Did you know you house was the one.

[Bells3032]

So looked at 8 houses now. And I come out of every one of them either unsure or not liking it. I havent "loved" anything. The major issue is most stuff in the area has been lived in for 30 plus years and needs a lot of modernisation. And I either have to go somewhere further away from the station and my family (like an additional ten minute walk) or somewhere small and in need of lots of work.

The nicer area also has less options in the way of schools and nurseries. Although still a short drive away.

My head is doing itself in. I've bought property before and just felt like it was my home the second I walked in to the second place I saw. But not feeling that. It's such a massive amount of money and I just want to be certain and feel like I am not getting that atm. Scared of settling but scared of losing out on the better stuff we see.

How do I get rid of this anxiety? Will I know it's the one?

I beleive you will know its the one when you walk into and it 'makes your heart sing'. Not necessarily because its immaculate or 'perfect' and sometimes it might be a compromise, but you just think - I don't care that it hasnt got that massive kitchen diner I wanted. I love the area, the garden and I can see by changing the decoration/flooring it will be a lovely home.

I've made the mistake of buying the 'perfect on paper' house that ticked all my boxes... and I was utterly miserable. As soon as we walked into this house, even though it was half the size of the old one, and didn't tick everybox that I thought it would need to, I just new it was 'the one!' And have never looked back, my heart still sings thinking of this house.

We visited 20+ houses. The one we bought was too end of our budget, didn't have the guest room or parking we wanted but we liked it enough to ask for a second viewing a couple of days later.

When we went back, I was already living there in my head. It's needed some work but we did have The Feeling right away.

Something will come that you like enough to make the compromises much easier!

I had the heart singing moment when we walked into our house. We spent 18 months looking at other properties (maybe 20ish houses) as this house wasn’t very practical for us. It came back on the market the day we went for another meh viewing and made an offer that day without seeing it again. I had doubts when we first moved in about some of the practical issues, but now I love it again!

We first saw our house while heading for the woods to walk the dogs. There was a little home-made "For Sale" notice on a dilapidated fence. We knocked on the door and arranged a viewing.
Looked round it, got back in the car, turned to each other and said "This is the one."
It was over 30 years ago. We're still here.

Yep. We offered the asking price - at the very top of our budget, but the EA claimed there had been another offer and we couldn't risk it. I browse Rightmove occasionally but have never seen anywhere else that 'feels right'.

I did but I don’t know whether we just got lucky finding a house that ticked all our subconscious boxes or whether it is ‘the one’

Having said that when we bought our first house we found one we liked, put an offer in etc, and started the process, there were a few niggly problems, so we started looking at other options in case it fell through, one came up that had been out of our price range before but had been reduced. Like pp said it was perfect on paper compared to the first one so we went for it, even though I didn’t get a happy vibe, I thought it would grow on me.
But I never settled there, it never felt like home, even when we did it up/decorated, and when we left 10 years later to move into our current house I wasn’t the slightest bit sad to leave and almost relieved.

Our current house on the other hand did have the “this in the one” feel almost before I got through the front door. We’ve been here 15 years and I’ve had a couple of nightmares that we have moved house and regret it immediately and want to buy it back off the new owners. Then I wake up in a cold sweat until I realise it was only a dream. So obviously no plans to move soon. or again. or ever. 🤣

I knew our house was the one just from the right move advert. I knew we wouldn't get anything as spacious or in that area for that amount of money and in that location. We did see about 6 or 7 houses but ended up buying the one I knew we would after 2 minutes on rightmove!

Make a list of what you want, highlight what you won't compromise on? I think getting the area/street right is more important than modernising issues as you can modernise etc as you go along, even do extensions etc if garden is big enough , but you can't change the location. Also 8 house viewings isn't much! If you're not in a rush keep at it a bit longer?

We almost didn't view our house as it was £15k over budget and we were so sure it would go for asking price from the listing. I eventually persuaded DH to view after it had been on for 6 months and we'd had around 20 other viewings of virtually identical houses that were just OK. We walked in and both knew, we couldn't believe she hadn't had any offers as it was just perfect - it needed some work and complete redecoration but was so light and had a stunning garden. We offered and she accepted our top budget, and we were in 4 months later.

The first house, yes, I knew from looking at pictures and by the time we'd walked round the 5 rooms I was buzzing and DH could tell I loved it. Luckily he lived it too.

Upsizing from our perfect little house to a family home was much harder. We were spoilt for area, it was at the cheaper end of the scale and had really good facilities but he wanted to move slightly more rural and bear mil as she would offer childcare. We also wanted old which comes with a premium in this area.

The first time we looked around this house I hated it. The estate agent only talked to DH, going as far as to pop off upstairs with him when I asked to see the kitchen. It was dingy and smelt bad, the garden was overgrown. There was damp and it didn't tick all our boxes.

DH wanted to give it a chance but it was early in our search and it wasn't until we'd exhausted the market and checked out a new build that I said we should view it again. DH has gone off it by then but we viewed it on a sunny day and I felt better about it. We had to do a lot of work but it really feels like home now.

It still doesn't tick all our boxes, off street parking and a garage would be nice, but we're still here and even though we've been tempted to view other houses as they come on the market we still don't feel finished with this one.

No not really. I'm the opposite in that I can make anything work in my head when I put my mind to it! I just have a list of what we need practically, I don't have a "feeling" or anything else although I have gotten very excited about the house we are buying and would be very upset to lose it. It's taken a bit of time to develop those feelings though, post offer!

First house I viewed, I rejected out of hand. Sold our flat and offered on a house round the corner from First House. Purchase fell throgh and we were so set on the area and maintaining our chain we offered on First House. Lived here five years and love it with all my heart.

Before we’d even viewed it. It was on t e market but sold. We were viewing houses and walked past it and said “this would have been ideal”.
The next day it came back on the market as the chain further down collapsed.

We viewed it and immediately offered on it and had it accepted.

However we’d viewed a lot of houses by then and we knew what we wanted, I wouldn’t say ours is a ‘dream house’ but it ticked all of the boxes in terms of space and although the decor and furnishings wasn’t at all our taste. We could see past that

I bought the first and only house that I viewed as I just knew it was the one as soon as I walked in. It needed (still needs) work, but it just felt like home.

Wasn't keen on viewing this place but the estate agent said I should. On the outside it was/is nothing like my ideal house.

I loved it the minute I walked into the hallway...the homely feel of it, the light....despite needing some work. It's done now and I love it even more. It feels like home like no other place has before. And I've lived in quite a few. Been here 9 years now.

I could see us living in it and being very happy whereas with other houses I just couldn’t visualise it; that was how I knew and the fact that after we left I kept thinking about it.

We fell in love with a house, thought we'd lost it, then it came back on the market and we bought it. I loved it so much - for about a week. Then we discovered our neighbour was an eccentric and gifted pianist who played the piano loudly at all hours. DH had a blazing row with him one night, and we put the house back on the market. We moved within a year. Luckily, our buyer knew the pianist and said he'd have no problems sorting him out - "My dear, he is a member of the Conservative Club - and I'm chairman there.." I decided never to fall for a house again !

I think you have to be realistic about what you can afford and what you need to compromise on. Then you will know.

FWIW

First flat - was looking for something period with character- was 1960's ugly but good sized rooms, osp, generally nice and no damp

House 2: Victorian Terrace with every original feature down to original keys in original locks. But too much woodchip and covered in habitat splurge wallpaper.

House 3 - waay over budget and ruined us and we could find nothing else we liked. Early 90s and then the builders went bankrupt. Family home for more than 20 years.

House 4 - Just wow. We tingled.

However we have some buy to let's and I've also done a renovation project - max price for road, selling price, renovation cost. Cost benefit analysis. Distance from station, aspect and condition of adjoining houses is paramount however much the heart tugs.

I knew within a few seconds of walking in to my house that it was the one, it just felt like home. Tbh it felt like it had been built for me which sounds crazy as it was built in 1935.

Not this house.
First house yes.
House we wanted instead of this one and lost was a yes.
There was another house I loved but head over heart decision we went for this house. After months of lockdown in it it feels more like home but still not 100% perfect but there are always compromises.

Definitely didn't.

We put out house on the market and prices then dropped steadily for the next year. We got regular calls from the estate agent asking to drop the price.
We viewed various houses in our price range. None stood out. We viewed everything from a completely wrecked 3 bed which we could extend if we got it at that price, through some ones that were okay but top end of our price range so we couldn't do anything, and some really nice ones that unless we got a great offer on our house were out of range.

We put an offer in on the wrecked one, and got outbid (fair enough, we couldn't go any higher), discussed another one, but they wouldn't accept an offer until we had an offer on ours, and discussed with the estate agent one that was well out of our price range but had been on the market for over a year, and we thought might look at a cheeky offer (estate agent said they'd been refusing anything below the asking price).
About 9 months down the line I had a call from our estate agent asking if we'd be interested in the one we considered a cheeky offer. I said we would, but we'd been told this. They told us it had just been repossessed (hence why they'd been holding out for full price I guess) and they had it.
Long story short, we got the house at £150k less than we'd seen it on for.

So you'd think I'd have been delighted. Didn't help that we moved in subzero conditions in November to a house that had been empty for nearly 6 months and had no gas hence heating. We gave up the first night and went to a travel lodge. I cried on and off that first week, thinking we'd made a huge mistake. It took 6 months for it to feel like home.
Now it's definitely the right house for us. Although I was somewhat disappointed to find it doesn't have enough space under the stairs to make a sewing room...

My house was the last house I saw on a week long visit to the area. It needed gutting downstairs and the garden needed doing. Decorating also required. But it was clean, the vendors were lovely, it was a beautiful spot and the light was and is wonderful. I knew as soon as I had been round it and put in an offer immediately. I love my house and suspect I wouldn’t move even if I won the lottery.

Only saw one when we bought this one. The agent taking pictures on our little 2 up, 2 down said he’d just seen a property that was us to a T. Dunno if he was bullshitting, but he was bang on. We walked into the kitchen and said yes. It’s 20x10, our immediate thought was ‘we could have dogs here’. The garden confirmed it, we offered immediately.