First time buyer - 3rd house fallen through.

Richiem1987

For FTB, just allow at least a 20% deposit, so you can swallow a down valuation and get that 10%  deposit Mortgage. That is what I did, but no down valuation.

Unfortunately, going forwards, FTBs and many requiring mortgages will be taken out of the game, leaving only cash buyers bidding.

GDB2222

Dusk1983 said:

GDB2222 said:

If you don’t have a large deposit, you’ll have to be careful not to over-offer, but of course that may mean you don’t get to buy anything. However, at least you won’t be wasting money on fees for purchases that are liable to fall through.

This forum is heavily biased to older property owners with equity, and most days we have one of you popping up with this kind of “advice”.

If you strip away all the faux helpfulness, all you lot effectively say to FTBs is “know your place” as you pull that ladder up behind you. Well, no. Screw that.

OP, don’t listen to people like this. Do whatever you need to secure a property, including offering up to your absolute maximum then reducing later if needed. It’s brutal out there and if you listen to people like the guy above, you’ll be renting forever.

The OP is complaining that he's lost loads of money NOT buying a home. You're just telling him to keep gambling. 

There have been cases on this forum where people have put in high offers, then reduced them when the inevitable 'down-valuation' comes in. Sometimes, their vendor has become so entangled in their own purchase by then that they have agreed the reduction. That might work for the op, if he keeps trying, but he's already lost three lots of fees, and he isn't keen. 

So, your own 'faux helpfulness' is to tell the op to keep trying a strategy that hasn't worked for him so far.  Maybe, it's better that he is realistic and builds up his deposit a bit more, rather than frittering it away on wasted fees?  Or, maybe you are right, and he should spin the wheel again, and maybe this time he'll get lucky? 

MysteryMe

Without further context from the OP as to the circumstances of three failed attempts, anything could be the reason. 

We don't know how the thousands of pounds worth of repairs has been arrived at and there is a huge difference between asking price £100k offered £100K mortgage valuation £70k and asking price £100k offered £130k mortgage valuation £100k

Ramouth

OP are there any new build being built in your area?  This would give you far more certainly.

nicknameless

GDB2222 said:

Dusk1983 said:

GDB2222 said:

If you don’t have a large deposit, you’ll have to be careful not to over-offer, but of course that may mean you don’t get to buy anything. However, at least you won’t be wasting money on fees for purchases that are liable to fall through.

This forum is heavily biased to older property owners with equity, and most days we have one of you popping up with this kind of “advice”.

If you strip away all the faux helpfulness, all you lot effectively say to FTBs is “know your place” as you pull that ladder up behind you. Well, no. Screw that.

OP, don’t listen to people like this. Do whatever you need to secure a property, including offering up to your absolute maximum then reducing later if needed. It’s brutal out there and if you listen to people like the guy above, you’ll be renting forever.

The OP is complaining that he's lost loads of money NOT buying a home. You're just telling him to keep gambling. 

There have been cases on this forum where people have put in high offers, then reduced them when the inevitable 'down-valuation' comes in. 

And this 'faux generalisation' isn't really helpful either is it?  Let's face it there's a reality between forum hyperbole.

london21

Seems you are offering more than what the lender thinks the property is worth.

Currently a seller's market but when you put in a high offer do you have the cash to pay the shortfall if undervalued and seller not willing to reduce price. 

GixerKate

FedUpFirstTimeBuyer24 said:

I honestly cannot believe our bad luck in wanting to buy a house. I’m trying to stay positive as we are lucky to be in the situation to be able to buy and we are happy with our rental property, but we’ve lost a lot of money now and have been through this process for over 18 months. 

I am a school teacher but I also own a tutoring agency which I currently run as self employed sole trader. We have been waiting for the last 18 months to change to a limited company as we didn’t want to change legal entity whilst wanting to buy a house. However, now we have had all this bad luck, I’m wondering if I should just change legal entity now, save a lot more money in doing so and then look to buy a house in the future when the market is hopefully a bit more stable?! 

It just feels like something is telling us now isn’t the right time to buy. Surely if 3 houses have fallen through this is telling?
The market is insane where we are at the moment. We are in Berkshire and we are looking at 475k for a 3 bed! 

Any advice would be amazing. I feel totally lost and overwhelmed. 

Thank you! 

Some context: 
1st house - March 2021. Shocking survey. Vendors only willing to knock £500 off for thousands and thousands of pounds of work. Forced to pull out. 

2nd house- January 2022- down valuation of 30k. Forced to pull out as our deposit was already at maximum and again, no flexibility.

3rd House - March 2022. Down valuation of 50k. Structural survey finding timber that had potentially rotted and a strange construction. Forced to pull out as again no negotiation for thousands and thousands of pounds of work. 

Are you a FTB and knowledgeable about DIY etc?  The reason I ask is that you have pulled out of house 1 and 3 due to survey findings and you are being pretty vague with 'thousands and thousands of pounds of work' etc. Are you taking everything reported in the surveys at face value and are you looking at the same type of houses each time?

When I bought my first house the survey came back with many findings such as 'may need a new roof', 'boiler may need replacing as very old', 'electrics are not up to current standard' which could indicate thousands of pounds.  In the ten years we lived there we didn't replace the roof, boiler or electrics as wasn't actually needed.

If you want to move into a house and not have a DIY list then look at new builds otherwise its pretty reasonable to expect to have to do some DIY.  I would suggest keep looking and hopefully the right house will appear.

barbiedoll

My friend is trying to sell her house, a small, three-bed terrace in outer London. The estate agents keep telling her that it's worth £400k. It's a first-time buyer house and she's had 3 potential buyers pull out because the mortgage lenders think that it's not worth anywhere near the asking price, they're thinking nearer £350k. Most FTB's don't have an extra fifty grand languishing in their accounts, nor do they want to overpay for their first property. She's lost out on her next purchase because she can't sell the place, but both her and the local estate agents just won't consider dropping the price by more than a few thousand.

Estate agents have far too much say in the property market, and many of them have no idea of their market. Nearly all listings around here in the last year or so, have been price-dropped significantly. Luring vendors to try to sell at inflated prices just wastes everyone's time, vendors start shopping for their new place, only to realise that they can't afford it, buyers end up scrabbling around for extra funds, or else pull out altogether. No wonder the house buying and selling process in England is so stressful.

ReadingTim

To the extent you haven't already, arrange to speak to the surveyor once you'd had their written report as they're more likely to given an honest answer verbally than write it down, or give their opinion on how likely a "potential" event is. 

For example, while the survey will write that electrics don't meet modern wiring standards, in person the surveyor would probably give an indication as to the extent they're actually dangerous, or not.  I short, just because something could happen, it doesn't mean it will.... Aliens for example, could exist, but alien invasion seems unlikely.  

jonnydeppiwish!

Richiem1987 said:

Unfortunately, going forwards, FTBs and many requiring mortgages will be taken out of the game, leaving only cash buyers bidding.

Not quite sure that this is true, houses will always need to be sold - death, divorce etc so prices will be what people can afford.
Given the new changes for rentals, making them a lot less enticing, maybe there won’t be so many cash buyers around?