How long did you look for?

tori.k

We've looked at six so far over 5 months still trying to buy number three, absolutely have house fatigue I couldn't imagine physically looking at many more houses. I find the whole process draining and don't understand how people can do it just for fun.

seven-day-weekend

Lots of interesting stories, thanks, all, fun to read xx

moneyistooshorttomention

It does depend what one means by "looking".

With both my starter house and current house - I was studying the market as a whole in detail for some time before going out viewing properties. Both times - I knew what I wanted on the one hand and had got it worked out pretty exactly what the "best I could get for my money" was on the other hand (with the huge difference between the two:().

So - knowing the most I could possibly manage to "squeeze" out of my money as regards standard of house - I basically viewed houses/decided which was the best of them I could manage for my money/offered within a week or so both times.

If I found myself in a position to move again (I wish...) then I have my list worked out of "must haves" and "prefer to haves" there in my mind and would probably do the same sort of thing again.

seven-day-weekend

moneyistooshorttomention wrote: »

It does depend what one means by "looking".

With both my starter house and current house - I was studying the market as a whole in detail for some time before going out viewing properties. Both times - I knew what I wanted on the one hand and had got it worked out pretty exactly what the "best I could get for my money" was on the other hand (with the huge difference between the two:().

So - knowing the most I could possibly manage to "squeeze" out of my money as regards standard of house - I basically viewed houses/decided which was the best of them I could manage for my money/offered within a week or so both times.

I meant physically looking at houses for two years. It is sensible to do research first, and decide what you want and can afford like you (and we) did, before looking.

moneyistooshorttomention

As for minimum criteria I used to choose.

Starter house = conveniently-located (ie pretty much walking distance from everything), had to be a "starter house" (ie 2 bedroom and a house and wouldnt have considered 1 bedroom or flat), not too noisy a location.

Current house = detached, garden, reasonable area, not wildly far into the "back of beyond", quiet location.

In the event of that lottery win we all want = obviously still detached, reasonable to nice area, much more conveniently located and I have a few very specific areas in mind (chosen not to have any further development going on near them ever one way or another and "green" and quiet enough for me), private back garden, unpolluted enough, not an unadopted road again. I would be trying to get a house I "love" - but that wouldnt be a priority - as it's quite a small part of a city I'm focusing on.

Murphybear

Long search can apply to rentals as well. We started looking in November last year. We had specific requirements, we wanted 2 reception rooms and a very large kitchen to house our many appliances. I looked at hundreds on Rightmove and we viewed dozens. We found about half a dozen that would have been suitable but we weren't lucky enough to get them. In June we saw a large farmhouse with 3 reception rooms and a large kitchen at a very low rent. We were the first to view and made them an offer which was accepted. It was a bit back of beyond near Dartmoor and these properties are harder to let. We moved in August and it was worth the wait.

About-time

Both times I've bought a house it was quite a quick process.


The first time it needed to be as I was splitting up with my partner and needed to be out ASAP. I think I looked around 7-8 houses in the area I wanted to move to, wavered over a couple then saw one that was much better than the rest so made an offer.


The second time I guess was a bit of a rush too - myself and current partner went from idly thinking about buying a bigger house to actively looking for one. Process was accelerated when the first people to look round our house bought it! I think we looked at 10-12 houses over a period of about a fortnight, and it came down to a choice of two. The decision was made for us when the owners of one of them wouldn't play ball with an offer and tried holding out for the full asking price. So we bought the other one!


Next time will be interesting - I would say first was my starter home, second is our starter home, bordering on family home, but I think we've got a few more years tops before we move on again. And THEN I will be seeking perfection!

Davesnave

We began looking in 2002 and didn't buy till 2009, but over that time our criteria changed. Initially, we were looking for something very tightly defined by our business. Eventually, that changed.

How many properties viewed? Dozens...lost count!

We eventually bought something similar to the one we lost when the vendors pulled out, right at the very beginning. This one's just not by the coast with a view over the Dart Estuary, so worth maybe as much as £400k less.

But I bet our village is a much nicer community to live in!

Rambosmum

About 6 months.


We had the perfect one right at the start, it was the reason we put ours on the market, it was great. And then we got gazumped. We looked at dozens, found another, survey revealed it was (literally) falling down.


Another dozen or so and we found one, which we bought.


We offered on several, but the market was bonkers at the time.


We were also pretty specific in what we wanted (yet strangely vague).

SuboJvR

My husband spent the best part of a year looking at Rightmove and Zoopla, although mainly at rentals. He would try and do it without really telling me because I would get upset - I said to him that the next time we moved, I wanted to buy, and we couldn't afford to buy so it just frustrated me.

Circumstances changed, opportunity arrived and then we started having a look around, initially at older properties and spent a lot of time driving around certain areas. Then we went onto a new build estate and it was the first I had come across the Help to Buy scheme and with a little more digging we realised that we actually could maybe buy one of these now-ish rather than waiting another couple of years. Due to his visa status we would've struggled to get a 90-95% mortgage with most lenders...

So we went around all the new builds in the area and a bit further afield, and eventually we had one more place to check out that I didn't think would be right for us but actually the house hit all of our must haves, and it was the last one left.

We complete on Friday

I know Help to Buy is viewed with sceptism, and I'm not sure it is right for everyone in all parts of the country but it's really helping us. We could have just waited another 2 years but at the rent we pay that's another £26,400 we'll have paid out to someone else and that just seems like such a lot of money to not be investing in something of our own!