What to do?

Mrh1019

We accepted an offer on our property two weeks ago. It was on the market for 7 days. It was listed at £5000 over what it was valued at and we sold it for £6000 less than asking price so very happy. The problem is, we cannot find anything to buy! The market just seems dead in our area. Every single four bed property is a new build which we don’t really want due to space/parking/garden etc. There is nothing else coming on. I feel so guilty on my buyers although they are not putting pressure on yet. They have sold to a FTB so no chain there. We don’t want to go in to rented for a number of reasons. I don’t know what to do, I’m feeling really disheartened and thinking should we give backword to the buyers and suspend the listing till something comes up?

😟

Titus_Wadd

If you're not rigidly tied to school catchments I'd suggest widening your search area, even a slightly wider search may give more choice.  We would have loved to stay near our family home of 20 years but there were few 4 bedroom houses in existence let alone for sale.

It's a known problem, finding somewhere to buy starts in earnest when you have a buyer, you haven't strung them along for weeks so justkeep searching.

[Deleted User]

Its only been two weeks. I'd give yourself longer to search. You never know what is going to come up. How gutted would you be if you pulled your house from your buyers now then a few days later your dream home comes up for sale? Its great that you're thinking about your buyers and the rest of the chain but if they aren't putting pressure on you yet then just carry on looking. 

RelievedSheff

Don't immediately write off new builds based on the square footage until you have been and seen some in the flesh. While the overall square footage may seem on the small side they do make use of every inch of space and the layouts do work better for modern living.

We were equally as skeptical of new builds until we stepped into one early last year and instantly fell in love with it.

A four bed new build should have at least two off road parking spaces and a garage unless it is a really cheap build that skimps on the garage space.

Mrh1019

Thanks both. Unfortunately some of the new builds round here have a covenant that you cannot park trade vans which is what my husband drives. That’s limiting us somewhat x

RelievedSheff

Mrh1019 said:

Thanks both. Unfortunately some of the new builds round here have a covenant that you cannot park trade vans which is what my husband drives. That’s limiting us somewhat x

The covenants say that here but there are several who park their work vans on their drives and as far as we are aware nothing has been said about it.

Mrh1019

Thanks. I just don’t want to do something that I know may cause drama in the future if that makes sense

Jamaicanmelaff

Might be a stupid comment, but are there any 3 beds where one of the bedrooms is big enough that you can easily stick up a partition wall and make it a 4 bed? The house I'm currently buying is a 4 bed that was previously a 3 bed and the room that was split was large enough to make 2 decent sized double bedrooms.

Mrh1019

Jamaicanmelaff said:

Might be a stupid comment, but are there any 3 beds where one of the bedrooms is big enough that you can easily stick up a partition wall and make it a 4 bed? The house I'm currently buying is a 4 bed that was previously a 3 bed and the room that was split was large enough to make 2 decent sized double bedrooms.

Thanks we’ve deffo been looking at that but unfortunately there is just hardly anything on 😕 xx 

pinkshoes

We were in the same position and ended up living with the inlaws for 4 months until something suitable came on the market. 

What are your reasons for not wanting to go into rented?

Mrh1019

I have an autistic child who does not cope well with change. One move is going to be huge for him. Two would be too much xx