Looking for houses - STC

M2808

Literally getting so fed up of looking for houses and the only ones I like in my price bracket are STC.

Currently watching 2 2-bed semis to see if they fall through! How often does this actually happen?

I just want a house

00ec25

so do it the old fashioned way ... register with every estate agent in your target area. Explain exactly what you want, convince them you are genuine and can move subject to whatever are your current circumstances and ask them to contact (phone/mail) you as soon as a property comes up.

At least some agents still have properties that go to their own lists hours (/days) before they appear on rightmove etc

Cakeguts

You have to get onto the emailing lists of estate agents so that the send out properties that are new to the market to you before they get put onto the property websites. Then you have to view them really quickly.

hazyjo

Don't tick the SSTC box on rightmove so you don't see them.

One in around three sales collapse, but often cos someone decides not to sell so you'd still miss out.

As above, be ready to view quickly when something comes onto the market.

AnotherJoe

M2808 wrote: »

Literally getting so fed up of looking for houses and the only ones I like in my price bracket are STC.

Currently watching 2 2-bed semis to see if they fall through! How often does this actually happen?

I just want a house

1 in 3 sales apparently.

get yourself registered with EAs, go and see everything you can.

The house I'm in now, I'm in because i was phoned by the EA and told "that house you bid on and lost has just come back on the market as the seller had to pull out". 5 seconds later i'd matched that failed bid and we were underway.

TheBanker

The house I'm buying was never listed on Rightmove.

I went to view another house, which was not suitable. I explained to the Agent why I didn't like it and she said she had a new instruction, around the corner from the house I'd viewed, which sounded like what I was looking for.

I viewed twice and had an offer accepted before the Estate Agent had taken the photos. The vendor said she was happy to avoid weeks of strangers turning up to view her house. I suspect the EA was delighted to avoid most of the costs involved in marketing a property.

M2808

Okay thank you! I guess I thought they wouldn't entertain me if I didn't have a property in mind already. When renting, they haven't even entered a discussion with me unless the property I said I liked was available, they just said no.

sheepy21

Definitely speak with your local agents, the house we're buying didn't go on the market, we found out from the agent and got first dibs on it

nicmyles

When renting, they haven't even entered a discussion with me unless the property I said I liked was available, they just said no.

It's worth saying that, in a whole host of ways, the experiences of looking for somewhere to rent v buy are very different, but especially in interactions with estate agents.

This is probably a massive generalisation, but I've found that EAs dealing with sales are a far, far better quality than those dealing with renting and have a very different attitude towards you.

As a renter, you're a very replaceable commodity - they just want to get the void filled as soon as possible. You have no power in that relationship and the work is pretty low value to them.

Whereas as a buyer, depending on the area and the market, you potentially have quite a lot of power, and are a prospect with your own needs, wants, etc. You aren't their *customer* exactly, because you aren't paying them, but you *are* a potentially high-value customer for their client. You completing on a house is worth a lot of money to them in fees. Most smart EAs therefore should treat you with more respect and solicitousness than if you were just signing up to a year's lease.

It's much more of an introductions business, which is why them having a good sense of who you are and what you want is important. Even if one possible property doesn't work out, if they think you're a serious buyer, they should be looking for opportunities to introduce you to other properties they're trying to sell for clients.

As a seller, what you want from an EA is someone who can go "okay, I know just the buyer for this property, they've been looking for something like this for ages and have the right kind of budget in mind". If you're a landlord, within certain parameters, you just want someone who can pass the checks and pay the rent - a much larger pool of people and less skilled work needed from an EA to find them.

Another difference is that, once you've agreed a deal, an EA dealing with lettings pretty much sees interactions with you as a cash extraction exercise through contract fees, reference fees, renewal fees, etc.

When you're buying, you never pay the EA at all. The only thing they need from you is to complete the deal. They're a useful go-between with the seller if things are moving too slowly, there's a problem that needs solving, you're considering pulling out, etc. This is helpful to you because at this point, the EA's only interest is in getting the deal completed, so will usually be willing to put pressure on the vendor if they're the obstacle and the EA sees working on them as the path of least resistance.

So the whole relationship is totally different from dealing with a lettings agent and it's a very important one in house-buying.