Mental Health

YoungBlueEyes

I know everyone says it, but just keep on looking and viewing. Poss come under your top budget so you also have room to ‘over-bid’. 

It’s not just FTB’s that are affected by the craziness.  We’re buying a house, roughly 50/50 cash + mortgage. While we were house hunting we saw one we both liked, went to local cafe to talk about it and perhaps make an offer. A different EA text me. Hi we’ve a house you might like to view, not on the market yet etc. I rang straight back. “Yes please! We’re actually in the area having just viewed a house. Yours is actually round the corner, we’ll be there in 2 minutes!” 

By the time we got there, literally 2 minutes later it’d gone. Someone else got the text and offered over and it was accepted. The guy had already been verified with that EA so the seller was happy enough. 

Brutal. 

But we kept looking and have found somewhere better. 

Good luck to ya. 

boxer234

It took me two years to find a place.  I got fed up of driving to viewings every weekend but you will get there.  I exchanged today and although I made compromises I got most of what I wanted.  Do look at houses you initially overlooked.  Make a list and decide what you will compromise on and what’s a deal breaker. 

Megaross

Remember you're not buying a pair of trousers, it's a serious life changing decision, not something you can rush.

It's normal to be stressed, unpleasant but normal. Be patient and keep on going - it'll be worth it in the end. 

ReadingTim

• The price you want
• The location you want
• The specification you want

Pick 2...

This also applies to 2nd time buyers, 3rd time buyers, etc - literally anyone who hasn't won the lottery.  And even then, Buckingham Palace probably isn't available....

movilogo

Don't overlook SOLD STC houses. Many of them are not sold as their buyers can't proceed without selling theirs. Some of them will come back to market as statistically 1/3rd of all chains fail. If you really like a SOLD STC house worth ringing the EA if the sale is progressing well. In rare cases you may find it is halted and vendor will be delighted to get a new chain free buyer. 

NameUnavailable

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hpsauce86

Connoisseurus_Rex said:

SavingPennies_2 said:

If houses are always going above (lets say 20k as in your example), and you are always viewing houses at the top of your budget, then you're always going to get knocked back... you are inadvertently setting yourself up for punishment! An option then is to view houses that are not at the top of your budget (not meaning something that hasn't been taken care of/ is in a state just something cheaper than your actual budget because it's smaller/ different area etc). So go for places priced 20K less than your budget then you have room to overbid too (obviously within reason as the valuation may come back lower and you don't want to overpay anyway). I guess I'm saying: if your top budget is, for example 200k, but everything at 200K goes for 220k, then your top budget isn't really 200k.

Easier said than done but try to separate buying a house from "your life" so you aren't putting your life on hold, even when you secure a sale you will still have months ahead of stress/ to-ing and fro-ing etc so you don't want to put your life on hold for what could be another 6-12 months. It is stressful buying no matter what, but especially so at the moment, good luck.

Solid advice. I can't help but feel a little bit like the "in the middle" houses tend to be very disappointing, nowhere near as nice as the top end of my budget, and with none of the potential to improve like the lower end.

If it makes you feel better, we were looking for 3 years. Many failed offers, constantly being outbid. 

Found our home on Rightmove, got it for asking price as vendor wanted a quick sale. Looking at houses now (just because I’m nosey and it’s a habit) we’ve definitely struck gold. 4 double bedroom end terrace Victorian house, immaculate throughout. We just got lucky. Hang in there, there’ll be the right house out there for you. I would say widen your search area, be open to homes that might need work doing, and lower budget a little (I know you said you are disheartened by the stock but there’ll be some hidden gems). Our home was actually a fair amount under our budget, we kept being outbid previously and so started looking at slightly cheaper so we’d have more money to play with for offers over. Turns out we didn’t need to. 

Fingers crossed you find the right place soon. Try not to let yourself get upset, you’ll get there in the end, enjoy exploring some new potential areas and you’ll find somewhere soon I’m sure.