'Buying in a competitive market' support group

[Lucylanz]

Support group for those trying to buy in competitive sellers market. Just us? We are FTB looking in a popular city (not London). Since starting the search in January we have been shocked to find you only get one shot to view a property at open days (we have even been on waiting lists to go to the open days two hours after they appear on Rightmove), and it typically goes to best and final offers by Monday morning.
So far we have both really liked two properties. Put in one best and final offer at asking price and one best and final offer £8k over asking and didn't get either. We saw one we really liked this weekend - great house not ideal location. And put an offer in this morning. Just had a phone call to say there are 12 other offers, two at £10k over asking. It then becomes a game of chicken over who will back out first. It's just so demoralising and frustrating. We thought after years of saving and finally being in a position to buy this would be the fun part! (It doesn't help that RM shows these people bought their now overpriced houses at a snip 30 years ago. Anyone else?

Yes definitely. Same here im buying in a popular city (again not London). It is very competitive. I find it really hard seeing people paid so much less for the house a few years ago and yet they are being put on the market at such a high value. I think estate agents are always pushing prices up too. And then talk like they are reasonable and fair estate agents. Yeah right. I've been looking awhile and each new house that comes on in the area goes for much more than even a month ago. For example two houses on the same street both in good condition being sold a few months apart. Yet the new one has gone on for £30k more than the first in less than 6 months. I do wonder if other buyers look at rightmove sold prices? They seem to just be bidding blind and paying over the top prices. Though it's not helping me to look. Uughh!

Sorry that was more of a rant. But it's just so frustrating :)

Prices in Central London are dropping fast (Times headlines on Saturday). This will surely spread out in the coming year?

I'm not so sure. London market seems to be it's own thing (huge numbers of foreign investors etc)

I completely agree. Really worried about a crash as well on these overpriced houses. We saw at house bought in March 2016 that was being resold with no extra work done for £60k more 6 months later! We are trying to be sensible in not playing their games, but keep losing out. One estate agent came back to me when we had a failed bid and laughed telling me they got more money than they thought they would. I hate all estate agents with their 'best and final is the fairest way' nonsense!

It's not overpriced though if multiple buyers are prepared to pay over the asking price. A house is worth what someone is prepared to pay for it. Any adjustment will be when a valuation survey is carried out. The more sales are agreed and go through at higher prices, the more the price of property in an area goes up. Mortgage lenders are interested in the value of the security for their lending.

I'm sorry but I disagree wowfudge. I think that the housing market is unstable at such high overinflated prices. They aren't realistic compared to what people on average earn and prices people out of owning family homes at a realistic amount if debt. The wealth gap in Britain increases so yes some people benefit and own multiple homes etc. But there aren't enough decent homes so there are consequences to this. But more importantly this us a new thread for people who are struggling with the competition of buying a first home. It's somewhere to vent and get support and advice for this. Not just say it's fine for wealthy people to own houses and thise of you who are struggling first time buyers just have to deal with it.

Sorry about typos. I'm a bit stressed this morning as i also offered on a house this weekend and again have not got it. I guess I will need to consider going to a different area of the city so there is less competition. It's not easy as I need to consider catchment areas for my children too.

It may not be fair but I stand by my statement that a property is worth what someone will pay for it.

If a lender's surveyor values at less than the agreed sale price either the buyer must make up the shortfall between mortgage and price agreed or the vendor accepts a lower purchase price.

It doesn't make it right - it's just how it works.

And I resent your inference Twittwoooo that I shouldn't post on this thread. I agree with much of what you posted, but you are not the thread police and I'm afraid that it has always been the case that if cannot afford to buy in your chosen area you have to look elsewhere. London and the SE have long been very highly priced areas.

I am not wealthy. I made the conscious decision in the past not to work and live in London because of the cost of accommodation and travel. We bought our current house a few miles down the road from a very sought after area precisely because we could afford it and got more for our money.

Perhaps that is something you need to look at doing?

You could try dropping leaflets through doors in your chosen areas, that way someone who's thinking of selling may get in touch and you could buy directly through them without getting into a bidding war.

I think we are maybe losing sight of the point of this thread. As mentioned we aren't looking in London, and personally we have been moved out of desirable areas and are looking further afield only then to be priced out. Right or wrong it's frustrating and this a space to express that frustration. And more to the point we can't all move up north either. Sure there will be plenty people here whose work and home life mean buying in London is a necessary but difficult task. No illusions here.

The market in my village and surrounding areas in the south east seems distinctly split in two.

Group 1 are the properties that come on and immediately sell.

Group 2 are the properties that aren't in Group 1 and take ages to sell.

I.e. there aren't many properties that are around in the mid range time scale, they either sell immediately or hang around for months and months.

We were in this position two years ago and I think things have got worse so you have my utmost sympathies. We just kept losing out on house after house after house and then started considering things (flats etc) thats really didn't tick any of our boxes.

The compromise we reached was a new-build. I know they are not for everyone (me included to be honest) but if it's not going to be your 'forever' home they can be really quite stress-free to purchase, especially compared to the dog-eat-dog market you are talking about. We went to the development, picked the house type and plot, did a bit of negotiating about fixtures and fittings and paid a holding deposit. Job done. If you can find a development nearing it's end, like we did, then the moving time is no longer than a regular purchase. Some do part-exchange and things but we were renting at the time so no idea how that works.

I just thought I would put it out there, I'm sure you have thought of it yourselves but it was a good solution for us at a time when I was six months pregnant and seriously thought I would be bringing my baby home to a one-bedroom fourth floor rented flat with no lift access and a landlord who needed us out in six months.

I'm not looking in London or the south east. It's still very competitive.

I lived through the property crash in Ireland. It's amazing how identical the patterns of the house price booms are. Everyone cried that there weren't enough houses being built and this was causing prices to rocket but it turned out that it was speculator/investor driven (along with reckless lending) with ordinary folk fighting for what was left over. Right up to the end EAs were stating that there was a surplus demand and prices would "level out". They never level out. They crash and no area escapes. Price drops ranged from 70 - 50%. All along nobody believed it would ever happen. Everyone gets used to prices going up and can never imagine anything different.

I agree that if prices are too high I should look in a cheaper area. But a few months ago the area I'm looking in was in budget and now they are selling at 30k more in some cases. That is a crazy change of pace. I will adjust but I'm struggling to keep up with the housing market.

We found similar and found it really disheartening until we realised that not all the estate agents worked this way, and we deliberately avoided those that did.
In the end though we ended up buying a house that had been on the market for a fair few months that I completely discredited as the photos were terrible and it was rented at the time. But with our stuff in it it is fab, we just needed to look past the awful facade.

Does sound mad Twitt. It is worryingly like the lead up to many recessions. I think it's fine if you are looking at a home for a long while, then it doesn't matter if prices go down, but I'd be slightly concerned if it was a 'stepping stone' property.

We are in zone 3. Houses have almost doubled from when we bought 6 years ago. We honestly couldn't afford our very modest house now. The flip is, if we want to move up the ladder we have to sell ours for as much as possible to be able to afford that.

And I quite frankly couldn't think of anything worse than tipping my toe in the muck that is the housing market at the moment when we don't need to.

I can only imagine how you guys are feeling. I'm constantly saying to dh who has that sort of money to spend on a house

Our neighbourhood demographic has changed a lot since we moved here. But the council neighbours are still here and their houses are still almost the loveliest, nicely looked after homes.

The btl seem to be selling and families are moving in.

And Now we have friends in Dublin spending huge €€ on houses, the crash there has been and gone for the time being.

Shame they don't finish the apartment blocks that were started.

Can you perhaps "strengthen" your bid by confirming your position - you have a mortgage in place, nothing to sell (so can work to vendors' timescales, have a solicitor on standby etc). That's what we did when we went to sealed bids for our current house (we obviously "won"). We weren't the highest bidder but stressed my H's firm would do the conveyancing (and he would check daily etc so there would be no delays), we were in rented, mortgage in place etc.

Also, I had a great relationship with the agents - I also think that for about 6 months before (i was on maternity leave), I dropped into the offices of the estate agents we were registered with every week and didn't mess them about (i.e. only viewed properties we were genuinely interested in, was firm in what we wanted etc). So, we were the first into see this house, EA knew we were serious when we put the bid in and as they knew me, knew I wouldn't mess the vendors about. I'm not sure whether they "put a good word" in for us, but it certainly helped.

Yes Four, some parts of Dublin are taking off but still 30% below peak in most areas - that's a lot. The top end is no where near what they were. Outside of Dublin it's still grim. Again, it's investors driving up the hot spots.

I was just coming on here to start the EXACT same thread!! I am in the West Midlands and the market has gone bonkers. I sold 2 weeks ago with 12 offers and best and final went 20k over the asking price. Absolutely great until you try and buy. I am selling as I have separated from h and have a very defined area due to schools. Perfect house came on the market Saturday I was the only one to see it, offered asking price there and then with agent. Call today and the vendor wants to honour the million viewings booked in this week so it will go to best and final.

I feel very depressed about the entire thing and think I will end up taking the house off the market and h will have to stay paying extortionate rent for the foreseeable! Gah its annoying.

I'm amazed. I'm in London and l can't sell.