Offer Rejected - Feeling hopeless

RubyHouse

We were in the same position a few months ago, we found a what we thought was a nice house; immaculate interior, nice area etc. We ended up in a bidding war where the other buyer offered asking price with the condition that they take it off the market immediately. We felt like it had been snatched out of our hands.
1 month later, we found another dream home. It needs a bit of work but I can tell it has been loved it has a great feel about the place. We offered after our 1st viewing and are waiting to complete at the end of the month.

Moral of the story - Dont be put off by a project especially if thats all you can afford right now it is better to have the worst house on the best street than the best house on the worst street!

Failingthat - you can always keep an eye on the house, if it hasnt sold in a few weeks I am sure they will come crawling back

Good Luck

WibblyGirly

pinkshoes wrote: »

Tell the estate agent that you will leave the offer on the table for 1 month.

Perhaps you offered too high??

In the mean time, save up some more money. How much money is the additonal 5%?

I don't think saving the 5% difference will matter. Its the Help to Buy thats stopping them offering more as the house price has to be £250k or less (£450k if in London). To have this house, they need to save the 5% difference and then X amount that they'd lose from the ISA which is making up 25% of their deposit.

I wish you luck in your house search! It must be so annoying to be toeing the line with the ISA limit.:(

Beenie

isn't it a bit unusual for a FTB to be buying their dream home? That is something people work up to (flat, terrace, semi-detached, detached, detached with big garden). That's how all the people we know, including us, have bought their homes. You need to be realistic with your budget, and the right house will come along at the right price.

Smodlet

Beenie wrote: »

isn't it a bit unusual for a FTB to be buying their dream home? That is something people work up to (flat, terrace, semi-detached, detached, detached with big garden). That's how all the people we know, including us, have bought their homes. You need to be realistic with your budget, and the right house will come along at the right price.

You do realise the Snowflake Generation is out there, right? Waiting/saving/working for things? Naaahh. Everything has to be handed to them on a plate and daring to disagree with, let alone criticise them is practically a hanging offence.

No, it's not unusual.

MobileSaver

steampowered wrote: »

As [STRIKE]a first time buyer with a limited budget[/STRIKE] every buyer regardless of budget finds out, you will have to make compromises somewhere. There will be an issue with every house you view.

Fixed that for you!

In my opinion there is no such thing as a perfect house. When I bought my £1m dream home there were still compromises to be made and similarly a friend recently bought his £2m dream property and had to compromise on issues that I could never have lived with.

Surrey_EA

MobileSaver wrote: »

Fixed that for you!

In my opinion there is no such thing as a perfect house. When I bought my £1m dream home there were still compromises to be made and similarly a friend recently bought his £2m dream property and had to compromise on issues that I could never have lived with.

The buyers with £6m think all of their problems would be solved if only they had £7m to spend.

ThePants999

ACG wrote: »

I would explain to the agent why your offer is what it is and you will leave it on the table whilst you look for other properties but you literally can not afford to pay anything more.

I personally wouldn't say this - that last bit, anyway. If I heard, as a seller, that the buyer "literally can not afford to pay anything more", I definitely wouldn't accept the offer even if it was asking price, because inevitably some unexpected cost would come up - e.g. the surveyor finds some remedial work needed - and the buyer would be reducing their offer to cope with it.

Davesnave

I think many younger people come on this forum and speak about dream homes in the same innocent way some older folk in my village talk about 'coloured people.' It may annoy the hell out of posters, but no harm is meant.

The OP suggests all the other properties they might consider need work, so they're probably talking about very average homes. If the one they want to buy is so superior, you'd think someone else would have snapped it up in 2 months, so it probably has some issue too; just not something that bothers or has registered with the OP.

There's no context. Where I live, £250k would buy a very passable 3 bed house, so the problem they're having is location-based.

There's no magic formula OP. Either you relocate, which may be very difficult short-term, or you buy something in your chosen areas that's imperfect and put up with it, living on beans if necessary. Eventually, you'll get enough money and skills together to improve the place, bit by bit. Having a needy house is like having a child; it changes you. You suddenly develop interest in things like how the hell people make an 8x4 sheet of plasterboard defy gravity.

It took something like 6 years of floorboards up, dust everywhere and much swearing over DIY books before our first house was looking and feeling like a fairly normal home, with real heating, a kitchen (second hand) and a modern bathroom, but I'll spare you the details.

Dream house? Pft! I'm nearly 70 and there's probably 4 more years of work in the one we have now, but I know every house is a dream when you don't have one.

Bass_9

Smodlet wrote: »

You do realise the Snowflake Generation is out there, right? Waiting/saving/working for things? Naaahh. Everything has to be handed to them on a plate and daring to disagree with, let alone criticise them is practically a hanging offence.

No, it's not unusual.

There's no need for this comment. You have no idea who these people are or what their background is. I know many (young AND old) people with this 'snowflake' attitude and it is not exclusively a generational thing... I would call it a sense of entitlement and that's hardly a new phenomenon.

OP: My advice would be to open up your options and be realistic, perhaps try to save more? There will always be another house, but you have to be realistic and pragmatic. Best of luck with your search.

TBagpuss

GigglySquid wrote: »

We're FTBs and we've just had our offer (95% of the asking price) rejected on our dream house because the vendor wanted more money. We can't increase our offer without going over the Help To Buy ISA cut off (which we need to afford the house) and I don't know what to do. The house has been on the market for over two months without any other offers and I was sure our offer would be accepted

Everything else we can afford needs serious work doing to it, which we can't afford to do after buying the house. We're already looking as far out in the 'cheap areas' as we can. House prices are increasing faster than we can save so we'll soon be priced out .

Is there any advice you can give us, or are we destined to be renting forever?

Don't be too downhearted.As others have said, keep an eye on the house. If the sellers haven't found a buyer at their asking price, they may reduce the price, and you can offer again.

Other properties will come onto the market.

Consider what work is needed, as opposed to wanted, on the other properties you are looking at. There are all sorts of things which 'need' to be done but which you can perfectly well live with while you save to do them : things like decor, kitchens and bathrooms:
Equally, look at 2 bed flats, as well as houses. It may not be what you ideally want but it may be a way of getting a property you can afford, in the area you want or need