Any other FTB being outbid in this craziness wanting to just give up and rent FOREVER!

[ilovehotsauce]

Just that really we've lost 3 houses in the last 5 weeks and I'm beside myself the last one was so perfect but my husband wasn't 100% and wanted another viewing we put an offer in but was outbid in an afternoon it was only on the market for 4 days! I can't handle it!

It's an old cliché but the right one will come good. I look back on my failed attempts to buy two houses and am so glad fate dealt her hand with them. We've got by far the most lovely house and happy home.....but I know at the time it feels bloody awful. Hang in there. :)

I agree with flatcap . We "lost" 2 houses we really liked. The one I wanted most we lost because the vendors had received an offer from a "cash buyer". Then we found the perfect house for us and have not looked back since

Icing on the cake? I received a phone call the day before we exchanged on our current house to ask me if I was still interested in the house from before: apparently the cash buyers weren't cash buyers at all!

Please don't despair. You're bound to find your home soon. And when you do, you'll look back and think "thank God I didn't go for the 5 others!"

I want to sell mine but its full of clutter.

Would anyone buy a house full of clutter? Its lovely, clean, good schools, zone 3, but full of stuff thats hard to get rid of.

We're FTB too. I really recommend the Phil and Kirstie book How to Buy a House for advice on hearing about properties first and being attractive buyers.

I think two things that have helped with our purchase (complete in 2 days!) is
A) we were on the estate agents books of potential buyers so heard about the house before anyone else.

B) we sold ourselves to the estate agent - already have a mortgage broker and established how much we could borrow, lovely couple and little child looking for our family home, renting and can move at v short notice, not fussy about dates, etc.

And we were quick. Told about it on Tuesday. Viewed it Wednesday (it was obvious from the agent he wanted us to see it - liked us as potential buyers, see point B), offered the asking price first thing Thursday, accepted on Friday morning.

We later found out we were not the only offer but the vendor liked us - we took our DC with us and complimented them on their home and thanked them for letting us have a look at it.

Maybe none of that was what helped but I think it did.

Also hang out with us on the Buyers Support Thread. Even if things are going ok it's great to have company.

unreal I would but lots of others wouldn't - depends on the market too. Can you store in a garage/loft (someone else's?). I'm always struck on Selling Homes with Amanda Lamb of the impact "stuff" has on potential buyers.

OP - as someone just said, you need to be smooching with the estate agents so that they give you first dibs on anything new.

It's not necessarily that anything will come up that suits you - but if it does it will probably go before it even gets on rightmove. We found this happened once or twice when we were looking - something appeared as 'sold stc' and it had never been on there to begin with, they had sold it to a client already on their books before it hit the open market.

Our one was on RM but I think we had the first viewing of anyone, and then went back the next morning for our second viewing and we put an offer in straight away. We were cash buyers which did help I think - but it still has taken us 8 months to complete. (leasehold issues, the vendor had no chain either! Bizarre) actually we should complete this week so I shouldn't say that, you never know what could happen.

Good luck.

Thanks everyone but I have told every estate agents in our search areas that we are super keen ready to go & they just say "ok ill put you on our mailing list" but everyone else is also super keen and also on their list! And it's just moving to fast + to a dh with no vision / very cautious were just not getting any where!

I'm so beyond stressed I just want it to be over!

Have you got a mortgage offer yet? This may also carry weight. You can base it on a property you want and go from there.

We just exchanged on the house we went on the market for. It went sale agreed a couple of times before we had sold ours but fell through and we snagged it after all thanks in part to our offer and the fact we could move fast.

Thanks Missmystic, a bit of a long shot but why not cut out the middle man. I want to move, others want to buy. I guess FTBs wouldnt be able to jump straight in to a 3bed in London anyway though. Sorry folks, good luck. I hope this is the peak of the madness and it's all downhill from now.

Yes we have a mortgage sorted and a massive deposit but none of this seems to matter as so does everyone else.

I think things at the bottom of the market are just flying. We are looking at 3 beds but in the north I'm seriously considering looking at other cities coz this is just ridiculous!

It's horrible! It has been like that here (sw) anything under 3% stamp duty in the city regardless of condition isn't making it to zoopla without going sale agreed. Just hold your nerve and keep going - you will get there!

House prices dropped 5.9% in london last month, and nationally they are down all but north up 0.5%
It's over all bar the shouting and vested interests pumping out the usual seasonal drops rubbish

Nationally down 2.9% last month , so multiply that by 12 and some more .

Strap yourselves in ,the big ride is in the down the steep track mode.

I think we have bought at the top of the climb as it were - but you may be right that it is FTB type prices that are still in demand and there seems to be a lot of competition round here for those properties, if they are large enough or in a nice enough area.

I kept being told how limited it is within our budget, well, yes it is - but round here people tend to think that anything under 200K is going to be dreadfully inadequate. I think the EAs are pushing to make everything a minimum of that. Because they can, I suppose.

I am just amazed by how little is on the market. Not sure why. I took a drive around the extended area dh and I would like to move to one day. I saw one for sale sign and one sold sign. That was it. Half an hour driving! Luckily we are only planning to move in a few years but still...!

It really feel as though EA are pushing prices up even in really bad area just because they can. I spoke to a EA today about a property 20k above our budget (that is horrid in all honesty 3bed semi that's been badly extended and is really dark. It needs everything doing but is still on at the top of the budget for the area) to which she said well I did tell the vendor it was the very max in sure they would accept an offer (of almost 20k less???)

It's ridiculous!

Keep up at the back

For three months property prices have been falling. Biggest drop ever recorded by rightmove last month.

In one part of London it was a drop of 7.9% , for goodness sake why cant people see this is a burnt out economy and it's all coming home to haunt us.
The BBC have not even mentioned the huge drop in London or the fact that nationally prices have been dropping for three months now.

Now if that is not biased reporting I don't know what is.