How do people make such quick decisions?

TamsinC

I think it helps to like something 'different' we knew we wanted old, and beams and quirky - not many on the market - we visited 3 in one day (after a good few immediate 'no's over a few weeks and one sale fallen through) when we saw the one we bought. The first was lovely and 'good enough' but didn't give us a warm and fuzzy feeling - there was nothing wrong with it but . . . . then visited the 2nd knowing there was already an offer on the table being considered but they wouldn't decide until after all booked viewings, and this was our favourite on paper. We rocked up and before we were even in the house loved it, then stepped inside and that was it. Perfect. We still went and saw the 3rd property on our way home - house was lovely, location and garden were awful. The offer went in in the car on the way home. We just knew.

Now had we wanted a bog standard house i.e. more modern on an estate etc I'm sure we wouldn't have gotten that warm and fuzzy feeling and good enough would have been, well, good enough. But years of research and internet house hunting wouldn't have been needed, nor the months of serious driving around the countryside exploring areas etc. But when the one came up, we knew.

sal_III

bxboards wrote: »

key factor for me is to look at the cars - if the road is full of cars during the day, that tells you a lot. Also make sure there are no betting shops / Brighthouses / off-licences / gyms / take-aways within at least 3 miles.

Your advice is sound for rural areas, not so much for cities. The road full of cars during the day near me tells me that there are 7 bus lines, a train and a tube station within a walking distance, so people prefer to use public transport. The second part automatically dismisses like 90% ot the towns/cities in the UK.

CarrieVS

I'm looking to buy my first house and have viewed five places. One of them I instantly "felt" I wanted to live there but knew by the time I left the viewing that wasn't sensible. A couple of hours of reflection and I'd made up my mind to change what I was looking for entirely. Another, I immediately loved and felt it was as near perfect as anything was likely to be: this one took me a few days to start having doubts and a week on I'm nearly sure I don't want it.

I guess if you're buying in an area where houses go really quickly, needs must, but I'm glad I'm not.

Cakeguts

What we have always done is look in specific locations. My theory has always been that you can change anything you want to inside a house. Everything between the brickwork is cosmetic and can be changed. I don't care about the kitchen or bathroom because I can change it.


What I can't change is where the house is or what is on the plot like a shared drive or no front garden or back garden or which way the back garden faces.


So once you have decided.
Location,

Own drive,
Number of bedrooms,
Size of garden,


You just look and wait for a property in that location to come up.

bugslet

bxboards wrote: »

Well speaking purely from my point of view..personally I only look in areas that I want to live in, to me the general location is more important than an actual specific house if that makes sense.


I could quite happily live in any house in my village, but I would not want to live 15 miles away, even though it would be possible to find 'better' houses.

Location..location...location.

^^^That.

I put an offer on a house earlier this year ( fell through because it turned out there was planning for a 4 bed Mc Mansion in next door's garden). I saw the for sale sign on a dog walk on Sunday, rang Monday, viewed Wednesday at 13.00, put an offer in same afternoon.

BUT, it was in an area that I wanted to live in. It wasn't my dream house as such, being a 1970s box, but I could have done things with it and the price reflected that it would need upgrading, so what it looked like inside, didn't actually matter.

So if you know where you want to be to within a few streets, then you are pretty much decided beforehand IMO.

Good luck!

_CC_

I offered and got accepted on my first viewing.


Already knowing the area is a big factor. You could always research this before house hunting though.



The house had everything we wanted and on the face of it didn't have anything that would indicate issues.


We had a full building survey and additional checks (electric, drains etc.) to double check.

davidwood681

More is lost by indecision than the wrong decision

While you faff about those others get on with it and don't miss the opportunity

ACG

We knew where we wanted to move to, there is a nice village with decent bars and restaurants, good schools for the little one, decent train and bus links.

There are 4 areas around the village, one is typically a little bit rough and not where we wanted to be, the next 2 are £1-3m houses - we cant afford. The last was an area we could afford.

We went to view 3 houses, the first 2 were "doer uppers" and the prices were not low enough to warrant the work that needed doing. The third we made an offer, vendors came back and said they needed £3k more, we offered that - job done. I must admit we did not go around the house bouncing with excitement but it is a nice house in a nice street in the area we wanted to be.

My first house was a doer upper - I made an offer on that without seeing inside to be told by the agents that I had to go and view it...It was a right mess inside but better than I expected. It was one of those houses which was sold cheaply with no internal photos. I was more excited by that house as I knew we could turn it in to whatever we wanted. But the only reason we bought that house was to make a profit to enable us to move where we are now.

PassingOutInTheParade

Over the course of a year, I had viewed nearly 100 houses.

The house I am now buying was an 'impulse buy', strangely enough. The agent's description and photos put me off booking a viewing. However, I had to make a detour and when I saw it from the outside I thought differently.
Within 20 minutes, I was having a look around, and an hour later had made an offer that was accepted.

Considering I don't even buy cornflakes on impulse, this is unbelievable!

You WILL know the right house for you as soon as you walk through the door.

ReadingTim

• Decide where you do, and don't, want to live
• Decide on what features are must haves and what are must not haves
• Be realistic about what your money will, and won't buy

The above, combined with a half-way competent online ad (ie floorplan, one or two photos of each room, exterior of property and any garden, garage or parking) should give you nearly all the info you need, leaving any viewing almost totally free for the consideration of "do I want to live here"?, which you can often tell within moments of walking in.

The more places you view the faster the process becomes, and you sometimes need to see a few 'wrong' places before you find some which are 'right', but if you haven't got an idea after 10-20 places, it's probably you who has the problem with making decisions.

However, you need to treat each property in isolation, as waiting to compare several at once may mean that one gets snatched from under your nose, as you're finding out.