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.

@Tulipwood crazy isn't it, the houses we were seeing are now tiny compared to when we started and the thought of spending all the stamp duty on somewhere tiny and just suck up our losses isn't great.

We have decided to continue renting until something we actually like comes on the market, me go back to work hopefully to increase our borrowing ability and invest gamble some of the deposit that's sitting in the bank (only what we can afford to lose and resave) in the hope we can cover some of the losses that have now occurred as a result of the market shifting so quickly after we sold. Poor luck for us but life does these things sometimes and we can only do what we can do to improve the situation I suppose.

I feel done as well. Due to see two houses this week. One I pulled out if after a bit of sleuthing on the planning portal and land registry showed that the vendors have cut the garden in half and must either gave sold or retained part of the original plot. In my third year of living next door to a development and fighting planning applications, not keen on moving for more. Today's viewing was confirmed at 9 but they accepted an offer this morning before I could see it.

Prices in the bracket I'm looking up seem to have gone up 25-30% in the last year. Bonkers.

We've just had an offer accepted on a property at just below the asking price. We did our research and thought our offer was on the higher side, but still fair compared to prices in the area.

We should be happy but I'm slightly terrified now that there must be something wrong with it since everything else is going to sealed bids! Keep your fingers crossed for us!

It’s just insane at the moment. We’ve pretty much stopped even viewing for now. I believe it will calm down in the next few months and a lot of people will be sobering up to the fact that they’ve paid massively inflated prices, often on problem/ undesirable houses. We viewed a place with a history of flooding (nice of the agent to not tell us until at the viewing) which went to best and final offers. No thanks. Another place that needed gutting, smelt of wee and went for top dollar.

Honestly unless you’re desperate to move I’d wait it out. Spending 15 minutes viewing a house, less time than I spent test driving my car, before buying is a step too far into crazy lMO.

@CausingChaos2 yes that's what I meant when I started this thread. I'm given 15 minutes to decide if I'm to 'bid' for any given house and compete with others as desperate as we are. I just can't do that, I don't like panic buying anything. Let alone something that will possibly lead to a huge detrimental effect on my whole family if I make the wrong decision.

So I will wait, accept my losses if I'm totally wrong and move area to avoid living somewhere tiny when dc finish primary in a few years.

I’m so glad you made this thread @fluffycupcakes because it’s so easy to feel like “is it just me?”. We adjusted our expectations during the search but it’s hard for me to fathom how going from a 2 bed to a 2.5 bed basically (why are third bedrooms so small!) is going to cost £125k+ more than our house.

I feel so despondent about the whole thing.

I’m the same Fluffy in needing time to contemplate and mull over my decision. In normal times we do at least have chance for a second viewing.

I’m sorry everyone is still struggling...

Our seller found somewhere and had an offer accepted on Friday, which we were very excited about. And then his estate agent let us know that our buyer has, apparently, pulled out due to the long wait. Our EA hadn’t bothered to tell us.

We’ve been trying everything to find a new one, we’ve even had a cash property buying company out, but they come in £25k under what we sold for and we can’t swallow all of that. We could make £12k less than what we had work, but not £25k... we’ve got a new EA coming out today to hopefully email it to their list and see if we get any interest.

We haven’t even officially heard if the seller will give us any time, so I’m caught between desperately trying to find a way to sell quickly and planning how we make enough room in a very over-full flat so that we can live here; both work here and have a baby. Gutted.

@fluffycupcakes I’m glad you’ve made a plan that you’re happy with. I think that’s all you can do right now, take the risks that seem to work best for you as an individual, as there seems to be no way of knowing what is going to happen next!

@TakeYourFinalPosition oh no. That is awful. Good luck to you and hoping you find new buyers ASAP.

It’s good to pop back here to reflect how mad it really is out there. There have been 2 new properties up for sale in our search area in the last 3 weeks, both wildly unsuitable for us. One was a 3 bed through terrace (2 bed plus loft conversion) on a main road with no garden. The last property that sold on the row was in 2016, right after they all flooded. It sold for £89k. This one went on at £210k and was gone within days. I think a lot of people are going to be repenting at leisure.

@umbel

It’s good to pop back here to reflect how mad it really is out there. There have been 2 new properties up for sale in our search area in the last 3 weeks, both wildly unsuitable for us. One was a 3 bed through terrace (2 bed plus loft conversion) on a main road with no garden. The last property that sold on the row was in 2016, right after they all flooded. It sold for £89k. This one went on at £210k and was gone within days. I think a lot of people are going to be repenting at leisure.

Repenting at leisure - I like that phrase and so true! Its also stupid where we are, I've been clocking Rightmove about 3 times a day for forever! In the last month there are a few properties near us that have been downvalued following surveys according to the chatty surveyor that came to do our buyer's survey this week.... I've also noticed a few that have sold quickly have come back onto the market and also a few more appearing again after beinh reduced in price. I don't want to sound smug, but I guess I am!

Fingers crossed for the beginning of the end of this madness.

Same here. I'm almost 80% ready to give up on the whole idea and extend. The houses near us are on for crazy prices. £100k more than they were a year ago. We can't find anything we like enough for that kind of money. Good luck to everyone still searching. It's very disappointing and frustrating 😒

@umbel

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.

That's exactly what experienced buyers like me do.

In order to move quickly you need to have your lawyer lined up and all ready to go when you give the nod (and your finances of course),. The other thing you need to do is to convince the selling agent that you are a serious contender . By having bothered to do the serious-buyer homework.

BEFORE the view appt, I have already downloaded and read the Home Report, taken a close look at the floor plans and room measurements and the neighbourhood ( at least google maps and satellite,' preferably in person) checked local sold-prices on rightmove, investigated local transport service and timetables.
All that can be done free online from home.

I’m sorry but in this current market that doesn’t help.

You can do all that and be beaten by someone who puts 30k more down and hasn’t done anything like the same prep.

It gets wearing looking at satellite images and doing loads of research into houses you know you won’t have a chance at or don’t even particularly care about - it’s just there is NOTHING else.

It’s part of the reason I’m so tired and fed up as I’ve wasted so much time and energy on that and either someone else gets it who has a bigger cash budget or I walk in and instantly hate it.

@2bazookas thanks so much for taking the time to come here and share your wisdom and experience with us.

It might surprise you to discover that buying and selling houses is not something most people get much practise at.

It might also surprise you to discover that most people know how to do their own online research.

I’m unclear why you think any of that makes much of a difference in a market with no stock.

I can’t believe that’s where we’ve been going wrong all this time! Never thought of googling, thanks @2bazookas for the top tip ...

I expect us all to find lovely homes within a week armed with this new information!

I don’t know if it helps anyone, but there are these websites called rightmove and zoopla which list properties with photos you can look at? Maybe if you put your budget and search area on one of these sites you might find something? 😉

And you can only 'download the home report' if you are buying in Scotland

Some comfort for this thread, perhaps...just had a call from an agent to say that a house we'd loved a couple of months ago was back on the market and were we still interested? We're not, as we have had an offer accepted elsewhere and this new one would push us too much on budget. But I don't expect it'll be the last time this happens...

Hang on in there, it will happen. We had 4 over-asking offers rejected before we found this one.

If anyone's got access to R4 shortly, Kirstie is coming on shortly to talk about the overheated property market.

What does Kirsty say?

'Be cautious - work patterns may go back to being what they were' (was my take).

Well she's just finished and to be honest it's what we all know. Buyers are being swept along for fear of missing out. We don't know how wfh will pan out. Interestingly, Ewan who was interviewing suggested she might be overstating the problem. When he was economics editor it felt like he was reporting on double digit house inflation every week. I was hoping for a bit of crystal ball gazing as to what's round the corner. We've sold and are now renting so wondering whether to panic buy or hold our nerve.

Yeah I've also stopped viewing and my house is pulled off the market. I know I can get top dollar but I won't rent. I'm moving once (moving is stressy enough) and to the house I'm going to live in.

The house I saw for £399.950 moved to £450 (totally not worth it - not even in a desirable area and it's not even detached). Today it was reduced to £230 - and I bet it will go right back down to 399 and accept and offer on it. Stupid really because that seller ditched their buyer, went to another EA promising the 'EARTH and all it's treasures' with an inflated price to get them on their books and guess what? No one wanted it. I'm enjoying this scene now... soon it's going to be a buyers market and these sellers(me included) may look back and think they should have sold high and rented (albiet at ridiculous prices for real sub standard places)

I sent a property to a friend to view. It came on this weekend... when she got through monday they had 30 viewings already booked for launch day. My friend said 'no thanks' don't need that stress and pressure. The place needs serious renovations. It may go above asking price like everything else.

Economists are like Peter Schiff and the rest of similar .... saying prices normally 'stick' after inflation they don't go back and it becomes the 'new normal'. That is because our £££ buys less anyway - it's inflationary.