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Original poster

How many houses did you view?

55 replies

tyler80 · 16/03/2011 12:52

OH is starting to moan we'll never find anywhere I like despite the fact we've only viewed 6 houses. I didn't think that was a huge number.

Rightly or wrongly I think you should have a gut feeling about a house and it hasn't happened yet. We're not in a rush to buy and I don't think we'll lose anything by waiting. Just because there's nothing on the market right now doesn't mean there won't be something next week/month etc.

So, tell me how many houses you viewed and reassure me I'm not just being a fussy bugger!

OP posts:

Original poster

tyler80 · 16/03/2011 17:04

We already rent in the area we are looking at buying (I'd buy the house we rent if it was for sale) so it's easy enough to take our time and in the current market round here there's no need to rush. The house we looked at yesterday is on the market at 5 grand less than it's purchase price 5 years ago and there's no sign of things picking up anytime soon.

Have any of you had the situation where one partner is much more 'fussy' than the other? Is it worth having the fussy one do the first viewings on their own?

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exexpat · 16/03/2011 17:25

Two, when I bought in 2007. Rightmove etc are brilliant for eliminating no-hopers without wasting time being dragged round by pushy over-enthusiastic estate agents (I have been through that many times in the past).

I wanted to move quickly, I was a cash buyer (renting after returning from overseas) and I had a very clear list of things I wanted/needed in terms of location, number of bedrooms, amount of work needed, off-street parking, garden etc. I spent a huge amount of time on the internet, and it was very easy to eliminate 90% of the houses on the market in the areas I was interested in just from the description, photos and floorplan.

The first house I saw looked OK on screen, but the photos turned out to have been highly selective, and it needed a huge amount of work. The second one ticked all the boxes, so I bought it.

But then I am the kind of person who makes decisions fairly fast about what is good enough, and then I stick to them - I don't spend ages agonising over whether I could have got a slightly better deal somewhere else or by waiting a few weeks. If you are looking for somewhere that is perfect in every way, it will obviously take longer. And I was buying by myself - getting two or more people to agree tends to slow things down too.

CointreauVersial · 16/03/2011 17:54

It's so funny, I've spent longer deliberating about whether to buy a particular pair of shoes than I did about our house!

As soon as I saw it, I knew we'd found the right place, and we immediately called off the search. Not a moment's doubt. Pretty uncharacteristic, considering I'm the biggest "returner-of-unworn-clothing-that-I've-changed-my-mind-about" I know!

Murtette · 16/03/2011 18:31

Last time I bought, I looked at 4 places in one morning, put an offer in on the 4th and couldn't understand why anyone ever spent months looking for a property. This time around, we looked at 40+ over 6 months. The differences, well DP incosiderately liked different things to me, we have a DD so things like garden, school became an important point and, with a bigger budget, there were more permutations, eg - three bed in walking distance of high street and good school or four bed which is a 10 min drive/bus ride away; open plan living or divided rooms etc. At one stage, I think I'd looked at every single property in the area which was in our price range and met our basic requirements. Towards the end, both I and the two agents who I'd had most viewings with had a pretty good feel for what we wanted and the agent would call us as soon as they were instructed on a suitable property so the last half dozen or so viewings were all real possibilities.

As well as checking floor plan and all those sorts of things, I found it really helpful to ask why the vendor was moving. If it was to do with road too busy for young children, not happy with the school etc then that immediately raised a red flag with me.

newpup · 16/03/2011 18:35

Viewed 11 properties. Had second viewings at 2 of them. Were actually waiting to hear about an offer on one of them when we found the house we bought.

DelicateFluffyBunny · 16/03/2011 18:38

60+

And we were desperate to move but still had to look at a lot to find the right one! This was in a 3 month period - we were out at viewings several times a week.

ChippyMinton · 16/03/2011 19:19

Viwed about 8-10, a few were to narrow down the search area and to get 'known' by the estate agents as serious chain-free buyers. Most were no-hopers tbh.

The one we bought was one that was already under offer at the start of the search, and we'd mooch past knowing it was perfect, even though we hadn't seen inside.

Then the agent rang out of the blue to say the sale had fallen through at eleventh hour and were we interested? We snapped it up there and then

yomellamoHelly · 16/03/2011 19:22

Less than 10. Bought first one dh liked. (Not much on market.) All the houses were broadly the same being on the same 30s estate, so didn't care too much though do like fact garden backs onto park (only saw one other house that did and dh hated it).

MrsJohnDeere · 16/03/2011 19:38

First house, viewed 3 in total.
Second house, lots. Guess about 25. None were perfect but we had to find somewhe ASAP.
Looking now in theory but haven't actually viewed any yet. We know exactly what we want and where, but there is nothing remotely suitable on the Market.

Pagwatch · 16/03/2011 19:40

3 for last move. But I wasn't really interested in the other two

angel1976 · 16/03/2011 20:16

About 7.... In the end, we are now buying the 2nd or 3rd house we saw... We made an offer as the house just came on the market a week ago. It got rejected as it was quite far off asking, we went away, look at a few more and realised it was that one we wanted. So we went back and better offer as by then, it had been on the market for 3 months. We are hopefully in the process of buying it now. But we are very picky and by the 3rd or 4th house, we knew which roads in that particular area we wanted to be in etc.

Islandlady · 17/03/2011 00:47

We came over to the Island for three days, I had been looking on rightmove and had arranged to view 8 houses.

all but 1 were scheduled for viewing on the Wednesday ( we came over on the Tuesday)on the Tuesday we had a couple of hours to spare until our appointment and saw a house in the window of an EA that wasnt on my list.

When we saw the details the garden was too small
but the EA gave us details of one that had just had a sale fallen through.

We viewed it on the Tuesday afternoon, fell in love, cancelled all our other viewings.

mrshotrod · 17/03/2011 11:01

Don't worry, house hunting as a couple is probably meant to be stressfull. I was resigned to the fact I'd never find a new home that I loved as much as our current one. Not for our budget in the area we wanted. Also, the panic I felt when OH would look online and say 'what about this one...?', would be huge as sometimes I just knew I'd hate it, area, or windows or what ever. Bad I know.
We have though seen one or two we've both actually agreed on, one we were even in the process of buying. (Our sale then fell through and the chain colapsed.) We've since tentatively looked at 5 more and one of those is now the latest favorite. Better then the original we were going to buy I think. Don't worry, you've just got to be patient with each other. My geeky OH made a spread sheet and it actually really helped.

Original poster

tyler80 · 17/03/2011 12:37

I think where my OH struggles is there have been a couple of houses where I can't really articulate what's wrong with them and this is what winds him up. He doesn't believe in gut feelings.

OP posts:

limpingbint · 17/03/2011 12:47

When I wanted to buy rental properties I viewed 45 to buy 2

In France we viewed 12 in a week and bought the 12th

We are house hunting now - we have viewed 14/15 and it is the 1st we love but the owner is fecking about so we are now faced with trying to find something to capture our hearts in the same way

Pagwatch · 17/03/2011 12:49

We had to move once n very difficult circumstances and dh had to find a house for us on his own.

We lived there for five years. I absoloutely hated it. I never told him. He tried so hard to find somewhere we would be happy.

Dumbledoresgirl · 17/03/2011 12:50

I have bought a property 4 times in my life.

First time: I forget, but I think I bought the 2nd flat I saw.

Second time: We viewed 2/3 houses before buying.

Third time: Dh and I split the viewings so I am less sure. We put an offer on one house but the sale fell through. Between us, we probably viewed 6-8 properties before finding the house we actually bought.

Fourth time: this house was the 3rd we viewed.

I am not unfussy. In fact, I am extremely particular about what I want. This means I reject a lot of houses before the viewing process, hence only viewing a small number of properties.

minipie · 17/03/2011 12:52

We're buying at the moment and seen loads.

Now finally supposed to be buying, and have found it has subsidence issues

Not sure what to do...

Anyway, enough of that digression, point is, I think 6 is barely any. But then it depends on whether you have a very very specific location/type in mind and how many there are that fit the bill. If there are only 25 houses that fit your requirements, and you've seen 6 of them, then probably you should be going for one of them or adjusting your criteria.

MooMooFarm · 17/03/2011 12:56

We looked at about 20, possibly more.

It's the biggest purchase we were ever going to make, so it had to be just right. It was only through viewing that I worked out exactly what I did and didn't want in a house. Then once I had a 'virtual house' in my mind it became much easier. The house we now live in had the layout we wanted, but also felt like home when we walked in.

Nothing at all wrong with being fussy.

systemsaddict · 17/03/2011 13:18

Probably 30? we were looking for at least a year. Without all of that input we would never have dared buy our current house, but because we understood the market really well we knew that we were getting a bargain (even though it was right at, well beyond really, the top of our budget) and we knew that there was very little out there that we felt was right for us, so we had to go for it. I have never regretted that decision for a second.

I sympathise with your OH though, I was the one trying to talk dp into every house we viewed 'cos I was desperate to move but he refused to compromise on anything less than perfection - and I'm so glad now! Stick to your guns

eloisah · 17/03/2011 17:24

I saw 5, dh and ds went to 7 or 8 too. There wasnt much in the area we wanted and we had to move fairly quickly.

We offered on no.3 but didnt get it. No.5 needs tons of work but felt right.

Been here a month now and feels like we made the right choice.

ChupaChups · 17/03/2011 19:27

50+ between 2008 and 2009...

It turned into the running joke amongst our friends and family. In reality, we had a lot of trouble finding the right thing in our price range. We pulled out of one sale and made offers on a couple of other houses to no avail.

However, I knew as soon as I saw our house it was right and DH agreed. I can honestly say it was worth the wait. I love it here and as time goes on I find more reasons to love it.

Take your time. The right house will come up.

biglips · 17/03/2011 19:29

2.....we both knew exactly what type of house we were looking for and we got it.

IHeartKittensAndWine · 17/03/2011 19:41

About twenty. At first, one in each of the five areas we had shortlisted to assess the area and see what our max budget could get us. Then about 15 once we started looking properly (ironically we bought the one I first viewed)...then because it took so frickin long to exchange I viewed about another 4-5 others that matched our specs because we were desperate to get a back up and were convinced that the sellers were going to gazump us.

Original poster

tyler80 · 18/03/2011 16:22

I might be in more of a rush to move soon if our idiot neighbours keep playing the damn electric guitar...

But it make me really worried about potential new neighbours, at least here because we're renting we've got the option of moving, it's not quite as easy once you've bought the place.

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