Can't find anything we want to buy! Anything else we can do?

[MrsJamin]

We accepted an offer on our house a few days ago (to FTBs who don't seem to be in too much of a rush), but the market for 3 bed semis seems to be very slow... what else can we do to find a house, and how long will our buyers wait for us to find somewhere? We've gone from excited to really stressed and under pressure to like things that we don't really feel that much for. Anybody done anything out of the ordinary to find a house that's not just listed on rightmove?

[Yfronts]

put notes through door of houses you like. put notices on street lamps and in local papers stating what you are looking for. be proactive.

[Bilbobagginstummy]

Been through another 3 plans, round a load of rental places, nearly signed up for a rental but someone else got it from under my nose a few minutes before - after it had been on for weeks.

I don't want to move really - but am moving with work and it makes sense practically. But oh, how I wish I could just find somewhere nice and get it sorted.

[piemistress]

Oh boo sorry OP :-( i think up here things are more formal once an offer has been made. We did get shafted though as our first choice house led us merrily along for à month (it was actually the house i grew up in so really wanted it!) Then despite it Being à private sale they had à much better offer out of the blue. I waq gutted and still not quite over the disappointment :-(

Good luck .!

[CuddyMum]

You can - it's more the backing out before exchange - which is what my buyer did to me today :(

[piemistress]

Can you not arrange a private sale in England?

[CuddyMum]

How I wish we had the same buying regulations as Scotland :)

[piemistress]

We were in the same position and ended up putting an advert on the village forum (no replies), an advert in local paper (2 repliés) and then put notes through door of about 50 houses we liked (had about 7 replies!).

Out of them all 3 houses ended up being real possibilities and we are now in process of buying one. Our bank gave us six,mobths grace to find a new house and not lose our mortgage rate. We are in Scotland though. I knew it would be hard to drive a hard bargain but we were willing to pay the valuation of the property.

[CuddyMum]

Well my searching is over - as our buyer pulled out this morning due to "personal reasons". :(

[MrsJamin]

Oh that's rubbish. At least you know now rather than when you'd done a survey etc. I really hope something comes up this week that I like as much as DH does.

[CuddyMum]

Despite offering close to the price we were told the vendors would accept, they appear to have moved the goalposts and now don't seem interested in selling at all and have even refused viewings this weekend. The agent seemed embarrassed really! So, I'm back to re-emailing agents - it makes a nice change for me to hassle them instead of the other way around.

[MrsJamin]

We saw something today that I just wasn't taken with but DH reckoned it was definitely worth a second viewing. I was really disappointed with the garden and the layout was just odd and felt very personal to the family- lots of photos around. Ugh.

[Bilbobagginstummy]

Me too! I have sold v quickly to cash buyers (everything crossed for it going ahead) and can't find anything I like enough at the place I'm relocating to.

Lurching from considering renting, to being desperate to buy my own place up there, and back again several times a day week. Very stressful.

[MrsJamin]

oh thanks lolalotta, that is reassuring and we do need to give regular updates to our buyers so we know we are searching and viewing things. I am personally pinning my hopes on persuading some friends to sell us their house which they are renting out at the moment - it is so beautiful and perfect for us that it makes my heart skip a beat! A long shot but its worth a try!

[lolalotta]

I know it is hard but try and not get too stressed, lots if estate agents have told me that things won't properly get going until March/ April...so keep looking but I'm sure lots more will come onto the market in the Spring and you will have lots more choice! Good Luck! Just try and reassure your buyers that you are looking/ looking/ looking so they don't worry needlessly!

[CuddyMum]

I have agents looking through their "reserve" drawers for people who might still want to sell. This has produced one property so far that isn't on the market. If you check the details of the street(s) you have targeted on Zoopla, it is possible to see the property history (look for the little purple H) and this can often show you the date the property as last marketed, who with and the details/photos. So you can assume if the property was marketed but there's no sold price after that date that they have withdrawn the property and who knows, may consider putting it back on again.

[Dillydollydaydream]

Ah but they also show you houses outside of your chosen area that you're supposed to consider even though it'll add miles to your commute

[MrsJamin]

It would be a bit pointless as the location isn't the problem, just the fact that there aren't any houses in our chosen location!

[Dillydollydaydream]

I'd love to go on Location, location, location. They'd show us houses £25k over budget insisting there's a 'deal to be done'.

[WifeofPie]

Call Kirsty and Phil, of course!

[CuddyMum]

We're in the same position - where are all the houses when you need them?

[Oxtailchambermaid]

Have you tried houseladder.co.uk? I might be incredibly naive here but I'm not sure if that feeds into rightmove. It's one of those websites used by people who don't use an estate agent.

[MrsJamin]

You do worry a little that your house search constraints are unreasonable... But there's huge areas of housing without anything for sell, let alone houses that are too much money. We are going to keep remembering that we can stay here until we find somewhere we like more - anything less than that is just stupidity. It makes it worse that we made our present house look lovely to sell it - and now we realise how lovely it is (albeit too small for us).

[Dillydollydaydream]

We're in a similar position. Sold to ftb's buy cannot find anything we'd remotely like to even view let alone buy!
Out house went in the market on the Monday on the Thursday we had a viewing and 4 more booked on the Friday. Then we had an offer from those viewings. Honestly thought it'd take longer!

I've got 16wks til I'm due to have a baby and wrongly assumed we'd still be here when baby was born, now I'm not so sure. I don't want to buy any old house just for the sake of it but as time ticks buy I'm panicking a little.

[MrsJamin]

I see what you mean TomArchersSausage. Overly keen = they might drive a hard bargain.

[TomArchersSausage]

Ah well no-one can say for sure but if someone was dithering about going on the market and then hey presto a buyer comes along, then it could nudge things along, especially if you are in a strong position to move.

The only thing is that it kind of puts you on the back foot a bit. Hard to drive a hard bargain if you look too keen.

Could be worth a try. This time last year I considered doing it but luckily the house we loved became an option.