To be disappointed about house hunting?

[Shellym13]

We are looking in an area where not many houses come up for sale and we have been pipped at the post on closing dates for 4 properties that I've loved.
We have a decent budget, no chain and our mortgage all agreed but we can't secure a house.
I know people will say look outwith the area but we love it here and our budget is more than enough to secure a property. Think out competition might be buy to let it second home owners with a lot more free cash to pay o we the valuation.
Sorry for the rant I'm just gutted, our rental is up in April and I'm beginning to think we will never find anywhere.

I think if the max you can borrow is 160k for example and you should be looking at properties with a valuation in the range of 140 to 150. As said the valuation is not exact, many other factors impact it, not least the amount of interest. You're not giving yourself enough wiggle room and hoping to get them too close to valuation.

I know it's a horrible system but it is what it is.

We are Looking at properties in that range from 135 to 155. If we wait it out all we will do is save more so that's not a bad thing. The last house we bid on at offers over 145 went for more than 165!

The most we can borrow is 200k but that's only on the mortgage.

What if you lower the deposit, and use some of the deposit instead for the bidding war? You might have to apply for a different mortgage but could be worth it. It's hard to fall in love with a series of houses and not get them. Last two friends I have who've sold flats (Scotland too, but the better city ) got 10-12 thousand over valuation. If you only have 2000, you need one that doesn't go to closing, or is fixed price. Remember you can offer you don't have to wait for a date. Might find someone who wants a chain free buyer in a hurry.

Fixed price? What's that

I see quite a lot of fixed price here. Often I suspect if a sale went wrong and they need a faster sale - doesn't necessarily mean it's a bad property.

I've not seen any in our area at all. Would make it so much easier!

We're nowhere near Scotland but in the exact same situation. Things aren't even on the market for a day in our price range before they're under contract.

No useful advice, but you have my sympathy!

CitySnicker

....Scotch is a drink.

No, 'Scotch are drunks'. English is tricky, eh?

That is racist. Reported.

I think if a house was £155,000 I would expect it to go for closer to £170,000. The Scottish system is hard because a house is worth what someone is willing to pay rather than the valuation.

Two years ago a house on our street was put on the market at offers over £360,000 & it sold for £490,000. This has pushed up the prices of the other houses on the street & they are now selling for offers over £510,000- £535,000. They all need completely renovated too.

Toottootcar

That is racist. Reported.

Hahahahahaha. Really? Scotch is a drink, not a race.

It was a grammatical mistake. I meant to say 'Scotches are drunk' or 'Scotch is drunk'

I would stay at your in laws and save a while longer.

This can be really annoying! There should be a bit more on the market over the summer months - could you rent somewhere else for 6 months? I know that is a pain but at least you will have somewhere to live.

Try a new approach....I know someone who posted handwritten cards through the door of every property they thought they liked enquiring whether they were thinking of selling and if so, to get in touch.

They found a property and they and the homeowner shared the estate agent fee saving.

We've just bought a house and sold our flat (both Glasgow) and I bloody HATE offers over, Shelly. You just wish you could say right, how much do you really want? And get a straight answer, make an offer, none of the stress of going to closing and waiting for the outcome.

Whereabouts in the west end are you looking? Some friends got a great wee house in Jordanhill recently, and Thornwood is nice.

Oh and wetunwindee only Jeremy Kyle guests think Scottish people are referred to as Scotch.

Hi agent Cooper, we like high knightswood, annieslabd and kelvindale.
Have a couple of video gs lined up this week but they are going to closing dates on Friday.
They are on at offers way below our budget but as you say they go for so much more so we need to wait and see.

We've just bought in Dublin. We were going through a similar thing. There's very little on the market and anything half decent was aggressively chased and went for well over the asking price. For one property, we were in a bidding war with 11 other potential buyers.

Two pieces of advice I'd give you based on my experience.

1. Stop looking at properties with asking prices in and around your budget. Concentrate on those with prices a bit lower (20/30K lower, depending). Then you've got some headroom if the price keeps climbing.

2. Try to find a property that's flying under the radar for whatever reason. Less interest means less competition. We ended up buying a property that was being handled by a tiny estate agent that no one had ever heard of. He wasn't too hot on the publicity and that worked out well for us.

Good luck.

Wetundwindee nice try to cover up your vile comment but your version makes no sense in the context of the post you were replying to.
Or perhaps you're not racist, just stupid. Who knows?

Just bought a house in the South Side of Glasgow - end of last year. Was offers over £189,000 and we paid £206,000.

South side and west end go to closing date very quickly, within days of houses going up within our price range as it's so hard to get a 2-3 bedroom house in these areas with that type of price tag.

I noted it was either going for a tenement flat, a cottage flat (both around £100-120,000) or a tiny house in Clarkson for £140-150,000, or decent sized house in Hampden/King's Park/Mount Florida/Croftfoot fro £180-£200,000 - but these are very few and far between.

It seems to jump from the £180,000 mark to £225,000 (offers over) around here which we just couldn't have afforded the deposit for.

Best of luck with the next viewing.

vile comment

Here's a grip. You should use it.

[grip]

Those are nice areas, Shelly Are you working to 10% over the home report? That's what we did and eventually had an offer accepted, having been way too conservative with our offers previously. It meant looking at cheaper houses but we got something we really like.

What, you made the same mistake twice ? Normal reaction to inadvertent mistakes about nationalities would be to say sorry, not make further jokes. But hey ho, prejudice against Scottish people is perhaps fine these days.

I've learnt all I know about the scotch system from Kirsty and Phil

No, 'Scotch are drunks'. English is tricky, eh? smile

You are being outbid. It's not unreasonable it's supply and demand. Lower your expectations to align with the power of your finances.