How do people make such quick decisions?

Rambosmum

With our house hunt (and I'm a snap decision maker), we got to the point where houses were getting multiple offers on them the day they went up on rightmove. We started putting offers in on anything suitable hoping one would bite.


The house we actually ended up with had 9 offers on it! Viewings were all on one day, no second viewings offered and 48 hours given for 'best and finals'. We were not the highest (3rd highest) the 'winning' offer, 4 weeks after being accepted ended up being unproceedable as they had done their maths wrong and couldn't get a sufficient mortgage, by then, the second highest offer had had another offer accepted and so it came to us.


We also got 2 other offers accepted. One we immediately advised we didn't want to proceed with (it was a company selling the house so concern from us about a poor home owner losing out), the other the bank refused to lend on due to significant rising damp. Thankfully the day we found that out we got the second offer of the one we bought!

Kynthia

If you've found a place you like, meets most of your requirements, the location is good, there are no things that will annoy you every day (as opposed to compromises that will only inconvenience you occassionally), and the only reason you are not putting an offer in is because you just want to double-check there isn't something better out there then put in an offer. It sounds like it's a house you want to buy and it's just your indecisive nature stopping you. It's unlikely you'll find something better and you can pull out early if you do, but this stops you losing the place and odds are you'll start to imagine moving in and stop looking for something better anyway.

purple45

We started looking for our second home in a different town over an Easter weekend and at the time only 1 estate agent was open so pretty limited as to what we could view. We ended up coming to see this house that was £10,000 beyond our means but looked really interesting. It was just a curiosity viewing really. What an odd house it is on a busy main road with nowhere to park anywhere nearby. However it is HUGE and the view at the back out over the hills is stunning. We came away from the viewing both a bit stunned and once we'd had time to process our thoughts we started discussing whether we could actually do this! We put in an offer the next day and it was accepted. We hadn't even put our first house up for sale but the market was good then and we had it up for sale and sold within a week. 3 months later we moved and and 15 years later still here and love it despite the road and parking situation! It is a hopelessly impractical house that we can't afford to live in really but we have had so much fun with it! So much space! The busy road sound drowns out things that you might find irritating in a quieter location: dogs barking, children etc and you tune it out after a while. The lack of parking nearby keeps us fit as we do lots of walking! The funny thing is that even though the house is huge it was far cheaper than most anything else because of its poor location! Everywhere in town is within walking distance though and it is a wonderful town to live in! Heart ruled head the day we saw this house but no regrets! We normally take ages to reach decisions and discuss things endlessly!

Bvv

Buying our first home, my husband and I viewed 5 properties in a weekend. Three out of those five were definite no's for various reasons. The other two we went to view again later that same week. Out of those two I preferred one property (a period one) and my husband another (a flat in a development built by Barratt in the mid-2000s). We ended up buying the second one. I had always hated the idea of living in a Barratt home, but I now (we've been here almost a year) love our flat. We're in a great area, we have nice neighbours, we have our own garden, private parking, etc. Lots of things we would not have (necessarily) had in the period property that I 'fell in love' with. I do think, however, that we would have been fairly happy in either property.

I don't think either my husband or I had that 'you just know' feeling with our current home, but what I found helpful was not to think of this as our forever home. We were looking for somewhere with the expectation we'd live there for about 3-5 years. That took a lot of the pressure off for me: it didn't have to be perfect, it just had to be good enough. One year on, I still look at Rightmove regularly, and I can't say I have seen anything come up that has made me regret buying this property.

[Deleted User]

I still cant believe we picked ours having only looked at 3 and only been the one for about half an hour. I sort of knew the area, had nosied at the outside during the day and put in an offer the next day. My partner rung to make the offer and when it was rejected we went to asking price as we decided we would be absolutly gutted to lose it for a relatively small amount of money - that made us realise how much we wanted it. Been here 18 months and still love the house.

Not strictly relevant - I decided which uni to go to by flipping a coin. It was between two which I liked and thought id be happy at either. However when the coin landed I was slightly disappointed with the result, which made me realise I must want to go to the other one more!

Mrs_KavP

We started looking in January this year, well before our own place went on the market. I went to see a lot of places of all varieties that matched our price bracket and number of bedrooms and had a garden. Also did a lot of research online about areas.

I found seeing a lot of places really helps you get a feel for what it is that you are looking for and where you are prepared to make a compromise. The more you see, the more information you have as well about what is a good price and what is overpriced etc.

The house we really pushed for wasn't one that I fell in love with, it ticked all the boxes but I didn't think "This is it!!", in fact I was a bit 'meh' but my husband really liked the garden and everyone else who we showed the paperwork thought it was great. On paper it made sense and since our offer was accepted I feel we've made the right choice (shame it's on hold while we desperately find a new buyer for ours!).

Don't worry about not falling in love with a place immediately. Like people, houses can grow on you even if initial impressions aren't amazing. The more you see, the better informed you are and the quicker you can analyse whether it's worth making an offer quickly or not.

cr1mson

Our house which we have been in for 17 years and currently have no plans to move took us either 18 months to find or 5 minutes depending on how you look at it. We looked at loads of houses during 18 months and nothing felt right there were ones that were ok. However this one we decided in 5 minutes even before had seen the whole house!

akira181

Me and my other half are both FTB and we're currently looking as well. We know the rough areas we would be willing to purchase in so we only search there to avoid risks, confusion, or unwanted surprises. We've been to a lot and I approach viewings with extreme scepticism while my other half is almost a blind eyed optimist.

Even though we know the area, I'll still visit the area as soon as possible; drive round to see what parking is like (also look at the cars and other houses to get an idea of what the neighbourhood is like), go at weekends and late evenings to see what it's like at night (that's put us off making an offer on 2 places now). If any of those are a major issue for us, we cancel the viewing if possible.

We're looking at tenement flats right now and the condition of the close is a good indicator of how well the residents care for the building. If that's bad, then we're cautious, especially if there's no factor. It's just a potential headache we don't want to deal with, I've even knocked on doors and spoken to neighbours just to be really sure.

In the flat is where me and my other half differ. She'll fall in love or hate a place based on the current furniture and decor. I need to remind her that the furniture won't be staying, cabinets and wallpaper can be changed, and if a room is too small for what we want. We have an idea for what we want for each room so we decide what rooms will be what and if we can fit the largest of items in there (sofabed, dining table, double bed, wardrobe, etc) with space to spare for smaller items.

If all those boxes are ticked without too much compromise, then we put an offer in the next day. After a few months of searching, I agree that if you're not sure then it's probably not the one for you. The current one I'm about to put an offer in, after a few minutes I was thinking I could see myself living here quite comfortably. It just felt right, which I never thought I'd say because I normally over analyse and research things to death before deciding. Just hope this offer gets accepted

My only advice is set a budget, pick the areas, have a list of must haves, must nots, and desirable's and a plan for what you want in your house (office, gym, dining room, etc). Have patience and the right one will come up, when it does, go for it. No point dragging your feet.

phoebe1989seb

Our last move we were looking to relocate long distance to SW Wales and having experience of buying the right house in the wrong location (think pretty thatched house on a busy A road through a village or a Tudor house surrounded by a sea of 1970s bungalows in a less than salubrious part of Essex), we knew thorough research was vital.

We wanted to downsize to somewhere with a bit of land having dreams of keeping some animals (sheep or donkeys) and ideally wanted no near neighbours and a period property.

On paper - or rather, Right Move - one house looked very interesting but the fact that it has less land than we'd wanted plus the fact it was a repossession deterred us from viewing. Not only that but we'd not yet exchanged contracts on our sale so we felt we weren't in a position to proceed. Instead, having made numerous journeys to Wales to view properties that turned out to be wrong - or the one where the price kept on increasing each time we offered, lol - we had an offer accepted on one we'd not seen inside (it was just before Christmas last year and other commitments prevented us travelling to view). We had also managed to exchange on our sale a couple of days previously.

Our buyers - lovely people who rented our house back to us for three weeks after completion, but that's a whole other story! - weren't going to move in till Easter but completion was set for mid January at which point we'd have nowhere to go. We kept looking at the repo on RM - it had had two sales fall through - and decided as soon as Christmas was out of the way we'd go and take a look.

We did - it was pretty hideous with galloping damp, collapsed sunroom roof and the grounds were completely overgrown. It also had no mains water which was what had put off previous buyers. For the first time in about eight house purchases, it didn't feel like 'the one', yet something about did feel right - probably the magical country lane location and ancient boundary walls???

Our first reaction was to make an offer to the EA on the spot. It was accepted and we got the keys just over a month later. We spent the first few months with no running water, flushing toilet or heating, but once our borehole was drilled in April and a working tap/flushing toilet sorted in June things began to improve:rotfl:

Seven months on and we can't imagine living anywhere else. It was definitely meant to be. We also realised we're not the animal keeping type - well apart from our dogs and the chickens we'll be getting........ we're too busy decorating, lol!

ginger_chocolate

So just thought I'd update: we saw a house on monday that both OH and I liked and, with my mind on the advice from this thread, I put an offer in the next morning. Unfortunately the EA called back at 3pm on Wednesday to say we'd been outbid. I upped my offer to the max I was willing to pay for the house. This morning we were outbid again and I folded. The house is now likely to go for considerably over asking price by the sounds of things - seems a lot of other people like the same things we do. I'm disappointed obviously, but in a way, pleased to gave got over that offer making psychological hurdle. Back to viewings I guess. How many houses have most of you offered on before you got one that stuck?