Feeling totally overwhelmed by the market

[fluffycupcakes]

Will it ever cool down? It's not even financially any more although we've certainly lost money between selling our house and now renting waiting to buy.

Every buyer out there seems to snap up a property before we can breath. I'm not comfortable putting an offer on the second a property reaches the market and yet if I don't it appears we won't ever be able to move. Just so depressed about it all. Any indications the market might slow down?
Sorry for such a depressing post but have people really benefitted from the stamp duty relief? We seem to now have to mortgage up on the extreme price increases instead of making any savings.

Why are you not comfortable putting an offer in when something goes on the market? Normally you view quickly and then decide?

How long do you need to decide about a property? Decide your preferences in advance, know exactly what you want. Be ready... then pounce when you see it!

I’m with @fluffycupcakes. Who wants to make the biggest decision of their life after a five minute viewing, knowing they are entering into sealed bids? It’s a horrible situation.

I can't even get a viewing before they're sold! I'm talking ringing up and either having 15 mins to view and decide before the next person viewing does this or not even being able to see the house without extensive begging on the phone and even then it now being rejected as first served as I've not put an offer on any I've seen with the local estate agents ahhh maybe it's me then.
I need at least the afternoon to consider everything especially when they're selling at market price and I'm not buying the forever home just an interim I need to live in for 5 years unfortunately due to my circumstances. Or maybe I'm doing things wrong

Yes as sure as the sun rises each day the market will cool down. Lots of things are inflated massively at the moment, not just property... Best thing you can do is to do what you can to protect your presumably sizeable deposit from your house sale from inflation erosion while you wait it out.

I personally did benefit from the stamp duty relief, but was already on path to exchange when it was announced so it was more of a budget windfall. Offering/buying now, no way does it compensate adequately for the inflated prices.

Estate Agents tend to have a hot list of “proceedable buyers”, who get told about new properties before they’re advertised online. Are you on these lists with several estate agents, OP?

The market is hideous so you have my full sympathy. We're first time buyers and had to pull out of two purchases since Feb last year. Both times the vendors were giving us the complete run around and neither property has since sold...

We are now horrified at the price increases. We were paying 460 and 485 for fairly decent 4 bed properties. Now you're lucky to find a 3 bed of a similar standard in the same area.

I don't have any advice only sympathy. I'm not convinced the market will cool any time soon. I think prices will probably stagnate but I think there won't be enough housing stock to satisfy demand for a while.

We are currently renting somewhere that we can't afford. It's now a toss up between buying a small house that we hate but can afford or buying one or two buy to lets somewhere in the hope that the rental income will cover our own rent... Neither option is remotely ideal.

We can't relocate due to stepkids/schooling etc. It's really, really shit.

Let estate agents know that you want first dibs on properties - most of the good ones are being shown to people before they even land on Rightmove so are sold by the time the advert is live.

I agree it’s hideous at the moment. And we are in a really good position financially. It’s the stress of it all. I would have rather got less for ours and actually have some choice of properties to move to but nothing is coming on because there is nothing to buy.

We sold and bought last year I'm not sure if my area just isn't as affected or we missed the intensity of it all as it was just before, but watching location X 3 at the moment just shows how crazy the market is, I've never seen a series like it, rather than putting offers under asking in they're trying to work out how much more to offer to seal the deal. This week's couple viewed a house £400-£425k guide price, they offered £420k, it needed up selling for £495k.....I don't understand how people are even getting mortgages on these sums, surely they're getting down valued??

Same story here but for my grandson and his partner who have been living with his mother for the last few years in an attempt to save for a deposit. They have a good one now but there are let downs at every turn. My dd thinks they will find things easier when the stamp duty suspension finishes and people start to review the situation more realistically.

We’re in the same position. It’s too stressful for me to even contemplate taking part in this madness. Even the estate agent told us not to bother now and to wait. So the estate agent has told us it will calm down. Of course it will OP.

We’ve been needing to move for years now and I’ve watched the market go through phases like this. It always calms down. This is the maddest I’ve ever seen it - despite there being horrendous other mad times here. We’re in what was/is still a regenerated/ up and coming place and annoyingly are stuck due to kids and schools etc

It will calm. Not sure if prices will drop. But it will calm down.

I fully agree it is horrendous. We eold our house in Oct and the buyer is waiting for it as she loves it we cant find anything we like and things we do are going before we have chance to offer.

It is just awful. I also feel now we are paying top price for our onward purchase but our house sold in oct for much less than if if was to go up now. Losing all angles

It's so miserable, am a first time buyer have been saving for a deposit for years, had just got into a position to buy but now can't afford anywhere so will have to continue renting again for god knows how long to save more.

I don’t think you’ll get an afternoon to consider right now... it’s a really fast market. Are you in the area that you want to buy in?

We found two places - both from going to see them as soon as they were listed, same day, and then taking an hour or so to make an offer. The first time someone bid £25k over asking straight out, so we left that one; the second one we viewed at 7pm on a Friday, made an offer via email that evening and had a call back on Saturday to say we’d got it. There were four other asking price offers, and one slightly over, but he liked us (I’m not sure why, but I’ll take it!)

Have you narrowed down where you’re looking so you know the streets/surroundings that you’d live on?

It is crazy right now, and stressful, and it will calm down - but you might not want to be waiting for that if you’re already in rented. And while it’s supposed to be a benefit; we beat someone in rental already because our seller needs to buy somewhere else and didn’t think they’d be patient enough to let him find it.

I’d second getting on EA lists so you get notified before they’re on Rightmove. The EA had 12 viewings booked before it went anywhere near being advertised for ours.

Best of luck

Yes we are on the 'hot' list. We have mortgage in principle with mainstream banks and everything lined up ready to move.

The biggest issue has been finding a house now the prices have gone up so much, stock is not great now in our budget.

Estate agents have said we are in the most popular price range here.

At this point, I recommend following the buy low, sell high approach only. If you're selling a house that is highly desirable in this market and you intend to buy one that isn't as attractive, then go right ahead. The spread now is at its lowest.

The highly desirable tend to be fully renovated and extended in modern expensive (for the house) tastes, great garden and the right area. The less desirable houses are completely unrenovated houses by which I mean it needs every plumbing pipe and electrical wire changed, new boiler, new windows, new floors, ceilings and plasterwork, extensions and finally a kitchen and all new bathrooms. People fear a project of this size in case there is another lockdown unless they have the luxury of financing a rental for a year.

To add to my comments above, I wouldn't move at all now unless it was selling a house at a premium and buying a house that needs a lot of work to be considered premium.

Thanks @NewHouseNewMe good plan. I can't seem to find any decent renovation projects either. Or in the least they come up at the top of our budget and these are the ones I really must consider what we need to do to get the house up to a liveable standard.
We've even gone back and worked out how much we can borrow at 10% LTV so that we can hold more cash back to renovate.
Think we have truly done ourselves by selling up and then not moving quick enough.

Where in the country are you @fluffycupcakes?
We are in outer London and I have to say it's a crazy market. We bought and sold last year and I truly thought it was the peak. It's got worse since then. So much for everyone leaving London..!

It’s always been like this where we live - though exaggerated by covid. Three bed family houses under £500k in our village are rare, so tend be under offer within a few days of being on the market.

I’d recommend being certain on location and non negotiables before viewing anything, then ‘all’ you need to make a decision on is the property itself.

@newhousenewme in my area it's the houses which need renovating which get the most interest!

We're in a similar position in that we sold a few weeks ago (6 offers above asking 😳 and our house is a normal 3 bed semi). We have looked at everything in our price range and haven't found anything suitable so far. We have offered on one house that needed work but we were outbid. I refuse to get caught up in the panic of the market and make a quick decision that I might regret on such a massive expensive purchase. Unfortunately that may mean we miss out on potential properties.
We've looked at new builds (not my first choice) but they are too far from the kids schools and small for the premium prices. Good luck with your search 😊

Really @pinksnowball? Wow! Is that across all price ranges?
We found that people wanted a discount on the asking price for a renovation at the top end of the market so these were on the market longer despite offers.

The decent reno houses near us (Berkshire) are also either flying off the shelf immediately or way overpriced. Saw an alright one in Marlow, but at 550k and in need of complete gutting plus extending we just couldn't afford it. Our initial budget at the beginning of last year was £450k. Even looking up to £600k we now aren't finding much. We have a huge deposit and no chain. None of this is working in our favour. It's depressing.

OP "Sorry for such a depressing post but have people really benefitted from the stamp duty relief? We seem to now have to mortgage up on the extreme price increases instead of making any savings."

I think this is key, have prices just gone up to cover this.

Re speed, we're selling the flat my parents used to live in decades ago. It's been rented out. It's tiny. On a really nice road though.

But...I gave the keys to the EA and he had a couple of buyers view that afternoon. Two days later, we had an offer which we've accepted.

I think it will take a long time or fall through though -don't ask - but there were 5 pending appointments and the photos haven't good online.

EA is about 50 and said he's never seen the buyers trying to act so quickly. Sorry.