How do people ever manage to book viewings??

NeilCr

victoriavictorious wrote: »

Yes, it is beginning to look that way at the moment. We have said we'd do this as a last resort.

I think that's a good suggestion

I'd also, though, say try and get a weekend/days away have a look round the area and press the flesh with the agents.

I understand that your OH works shifts but this is a big thing for your future life. Can OH not get a break so you can get down there and, at least, get a feel for the area and the agents - face to face before you move on to renting. While it was a pain in the butt for me I worked round it and got there in the end.

Also, not a bad idea to be not too picky about properties you will, or won't see. You might find something that surprises you, you'll get a bit of information about local areas and the agents may feel better about you when you turn up from a distance and do some viewings. I sort of like and don't like Location but I always remember one couple who kept discarding properties on the internet. There was one they decided they didn't like because there was no parking. When Kirsty finally got them out seeing houses it turned out there was loads of off street parking not shown in the details. Think they bought it!

I saw some awful places but the agents knew I was serious and kept me in the loop about properties coming on to the market.

Crashy_Time

buggy_boy wrote: »

Would that be the same independent that last month said....

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/news/uk-house-price-growth-housing-market-december-2017-property-average-a8207996.html

London saw massive increases, over and above the uk average for years so its not surprising that it is cooling as London prices are totally nuts.

Price averages are based on houses that sold, not on how many houses don`t sell. The article says that sales are at "Historic lows", so your link has absolutely no relevance to anything that I posted. Slowing sales usually come before a crash

victoriavictorious

NeilCr wrote: »

I think that's a good suggestion

I'd also, though, say try and get a weekend/days away have a look round the area and press the flesh with the agents.

I understand that your OH works shifts but this is a big thing for your future life. Can OH not get a break so you can get down there and, at least, get a feel for the area and the agents - face to face before you move on to renting. While it was a pain in the butt for me I worked round it and got there in the end.

Also, not a bad idea to be not too picky about properties you will, or won't see. You might find something that surprises you, you'll get a bit of information about local areas and the agents may feel better about you when you turn up from a distance and do some viewings. I sort of like and don't like Location but I always remember one couple who kept discarding properties on the internet. There was one they decided they didn't like because there was no parking. When Kirsty finally got them out seeing houses it turned out there was loads of off street parking not shown in the details. Think they bought it!

I saw some awful places but the agents knew I was serious and kept me in the loop about properties coming on to the market.

Completely agree and yay! The penny has finally dropped, OH has seen the light and will be willing to take a day off work if need be!

victoriavictorious

Smodlet wrote: »

If you are looking in more than one area, vv, you might want to make your rental in the middle of them if at all possible. I think, if you just hang in there, you will find the one and be the person who gets it. We are just coming into Spring, traditionally the best time of year to buy a house. Good luck and please let us know how you get on.

Thanks Smodlet. We *are* in the middle of the regions already :rotfl:
I'll keep you posted.

Crashy_Time

AdrianC wrote: »

It'll be a very short conversation, then...

There won`t be *any* conversation.

fudgecat

We had similar problems, except it was closer to 4-5 hours journey. In the end, I went to view on my own and meet with estate agents etc; it puts a face to a name and establishes a relationship. After viewing, I could then shortlist houses. You can still make an offer on your own or send video links to the OH. In extremis you can change your mind.
In the end it worked for us - though we`re still living in a wreck of a doer upper two years later! Hasten slowly...

jungle_jane

We moved 350 miles across the country and viewing was a similar nightmare. Properties were getting snapped up for insane prices as soon as they hit the market and stocks were (and still are) extremely low.

To make it more difficult some estate agents closed at 2pm on a Saturday so that reduced viewing times. We used to make private sales (eg Purple Bricks) during the hours that estate agents were closed and we always tried to line up one or two extra in reserve that didn't look great online in case we got a pleasant surprise in real life. Inevitably our viewing schedule kept changing as houses were snapped up.

We used to stay the Monday too - that way we could get second viewings before we left.

We ended up buying one of the houses on our 'reserve' list. it looked horrible on RM and was still pretty ugly when we first viewed it but after walking about we realised the potential and that's what we bought. It looked so awful on RM that it had very few viewings so I would say if a place is in the right area, ticks a few boxes and there isn't much housing stock it might be worth looking at it anyhow.

Beardmidget

Hi OP,

I just wanted to offer a crumb of comfort.
We were in a similar position, having lost our on the 2 or 3 places we wanted prior to going under offer (for within 3% of asking price thanks all the same C***time).

We just kept a really wide open search area, and moved as soon as something right came on the market. In the end it is better located, better priced, and has much greater potential than what we had looked at before- and we got it for a decent offer because we were proceedable. Our new place (one hopes) was only on the market for 3 days before we saw and offered.

Somewhere great might come on tomorrow morning. Just be ready to do something about it.

FWIW- I don’t know many EAs who really don’t like buyers, but I do know our house has now been sold STC for 3 weeks and is still up on Rightmove. I’d need perhaps 30k extra to seriously f* over our buyer (I.e. noticeably more than asking price) so I can only assume that’s the agent keeping it up to gain enquiries (house is newly renovated and reasonably fancy, so we got lots of viewings). Agents are usually pretty good at sending new enquiries for sold properties off the trail because they don’t typically stand to make much more commission, but it’s a lot of new hassle.