Anyone else totally despondent with this bloody frenetic market?

[Onandoff]

Sold ages ago now renting as purchases x 2 both fell through due to things coming up last minute during enquiries.

Lots are coming on and selling within a couple of days. Viewed something this afternoon and when came home it was marked as sold on rightmove. We’re in a funny price point between high end and mid range.

Debating whether to take on a rebuild property on a good plot but it will take a good year to do and by then DD will be at university. Gah. Just wanted to rant.

Yes, sane here but I'm totally mid range in price. High demand bracket with little that's appealing coming on to the market

Yes, same here. Properties going under offer before they've even hit Rightmove. We viewed 4 houses today, each time there were viewings before and after us, each house had offers (according to the EA, anyway) and there's just a general sense of slight panic about the market.

We've ended up offering slightly over asking on a house we love today, but we did the same last week too and got a rejection. It's affordable for us, but if today's offer is rejected I don't quite know what we'll do - we don't want to end up paying silly money out of desperation.

It’s totally bonkers. Can’t understand what’s driving it. Max saving 15k with stamp duty saving totally dwarfed by mass buying panic.

Things coming onto rightmove. I call ea who says that sold already. So why list it? Very little on the market, anything half decent going under offer within a day or so.

I had sold STC back in Nov 2020 but my chain collapsed. Re-marketed few days ago for 25k more and received 2 over asking price offers within one hour - from viewers back in November. It is madness.

What is going on? Is it the stamp duty thing?

My next door neighbours have just moved out and I honestly think it was due to lockdown boredom. I reckon people are getting so antsy that moving house is feeling like a solution. I'm not actually joking.

Their house went in 24 hours. The one up put theirs up for far more and that went too. Thing is you need to buy in the same market.

Same here (Scotland) so it’s not just due to stamp duty. Houses are going on the market in the morning and selling by the afternoon.

We're looking to buy sometime this year but we think we'll just wait a few more months until things hopefully calm down a little bit. We paid over the odds back in 2007 and lost money when we sold in 2010 so not going there again. Will just have to stay in rental for a while longer.

I’m just about to come back to the UK to house-hunt, we sold last July and I’ve been keeping an eye on things since. I was hoping things might slow down or prices drop off a bit, but no sign of that happening, I feel like maybe I should wait but can’t help but feel that nothing is going to change soon and we really need to get a home in the UK.

We definitely felt the same, we were house hunting last summer during the boom and saw loads of houses that we really liked, but weren't able to proceed so understandably even when we had 2 offers accepted the vendors ended up dropping us and going with other offers. We sold our house a few months ago and were so gutted and disheartened when we then realised just how little is currently on the market, as you say the good ones go so quickly and for above asking so what you're left with is the average stuff that's been massively overpriced. We've been viewing houses left right and centre that didn't even excite us as we felt there were no other options to explore and didn't want to lose our buyers. I've been really stressed over it all and cried many tears.

Then four days ago a property came on that is a complete fixer upper (not what we were originally looking for at all with another baby due imminently!) but in a really fab location and has the long term potential to tick all of our boxes. We saw it that day, offered and had our offer accepted the day after, so from despair to dream house in less than 48 hours. The uncertainty of it all is hideous but it just takes one to come up that's right for you. Fingers crossed you're not waiting much longer.

I saw so many nice houses go because I wasn't under offer (I'm moving to London and while the market is good here not as hot as where I'm looking), then when I was there was low stock or houses going faster than I could get there to view. There was one I kept coming back to on rightmove again and again but kept rejecting as too small. Then making the trip to view I decided why not - and it was the one! Needs an extension, the converted loft needs a dormer, I need to install a downstairs toilet... way more than I wanted to do but it made it affordable. More house coming on but they are just getting more and more expensive.

so from despair to dream house in less than 48 hours.

What a relief, mummabubs. I'm in despair trying to sell though! Thought I sold back in autumn, only now transpires that my buyer is no cash buyer anymore and can't raise finance - after months of seemingly proceeding.

I wonder if all those houses flying off the market have off-street parking - and upmarket areas?

Or are pp saying that in their middling area anything flies off? Mine is really nice large semi (Edwardian), great room sizes, good size garden, but it's not selling due to on-street parking which isn't even bad (one way street) - these kind of threads make me feel the pain even more!
I could sell at a loss of what I paid 7yrs ago but I really don't want to, esp when I see this..argh! Yes, I'm in East Mids so it's not a hot area, but it's still a good city location esp for transport links / shops.

Oh but on the other hand, the market where I'm looking to buy ( a cheaper house, terraced) is crazy, in a different city! Mine is just below national average, so you'd think anything like that would go if nice enough. Where I'm looking anything sells if in best areas.

@CatAndHisKit We were the same last year- our current house is a new build in a cul de sac where typically houses sell quickly. Last summer we sat on the market for 11 weeks with a handful of viewings and no offers so we decided to take it off the market when we found out I was pregnant. Fast forward to when we put it on the market again in the New Year and we had 10 viewings in one day and multiple offers at full asking price, we were boggled!

To give you some hope with your house - I'm afraid I fall into the camp of guaranteed parking being my current top priority (due to having small kids and a large dog and needing to take them out by myself frequently!) However my husband was quite frustrated at how many houses this meant I wasn't as keen to view as what you've got is literally his dream house. He absolutely loves older properties, high ceilings, period features etc and the parking situation that all of these houses come with doesn't bother him in the slightest. If our children were older or it was just me and DH the parking situation wouldn't be a deal breaker for me either. I guess what I'm trying to say is there'll definitely be a buyer that's right for your house! Have you considered a small price reduction or saying something in the description about there being adequate parking and the road being quiet? Fingers crossed that right person comes along soon 🤞🏻

It's so difficult at the moment. Hardly anything coming on where we are, but when they do they either sell in 24 hours, or the over priced and less desirable ones hang around for ages. It's so difficult to know what to do when ones comes up and it's not quite right - offer or wait. We are viewing a house hopefully this week, before it comes on the market, but it's at the edge of the estate we want to live on and not on the street I wanted. But we don't know whether to just go for it or wait for our dream house... (which should be in budget, but nobody is selling at the moment)...

We got lucky with our house. We asked the ea what they would be happy accepting we would offer it if they took the house of the market while it went through. We only paid 2,000 more. It was up for a day.

@Namechangeforthewin

We got lucky with our house. We asked the ea what they would be happy accepting we would offer it if they took the house of the market while it went through. We only paid 2,000 more. It was up for a day.

I feel like we got lucky too. The vendors massively overvalued the property and insisted it was listed at a frankly ludicrous price given it's one of the smallest houses on the road and by their own admission needs complete modernisation throughout, so we were the only people to request a viewing despite it being in a very desirable location. We were open with the agent that we thought the asking price was way too much and he agreed but said he had to be led by the vendor. We offered £55k under the asking price on the first day of it being on the market and were shocked when it was accepted. Apparently the agent had a gentle word with them that even if they hung on they were unlikely to get any significantly higher offers than ours. We're convinced that if the vendor had just advertised it for what it's realistically worth there'd have been loads of views and we'd have ended up in a bidding war for it.

I think it's a combination of people being thoroughly sick of their living situation (location, house size, who they live with!), the stamp duty holiday, people wanting houses with gardens and maybe a small office/boxroom for WFH, interest rates being rock bottom...

Thank you mummabubs - I really hope I find such a buyer, it's quit a large house, too large for an older couple or a young ouple with one child, but as you say, possibly family with teens wouldnb't mind the parking. A family DID live here happily for 10 years before I bought, a few kids, they moved out for a better school when the eldest rached 10, I think - so obviously parking was fine for them.
Pleased to hear you got such a surge after an unlucky stretch, bit surprising as last summer was very avtive in most areas, so if yours wasn't then where did they come from? Anyway, a great result!

@CatAndHisKit On reflection we think it's probably because there were so many properties on the market last summer that we didn't get any offers. Our road is a desirable cul de sac and we have three double bedrooms, but it's a townhouse on three storeys which doesn't appeal to everyone and we also have a very small north facing garden. Whereas there's now so little coming on the market in our location that it's much more competitive for buyers and also on our day of viewings it was overcast so perhaps people weren't able to see just how little direct sun our garden gets 😂🤦🏻‍♀️

Indeed, many people that didn’t plan to move last year are now looking after what would have been a 5 months worth of lockdown over the last 12. I think we ll see many sales falling through when the June deadline for stamp duty hit, no matter how much notice buyers had, some will get caught/use as an excuse to drop out of a buy if they have second thoughts on how much they offered. I mean this market inflation is entirely driven by sentiment (aka can’t stand anymore these 4 walls 24/7 for months now), there are no BTL, no inflation (yet), no foreign buyers, and certainly not an economic boom. London was in a similar situation in 2013-2014 where open day and best offer for flats in shoreditch and Hackney were pushing price at 15% year. These part of London are probably the ones with the least momentum now, while unremarkable suburban houses with a garden under the 800-900 mark were trading fast in 2020. we shall see how 2021 turn out to be in the capital once life is back to normal and many have to commute but also enjoy the amenities in inner London, I suspect a lot will have their priorities re adjusted.

I hope it's just sentiment and not another boom. The budget really made prices go mad. Let's hope the stamp duty holiday isn't extended further...

Don’t rely on Rightmove.
Register directly with the EAs in the area and let them know exactly what you want, budget, and specifically that you are chain free.

Go on a viewing with them and ask them to call you if they get anything coming in to their books.

We’re getting ours ready to sell and as a PP says, it’s largely boredom! I’ve been in this house nearly all day every day for the past year, I’m sick of the bloody sight of it. It was never going to be our forever home but lockdown has hastened our desire to move.