Gazumped and still gutted... sorry, bit long

[Mysterymouse]

(Have namechanged in case this makes me too identifiable...)

Here's the situation: We had agreed sale of our house and found a fab house to move to and had our offer accepted. Would have had a couple of months in between houses, when we were going to rent or move in with ILs, but we would have been in the new lovely house by Christmas (which I was really looking forward to - not any more), and had plenty of time to get sorted ready for DC2 who is on the way.

Then a couple weeks back - just as we were getting close to exchanging - we suddenly heard the sellers had accepted a higher offer - enough that we had no way to match it . We were really gutted of course, had a couple of sleepless nights wondering whether we would find somewhere new before the baby comes, and really sad to lose the house we had started thinking of as "ours". But we decided we still had to go ahead with our sale, as we couldn't morally pull out even if we legally could (the buyers had a baby on the way any day, & had sold their place). So we are looking for somewhere cheap to rent temporarily until we find a place to buy.

Thing is it's been a few weeks now, but I am still really gutted and also panicking a bit too. Since we lost that house, pretty much nothing suitable has come on the market (yes I know it's holidays so probably a quiet time, but it's getting me down), and I'm starting to worry that:

• We won't have found anywhere that's "ours" by the time baby comes, and will still be in some small temporary rented place with a baby and toddler
• I keep reading that house prices are going up again, and mortgage rates have already gone up quite a bit, so we could end up losing lots of money
• If it takes more than 6 months from our sale we will lose our very good existing mortgage, so will lose even more money
• We might not find (or be able to afford, by then) anywhere that we like as much as the "lost" house, and will end up settling for somewhere we don't like...

Anyone got any good advice or reassuring words for me? The preggy hormones are probably not helping and I know things could be a lot worse really, but still can't stop stressing about all this.

[MaryBS]

Have you thought of leafletting an area you are interested in, putting leaflets through the letterboxes of houses you are interested in. Explain the situation, say you have been let down, want to move, and would they be interested in selling their house, subject to viewing etc? People may have been thinking of moving, but put off by the slow market. They may jump at the chance of avoiding estate agency fees.

[fruitstick]

Mysterymouse - congratulations on your new baby.

Exactly the same happened to us, vendor pulled out (just changed his mind) on day of exchange when we had 2 week old baby . We have been renting for 4 months, have been given notice by our landlord and the only house we have seen worth putting an offer in on has turned us down.

However - on the brightside
.....the first few months with a baby and toddler are such a whirlwind it doesn't matter where you live. I, for one, was certainly pleased noone was asking me difficult questions about what colour to paint the hall

• house prices are going up but the only thing that is sustaining this is lack of supply. As soon as more people are tempted back into selling (or their redundancy money runs out) this will change. They may not plummet as they did before but you are unlikely to be left behind.
• the mortgage is a bugger. We lost our rate of 0.5% above base but bankers are shits an we all know thisw . Interest rates are due to remain low for some time so even on a tracker you will still be paying less than you were 3 years ago.
• You won't settle for something you don't like. There are plenty of nice houses and something better will come along

I tell myself these things over and over again everyday to make myself feel better. I have trouble with accepting that we have lost out financially but made the best decisions we could for our family.

It's really hard but it is only money (she says through gritted teeth) and when you hold your newborn baby for the first time you won't give a toss where your post is redirected too.

Best of luck.

[fruitstick]

Also, McNulty has a graph somewhere about what happens to house prices. It's cheery. I'll see if I can find it.

[fruitstick]

here. We are in 'return to normal' phase (hopefully)

[Mysterymouse]

Thanks for replying. I am trying to remind myself of all those things!

MaryBS I have wondered about leafletting, but there are 2 things I'm unsure about, firstly we are considering a fairly wide area so it would be hard to narrow it down to specific streets. Also one of the things we definitely want (as we have that now and would miss it lots!) is a reasonable-sized garden, but I've found it's almost impossible to predict which houses have one - even between next-door houses there often seems to be quite a difference, and I didn't want to waste people's time if they are in the right area but don't have much garden. But I suppose we could mention that in the leaflet so they know what we're looking for?
Have you done this yourself before?

[Mysterymouse]

Oh I do like the graph, I hope you are right! Will send it to DH too to cheer him up.

[MaryBS]

I haven't, no, but I've seen it recommended on property shows . Mentioning it in your leaflet is a good idea.

I shouldn't worry about wasting peoples time - if you are specific in your requirements, its less likely, and just think how much money they'll save in estate agency fees, not only that, but a ready-made buyer! You'd be a Godsend!

Alternatively put up notices in newsagents in areas you are interested in, let them come to you?

[Mysterymouse]

Well things are going from bad to worse at the moment

The nice place we were hoping to rent will no longer be available when we need it, so we need to look for somewhere else.

Also we can't yet sign up for a rental, because we have STILL not managed to get contracts exchanged with our buyers (not their fault, some problem down the chain apparently) and can't go ahead until we know the sale is definitely happening...

But we need to sort the rental really soon, as we are going away in a week and will only get back 1 1/2 weeks before we have to move out, and we need to sort removals, storage etc as well; and the good rented places seem to be going really quickly, so we need to be able to sign up fast when we find somewhere that's OK...

I think all we can do is threaten to delay the completion date if the exchange doesn't happen very soon. But it just seems like everything is soooo complicated and nothing is going right. Can't believe we can't even sort somewhere to rent and are meant to be out in less than a month! I just WISH our old sellers and the gazumping people knew exactly what they are putting us through

[elizabethbob]

You can look at gardens on google maps with the satellite view and zoom in. It's pretty good and you can see trees and garden sheds.

[terracehouse]

They probably do. :-(
I sympathise. We got gazumped today, on a place I had totally fallen in love with, and intended to live for at least the next 25 years.

With the gardens, it's a good idea to google map satellite pic over the area. I've pinpointed quite a few good streets this way.

[terracehouse]

great minds, elizabethbob!

[Mysterymouse]

Sorry to hear you had this too terracehouse, it's shit isn't it! Oh well, we will have to hope some more nice places start to appear now the holidays are finishing.

Google maps might be a good idea for the gardens, we did use that to look at particular houses we were interested in, as you often can't tell from the pics how big the garden really is, but I hadn't thought of using it to search for places. Might try that and do some leafletting if nothing nice comes up soon. First priority will have to be sorting out somewhere to rent though, so we have somewhere to go in between!

[Pwsimerimew]

I know this thread has probably finished but I want to put this in writing for my own benefit.
We were gazumped three and a half years ago and yes, we were gutted. But, I am a great beleiver in things happening for a reason etc, and we did find this house which is much nicer, and probably cheaper to heat.
Only three weeks ago, the first house has come back on the market..... for £40k under what they paid for it, and I'm thinking , phew - lucky escape..............
I'm tempted to call the estate agents to see what's gone wrong.......

[terracehouse]

Schadenfreude is brilliant, isn't it?