Buying proving impossible...

Bass_9

Hi all,
I would really appreciate some advice.

I am trying to buy a house with my partner. We are FTB's with a very healthy deposit/budget and a mortgage in principle also. We are living with parents so we are very flexible and are as ready to buy as you can be... Despite many people telling us we're in a great position (and I do feel lucky about that) we are having a nightmare finding a house.

Houses are selling before we can even view them. In some cases they are posted on rightmove, we ring the estate agents half a day later, and an offer has already been accepted. The latest one we actually managed to view yesterday evening. We rang the estate agents this morning to confirm we were very keen, and asked for a second viewing asap. They said they would ring back to confirm, and a couple of hours later it was showing as sold. We rang back and they told us someone had viewed that morning and put in an offer immediately which was accepted. We offered to put in an offer but the sellers weren't interested in any more bids. I feel annoyed as I wish the estate agent had rang us to let us know what was happening to give us an opportunity to act, before the seller accepted the offer. I know some will say we should have just put in an offer immediately, but I don't think it's unusual to want to go for a second viewing. Clearly that is a luxury at the moment!

Does anyone have any suggestions? It's just so fustrating when it's a battle to even view. We work full time but have viewed 14 houses in the last month and 5 in the last week.

Should we approach the estate agents and ask them to keep us in mind for certain houses? Do you think the house supply increase soon? We live in the North East.

Thanks

mije1983

Bass_9 wrote: »

Should we approach the estate agents

Yes! It's what I did before I even started looking at RM etc. Quite often I'd get a call from one EA or another with a property that might interest me that wasn't yet on RM.

I've noticed that, at least around my local area, quite often boards etc go up a day or 2 before the property is listed on RM. So by just relying on RM, you are giving others a 24 hour headstart. And if it's a buoyant market where you are, those 24 hours sound crucial.

I do think that the FTB card isn't as crucial as some people like you to believe. If there is a chain then it will only move at the speed of the slowest person anyway so even if you could move tomorrow, if the house your vendor is buying isn't ready for 3 months then it is usually immaterial.

Cakeguts

Estate agents aren't going to pay for an advert on rightmove if they can sell the property to one of the people who have registered with them as interested in buying. You have to get registered as a buyer with all the estate agents in the area you are looking so that they will tell you as soon as a property comes onto the market.

Bass_9

Re. FTB card, I think you're right!
And thanks for the advice, think we will definitely do this.

Smodlet

Absolutely. People buy from people they like. When it comes to property, especially in hotspots, perhaps they sell to people they like too. I guess it helps if EAs can at least put a face to a name.

If too many people were after the same houses and you were the EA selling them, who would you call first? Someone who came in at least once a week, asked how you were doing and gave you the chance to get to know them or some anonymous person on RM? Snooze, lose.

Don't give up; many sales fall through so don't take your eye off the ball... And get out there and charm some EAs.

Another thing you could do is broaden your horizons a little bit. Widen your search area and consider being more flexible on the type of property you want to buy.

HTH and good luck.

tori.k

That's a lot of houses, chin up its taken us nine months to find a house that met our needs but there was still compromises.
Please don't take this the wrong way but are your needs/wants in a property realistic to your budget, im not meaning to be funny we've found everything we need in a house in budget in our preferred location, what I ideally want would cost 50k+ that we don't have.
The right property will come you will know as soon as you walk through the door regardless if its a heart or head house.

Thrugelmir

Bass_9 wrote: »

I feel annoyed as I wish the estate agent had rang us to let us know what was happening to give us an opportunity to act, before the seller accepted the offer.

The Estate Agent may well have a list of known clients actively looking for property. They will often get the first viewings and therefore the opportunity to make offers.

Zero_Sum

Have you considered new builds?

FirstHomeQuestions

I!!!8217;m currently in the process of buying a house, also a first time buyer waiting ever so patiently for eveything to go through (fingers crossed) and the house we have bought we drove past it and phoned the estate agents to book a viewing before it was posted online. My advice would be to have a drive around the area you want to move to and look for any up for sale and give them a ring and get in there first. Good luck.

Bass_9

Thanks for the advice everyone you've made valid points.

We have a list of what we need and what we want, and there are a few locations we're looking in. There are definitely things we can compromise on but there are some features we absolutely need. It's totally possible to get the house we require within our budget, as we've found quite a few that hit the mark, the issue is just viewing and getting that offer in fast enough...

Think it is definitely time to charm some estate agents! We will just have to be patient as you have said.

Hope all you guys who are waiting for your sale to go through have a smooth buy. :beer:

Lauralou79

We had this last year, I signed up to estate agents etc but the best houses went fast. Our house came up Thursday morning on RM. Luckily I was off and saw it, applied for and secured a viewing ( all online via online agent). By the time we viewed Saturday they had viewings all weekend.
We loved the house and put an offer in that afternoon. They ended up with several offers over the weekend. We were lucky and they liked our FTB no chain position as others had bid higher. There was no time for second viewings at that point. Which was risky but I knew I loved the house. ( my gut was right we love our house 8months later)
What I'm saying is don't lose heart you will get that House eventually, ours was the right one for us. Be as proactive as you can with agents, right move etc etc. Book viewings quickly, you may have to make decisions quickly too in a fast moving market.