sell and rent short term - although god knows how or where, but not my prob I suppose!)

- Me!

- House I'm buying (my vendor)

- Bungalow she's buying (her vendor)

- Property the Bungalow's occupants are buying - it's vacant (hopefully 'easily' vacant and not sold as part of a deceased estate/probate/PoA or anything!)

Phew. So I suppose it may be 5 of us if my buyer sells soon.

PS actually we're in a good position as I think from my vendor down is pretty solid. It's the top bit that's perhaps been the difficult bit. There was another link to the chain who were trying to find somewhere to buy - not sure what's happened there. Maybe #6 offered on a different house which was vacant .

Candyapple

How long did it take everyone to find their homes? I'm feeling a bit depressed over it all really, need to hear some positive stories.

Saw another 10 houses this weekend, same as the last weekend, nothing we liked. It's crazy how different in real life vs pictures some of the houses I've seen are space wise. Some are made out to be massive and when viewed, it's tiny.

tori.k

Yes it's amazing how deceptive a decent photographer can be, Candy Apple I'm having the same issue as my spacial perception isn't the greatest im more visual then numbers on a plan. Looks like we are joining you guys on here, we have an offer on the table but due to title issues it may yet fall through. Look at another property today on the surface it ticks the boxes but realistically long term unlikely mostly due to the gradient of the stairs and if they actually could be altered at a realistic cost for the property. We have 11 weeks left on our current mortgage offer but with what's about at the moment I'm preparing myself to have to go through all the rigmarole once again.

hazyjo

Candyapple wrote: »

Saw another 10 houses this weekend, same as the last weekend, nothing we liked. It's crazy how different in real life vs pictures some of the houses I've seen are space wise. Some are made out to be massive and when viewed, it's tiny.

The one I'm buying is reversed - the pics make it look much narrower/smaller than it is! I'm sure that's partly why it sat on the market for so long.


Perhaps all EAs should all quit with the pics and employ one photographer/team in the area to photograph all properties so they're all taken honestly and fairly! :T

Cheery_Daff

The house we're buying had rubbish photographs - nothing at all of upstairs and most of them just of the garden :rotfl: But on the flip side, our own estate agent uses their own professional photographer (rather than a local agency most of the others use) - we were thrilled with our photos, which do our house justice without making it look bigger/better than it is. Can't believe how rubbish some of them are!

scottishgirl87

Candyapple wrote: »

How long did it take everyone to find their homes? I'm feeling a bit depressed over it all really, need to hear some positive stories.

Saw another 10 houses this weekend, same as the last weekend, nothing we liked. It's crazy how different in real life vs pictures some of the houses I've seen are space wise. Some are made out to be massive and when viewed, it's tiny.

I'm the same, Candyapple We have to move out of our flat and in with my parents in the next couple of weeks and the reality of it has just hit home. At least you're finding some houses to view, I literally search Rightmove about 50 times a day to find something new on the market.

We're also struggling to get a house out of our heads that we bid for at closing date and narrowly missed out on. Our own fault really as we could have gone slightly higher but I know I'll be kicking myself even more in a few months when the land registry is updated and we find out exactly how much we missed out by.

Candyapple

scottishgirl87 wrote: »

I'm the same, Candyapple We have to move out of our flat and in with my parents in the next couple of weeks and the reality of it has just hit home. At least you're finding some houses to view, I literally search Rightmove about 50 times a day to find something new on the market.

We're also struggling to get a house out of our heads that we bid for at closing date and narrowly missed out on. Our own fault really as we could have gone slightly higher but I know I'll be kicking myself even more in a few months when the land registry is updated and we find out exactly how much we missed out by.

Are you me? :rotfl:

Same here, the 1 property that we both loved and put an offer in for, after months more of searching all we are seeing is properties that are on for £300-£350k+ all of them pretty much need work doing to them to varying degrees and so my OH rang the EA last week to find out what the state of play was and was told that the house had been sold for well over asking price. Gutted is not even the word given that it was perfect and we could've moved in and not done anything to change it.

SG we are literally looking at all the houses we originally said no to in the hopes that maybe viewing them in person will change our opinion. No new properties that have ticked majority of boxes have appeared in ages. I have to restrict my RM searches otherwise I'll drive myself insane. I can't tell you the amount of variables I've changed and areas I've looked at trying to work out how long it would take me to get to work from there lol.

I've also noticed a lot of EAs adding in photos of random crap such as a tap, a fireplace or plant but yet haven't included photos of all the rooms in the house. I want to see all the rooms damn it. Or floor plans, how hard is it to include a floor plan? :mad:

Tomorrow is another new round of viewings, 6 booked so we shall see. Good luck to everyone else

PositiveMentalAttitude28

I'm so glad I found this thread! We have been house hunting for 9 months now and really starting to lose the will. We are first time buyers, renting at the moment. We have loved and lost 4 houses and viewed countless more.


House 1: Viewed early January of this year fell head over heels for it (god we were so naïve!) Put in an offer, it was accepted, skipped off to our mortgage advisor and bam! Under valued by our lender by over 30K, seller wouldn't move on price we couldn't proceed so withdrew our offer. In hindsight the house was overpriced and would have been too small in reality. The house has since been sold again but the sale hasn't completed yet, I'm intrigued to see what it actually sells for (please tell me I'm not the only one who does this)


House 2: Viewed early March this year, fell head over heels again (we had not yet become the jaded cynics we are now) ended up in a bidding war which we won due to our FTB status. House undervalued by £7,500 this time but we agreed with the buyer to meet in the middle to cover this. Full building survey requested (house was over 100 years old) came back fine apart from neighbours chimney. As the house was terraced and on a hill the 6ft chimney that was listing towards our property was a concern. They were above us on the hill so when it falls it would only go crashing down one way. On reflection the house next was decidedly unloved looking, should have been a possible red flag when we were viewing. The chimney did not come under the party wall act so we had no responsibility for maintenance, which we felt was the worst position to be in, we were at the mercy of whether next door had the means and/or inclination to do something about it. Some people may disagree with our thinking but neither of us were comfortable with it (literally) hanging over our heads so we withdrew.


House 3: Viewed early May this year. Offer accepted, valuation came back spot on, building survey absolutely fine. Sellers couldn't move into their ne property until August which we agreed to as it gave us time to save up. All going through swimmingly, searches done and fine, contracts signed and deposits with solicitor ready to exchange. They change their minds about selling the day we were meant to exchange and two weeks before we picked up the keys!! :mad: I'm still so mad about it!! the bl**dy money we have spent!! Grrr!


House 4: Actually went on the market the day we found out our sellers pulled out of house 3 but I didn't notice it through my tears till the following days. Viewed it 3 times, dithered about a few things but my other half loved it. Put in an offer, rejected but countered, worried and dithered some more and she accepted an offer from somebody else. Now I have it dressed up in my mind as the greatest house ever and nothing will ever compare. The old me (pre the other house setbacks) would have just gone for it I think. Trying desperately to remember the negatives: on a hill (again) the town we are looking in is very hilly, on street parking which was always busy whenever we viewed, leasehold (although had 889 years left), small bathroom for the size of house, only had radiators in some rooms which I suspect could have got messy to sort.


So here we are, back to square one with absolutely no enthusiasm or positivity left between us. It has made me feel better writing all this out. And getting out and using all the things I was saving for the new house (like nice candles and new cushions) that's made me feel a bit better too.


Sorry for the rambling first time post!