just cant view any fucking houses!

[Getyourarseofffthequattro]

We are about to put our house on the market, due to go live later this week. EA reckons it will sell quick (a few houses on our street have gone within days) but this issue is there is FA to buy. We have wanted to view 3 houses, which weren't even particularly what we wanted and they have ALL sold before we could even view them. They aren't in "desirable" areas either.

I don't know what to do - EA says sell ours and then worry about it, but if there is nothing to buy we will inevitably have to pull out and i dont want to fuck anyone over particularly. Its a nightmare. I thought things would have calmed down a bit by now!

Is anyone else having the same issues?!

@BingoFucklinger

We were in your shoes a few months back.

Put our house on the market, loads of offers and accepted one within a few days, but nothing to buy. We viewed anything that was vaguely feasible and got more and more desperate. Everything we viewed was going to best and final and there was so little coming up in the first place.

In desperation we got some postcards printed and leafletted 3 of our favourite streets. I just did 40 houses to start with and got two replies. One of them was perfect and we completed last week! Now I have 460 postcards to recycle!

Might be worth a try in case someone is thinking about selling but reluctant to go through the hassle of estate agents, viewings, etc.

Good luck!

Ingenious OP! Congrats and hope all goes well. :-)

@WallaceinAnderland

Don't be rushed into making a decision. It's a massive investment and your buyer will just have to wait or find something else. Panic buying is not a good idea and I think many people will come to regret it.

Oh i agree, I really don't want to rush into anything... I mean we will sell either way... if this guy pulls out i guess we wait for the next?!

@BingoFucklinger

We were in your shoes a few months back.

Put our house on the market, loads of offers and accepted one within a few days, but nothing to buy. We viewed anything that was vaguely feasible and got more and more desperate. Everything we viewed was going to best and final and there was so little coming up in the first place.

In desperation we got some postcards printed and leafletted 3 of our favourite streets. I just did 40 houses to start with and got two replies. One of them was perfect and we completed last week! Now I have 460 postcards to recycle!

Might be worth a try in case someone is thinking about selling but reluctant to go through the hassle of estate agents, viewings, etc.

Good luck!

This sounds like such a good idea! Maybe thats my next move......

@Getyourarseofffthequattro

We're FTB, nothing to sell as renting, but we don't stand a chance because we simply can't afford to put £10, 20, 30 or 40k extra above the asking price to secure a house!

I remember a time not that long ago when one rarely offered the asking price, now it seems the asking price has become the minimum and it's accepted that the norm is to offer at least £10k above that.

Gawd, I bloody hope things change!

[quote GoinSouth]@Getyourarseofffthequattro

We're FTB, nothing to sell as renting, but we don't stand a chance because we simply can't afford to put £10, 20, 30 or 40k extra above the asking price to secure a house!

I remember a time not that long ago when one rarely offered the asking price, now it seems the asking price has become the minimum and it's accepted that the norm is to offer at least £10k above that.

Gawd, I bloody hope things change![/quote]
ah that's a shame.. i know what you mean.

When we sold our old house in 2018 it just wasn't a thing paying asking... I think our buyer bought ours for about 2k under which we thought was great, and we bought ours for 5.5k under which we were really happy with.

This time we have sold a v average house for 4k over asking... frig knows what we will have to pay for the next one...

thats why i was so surprised about the house we offered on going to FTB for 10k over asking.. i mean who has that extra... will the mortgage company lend them enough.. who knows! I am just sick of the stress!

@Getyourarseofffthequattro Happy to answer any questions or share the postcard we had printed if it helps.

Really feel for you. Hope it all works out for you in the end.

@Getyourarseofffthequattro

I know, it's crazy. Maybe young renters who have been saving? Or like us, haven't owned a property for x amount of years so are now classed as FTB?

Mind you, I've never seen so many properties come back on the market £5k, £10k reduced, probably because properties have been devalued by mortgage company.

I just see any decent house (and we're only looking for a 2 bed but I do need a big garden (for my sanity)) as being unobtainable financially, and miserable that with our hard earned life savings as a deposit, we're going to have to compromise like hell and even then, only be able to choose from the properties that people don't want!

Still think of buying a van, parking it in the Scottish Highlands somewhere, living off savings and sod buying a house!

Well we made an offer, declined and asked to up it, upped it a bit, they want the weekend to think about it, but they've got a second viewing today. So basically the ea is going to tell them what we've offered and they'll inevitably offer more.

I'm really sick of this. People are so greedy. We just accepted a figure we were happy with and that was that. We didn't encourage a bidding war.

@Getyourarseofffthequattro what part of the world are you in?

West Yorkshire

@Getyourarseofffthequattro that’s my motherland, I’m NW now. It’s a savage marketplace.

We sold recently, and probably half the people who viewed it did so before it was actually listed. Estate Agent had them on the books already.

We didn’t let anyone who wasn’t in a good position to move quickly view it because there wasn’t any need.

The buyers we went with, we asked for a lot of detail about their position, and made sure they were far along in the process and had a very short chain. Had it been a long chain or only just started, we would have gone with the other bidder.

So get yourself on the books of all the local agents, and keep progressing your own sale, so that you are in a very good position.

@flowery

We sold recently, and probably half the people who viewed it did so before it was actually listed. Estate Agent had them on the books already.

We didn’t let anyone who wasn’t in a good position to move quickly view it because there wasn’t any need.

The buyers we went with, we asked for a lot of detail about their position, and made sure they were far along in the process and had a very short chain. Had it been a long chain or only just started, we would have gone with the other bidder.

So get yourself on the books of all the local agents, and keep progressing your own sale, so that you are in a very good position.

Thanks that's good advice, we were holding off a bit but decided to just go with our sale and if needs be we'll stay with my parents for a few months. Not ideal but I think it will give us a better chance.

It’s easy to say people are being greedy but people know that they will have to pay a premium for their onward move (if they haven’t already) so they need to get as much for their house as possible.

@Hotelhelp

It’s easy to say people are being greedy but people know that they will have to pay a premium for their onward move (if they haven’t already) so they need to get as much for their house as possible.

This is true, and we got over asking, but we managed to do that without messing people around and being twats about it.

@Getyourarseofffthequattro @Gettingonabitnow

DH's getting a transfer up north, either Sheffield or Birstall (nr Batley).. houses are crazy selling up there. He has a choice of which place to go to but any idea which might be the best place for me to find an office job (Sheffield or Leeds areas?) Any tips about areas for houses in either area?

@GoinSouth there will be loads of office jobs in leeds city centre i would have thought! Plenty of admin type jobs at St James' and LGI hospitals too - might be worth a look there. I don't know sheffield at all unfortunately.