Tips for finding a house to buy?

[sianihedgehog]

So, we've now been looking since last autumn, and offered and been outdone on four houses.

Our baby is due in August, our rented flat is dangerously non watertight and our letting agents are worse than useless, and I'm getting seriously desperate. I'm watching Rightmove and Zoopla like a hawk, registered with every branch of every Estate Agent in town, and going out this week to drop letters through the doors of houses in the two areas I'm most interested in.

Is there anything else I can do?? More websites? More places I could register my interest? Off the wall tactics?? Help?

The houses you offered on - have they sold yet? Might it be worth letting the agents know that if things aren't working out you'd still be interested?

Keep in contact with the estate agents and let them know you are actively looking. They can show you houses before they get onto Rightmove.

They've all sold except one, which the owner decided they didn't want to sell after all. :( The market here is insanely overheated. We saw two houses last week, and they each had 20+ other viewers. Most houses are selling within a week of viewings. :/

Is it worth looking in other areas if it is so fraught where you are looking?
Is it London?

How have the final selling prices compare with your offer price, assuming the places you offered on have sold.
Is your mortgage in place?
Are you selling yourselves to the agents as the perfect buyer, i.e. no chain, finance in place and able to move fast?
How have you made the offers? It is worth writing a really good letter to email and follow up with by delivering in person to agent if local or posting, stating (again) your position as a buyer, how quickly you can exchange, why you have offered what you have, name of your solicitor and surveyor (if you plan to use one) and why this is the perfect house for you!

pipbin We've discussed looking elsewhere (it's Brighton, so as bad as London but smaller and full of hippies), and expanded our search area a bit, but quality of life means our search area is limited.

I'll make an effort to make sure that all the agents know we'd like another chance if anything changes, though, sometimes I've been too sad to spell that out!

marmaladegranny the selling prices have mostly been within about 5k of our offers. The problem is that they all seem to go as "best and final offers" very quickly, and it's really hard to know how high we need to go. The last one needed HUGE amounts of work, but went for more than our 5k over asking, and in cash. Looking at sold prices in the area (including a house one street over that we viewed) I would have expected it to go for about 15k less than our offer.
We've got our mortgage in place, and I've been trying to big up our perfection as buyers, but I haven't usually named our solicitor, so I'll start doing that, too!
Because of the time scale that houses are selling in here (view on Saturday, offers by noon Monday, final offers by noon Tuesday) we've been making our offers via email, with a letter that stresses that we're first time buyers, mortgage in place, no chain, and infinitely flexible on moving dates, then following this up with a phone call on Monday morning. The last house I also dropped a written offer through the door of the agency.

I'll try to add more details about why we love the house and that - does that actually get passed on to the seller?

We were in a similar position - rental contract coming to an end, baby due, couldn't find a house, market going bonkers (this was about 2 years ago).

I finally decided it was all more stress than it was worth and that was no good for me when I was pregnant, so we extended our rental (or would have moved to a new rental if it was sub-standard) and refused to let the overheated market bother us.

In the end we found the perfect house for us and I'm so glad we did what we did - taking the pressure off improved our decision making a huge amount. I look back on some of the houses we were considering and I shudder.

Similar issue in South Manchester. We ended up offering £10K over asking price at the best bids stage. Whilst at the time it was the highest price on the street, the market has moved on to the extent that, 8 months later, we look like we got a good deal.

But, obviously, don't go over what you can afford ...

Could you bear to move into a different rental until the winter? I could be wrong but I thought Brighton market was always particularly buoyant in the spring/summer months as Londoners are dazzled by it and decide to move down - not quite so appealling in the darker months. This would at least minimise competition. I'm in Kensington/Chelsea and prices have been falling for a while now - offers are back and there's a lack of buyers - which may (eventually) ripple out. That said, forecasters say the regions are going to show strong growth...

Saini I used to live in Brighton. I left because I couldn't afford it. That was when you could buy a two bed flat for £80k!

georgie I think you are absolutely right about summer vs winter in Brighton. I don't think moving to a different rental is a great option because with me being effectively disabled by the pregnancy, the cost of moving would be extreme.

Really reassuring to hear that prices are falling in your area - I think price changes tend to ripple out here from London, so it gives me hope for here!

get your flat sorted out - call in environmental health if needs be.
small baby can fit in anywhere.

i am in London and one of those looking at brighton...some parts cheaper than others and some bargains compared to london!

Who are the sellers typically? The area we moved into (London) was full of elderly people downsizing out of their family homes. We went in with a full pitch about our DC (complete with cute photo), how we were looking for our long term family home, etc.

Of course such a pitch does nothing when you are fabulously outbid, but we encountered a few sellers who were adamant they didn't want to sell to just anyone - they wanted their family home to house a family who were invested in it. It was one of the determining factors for the people selling to us.

Are you 'procedable' to use Estate Agent speak - ie you've got an agreement in principle for a mortgage (but don't tell the EA how much for as they'll use that to get you to spend right up to the max). When you've made offers have you impressed upon the EA that you can move really, really fast and are chain free etc? We got our first house (admittedly a while ago but at a time when houses were going the day they came on the market and for over the odds normally) by offering bang on asking price (ie we weren't trying to screw the vendor around) and being able to exchange and complete within 6 weeks pretty much guaranteed. We found out from the neighbour that they'd had an over asking price offer but from someone who hadn't sold and the vendor wanted hassle free.

It might not be what you want to hear but are have you got any room to compromise on location, type of house etc. We bought house no.1 knowing it wasn't the 'forever' house but it ticked our basic boxes (3 beds plus study/4th room and didn't need anything doing immediately). We compromised on location (we bought about 10 miles from where we'd been looking but still with good links for roads/work etc) and parking (no drive/garage but onstreet was in reasonable supply). We ended up staying just over 10 years in the end! We basically had decided that we wanted to buy a house that week (yes really, prices were rising so fast we took a week off work and bought the nicest house we'd seen at the end of that week). I think that possibly also helped as the EAs knew we were deadly serious about buying - we had multiple viewings lined up and were ultra-flexible about timings.

whatsa They're typically either young families moving to a larger home, or children selling a dead parents house. Most of what we like best seems to have recently had someone die in it!

We've seen one that had been bought at auction and done up for resale, but both agreed that we would have paid more before it had been improved...

I'm getting a general feeling that it's probably worth laying it on REALLY THICK about how we're a nice young family just in case someone actually cares, so I'm definitely going to up the ante on that, thank you.

Zampa same area as you and it is ridiculous how fast things are moving. We had our house valued last week and I nearly feel through the floor (in a good way!). Prices are moving insanely quickly and all going over the asking price.

OP - when we bought our house, we were renting very close to the high street where all the estate agents had offices. I used to call every few days, knew quite alot of the staff, think it was very useful for them to put a face to the name and remind them what we were looking for. Then when our property did come up, I was high on the list for getting a call about it. They got instructions on the Friday morning, I saw it Friday afternoon (still went to best and final bids!!).

In terms of setting your stall out when you make an offer, sounds like you are in a good position but I think setting out the solicitors is good, and I also think it can't do any harm to add some personal details (especially when it goes to best and final bids - if the owners have to choose between 2 relatively close bids, it can sometimes help to put that you want it as a family house, reasons you want to stay close to the area).

Good luck

Do you guys think it'd help to go into all the estate agents and just have a chat and maybe drop off a letter about what we want? I work full time on the outskirts of the city so popping in frequently probably isn't possible, but I could spend a couple of hours hobbling around the agencies on a Saturday looking desperate and exhausted!