Page 10 | Feeling totally overwhelmed by the market

fluffycupcakes · 2021-05-01T07:28:15+00:00

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.

FelicityElectricity · 13/05/2021 11:45

@pinksnowball what a pain - I'm guessing it cost a bit for the survey but at least it saved you from buying a money pit. I'm wary of buying a very outdated house top of our budget with no money left to improve it. We did that with our current house and it took ten years to get it looking how we wanted to because we hadn't got the money. Good luck with your search!

pinksnowball · 13/05/2021 11:49

Yes, we lost £1400, it was awful But as you say, we were relieved we got it done. I think it really would have been a money pit.

We have actually found somewhere else to buy now but I won't relax until the survey is done. The surveyor has actually given us a discount since we are a repeat customer

TakeYourFinalPosition · 13/05/2021 12:03

@Itscoldouthere That sucks, I'm sorry.

I'm quite worried about the slowdown... there are only four houses where want to move to on Rightmove now. We need to sell again, but I'm worried we won't be able to find anywhere to move to... and rental places have shot up in demand here. A friend that moved 9 months ago has just been told that her rent will go up by £550 a month if she wants to continue her tenancy!

We've got a viewing with our old rubbish agent today. Apparently, a FTB who is very keen, and has all the finances sorted. DH doesn't want to do the viewing, as our house resold to the next highest bidder on Tuesday and there's nothing else we like on the market, but I feel like we'd be shooting ourselves in the foot... and they might not offer, anyway. I said I'd phone back in half an hour to confirm.

On the one hand, we really need more space, and to move ASAP. On the other, there's just nothing we could consider right now, and we're both still pretty hurt that our dream house is gone. It had everything; even if we probably were overpaying by quite a margin.

@pinksnowball Good luck with your survey! They make me really nervous too. Not that we've got to that stage recently

worriedatthemoment · 13/05/2021 12:05

Where we are you can't even get to view lower end proce properties / first time buyers as snapped up before , some by landlords/ investors who just put an offer straight in
Feel its time fTb or people buying a home to live in should get first viewings

Itscoldouthere · 13/05/2021 12:14

Yes this market is so weird. Who would have know it would go like this when we sold last year.
I wish I could just dip out and give up but we need something in the UK as our life has gone a bit pear shaped (we are currently living overseas) but it’s bloody depressing and stressful.
I’m seeing something interesting tomorrow but I think the sellers need to find something. If they’ve not been looking yet they probably have no idea how crazy the market is.
I wouldn’t advise anyone to move into rented at the moment unless moving area, as it feels quite risky.
I thought we were in a brilliant position but it seems there are full cash buyers out there with £800 to £1 million 🤷‍♀️

mumieone · 13/05/2021 12:31

I don't think most of the houses are coming up on rightmove at all. There is a lot more out there but people are scared to openly advertise as they have no where to go to.
EAS offering a behind the scenes matching service which really doesn't give us the opportunity to choose for ourselves but rely on them to match us up.
Today EA called again to offer me their 'service'. Get me all measured, photographed etc and on their system (but not live) .... this helps them get people on their books and as soon as I'm ready to go live I say say 'GO' and I'll be on rightmove. I said I need more time. Last night was the first full nights sleep since pulling out of my sale - I need alot time to just relax.

Alonim · 13/05/2021 12:58

So many houses that were supposedly sold are coming back on the market here/London - same price as they were 2 months ago. Houses that have been sitting around are being reduced significantly.

I feel confident that sitting tight/taking a rest from this madness is the best way to go.

Original poster

fluffycupcakes · 13/05/2021 13:01

@pinksnowball that's awful. But it is technically why it is sooo much better to have a survey done so at least the silver lining is you're not trapped somewhere you'd have a lot of work to shell out for.

@Itscoldouthere that's our price bracket, been an absolute nightmare. Praying it slows down. It as PP have said, now there's nothing on the market instead creating a whole other issue.

OP posts:

DblEspresso · 13/05/2021 13:21

@pinksnowball This wasted survey is an unnecessary cost I feel. Rule should be for the owner to get a survey done and share it with all buyers. Otherwise each buyer has to get same house surveyed separately and waste money.
The house you rejected would probably be rejected by anyone else as well if they do the survey. Ideally owner should have reduced the list price to account for the known defects.

Itscoldouthere · 13/05/2021 14:04

@fluffycupcakes yes the EA are saying nothing much in that price range, there is more house at over £1.25 but we can’t even consider that type of price.
I am on the ‘special’ off market list with one agent, but I think you then end up with a seller who has to find something which could mean anything.
I don’t know what we will do if I don’t find anything soon.
Just have to keep looking!

De88 · 13/05/2021 14:14

[quote DblEspresso]@pinksnowball This wasted survey is an unnecessary cost I feel. Rule should be for the owner to get a survey done and share it with all buyers. Otherwise each buyer has to get same house surveyed separately and waste money.
The house you rejected would probably be rejected by anyone else as well if they do the survey. Ideally owner should have reduced the list price to account for the known defects.[/quote]
When we were looking at a house that had come back onto the market, the estate agent mentioned that a survey had already been done so if we wanted and acceptable from our lender, we could "buy" it from the previous person who'd had to pull out. Could that be a possibility?

De88 · 13/05/2021 14:15

Sorry that should have been @pinksnowball

pinksnowball · 13/05/2021 14:48

The EA asked if we could send them the survey but I refused unless they shared the cost (they declined!) I did send then the most relevant sections though to explain why we were pulling out.

To be honest I expect they're hoping that the next buyer only gets a homebuyer's report done rather than a full structural survey. Otherwise the next buyer might run a mile like we did!

I was wondering though, what happens if the next buyer approaches our same surveyor? Would he actually visit again and do the survey all over again even though he just did one a few weeks ago? There are only a few surveyors in the area so it seems quite likely they might approach the same one.

Outonmyear · 13/05/2021 15:27

Years and years ago we contacted a surveyor to do a survey on a property we had just offered on. He said he’d done one about a month ago and sent us a copy no charge! It was bad, we pulled out but the house did sell for asking soon after.

TakeYourFinalPosition · 13/05/2021 16:40

@pinksnowball We had a survey done for a move just over three years ago now... It didn't go through as the vendors pulled out, but the surveyor did contact us a few months later to ask if they could provide a copy of the report to a new buyer. He charged the new buyer half the price of the survey, and then refunded us half. I don't know if that's standard practice. We didn't ask for it; I was happy enough for them to give it for free, at least someone would have benefitted from it!

Ipanemama · 13/05/2021 16:40

I’m feeling sick with stress with all this. We wanted to move to a new area but I don’t think it’s worth it now. We have enough space in our current house and good schools here. Dc starting yr 7 in September so it will be another 5 years before we can move again

Musntgrumble2021 · 13/05/2021 19:22

This is depressing!

We moved area and have been really renting since Nov because couldn’t find anything but needed to move to get DC settled in new school etc.
We are now thinking of just accepting that we rent for a year or so, keep an eye out but not get panicked into buying the wrong thing. So fed up of the fight. Having to actively chase. Things selling and viewings being cancelled.

What should we do with the money from our house sake though? So stressful!!

umbel · 13/05/2021 20:02

@Musntgrumble2021 word on the boards is to stick it in Premium Bonds for now.

We were turned down for a viewing today as ‘all the slots were already full’. They’ll let us know if they plan to do more viewings, but I’m not hopeful. Have tried leafleting to no avail. May post in local Facebook groups next, out of desperation!

Musntgrumble2021 · 13/05/2021 20:09

Thanks umbel

We will do that up to the limit. Will still have more as had equity in our house that we sold. So scary. I’ve never had money before! Total novice. People in this thread taking about negative interest. Losing their deposits. Totally freaking me out!

Also wasting money on rent each month is galling.

Musntgrumble2021 · 13/05/2021 20:11

Umbel. Our plan was to start phoning the EA weekly. Squeaky wheel. We did this once and did get viewings. One too big a project. The other top of our budget and went for well over asking. It’s probably worth the effort. We just didn’t manage to keep it up.

TakeYourFinalPosition · 14/05/2021 12:19

@Musntgrumble2021 No advice, but that must be scary.

DHs parents asked why we didn’t sell and move into rented for a bit, but I can’t convince myself that prices here wouldn’t continue to shoot up and then we’d never be able to buy again. Plus renting would be at least twice what we pay for all bills here, just for the rent 😬

We got no feedback on the viewing last night. It was so awkward. We sat outside in the car 10 minutes before the viewing so we could let the estate agent in, and then disappear before the viewer arrived, but they arrived at the same time. The estate agent didn’t talk to us, even when he gave the keys back at the end... but the buyer did take away the information.

There’s a gorgeous house listed today that I’d love to go see but it’s pointless when we’ve no longer got a buyer. Eurgh. It’s definitely slowed down here... not much new being listed at all, and anything that does get listed seems to fly off. I’m worried that when we finally get to sell, there will be absolutely nothing to look at.

@umbel Sorry that they wouldn’t let you view, that seems crazy. I thought it was bad enough that we were the 12th people to view the house we offered on, all in 10 minute slots the evening before it went on Rightmove!

SecretOfChange · 14/05/2021 12:31

I bought my first house last year during the pandemic and I haven't done the survey. Frankly I'm glad I didn't. I would probably be unable to proceed with all that information in black and white, and would tie myself in knots calculating the damage. It's old victorian terrace and I've already invested a lot in the renovation, more to be done still, but I'm happy here.

"If you don't want to buy a house, do a survey"

It's a bit different now though when the market has gone bonkers and people are overpaying anyway so having expensive surprises on top of this is very depressing for sure.

Cattenberg · 14/05/2021 14:45

I’m relieved that some of you have seen signs of the market slowing in your area. Please could you say which region you’re in?

I spoke to my estate agent today and he seemed to think there’s no need to panic even if plenty of people are panicking. He agreed that mortgage lenders will react if they think properties are being overvalued. He did let slip that I might not get a property in my preferred area, though.

cosmi · 14/05/2021 15:52

@Cattenberg

I’m relieved that some of you have seen signs of the market slowing in your area. Please could you say which region you’re in?

I spoke to my estate agent today and he seemed to think there’s no need to panic even if plenty of people are panicking. He agreed that mortgage lenders will react if they think properties are being overvalued. He did let slip that I might not get a property in my preferred area, though.

London is slowing

mklanch · 14/05/2021 16:12

@Cattenberg

I’m relieved that some of you have seen signs of the market slowing in your area. Please could you say which region you’re in?

I spoke to my estate agent today and he seemed to think there’s no need to panic even if plenty of people are panicking. He agreed that mortgage lenders will react if they think properties are being overvalued. He did let slip that I might not get a property in my preferred area, though.

Lincolnshire has started slowing down