What tools did you use to track and manage your house or flat hunt?

monkey-fingers

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81888940#Comment_81888940

This.

We used Rightmove and on both the last 2 occasions we looked at one property and bought one property.

It does help that my OH spends her days looking at properties on Rightmove all day, so you get a feeling of what it is you want. In addition, you can do a lot of grunt work by using the Google car.

The fact that the Google car didn't come down the street of our current property was a bonus too, because it's a Private Road (and despite what some people might say on here, we very much like it that way)

theartfullodger

Paper, pencil & brain when I started (1974-ish) Since then upgraded to spreadsheets (free LibreOffice - basically does what microsoft office does but for free)

https://www.libreoffice.org/download/download-libreoffice/

and internet browsers and email. And champagne. Why champagne?? Offer agents bottle of shampoo for when you complete on a purchase (any property). (And you must deliver!). Grabs their attention for what is only a minor cost in the whole transaction. And be friendly, polite and responsive in your dealings with agents and solicitors. Makes things work easier and, trust me, agents deal with those who don't behave that way and they get worse service…. When assessing costs of mortgages I compare deals on the overall costs for first 5 years.. (ie don;t get hung up on tiny % lower deals or irrelevant fees included.. )

Over the years probably bought and/or sold over 15 properties.

Good luck.

vic_sf49

Rightmove, sorted by most recent first.

It's easy to rule out properties as they're posted, and any you view, will be further down the list.

I could remember which I'd viewed, so didn't need to write notes, but when nosying at house prices now, I sometimes add notes to them in the box on RM.

microMenager

Thanks everyone, really useful to see how other people approach it. The focus point is fair, I think I'm casting a slightly wider net than I should be across a couple of different areas, which probably isn't helping.

I'm sure I want to visit as many places as possible, cause the descriptions and photos never tell the full story. I've visited places I thought I'd love and they fell below my expectations and places I found were much better than I expected.

The bit I'm really struggling with though isn't so much the properties themselves, it's the agent side of things. Once you've enquired on a few places you end up with a handful of different agents all texting and calling, and I keep losing track of who's handling which property, which viewings are confirmed versus just "we'll be in touch," and which ones I'm still waiting to hear back from.

Does anyone else find that side of it hard to manage, or does it just not get that bad if your shortlist is tight enough?

Herzlos

A paper diary will sort most of that, or a spreadsheet if you prefer.

But if you've got so many interactions going on you can't keep track of what stage each it at it definitely sounds like you're looking at too many at once.

We made a pretty thorough list on must haves and nice to haves. If it didn't meet the must have list then it didn't get an enquiry.
All of the initialy interaction and appointment confirmations were via rightmove or email, so I always had a paper trail, but I rarely had more than 2 'live' viewings at a time, and bought the 6th house we looked at over the course of about a year (not much came up that hit all of the criteria).

RelievedSheff

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81890327#Comment_81890327

Which to me suggests you are trying to look at too many properties at the same time.

Limit the number you look at.

We have only physically looked at four this house search because we knew what we did and didn't want so no point viewing what we didn't want.

EssexHebridean

We drew up a list:

1. Things we definitely wanted - 100%, deal breaker if missing
2. Things which we definitely DIDN't want - 100%, deal breaker if present
3. Things which were nice to haves, but not essential.

Anywhere that would have had an "item 2" was immediately dismissed. (monoplane roof, spray foam insulation, fake grass over a large area of garden - are examples). Likewise, anywhere missing an "item 1" could be dismissed. That then let us rule places out with a quick look, leaving us to discuss options for viewing. We viewed - from memory - 4 I think, and had a booking penciled in for two more when we found our current home.

Once the process was underway, an A4 spiral bound notebook held all the essential information - dates, to-do lists etc. We also had a couple of emails bouncing back and forth which we could just add information to so as to help keep track.

Tabieth

My approach was very similar to some of the other replies on here. I only used Rightmove and, as I have an account, I could save properties and make notes. That, combined with a notebook and diary kept me well organised. But definitely narrow your epsearch a bit. I did it like this: (it’s not exactly rocket science or anything special but it worked for me).

1. I identified my budget and searched for properties that were within that or slightly over (to allow for an offer). No point looking at properties that I could not afford!
2. I decided the area and again searched by that. My view was and still is that the property can be changed, the location can’t be.
3. I developed a list of essential and desirable things I wanted. So essential for me was 2bedroom, a second loo, gas central heating. Desirable was off street parking. I would see something that didn’t have things on my desirable list, but not my essentials. Essentials were deal breakers and more than once I cancelled a viewing when I realised it had electric heating. (I bought a 2-bed house with gas central heating, a downstairs loo but on-street parking and couldn’t be happier).
4. I took a small notebook to the viewings to make notes at the time. I added the estate agent name and contact number to my iPhone calendar for the viewing so I didn’t lose track of who was who. When they called me back for feedback I’d ask which property they were calling about.

microMenager

I'm interested to know why people only used Rightmove. I've been using Zoopla and OnTheMarket too. I want to be able to track my property search across all available sources of properties and not be tied into one platform. Afer all, buying and moving house is a major investment and I'd like to feel like I did everything I could to find the best property on the market.

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81890755#Comment_81890755

I think if I had tools to manage this, it wouldn't be so difficult. I've looked at the tools that rightmove offer now (they've made great updates to their MyRightmove portal) and I'd like to have those features available to me for all platforms, not just rightmove.

I want to be able to save a property, save contact agent and easily put viewings and appointments in my calendar. If those tools were available you'd be able to manage the process much easier

Guna

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81890327#Comment_81890327

Shortening your shortlist will help. Also knowing what you are looking for and what you "acceptable minimum standard" is. I never look at more than two or three properties in one go. Most get thrown out at the shortlisting stage. Am I risking not viewing "the house of my dreams" because the property was poorly photographed? Sure. But there isn't going to be any property which is exactly right. Sometimes you just have to take things slowly and not worry that other houses will sell while you are limiting your viewings to just a few. Houses come and go all the time.

So my strategy is:

Look at all available options using filters (price, size, must-haves). Pick 2-3 for a viewing. Call the agent (this is important. I don't contact vie rightmove and wait for a reply. I just make a phone call right away). Go for a viewing. If I see something I like, I make an offer. If I don't like any of the properties, I wait a week and search again using "listed in the last 7 days" as a filter.