How many properties did you view before deciding on the one you are currently buying/living in?

[JulieAnderton]

I think we looked at 40+ over the space of 2 years or so. We were first time buyers in an area new to both of us and it took us ages to work out what we wanted in a property.

This time around (with the benefit of Rightmove etc) it is far easier to check out properties online and I think we have agreed the sort of house we are looking for. We haven't actually viewed any houses yet, but I'm hoping we don't have to look at 40 to find one we like!

[Abzs]

4, but this was the first we bid on. DH's colleague told him to stick a random £26 on the end of the offer, and that was the margin. Very lucky.

[Meddlinkids]

Just the one we bought. We had a criteria which was so incredibly specific only two houses in a 3 mile radius ticked the boxes.

And the one we bought wasn't even for sale!

[chickabilla]

8 in one day. All that fulfilled our criteria and chose from those as we had to choose quickly if we didn't want to go into rented.

[Ragwort]

Four (more on Rightmove of course) - and we bought this house 18 months after first seeing it, just as it was being taken off the market !

[kelda]

1. I was very decisive.

[nooka]

For our current house we had looked a bit half halfheartedly at a couple of places a month or two before, but then a friend rang up to say they had seen the sign up on this house and so we went around I think that evening and got our offer down and accepted.

It's five houses along from where we were renting, and has a fabulous view - we didn't care too much about the house really!

The house before I looked at lots and lots of houses (at least 30, maybe more) before finding one that felt right.

[lazydog]

Too add - this is the first property that we've lived in that we haven't chosen to sell after ~5 years. Coming up to 8 years in November and I've still not got itchy feet, unlike our last 2 homes.

[lazydog]

Ditto Selba... Erm, actually, not even one, I guess, as I'd already fallen for it from numerous photos and as dh is much more level headed about those sorts of decisions, I sent him to view it (and check it wasn't next to a sewage plant or something) while I looked after the kids... It was in Canada and the owners put him up, for free, for a week! He fell for it too. It's totally tatty rustic, but the view, space and tranquility more than makes up for the fact that it's so shabby well loved :)

[lottiegarbanzo]

About 20 or 30. I wanted to understand what could be bought for the money in this area, where there are different ages and styles of house. DP would have bought one of the first few, viewed on first day.

[Graciescotland]

3 but many many hours spent viewing property porn late at night on rightmove

[ThatVikRinA22]

i only viewed this one.

hasty perhaps but we bought at the height of the market in 2006 and are still in profit despite renovating so think it was probably the right choice!

it needed a lot of work, extension, new kitchen, new bathroom, new garage, garden landscaping, total rewiring, and modernising through out.

[CoolStoryBro]

This time, about 15. Last time, just one. The time before, about 6.

[Selba]

One. It's unique. I loved it from afar

[breatheslowly]

About 12 over 2 years, but we live in a village so there weren't lots available to view. We only viewed our current house because my mum made us .

[ouryve]

In additio to rightmove, btw, check zoopla. It doesn't have as many agents on it, but the houses it has have the length of time they've been on the market listed, so if they've been languishing for 6 months, you know that a house either has vendors that will happily accept a cheeky offer, or has vendors who want the moon on a stick and wouldn't accept an offer over asking price if the wind was blowing in the wrong direction and they didn't like your face.

[ouryve]

5.

And we put an offer in on one of the others and it was accepted, then rescinded after 3 bloody weeks of no action.

There were a few others that we had a drive to and look around the outside and decided we didn't like the location.

[Mintyy]

1.

We weren't planning to move, didn't think we could quite afford it. But I was idly flicking through a local freebie magazine while breastfeeding 3 month old ds one day, saw this house advertised, and it was about £30,000 less than I would have expected for a house of this size in its location. Viewed, house very dated, hence low price. But it was the right size and in the right place. Got our own house valued, on the market and sold within a week. I had dd just turning 3 (infact we had her birthday party in that week) and 3 month old baby. I look back and honestly don't know how I did it!

[cassell]

About 30-40 and a lot more online, hadn't lived in London before though and looked in several areas to get an idea of what we could afford. The one we bought I'd discounted relatively early on in the process as too expensive but the seller reduced price significantly (it was during the early stages of financial crisis) so we could afford it

[MoDiddly]

Just the one and been happy here for 9 years so far

[blueshoes]

We had a few false starts but in this latest round, which finally resulted in success, I saw 3 houses, and dh 1 more.

We are local so know the area and our requirements so specific that it boiled down to just a few houses/streets. We are very lucky to have bought when we did and to get the house we did.

[trixymalixy]

One But it is pretty special!

[Quodlibet]

I think we viewed between 25-30 in the flesh and thousands online.
We were after something quite specific and quite rare for what we could afford. When we found this place we went after it we knew it was a goodun though, and I feel like we've done well for our money.

[noisytoys]

1. Offer rejected on first, sale fell through on second and bought the third.

[hyperspacebug]

I loooved the first one we viewed but we were defeated by someone who was more willing to throw big money around for overpriced house.

And 6 houses (and after hundreds of hours on rightmove) still no love. Tight school catchments are the problem though :(

[LastButOneSplash]

2 both times I've bought a house. The one I bought and one other. But lots of research before so I knew exactly what I wanted.