Anyone else utterly sick of trying to find a house?

[ComeAlongPond]

It's shit.

We've been in rented for a year, after selling ours last summer.

Everything round here has either been on the market for months (years) and won't consider an offer, or goes in a day. We aren't being unrealistic - we've had three offers accepted, all have fallen through (one due to a dodgy survey, two due to cunty vendors).

Saw one house last week on rightmove. Rang up to look around. Oh, it's sold. Six weeks ago. They're moving in next week! It's still on rightmove at the moment, FFS, take it down!

And the agent just rang me to tell me about a house. Sounds lovely. £50k over budget. "And will they take an offer?" "Doubt it, they've just dropped £50k from the price." Well then.

GRRRRRR.

I've got my eye one two - one's perfect but over budget, one is fine (well, it's very good, actually, but doesn't excite me) and under budget. Apart from those two there's nothing we haven't already seen and dismissed (or made an offer on and had it fall through...) and we really want to be in by Christmas - looking very unlikely now

Anyone else in the same boat? Share your woes, make me feel better!

[lalalonglegs]

I commiserate - we would like to move but every time we look at our preferred area, prices have risen by 100k (this is an unexceptional corner of SW London, not Belgravia). Even wrecks cost the best part of 1 million so, even though we have a large deposit and a lot of equity in our current home, it's simply not doable now (or, perhaps, ever). I think I will wait until we get my oldest child into secondary school - 3 years - and then move out of catchment to a less poncy more realistic area.

[ComeAlongPond]

Oh, sorry to hear that lala. We're not in London so prices are more reasonable (well, as reasonable as they are anywhere in the SE), I'm just sick of getting so far along in the process and then being disappointed. I don't want to be in rented anymore. The road is too loud, the kitchen is a stupid configuration, I don't like the decor, our stuff is all in boxes, and we're wasting money on rent. It's frustrating.

Our landlord is very lovely though so it could be worse.

[nm123]

Oh I could've written exactly the same post.

I am a rightmove addict and pounce as soon as something new comes on the market. We went on holiday and saw 7 houses when we got back to catch back up with the local market. Didn't get that feeling with any of them even though we do desperately wanted one of them to be The One. It's do depressing, we've got a good deposit, a mortgage offer in place, we're chain free and have been looking since January. Am beginning to think we'll never get that feeling as it seems we're still going to have to compromise on size/area/condition....

No viewings booked in for this weekend! Hoping that something will come up son though expecting there to be a complete slump until the new year tbh.

Our dream house exists for about £100k more than we can afford.

In the meantime, we'll continue throwing money away renting.

[lalalonglegs]

You've definitely got the shittier end of the stick. I am getting itchy feet though. You may thank your lucky stars yet - prices are getting very fizzy in London, it definitely has that 2007 vibe and I can't help thinking it just takes a bit of bad news from Europe and redundancies in the City and it'll come falling down (again).

[lalalonglegs]

Above comment was for ComeAlongPond.

[weedonleg]

we were feeling just like you (in rented, 6 months of lacklustre viewings of overpriced houses which had been on the market for months), until last weekend when 3 new houses came on to the market. We honestly could have bought any of them. We've just had our offer accepted on one. So it could all change very quickly.

[TunipTheVegemal]

Do the agents know you're looking and you're a cash buyer? You really want them to be ringing you up as soon as something suitable comes on their books, rather than you having to wait till it appears on Rightmove.

[ComeAlongPond]

Lala, we did feel quite lucky when one of our offers fell through due to vendor-shittiness (I want to move in November. No I don't, I want to move in October. Actually December. Actually February. No, no, October, I mean it this time. Actually, no, can you move in next week. Actually, I'm not selling at all, bye bye...) and a few weeks ago the place was flooded. I'm not glad it flooded, of course, but I'm glad we didn't own it.

I wouldn't even mind losing out on the feeling at this point, nm - though my dream house is one at 50k above budget at the moment. There's nothing round here to even compromise on anymore, the market just hasn't got anything. There's plenty of 800k+ on the market. Plenty of flats and plenty of pretty 2 bed cottages. But anything between the two? Nada. With the exception of Dream House (which isn't in a great location and is my dream house but nobody else's, so...), we could increase our budget over and over (well, we couldn't, but theoretically!) and still have nothing because there's just nothing for sale And the stuff that's on is bloody sold and the agents don't take it off even when it's been moved into!

Never mind. I've seen one that will probably do so it may come down to that (assuming it's still actually for sale...) if we can get a viewing. And a vendor that isn't a twat.

Hope it picks up for you both soon, anyway

[ComeAlongPond]

That gives me hope weed!

They do Tunip. They are just useless. Today I looked at four listings with copious photos of "internal features" (i.e. other people's fruit bowls and clocks) and not one photo of a bedroom. FUCK OFF WITH YOUR INTERNAL FEATURES AND SHOW ME THE DAMN HOUSE. Ahem. Tbh they're not suitable anyway. They ignore our budget/space/location requirements and send us things that are in the aforementioned 2 bed cottage/800k + bracket. I suppose because that's all they have on their books. But it adds insult to injury when they then show me twenty five photos of a running tap and no picture of the actual bathroom.

I'll get on them again though, you're right that stuff should be with us before it's on rightmove. If we keep nagging them they might encourage a few more hesitant sellers.

[TunipTheVegemal]

Oh it is such a ridiculous trend, these lifestyle photos.

[ComeAlongPond]

I know! It wouldn't be so terrible if it was something that was staying. A nice roaring fire or something. Unnecessary but I could sort of see where they're coming from. But why do I want to look at a bowl of fruit that is obviously going to be taken away?! It's not even a new house that's been 'dressed' for viewings. It's a fucking 70s detached.

And they wax lyrical about the thing too. What I want is this: "4 bed, detached house in popular area, easy access to beach and park. Kitchen-diner, L-shaped living room, separate study. 3 double bedrooms, one en-suite. Large garden."

What I get is this: "Imagine yourself sipping coffee in your very own patch of homestead. Hear the waves lapping and the children playing and maybe a dog barking at a squirrel. The beach is but a hop away. Amble to the park in a leisurely five minutes. If it rains, retreat to the living room, shaped like an L, to remind you of the Love that will fill your new happy little home. The bedrooms have room to share, with one being suitable for a child, or a very lucky guest, who won't want to leave your dream abode! Or perhaps an extra study, to store your many books, or tidy the children's toys when they've finished their hours of wholesome fun."

FUCK OFF I KNOW HOW TO USE A ROOM.

And none of them can bloody spell or punctuate properly either so I just get the rage at their useless RUBBISH wordy descriptions. I just want to know the number of bedrooms and how far it is from the station

(This could be why they don't send me houses.)

[Mum2Fergus]

Totally! Currently renting and had notice that Landlord intends to sell, so had to bring my timeline forward a bit. Area Im looking at is perfect for school and afterschool care...but can I get in quick enough?! No!! Despite all local and some national agents having all my details, Im still having to chase them only to find its already gone!!

[weedonleg]

That really made me laugh comealongpond! There's an agent in our area who does that, but even worse, they use the same clichés in every single listing. If I read one more time how I might like to 'cook up a storm' in the kitchen...

All the agents knew our position (good equity, in rented) but not one of them ever alerted us to a house before it went live on rightmove. We even phoned up 2 weeks ago about a house that had just gone on to rent to ask whether the owner would consider selling. The agent told us no, they are moving overseas but want to keep the house. Monday, it appeared for sale on rightmove. I'm still waiting for them to notify us of it.

Agents do a really shitty job for the vendors too. Yesterday we were in the middle of negotiations on the house we have just had the offer accepted on, and the agent was trying to sell us another house which she felt met our criteria better!

[ComeAlongPond]

They do - we saw one on rightmove the other day, on a Friday. Rang up to look around it, but we were told it had gone under offer five minutes ago. I suggested that we could pop round and look at it that day or the following day and make a very quick decision, and we're ready to move and the house is under budget so we could go to asking price. If I were the vendor, I'd like to be at least told that we were keen to look, and they could always say no. But really, they were going to consider the offer over the weekend, so why we couldn't see if we wanted to make a competing offer I don't know. The agent wouldn't even tell the vendors we wanted to look.

It's a good idea to look at places that are going up for rent. There's a fair amount going up around here, I think people are worried about selling. How do you work out how much a house would be if it's advertised as rented?

[weedonleg]

Where we are (rural Kent), a 750K house rents for about £2600 a month, but I bet the ratios vary hugely across the country.

[gettingeasier]

Hang on in there

I was looking for a few months after selling mine and really needed to find somewhere , I was beginning to try and make square pegs fit round holes .

Then my house fell into my lap and I still love it as much as on first viewing

[ComeAlongPond]

Ah, okay, guess there's no hard and fast rule. I will investigate.

That makes me feel a bit better, getting, gives me some hope! I'm glad you found somewhere.