How feasible is this?

[maybebabybee]

Currently expecting 1st baby, looking to buy first home in April. Our budget is 350k (could potentially stretch to 375) and we are looking for a two-bed flat in Forest Hill/Catford/Lewisham/Brockley/Honor Oak etc.

This seems feasible from Rightmove but everything I hear about buying in London terrifies me - from those of you who have done it, is this a realistic budget in this area? We were originally going to look at buying outside of London but I was born and bred here and I can't bring myself to do it. DP can only work in London and needs to have a relatively short (ie, less than an hour) commute time so any other cities are out unfortunately.

Not necessarily. Get your ducks in a row (so sort out an offer in principle from a lender, find a solicitor that you are happy with) and be prepared to put in some legwork to get things done quickly. I think the London market in flats has slowed a bit recently so, if you were to see something you like before Christmas, when sellers might be getting a bit demoralised, then you might find you don't have too much competition.

The last two flats that I have sold have been to FTBs and I have been driven to rage by their lack of ability to get anything done (think three weeks to sort out a solicitor etc) so, if you want to keep a seller sweet, be quick and accommodating. The unpredictable component is, of course, the trustworthiness of the estate agent but I'm not sure what you can do to guard against that as a buyer.

thanks very much for the advice lalalonglegs, really helpful.

we are tied in to our current lease until the end of April so we really can't move until then unfortunately - do you think that would be an issue?

To be honest, if you put in an offer in December, you would be lucky to complete before March - that'si f there's no chain. A couple of weeks to do some redecoration and you're probably only looking at 3-4 weeks of unnecessary rent/mortgage overlap. This is what I mean by being accommodating.

Btw, the last flat I sold, the buyers absolutely refused to give notice to their LL until (what they thought was) the last minute even though I had stipulated a certain date from the outset. They thought they were being very canny and avoiding any rent/mortgage overlap but it turned out their solicitor was absolutely crap so, when they instructed her eventually to get a move on, the solicitor ignored them, they had to move all their stuff into storage for several weeks at great cost and I was so fed up with them I removed a lot of stuff from the flat I was going to offer them free (washing machine/kitchen appliances etc) costing them even more money to replace. If it hadn't been the summerd doldrums, they would have lost the flat as well.

Sometimes you have to suck up a little bit of inconveniencea nd short-term expense.