This House market is exhausting and frustrating

Sebo027

I recently put an offer in on a 4 bed room detached house in an estate where there are many houses still being built. Similar houses are selling off plan for £340k brand new - ready next year. 

The house I was interested in:

• Was built four years ago and sold for £280k. 
• It was valued in the home report at £330k, which by all accounts would represent valuation in a seller's market. 
• It was listed for sale at £320k. 
• It sold for 380k. 

Astonishing. Safe to say I didn't get the house. 

I've taken a more passive approach for now and hoping the market cools off a towards the end of the year. Right house, right price.

doingitanyway

Well done @EndlessStruggle. You kept going until you had a house. That's my plan too

@impatient2020 I feel your pain but as you say you have a free roof over your head. I am staying in a relative's home after having sold. I've been searching for months too. It's hard. I don't have my own things around me. I am also paying storage and you are not. Keep the faith. It will work out in the end

[Deleted User]

I think some people have lost the plot, a flat close to be just sold for 450k in a council estate. Down the road you can get a private flat for 380k. It must crash soon. Surely. 

Sebo027

[Deleted User] said:

I think some people have lost the plot, a flat close to be just sold for 450k in a council estate. Down the road you can get a private flat for 380k. It must crash soon. Surely. 

Crash or stabilize?

I wonder how many people are splashing "COVID cash" on properties that they won't be able to keep up payments with. 

lookstraightahead

Sebo027 said:

[Deleted User] said:

I think some people have lost the plot, a flat close to be just sold for 450k in a council estate. Down the road you can get a private flat for 380k. It must crash soon. Surely. 

Crash or stabilize?

I wonder how many people are splashing "COVID cash" on properties that they won't be able to keep up payments with. 

Lots of people. They have no idea what they're doing.

impatient2020

lookstraightahead said:

Sebo027 said:

[Deleted User] said:

I think some people have lost the plot, a flat close to be just sold for 450k in a council estate. Down the road you can get a private flat for 380k. It must crash soon. Surely. 

Crash or stabilize?

I wonder how many people are splashing "COVID cash" on properties that they won't be able to keep up payments with. 

Lots of people. They have no idea what they're doing.

Exactly! I am happy to pay a reasonable price for a house, nothing over the odds and don’t want to get into bidding wars for houses just not worth the prices they are going for. 

All that’s going to happen is lenders devalue and then it’s back to drawing board renegotiating. 

We are going to keep an eye on the market but will come to terms with having to wait a bit longer until this stabilises as frustrating as that is. 

Sebo027

impatient2020 said:

Exactly! I am happy to pay a reasonable price for a house, nothing over the odds and don’t want to get into bidding wars for houses just not worth the prices they are going for. 

All that’s going to happen is lenders devalue and then it’s back to drawing board renegotiating. 

We are going to keep an eye on the market but will come to terms with having to wait a bit longer until this stabilises as frustrating as that is. 

This is where I am at now. I'm not desperate to buy and able to wait until things cool off a bit.

Thrugelmir

Look at the positives. When the right property does come along. You are in a prime proceedable position. With no rent to pay. Your savings are building. Likewise should the pandemic take a turn for the worst. You are in a better position than many to weather the storm. 

JuanBallOfWimbledon

Same situation here. Had a couple of purchases fall through and it seems almost nothing is coming onto the market. Things seemed to be looking up for a week or so recently, then it got daft again. We had an asking price offer accepted on a real project of a house a few weeks back, ours was the only offer of even close to asking in over 4 weeks. Happy days. Except literally a day later someone came along and offered 45k over asking, cash. So obviously we were ditched. We’ve waited decades to be in a position to buy, now we are it’s the worst possible time to be looking. It’s very probably the most demoralising situation I’ve been in in my almost 50 years. It baffles me how people seem to celebrate house prices rising, we don’t do that about the price of holidays or anything else. We’re getting close to just giving up now. 

MobileSaver

lookstraightahead said:

Sebo027 said:

I wonder how many people are splashing "COVID cash" on properties that they won't be able to keep up payments with. 

Lots of people. They have no idea what they're doing.

On the contrary, I think those people know exactly what they are doing.

They are the ones getting on with their lives while others moan and complain about how unfair the housing market is. They are the ones enjoying their new homes while others continue to live in unsuitable properties and/or keep paying their landlord's mortgage instead of their own.

As for "keeping up with payments" you are forgetting that for years now lenders have had to apply ever stricter affordability checks to make sure that home owners can afford their mortgage payments even if things change significantly; the days of mass repossessions are long gone.