Anyone else wake up and think 'today is the day my new house will come on Rightmove!' and yet, it never is...

[ThatIsQuiteACrane]

Anyone else in the same boat? We've been house hunting for roughly 4,000 years. Every day I scroll the house websites with excitement, certain that today will be the day we find our dream house. It never is

Next baby due very soon and nowhere to put them once they're out the bedside cot. Absolutely nothing coming on the market that is remotely suitable, even with a wide ranging search area and a healthy budget.

We also haven't sold (as I don't want to be homeless with 3 children) and I'm paranoid that when The One comes onto the market they won't accept an offer from us as we haven't sold. We think we would sell in a matter of days, but they would need to trust us on that.

We leafleted the potential candidates near us but didn't hear back. Stuck for other ideas except another leaflet run.

DH is ridiculously fussy as well which is hard work...

OP like others have said, if you really want to demonstrate to a vendor that you are committed, then you have to have your place under offer! It’s a sellers market, why would a vendor just take your word for it when there are others in a proceedable position? It makes no sense.

There are probably only 10 - 20 houses in this town that would be the right thing and none have replied. We could try to leaflet some in the surrounding areas if there's anything suitable we can find

If your potential pool of houses is only 10 or 20 then I really think you need to significantly widen your search area. What are the chances of something coming ON THE MARKET (and not selling off market) and you being in a position to have an offer accepted? It honestly sounds like your fishing in too small a pool. It’s often not even a case of increasing your budget - if the houses aren’t coming on to the market, then throwing more money at the problem won’t help.

Good luck. I feel your pain being in a different but similar situation - we’ve recently increased our search area by about 100 square miles!

I don't think you are doing the wrong thing particularly but you don't actually seem keen to move (we are dithering too)

But you are not going to get anywhere if you decide to move and there are only 10 or so houses you are prepared to move to...

If your DH is 'ridiculously fussy', maybe this is something that needs to be dealt with. With this plus not putting your house on the market (though I can understand your reasoning), you're giving yourself no opportunities.

I think people do understand it’s hard to find and some will wait. I’d just make it very clear from the out set.

You just can’t tell how things will go. We’re looking to move area, house went under offer in a couple of days, they said they were worried about finding. We looked at 5 (4 still available), one was kind of fine then were really lucky and a private sale came up. Our buyers then couldn’t get their mortgage and now viewings on here slow and things locally have slowed right down - loads of Covid and people isolating.

We have until spring as things stand before the house we want is listed but that could change if the guy finds something and we will then be back to square one .

I am desperate to move. Absolutely desperate. I've mentally checked out of this house. DH less so, but he understands that I have.

We are at the very top end of the market, we want a detached period house with a large garden, budget anywhere up to roughly £1m. In our medium-sized ordinary town there are just very few houses fitting that description, only a couple of streets. Even in the surrounding areas there's just almost nothing at that kind of level.

We're trying to be really flexible and would move schools, drive to a station for a commute etc, but still nothing. We've looked at smaller houses that could be developed or extended but still nothing.

I'll have a think about our parameters and see if there's anything else we could be flexible on, but nothing springs to mind.

We put our house on the market when I was 7 months pregnant ..... getting it decluttered and spotless ready for photos etc in the heat of summer was a nightmare but it had to be done. Was also difficult to prepare and then get out the house regularly for viewings with a 5 year old and then a newborn..... but again, had to be done in order to sell.

If the estate agent had told us someone wanted to view but hadn't even put their house on the market I think I would have turned the air blue with my response!

I do sympathise though - it is a really difficult situation to be honest and I do understand where you are coming from! We had to wait until we were under offer before we could really go and see houses....when we found our place (yes we had to compromise on some stuff) we then had to wait for our seller to find somewhere! Luckily they said they would go into rented and actually did! But I get that we were totally lucky this time.

Sympathise and sorry I had missed the newborn aspect!
If there is nowhere in the very limited area you want then you’ve very few choices. It comes down to DH getting on board and becoming less fussy and then expanding you watch area OR somehow accepting that for now you are staying put. Good luck op.

OP just seen your update and totally get your frustration. The problem is, the higher up the market you go, the fewer properties there are that fit the bill. If you had half your budget, there would probably be four or five times the number of properties that broadly fit your criteria. But it sounds as if you want one of the half a dozen best & biggest houses in your town, and you’re going to have to either be very lucky, or crafty, or patient for one of those to become available.

We’re in a similar situation but are looking in smaller villages not a town. We have no limit to our budget, but because we geographically want to stay within a certain area we still haven’t found anything in a YEAR of looking. We are cash buyers, in rented. And we’re using a search agent.

If the houses you are after are so few and so desirable they are also very lucky to be sold off market. Have you thought about using a search agent yourself?

Thank you.

DH seems to think adding a newborn to the mix will be absolutely fine until we find somewhere. I'm rather less convinced... But yes we need to stick with where we are for the time being and be patient. It will all work out eventually.

Also refreshing like mad; there are a couple on that would be ok but I am also waiting to hear about a job that would change my search area slightly, so I'm not very committed. I have a relatively wide search area (two small towns) but there's not a lot of housing stock that would meet my requirements in either, and prices have skyrocketed here. What would have been at the lower end of my budget a few years ago is now right at the top and I'm reluctant to buy at inflated prices. I'm in rented at the moment and am ready to go with a sizeable deposit but I'm just not seeing anything that fits the bill. I should probably give up until I know what's happening with the job.

I looked at a search agent but wasn't sure of the costs involved. This was a number of months ago when I felt sure something would come along in time.

It is absolutely correct that if we had a budget half the size we would have far more to choose from in a way - we'd compromise on it being a modern house in a development to have the right number of bedrooms, or a decent garden, for example. At our end of the market DH won't compromise on that sort of thing.

I appreciate that we are in a lucky position budget-wise and don't for one second take that for granted.

I've recently sold a family members house (in NW London) and it didn't even get onto Right Move. The EAs had stacks of people looking for property on their books and didn't need to advertise any more widely.

If your local area is "hot" or properties are scant I'd suggest you sign on with the EAs in the area so that you get the heads up as soon as possible. As others have said, you may need to be proceedable first though.

In our town, the estate agents aren't bothering putting houses on rightmove until they've already had them on the market for a week or so showing round those who are ready to go (so already got an offer accepted on their house). If its going on rightmove, its already had several viewings.

I would get my house on the market. You won't end up with no house. You can delay or pull out of sale if you are unable to find a house. You don't have to go through and sell then rent. But many houses coming on the market will not be available to you if similar is going on in your area.

(I know 3 people who have sold without going on Rightmove, one is buying a house that's not made it onto rightmove as well).

OP our search agent charges 1.25% of the house price, payable on completion and only if they find the house for you.

It’s worth every penny in my book because it means we are always first through the door, and sometimes months before anything eventually goes on to Rightmove etc. (if it gets that far).

A good search agent will have very close relationships with all the key estate agents and will be able to advise you when they are about to get something of interest on to their books.

Also to add, if you do put yours on the market and go under offer, at that point you then have your own estate agent on-side to help you either find something to buy or something suitable to rent. Once you’re under offer they will have skin in the game (your commission) so will be motivated to get your sale to complete either by helping you to buy or rent. At the moment, to an estate agent I’m sorry but you’re not a terribly interesting prospect!

Have you looked at new builds? That’s what we resorted to - and actually it’s gone brilliantly. The builders sold our house for us under a special scheme where they pay the estate agent fees. The new house is perfect and we are very happy.

Estate agents will tell sellers ‘you’ve got a viewing on Thursday at 10, they have sale agreed/are chain free/are cash buyers’. If they told the seller that someone wants a viewing but their house isn’t even up for sale yet, most sellers would decline. It’s not about giving your financial info to randoms, it’s about not being a time waster. You say your house would sell quickly, but why should a ‘random’ trust that?

Can you give a rough area and we can help search?

Have you tried auctions?

Also let local solicitors know you are looking as they can pass contact details on if anyone is selling inherited property. Might be a long shot but I know 1 person this worked for and the family were grateful it was easy and no agent fees

Were in the final stages of completing and we were not allowed to view any houses until we had sold our own house. We watched many lovely houses be sold within a week, it was very much a case of what was available once ours had sold. Luckily the house we are moving to is great, but it was frustrating not being allowed to view in person others.

I think the market is very different in Scotland and it's quite normal for people not to have their property on the market or under offer when they start to view. I know a couple of people who've bought recently and neither had their property for sale when they had an offer accepted on the new one. Houses are selling within 7 days here so it's really to do both! One friend had an offer accepted and the condition of it being accepted was that hers went on the market within 7 days and she sold it within 10 (10 from that condition being made not 10 days on the market!).

Can totally relate. Been actively looking for for 3.5 months and have viewed a total of 21 houses. We've put an offer in a couple of houses however we keep getting outbidded. We relocated to where we are now so we've already sold our previous house 4 months ago and currently in a rental which is not the best house and area.

Someone has to wait at some point in the chain. If it's not your buyer for you to find a place, it would be you for your seller to find a place. Waiting is par for the course, agree you'd be better getting an offr accepted on yours. Worst comes to worst you lose your buyer, then find another - you're still in a better position than finding the house of your dreams but not being able to move quickly.

Hi OP
^We are in Scotland as well where chains etc are ^not really so much of a thing. You sign missives which lock you into a contract, it's then up to you to fulfil that contract (ie by selling quickly).

I'm in Scotland too, this isn't correct. I sold after a few days on the market in April. Then I lost my first buyer as they lost their buyer (the chain collapsed), I had to relist and start doing viewings again, then sold again in a few days but we still haven't signed/concluded missives and we are due to move on 3rd September. So whilst Im organising removals and cancelling Sky, I can't be sure at this point that it will actually happen as there are no guarantees. I got a letter last week from my solicitor about progress and it says in bold "until missives are concluded which can take up to the same day as completion to happen any party can walk away with no penalties"

So if this takes to 3rd September to happen, on 1st there is nothing to stop anyone in the chain changing their mind. Absolutely the same as English exchange and completion system.

@ThatIsQuiteACrane

We also did not accept viewings unless they could prove they had the money available to buy

Really? There's absolutely no chance we'd be sharing our financials with randoms...

In which case I suspect you’ll be living where you are for a very long time. Agents aren’t generally allowing viewings unless you’re proceedable and that includes proving that the finance stacks up. We had to prove we could afford our house when we bought it 22 years ago so it’s not new.

I got a letter last week from my solicitor about progress and it says in bold "until missives are concluded which can take up to the same day as completion to happen any party can walk away with no penalties

Was their nothing in the offers about missives being concluded within a certain number of days after the acceptance of the offer? It would often be 14/21 days but I don't know if that's been affected by covid etc.

We have viewed houses and inquired about houses and no one has ever stopped us viewing because we haven't sold. The agents ask but it has never been an issue. No one has asked about our finances. If we wanted to offer somewhere we'd get a mortgage in principal and instruct a solicitor to make an offer. It's then up to us to fund the purchase or face the consequences (once missives have been concluded).