What if you can't find a house you like?

[Spicylolly]

What would you do? buy something for the sake of it and hope you grow to love it or would you rent until the right house came along?

For me it depends on the following;
How desperate are you? Do you HAVE to move for work/school.
How long have you been looking?
How busy is the market in the area you’re looking?
How realistic is it you’ll get what you want?

Given the current market I doubt the market will get so out of control you’ll be priced out so there seems to be less danger in renting but obviously there’s more hassle.

Have you seen a few maybe houses then? We’ve gone for a maybe house because it’s the best we can get for our budget, our wish list just wasn’t realistic so it ticked the location, size and potential boxes which was enough for us in the end.

Yes have to move, different area and new schools sorted for september, I do have somewhere to stay with the kids but it's only temporary. The area is very popular, houses sell in a couple of weeks. Very frustrating 😢 keep missing out to cash buyers so maybe renting is the way to go to keep our chain and be in a better position offer wise.

I had to move to settle & book a school place.
I wanted a 3 bed with a decent sized sitting room. After a year without success, I put a very silly offer in on a 4 bed and was accepted.
The house has needed to be rewired, new boiler, new kitchen, new windows so still a good buy, just not quite as good as I first thought.

I love it. My family all use it as a meeting point ( mid-country) because of the space.

Spicylolly, I’m looking at your thread and feeling your pain.
We have SSTC and looking at having to go into rented. There are not many houses in the area we want to buy in, everything is moving very fast unless it’s overpriced then it’s sitting there.
Very little has been added to the market since we found our buyer , trying to decide if we should ‘settle’ for something that’s not perfect or rent. But if we rent, how long do we wait for ‘the’ property? Don’t want to be in rented for any longer than necessary!!

We bought a house that we didn't love love. It was the only 3 bed on the market in our price range (live rurally) it had a fantastic garden. The inside needed gutting but we got there and an extension will finish the job. But... and this is outside only....i hate how it looks. It's a grey harled property with coloured fife stone. I still dislike that look but I've gotten used to it over the years.

I'd wait for something you like to come along. There are often long periods when nothing any good or reasonably priced comes on to the market, and then suddenly, like buses, several appear at once.

We sold and went into rented for nearly a year before we found something we liked - although in that time we had a couple of houses fall through. My worry was that if we 'settled' for a house we didn't love, the reasons we didn't love it would also apply to the next buyers and it'd be hard to sell quickly if something we did love came on the market.

I’d go into rented in your position, if you want to keep your buyers and have any chance of moving before the school term starts.

I think in the current market going into rented is the way forward. We told our EA yesterday that we will now go chain free. The only house we would consider at the moment is a new build & we'd have to move into rented while that finishes anyway so we felt we may as well just say we'll do it anyway. We/you would be better placed to make offers when chain free. I'd definitely go for it & move into rented!