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Original poster

First time buyer here - how many did you see before you found The One?

32 replies

DraenorQueen · 04/04/2016 08:03

My lovely mum has offered to lend me deposit money for a house. I've been offered a mortgage in principle of up to 140k but there so many properties round here (North East) for around the 90k-100k range I'm going to look for a cheaper house and spend the money modernising it.
Was just wondering, how many houses did you see before you knew you'd found the one? Did you jump in with an offer, worried someone else might nab it or did you hold your nerve and haggle? I've seen an absolute beauty and am going to try and see it this week...

Any tips for a first time buyer would be so much appreciated!

OP posts:
CutYourHairAndGetAJob · 04/04/2016 08:11

It was the second place we saw and we loved it, but we went and saw lots of other places before going back and making an offer!

This was a few years ago when it was a real buyers market, I don't think you could do that now as places seem to be snapped up as soon as they are on the market.

Original poster
DraenorQueen · 04/04/2016 08:14

Thank you Cut, that's what I feared. There seem to be so many similar properties on the market, I'm worried the ones with a bit of character will snapped up immediately.

OP posts:
DangerMouth · 04/04/2016 08:19

We viewed 3 and bought the one l said absolutely not to Confused

It was around the corner from the second house we viewed and the agent asked if we wanted to see it. I said no as dh said yes. We saw it and dh knew it was the one. And he was right Grin

Creatureofthenight · 04/04/2016 08:19

I think we saw about 5. But I'd say ours is The One That We Can Afford, not The One!

Original poster
DraenorQueen · 04/04/2016 08:23

Thank you - I was expecting people to say they saw 15-20, etc! I'm in no rush at all, but would hate to lose out on a lovely one... I'm on holiday this week so will try to see as many as I can.

OP posts:
HonniBee · 04/04/2016 08:27

Good lord! You're all very lucky! I think we were closer to 30!

OliviaStabler · 04/04/2016 08:34

I think I saw about seven before I made an offer.

Cacofonix · 04/04/2016 08:35

I had a slog when we moved 18 months ago - I think I saw around 45-50 houses. Shock To be fair we did offer on a few, gazumped on one and two others fell through. Really pleased as love the place we have now - so much better than the other ones we had offers on. OP this was London so a very hot market and I did see a lot to placate the estate agents so that when a gem came through they thought of us.

everdene · 04/04/2016 08:35

We saw about 10 I think - put in an offer on the second one and were outbid, then it fell through and we got it two months later. Definitely as the PP said, it's the One We Can Afford rather than The One, but we're currently modernising it so it'll soon be much better! Good luck - I'd say if you see one you love put in a low offer and see how it goes.

MummaGiles · 04/04/2016 08:36

First house, think we saw 3. Current house we saw maybe 10, but it was a completely different market.

annandale · 04/04/2016 08:37

I think in both cases I've bought a house it was the third one I saw which I bought, and I saw something like 7 in total. Real buyers' markets though in both cases with absolutely loads on the market in my price range (it was a long time ago), and I had pretty strict boundaries about what I wanted.

Trills · 04/04/2016 08:47

You know that the mortgage people won't give you a loan of 140k on a 100k house, right?

If you get a cheaper house, you might have spare money that didn't go into the deposit, and lower repayments, so you can use THAT money doing it up.

But you won't have access to the same total amount as if you'd bought a more expensive house.

TroubleinDaFamily · 04/04/2016 09:00

When you walk in and you immediately know where your Christmas tree is going, you have found the one.

SansaClegane · 04/04/2016 09:25

Oh, it took us a good few years and about 20-30 houses I'd say!
I think it's when you walk in and you can really picture yourself living there. Room sizes and arrangements need to fit your bill; and not to forget about the road and location (we once saw a house we really liked, and it was very cheap too, but the road was very narrow and it felt 'cramped' to me and I just couldn't imagine living there).
I suppose you need to have a list of your requirements, the house needs to tick most boxes, and then you need to get that feeling about it!

pearlylum · 04/04/2016 09:29

I agree with PP you won't get £140K for a house that costs £100K. I doesn't work like that.

As to how many properties- I think that depends. I have bought 5 houses, I have bought brand new, off plan before it was even built, I have bought one house that took a year to find, I must have looked at 50 properties, and even in the end it was a bit of a compromise. The house I live in now was the only one I viewed, just fell in love with it the moment I stepped inside, just felt lovely, huge, light, great area, a knock down price. I hadn't even put my own house on the market, but luckily my house sold within a week, my offer of the new house was accepted and was living there 3 months later.

wowfudge · 04/04/2016 09:35

Another thing to note is that a loaned deposit affects your affordability rating - if a mortgage lender believes you are paying the deposit back as well as the purchase costs, they may not lend you as much.

SoakedinBleach · 04/04/2016 09:43

We live in a cheap part of the country and were offered around 60k more in principle than we ended up borrowing. We started off looking at the cheapest 3 bed in a live in condition and worked our way up to find the best house for the least money! We put all our deposit into the house then have been saving and doing it up as we go along. Luckily the big things were recently done-roof, boiler, Windows, kitchen, bathroom.
I still look on zoopla at our top end budget and for the majority we would still have had to spend some money to get them how we wanted.

Original poster
DraenorQueen · 04/04/2016 09:57

Sorry I didn't mean to suggest I'd be loaned £140 but only spend 100k o the house!! Grin I meant I'd buy a house for 100k and as the mortgage would be very low I'd have more money month to month to do the house up gradually!

OP posts:
Original poster
DraenorQueen · 04/04/2016 09:59

wowfudge that's interesting to know, thanks. On a 90k property my mortgage would be under 400 a month. If I factored in repaying my mum @ 250/month that's still well within my budget, so hopefully that wouldn't go against me.

OP posts:
Notyetthere · 04/04/2016 10:42

We viewed about 8-10 altogether. I can't actually remember all of them. The 7th house was the one we thought we could offer and buy. It needed lots of cosmetic work (vendors were smokers for over 25yrs in the house) so we made a ridiculously low offer which was obviously rejected. We then decided to leave it for another 2 weeks before increasing our offer. In the meantime, another one 8th came on the market nearby, same as the 7th but bigger SW garden, beautiful patio, 2 sheds (I dont know why but this made me very happyGrin) and a separate dining area. The interior was perfectly done so we didnt have to do anything. It came on rightmove friday night and we viewed it on Saturday afternoon.

Like you, we were concerned that once other people viewed it, it would sell immediately. We kept on seeing the same buyers viewing the same houses as us in the past weeks so we knew we all were looking for the same thing. They had planned an open house 1 week after we viewed so we made an offer that was good enough to cancel all the open viewings. We ended up paying £12k over our max budget but 3 yrs later we are pleased with this house. We had a to ask the bank to lend us more which they were ok with.

We had prepared ourselves for when we found the right house, to not be too enthusiastic, make only sensible offers and not go over budget but we once we found the dream house, head was out the window and only heart led. We made an offer to the vendor during the viewing. I felt that I had to have this house or else my heart would forever be broken.

Salmiak · 04/04/2016 10:49

About 8. Initially I was planning on getting a cheaper house and doing some work. Offered on the third house, got a full survey done and realised I couldn't face that much work. Ended up getting a 7 year old new build and its fantastic - it was right at the top of my budget but so far nothing has broken, and its lovely to live in. Very hassle free.

GiddyOnZackHunt · 04/04/2016 10:50

As a ftb many years ago I offered on the only house I viewed. I had a long list of things I wanted and was ruthless about viewing.
I was there 10 years

Notyetthere · 04/04/2016 10:55

3 years ago when we applied for a mortgage, banks werent lending to people who had 'borrowed' their deposit. So you would need to check with your bank first. If the deposit is gifted then you will need to have the paperwork/letter from your mum confirming that she would not have a claim/charge on the house.

EssentialHummus · 04/04/2016 10:59

2 Grin. But I had spent two years (!) on Rightmove at that point while saving up, and I was very limited in budget, type of flat and location.

For my BTL I viewed about twenty before realising that every terraced house I saw was identical.

EssentialHummus · 04/04/2016 10:59

3 years ago when we applied for a mortgage, banks werent lending to people who had 'borrowed' their deposit. So you would need to check with your bank first. If the deposit is gifted then you will need to have the paperwork/letter from your mum confirming that she would not have a claim/charge on the house.

I thought this too.

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