House hunting - things to avoid

Emily_Joy

YoungBlueEyes said:

2) Standard nowadays. They want to know you’re not just a time-waster who likes looking inside others’ houses.

But surely it is common to offer 85-90% of the asking price?

EssexHebridean

Emily_Joy said:

I would like again to thank everyone for their inputs. Price is not really that much of a concern. I am a bit puzzled at the moment by Estate Agents behavior, which seems a bit "pushy" to me. We started house hunting in November and have seen some 8 houses so far. We are now being told

(1) if we keep searching, we will not buy anything.

(2) they are not going to show us a house unless we can prove that we have a mortgage in principle for the full asking price (the house  in question is on the market since summer)

(3) we should make a decision whether to make an offer or not within a couple of hours of the first viewing. 

Is this normal nowadays?

1) Well you certainly won't buy something without searching!
2) Absolute nonsense - the agents we've been speaking with knew that we'd got a mortgage in principle for the amount we needed, but that is nowhere close to the asking price.
3) Again - claptrap - you take as much time as you need to decide whether to offer - the caveats there being that if you are umming and ahhing to that much of an extent, it may not be the house for you anyway, and the longer you wait for something you DO want, the more likely it is that someone else will beat you to it.

Agents can be pushy for sure - it's their business to be so to a degree, because they have the seller there wanting things to get moving undoubtedly, and also because of course until a sale completes, no commission for them! the good ones though understand that there is a balance there to be struck.  I think we've been pretty lucky so far with the ones we've dealt with - but I'm well aware that the pushy, bolshy ones are out there. Personally a difficult EA could well put me off a property to be honest - ultimately there can end up being a fair bit of dealing through them as a transaction progresses - at least there can if they are being pushed to do the job they are rather well paid for - and I'd sooner not subject both us and our solicitor to having to deal with someone who is potentially going to be an issue. 

YoungBlueEyes

Emily_Joy said:

YoungBlueEyes said:

2) Standard nowadays. They want to know you’re not just a time-waster who likes looking inside others’ houses.

But surely it is common to offer 85-90% of the asking price?

It might be common now to go under asking, but that wasn't true even in very recent times. Plenty of houses still go for over asking.

I meant that EA's will take you as a more serious buyer if you can prove you're further along the road. Not everyone needs a mortgage though. 

SprostonGreenHead

I can't get my head around this idea that some EAs have that people go looking around houses that they can't afford to buy. I am sure there are some very weird minority of people out there who have nothing better to do, but really, is it a problem enough that demanding proof of ability to buy is required?

I had it with one EA, who actually wanted bank statements and I got quite annoyed with them and said to-the-effect of "do you really think I'm gonna drive 5 hours up the country with my family to view a property I cannot afford to buy!? No, I'm not showing you my bank statements with proof of deposit. Here is my offer-in-principle, take it or leave it". This did the job.

YoungBlueEyes

It was A Thing, but not recently I don't think. A boring Saturday afternoon could be livened up with a shufti round some nice houses. Was it called 'carpet treading' or similar.....? 

SXX

I used to own a flat with:
Bathroom next to kitchen
Shared driveway
Front door straight into the lounge
School across the  road
Fairly-ish busy road
Had damp

I got the damp sorted as part of the buying process.
I did manage to sell the property despite the above things.   (Bathroom next to kitchen did put off a couple of buyers, but the flat did get sold),

I would avoid things like short leases, high service charges, structural problems, etc

SprostonGreenHead

YoungBlueEyes said:

It was A Thing, but not recently I don't think. A boring Saturday afternoon could be livened up with a shufti round some nice houses. Was it called 'carpet treading' or similar.....? 

"There's nowt as queer as folk!"

fackers_2

Emily_Joy said:

I am trying to compose a list of things one should avoid, if at all possible, when buying a house

1 - Unrealistic seller valuations
2 - Estate agent guff (this town bucks the trend / lots of offers on this house etc)
3 - listings that seem to skirt around certain future problems. 

- CHECK COMPARABLES, use ‘Property Log’ plug-in on Chrome to check how long and what original listing price was. Lots of EA trickery. 

- Don’t be led to believe your offer will be rejected. Put in your maximum comfortable offer and walk away. Don’t be tempted to up it because the EA said so. 

Best of luck! 

Postik

SprostonGreenHead said:

I can't get my head around this idea that some EAs have that people go looking around houses that they can't afford to buy. I am sure there are some very weird minority of people out there who have nothing better to do, but really, is it a problem enough that demanding proof of ability to buy is required?

I had it with one EA, who actually wanted bank statements and I got quite annoyed with them and said to-the-effect of "do you really think I'm gonna drive 5 hours up the country with my family to view a property I cannot afford to buy!? No, I'm not showing you my bank statements with proof of deposit. Here is my offer-in-principle, take it or leave it". This did the job.

My EA "financially qualified" people before allowing viewings.  I had around 30 viewings in one day so I have to be honest, I welcomed the vetting process.

On the other hand, whenever I asked to view a property the viewing was booked in no questions asked.  The problem with that is I'm willing to bet there are dreamers who would arrange viewings just for a day out at the weekend.

mi-key

neighbours with a hot tub in the garden. They either have niosy parties in it most nights of the year, or are swingers !