This House market is exhausting and frustrating

impatient2020

Hi all, 

Just after some reassurance we will find a house soon and its not just us getting frustrated with the current market. 

After a year on furlough I am back in a position to get a mortgage offer. Now we have started viewings. We have spent 8 months surrounded by boxes as our house purchase fell through end of last year and we had to move into a family home until I was off furlough as our rental was also up. 

We have missed the Stamp Duty Holiday, missed a lot of nice houses coming and going in the past 8 months when we were not allowed a mortgage and now when we are ready, the market has slowed down here so much (South East). Every viewing we have done have at least had 17 others also viewing and any offers we have put in are declined over people putting in £20k + over ask. Have had viewings cancelled due to people coming back to offer after price reductions and we are being told viewings on Saturday only which means we don't even get chance to view before going under offer (even though we are available in the week). 

Its so exhausting and we are desperate to leave this house ASAP and every day we are hoping the supply comes back up a bit or buyers ease off. Just anything! I can't see the end of the tunnel at the moment. 

Also is it now a thing where you have to show our DIP to EA's? don't recall doing this last year. Our offers all have to be accompanied by this before they put it through to vendors.  

lookstraightahead

Can you take up another rental to regroup a bit? 

I feel I've always been at the losing end, bad timing and everything.

if you take 6/12 months just to focus on jobs, exactly where you want to live, and waiting for market to settle you might find a change in direction.

I agree it's like panic buying in a supermarket. Last week I was at the reduced section and a bloke physically  pushed me out of the way to get his hands on the braising steak. I decided I could live without the braising steak for now 😂

Ramouth

I definitely feel your pain.  The ones we weren’t even able to view because they already had enough booked were the most frustrating.  We bit the bullet In the end and offered a fair bit over asking when we did find something we really liked as rentals here are expensive.

In your position with family to stay with I would wait it out.  Things must calm down eventually!

impatient2020

lookstraightahead said:

Can you take up another rental to regroup a bit? 

I feel I've always been at the losing end, bad timing and everything.

if you take 6/12 months just to focus on jobs, exactly where you want to live, and waiting for market to settle you might find a change in direction.

I agree it's like panic buying in a supermarket. Last week I was at the reduced section and a bloke physically  pushed me out of the way to get his hands on the braising steak. I decided I could live without the braising steak for now 😂

Luckily the house we are in was unoccupied (owned by father in law, but is still full of grandma's stuff) and therefore living here rent free. So its to our benefit to stay here for the moment. 
Downside to this, is area is not great, don't know anyone here and parking is horrendous (we play car jenga every day, sometimes car is parked 2 streets away). But we know we are fortunate to not pay rent, so not moaning as such, just desperate to get our own place as Covid has delayed us by a year already. 

Jobs are fine, been back 3 months now and husband self employed and not affected by Covid. 

I guess we just sit and wait it out and just keep stalking rightmove etc every day. 

People are crazy aren't they? 

impatient2020

Ramouth said:

I definitely feel your pain.  The ones we weren’t even able to view because they already had enough booked were the most frustrating.  We bit the bullet In the end and offered a fair bit over asking when we did find something we really liked as rentals here are expensive.

In your position with family to stay with I would wait it out.  Things must calm down eventually!

I don't think the market has ever been like this has it? To not even make it to viewings is crazy. 
We are prepared to go over ask if the house is worth it, but annoyingly the house we were buying last year had everything we wanted but now the houses are £15-25k more and giving us less. 
We either compromise a lot or sit around for 6 more months and hope the market settles. 
Luckily the house we are in was unoccupied (gran-in-law passed away) but we are surrounded by her things and the house needs a lot of work, but at least we are living alone and not paying rent. Its just doing my head in living here with our lives in boxes and no where to even unpack them! 
fingers crossed we find something soon. 

Ramouth

impatient2020 said:

Ramouth said:

I definitely feel your pain.  The ones we weren’t even able to view because they already had enough booked were the most frustrating.  We bit the bullet In the end and offered a fair bit over asking when we did find something we really liked as rentals here are expensive.

In your position with family to stay with I would wait it out.  Things must calm down eventually!

I don't think the market has ever been like this has it? To not even make it to viewings is crazy. 
We are prepared to go over ask if the house is worth it, but annoyingly the house we were buying last year had everything we wanted but now the houses are £15-25k more and giving us less. 
We either compromise a lot or sit around for 6 more months and hope the market settles. 
Luckily the house we are in was unoccupied (gran-in-law passed away) but we are surrounded by her things and the house needs a lot of work, but at least we are living alone and not paying rent. Its just doing my head in living here with our lives in boxes and no where to even unpack them! 
fingers crossed we find something soon. 

I know people always say this, but I genuinely think we ended up with a house that suits us better than any of the others we missed out on. 

Definitely keep a sharp eye on Rightmove and try to be the first person on the phone when the EA opens if there is something you like.  We also followed one EA on YouTube after realising that the walkthrough videos went up a day or so before Rightmove so could get in early.

tanpopo

It is awful out there. We need to move from a 2 bed flat to a 3 bed house in the South East, and there is stiff competition for these kind of properties but little supply. Until we had an offer accepted, we were bidding on places that had 40+ viewings, all going for 15-20k more than asking.

Have you got yourselves on EA lists in the local area, as someone actively looking? We have had the heads up on a number of properties before they go on to the market. In our case this worked well when a sale fell through and we were given first dibs

thegreenone

The buyers for my late Mum's flat had to pull out as they had accepted an SEISS at some point and that went against them with their lender.  The flat went back on rightmove around 3pm and by 5pm someone was there viewing. As @tanpopo says you really need to keep your ear to the ground.  We accepted a full asking offer and didn't play games.

You are in a very strong position as you don't have to give notice on your current home. I hope you find something soon.  Sliding Doors!

Antman27

tanpopo said:

It is awful out there. We need to move from a 2 bed flat to a 3 bed house in the South East, and there is stiff competition for these kind of properties but little supply. Until we had an offer accepted, we were bidding on places that had 40+ viewings, all going for 15-20k more than asking.

Have you got yourselves on EA lists in the local area, as someone actively looking? We have had the heads up on a number of properties before they go on to the market. In our case this worked well when a sale fell through and we were given first dibs

We are in a similar situation - looking to move from a rented 2 bed flat to a 3 bed house in Kent - but the market has been extremely competitive in the past few months. The area we're looking in seems to have dried up suddenly. I've 'registered' with all the main EAs but so far only one agent has called to inform me about a property coming on the market. The rest of the EAs can't seem to be bothered! I'm an FTB with an AIP mortgage, so thought I would be on top of the EA's list - clearly not. Not sure if I'm missing something.         

EndlessStruggle

It is mad here too and the only properties sticking around are either major projects or unrealistically priced.

Most aren't even being listed on Rightmove etc as they have so many people on their books.

I've been looking for months now and by a stroke of luck I saw a house listed on Monday that was actually a reasonable price that I loved.

I viewed it and put in an offer at asking price the same day.

I was expecting it to be rejected but they accepted. 

They had 3 viewings on the day I viewed (including me), 10 viewings booked in for it and had turned away 5 requests that day.

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