Any one else noticed hardly any houses on the market for sale

Scotbot

AnotherJoe said:

Scotbot said:

The market is the wrong way round. Normally in a fast moving market you find something you like then put your house on the market  in the knowledge it will sell quickly.  Now most sellers want people to be proceedable before they offer, then slow the chain because they can't find anything suitable. A lot of people, me included, are wary of putting our houses on the market as we know there is so little for us to buy.

And yet, when there is, you will likely lose out to someone who is ready to sell/ under offer. 

No reason you can't put yours up for sale making it very clear you will only be moving once you have found somewhere. There are people who will wait, and don't accept offers from those in chains. 

Yes I know so it is a vicious circle. At present I could sell my house within 10 days which hardly extends the wait. I have been looking for far longer than that . Plenty of threads from people frustrated looking to withdraw offers because the vendor can't find anything

thriftytracey

In my village there is now only one house for sale.  There were two a couple of days ago but one sold to a cash buyer.  Next week it will go up to two houses for sale as my house will be up for sale.  Earlier this year there were about 10 properties.  

I am worried we won't find a suitable property in North Devon.  We have quite a few specific requirements.  I really don't want to have to go into rented.  I hope now that Spring is here (although it is snowing today!) more properties will become available.

kormacurry

I've been looking to buy for some months. There is very little on sale in my area. I have found that even though I am in a great position (cash buyer, currently living with friends, having already completed on mine), I still often miss out.

The minute a property hits RM I have found that you have to phone up within a couple of hours, because after that you get told by the agent "sorry we have our quota of viewers" and that "we have closed viewings for this property". Agents have found that the property sells in the first day of viewings, so why bother letting others view?  If you are slow in getting to the phone then forget it! 

The other scenario is that the property is sold before it gets onto RM and my being on the agent list of potential buyers and regularly calling them does not help with some agents.  An ex-estate agent friend has told me that some agencies here give preference to buyers who already have a house on the market with them and  are looking to complete their chain, or the buyer is willing to get financing through that agent, otherwise you never get to hear about the property.  If I were in a chain, I would definitely give up any thought of moving at this time until things calm down, it's not worth the stress.

Davesnave

Being where I am in rural Devon, almost all the houses for sale in my village in 2020 sold due to the mass 'escaping to the country' that went on. Normally, that wouldn't have happened as we aren't in the most convenient of places.

So, whatever one sees here currently is just the dross left over. A few  have gone early and disappeared quickly, but canny sellers will wait till May when the place looks lovely and the bloody tractors have finished ploughing and chucking muck everywhere!

dj1471

We’ve waited 6 months for an offer on our property (small house without a decent garden = limited market), now we have one there’s almost nothing coming onto the market - everybody who wants to sell has done so when the market was hottest.

During the last 6 months I’ve received 2-3 properties a day from my saved searches on Rightmove; for the last few weeks I’m lucky to get 2-3 a week.

It’s incredibly frustrating.

On the plus side a fair percentage of those coming on have had a previous sale fall through, so there are potential bargains to be had (vendors want to move quickly to keep their onward purchase).

MovingForwards

I've just done a 40 mile search from where I used to rent and there's over 1500 properties currently for sale, again up to the maximum amount I could have borrowed and the respective 15% deposit. Dropping the budget down to what I actually decided to set when looking there's 714 properties within a 40 mile radius. 

That's just on one platform, let alone checking others.

Options are keep looking in whatever radius you've set, or extend your radius like some of us did.

AnotherJoe

Scotbot said:

AnotherJoe said:

Scotbot said:

The market is the wrong way round. Normally in a fast moving market you find something you like then put your house on the market  in the knowledge it will sell quickly.  Now most sellers want people to be proceedable before they offer, then slow the chain because they can't find anything suitable. A lot of people, me included, are wary of putting our houses on the market as we know there is so little for us to buy.

And yet, when there is, you will likely lose out to someone who is ready to sell/ under offer. 

No reason you can't put yours up for sale making it very clear you will only be moving once you have found somewhere. There are people who will wait, and don't accept offers from those in chains. 

Yes I know so it is a vicious circle. At present I could sell my house within 10 days so it hardly extends the wait

It may extend the wait indefinitely because the seller of the house will hear your words "at present I could sell my house within 10 days" and translate that as "this person said "blah blah blah" hasn't even put their house on the market whereas Mr & Mrs Prepared who just made me an offer have so I"ll sell to them, job done".

Scotbot said:

Plenty of threads from people frustrated looking to withdraw offers because the vendor can't find anything

Which is why I suggested only accept offers from people who are not in a chain & happy to wait. That takes the pressure off you.

mrlegend123

mad to buy now hence why most people are not selling hence reduced supply. safer to wait until we see what comes from the end of stamp duty, furlough and the threat of inflation etc ........the world's money supply has doubled and eventually it will feed into prices over the next year or two. 

eidand

mrlegend123 said:

mad to buy now hence why most people are not selling hence reduced supply. safer to wait until we see what comes from the end of stamp duty, furlough and the threat of inflation etc ........the world's money supply has doubled and eventually it will feed into prices over the next year or two. 

That's your opinion, but obviously many do not think like that as evidenced by what happens now and has been happening since covid started.

A lot of people have well paid jobs, a lot of companies are doing well.

Many don't care about furlough and whatever other things you mentioned.

People who are at threat of losing jobs are not buying houses and even if they are, they are irrelevant in the grand scheme of things.

The market doesn't wait and there are plenty of buyers. People need a place to live, that's the driving force, so whatever happens to the economy, people will always buy houses. That's the reality of it.

If you need a place right now, you'd be silly to "wait and see what happens". Some of us value a decent place to live far more than a few k or even tens of k in the bank. That's the reality of it. 

Davesnave

thriftytracey said:

I am worried we won't find a suitable property in North Devon.  We have quite a few specific requirements.  I really don't want to have to go into rented.  I hope now that Spring is here (although it is snowing today!) more properties will become available.

Nobody does, but it's how we managed to buy the right place in Devon with a list of 'must haves' as long as your arm. Took 9 months to find it, and might have taken even longer if we hadn't been very bored and quite brave.