Anyone not being picky - and STILL can't find anything?

[PessimisticOptimist]

We've been on the hunt for 18 months. In that time, we've expanded our search area and budget. We've offered on four houses - three times we were outbid by developers and one time they decided not to sell. But nothing has come on for us to view in the last couple of months.

I guess I'm looking for a support group on here to commiserate with me 😂

Everyone we talk to says:

• The market is crazy right now
• It will settle down
• More will become available eventually
• Just be patient

But I worry about getting priced out of the market if we wait too long. How long do we wait for the "right" house?

Well, out of three properties, we got to see one! Option 2 was snapped up the day before our viewing and Option 3 was on with an online agent who advertises lots of viewing times, but actually, you can only view when he was planning on being there anyway (and he covers a massive area and also doesn't use your requested alternative method of communication when you know you'll be driving out of regular phone signal for hours! Grr!).

Option 1 was actually rather lovely. Had the right number of bedrooms, a downstairs loo, walk through reception, but an extra room on the floor above. Decent sized kitchen with plenty of storage and worktops. Potential to section off utility area. But no space for covered parking, or a decent garden shed. Wish they'd put dimensions of the garden into the floorplans/ at least the descriptions...

And the nearby decent school has spaces, but I just didn't get 'that feeling'. Got it when I bought my last house and was there for years. Worried we might never have the money to get to view a home that gives us those feelings again... Nine months ago, when we were about to exchange (and then the bloody buyer's lender decided they did need a survey after all....), we could have afforded so much more. We've already adjusted our expectations considerably.

Still, we all felt much relaxed in the area in which we were searching. We know the area quite well and visiting again does highlight the fact that the majority of people are friendlier and there's a definite sense of community. Looks like we'll be travelling again in a couple of months, unless new job opportunities/ a sudden surge in housing market activity occurs beforehand...

@GoinSouth whereabouts (vaguely!) are you looking? We've just left the SE (just outside west London boundary) and the property market there had definitely slowed since the end of September. A lot of houses getting reduced now (including the one we're selling). I don't know how many of those are impossible-to-shift properties but certainly the feedback we got from the EA was that the market was cooling and we'd be unlikely to get a higher offer (we'd reduced ours to 'offers in excess of' and they offered that amount.

one EA said he had to do block viewings these days as he was just too busy to be out of office every couple of hours so one house we viewed was with at least 8 other couples at the same time - horrendous!

Given there's hardly anything for sale, how are they that busy?

This must be affecting agents too. They make their money when sales volumes are high, an increase in prices doesn't affect their commission that much. Say each month they used to sell 20 houses at 250k a pop at 5% commission, they'd have been making 250k a month commission. If, say they are only selling 10 houses a month but the average price has now gone up to 300k, they will only be making 150k a month commission.

I think they are fighting for new listings, so over valuing houses to get the listing from the vendor. Who knows how this will play out next year.

@DaisyNGO I worried about this when I sold my flat earlier in the year. We lived in an extremely popular part of London but the noise and anti-social behaviour was off the scale as we were surrounded by bars and clubs. The week before I put the flat up for sale a car belonging to one of the neighbourhood drug dealers was smashed to pieces by a rival gang and it was parked directly next to mine! Fortunately the flat’s location appealed to a lot of younger buyers, we had lots of viewings and an offer above asking price shortly after listing. I know my buyer visited the area during the weekends and evenings before Exchange as I spotted her outside the flat a few times and it seems the noise etc didn’t put her off.

@areyouhavingagiraffe - definitely have RM fatigue now! I’m resigned to remaining in our rental for now. At the beginning of the year I was so excited about the prospect of selling and moving to a house with a garden. This whole convoluted process, the lies from EAs and vendors who say one thing and do another has sucked the joy out of me unfortunately.

In theory, I’ve had an offer accepted on a house and my mortgage has been approved but the vendor is very unpredictable (read: bonkers) and deep down I don’t believe it will happen. The EA assures me he is constant contact with her and on top of everything but I just smile and nod and say ok, let’s see. I’m distracting myself by booking holidays for next year and thinking up ways I can enjoy the months ahead without stressing over moving.

There is a flat that ideally I should see this week but I have a full on lurgy so have to accept it's likely to be gone before I get to see it.

Eastie sorry you had that but thank you for sharing. DP has also made the point that I am a lot more bothered about this stuff than other people. Perhaps most Londoners just accept it as part of life? I must admit, we are in the flat I bought and when I bought it, there was some unpleasantness but it mostly went over my head because I was never here. The area went up a lot after that, then went down.

Fan do you mean not much for sale across your section? The EA selling our flat, or hopefully selling it, mostly only shows posh houses but because there's so many flats on for sale, he's dealing with those too. Overall, I thought there was quite a bit for sale but very much outweighed by numbers of buyers.

@Eastie77Returns, hope it all works out for you. I have two viewings this week, nothing exciting though. I think as you say it is just sucking the joy out of me too, and it is hard to get excited about any houses really.
I am (still) at my parents and I know I should count my blessings. I really thought I would spend xmas in my new house but glad I pulled out of the purchase, just need to keep positive. I keep putting off things like booking holidays, telling myself I should focus on buying a house......but I have the means (deposit, mortgage), I just haven't found anything I like, so I realise it is silly to put life on hold and not plan nice things like nights out with friends, and trips away.
Last xmas I was stuck in my flat alone as I had covid, so I need to consider myself lucky as this year I will be with my family. And I also count myself lucky because I sold a leasehold flat (and there are so many horror stories out there, cladding, ground rent, and at one point I though my Sale would fall through because of ground rent). Onwards and here is to being positive :-)

giraffe we are likely to go from a leasehold flat to a leasehold flat. Of course everyone worries about different things though.

I have done shared freehold and I don't want to do it again. DP thinks it's much of a muchness with the RTM factor.

How are you finding it at your parents?

I'm convinced the EA block bookings are just for their convenience - they only have to go to one property and then just repeat show people round, and mine kept promoting it as 'encouraging competition'.

I viewed one rental flat in similar circs and hated the feeling of pressure it created.

@RidingMyBike

I'm convinced the EA block bookings are just for their convenience - they only have to go to one property and then just repeat show people round, and mine kept promoting it as 'encouraging competition'.

I viewed one rental flat in similar circs and hated the feeling of pressure it created.

Oh dear We plan to do open afternoons here

Otherwise it would have to be kept show home!

I think it's different with a small flat though, there's not much to look at and I was going to suggest it be avail to view say 1 till 5 on the relevant days.

Aaagh my buyer pulled out hours before exchange. After 14 weeks of faffing around on her part ( changed broker and lawyers twice etc) she's done this! I'm absolutely livid. We've lost out on other offers -I now understand why some sellers says they won't take off the market until mortgages are in place and searches listed - I may do the same.

DH and I need to figure out what this means for our onward purchase really not sure if it's worth re-listing this side of Xmas or just waiting until 2022.

#wannabeamummysobad
Oh god..poor you. This is my worst nightmare. This system is insane. No wonder it's the most stressful thing ever.
If our purchase comes off we are never doing this again.

wanna oh I'm so sorry

The system is batshit.

Were you going somewhere else before your onward move?

@DaisyNGO, living at parents is fine. I mean, it is obvs a big change at 43 yrs old! But this isn't my childhood home so doesn't feel so bad. It is a big house, and all my furniture in an outbuilding in garden. They don't take any money from me either which is sweet. I do miss my own place, and it is just me (don't have a husband or kids), and I have space here to WFH. It is also not far from my old place so doesn't affect commute (if I do travel to the office), and I can go to the same gym etc.
@wannabeamummysobad, OMG I am so sorry. WTF. Do you know why? Why do people do that?
Team, I saw a house this evening which was a bit of a curveball. Good location. Belongs to an old person, and looks like it. No extension. A lot of work needs doing to it. However has two square bay windows (upstairs and downstairs), three really good size bedrooms, semi detached, huge garden. But it has no fireplace, guys I know this is a first world problem. The house I pulled out from (due to no building regs for loft conversion), didn't have bay windows and this bothered me. It was also not in a nice part of town. But it had a berluddy fireplace. Guys, what should I do? It is advertised as under my budget, and I am tempted to offer asking. Won't offer any more and leave to fate. But the fireplace situation is bugging me!!!!!!!!!

Oh. And also the bathroom which is upstairs is at the front of the house, as opposed to the back.

Hi @DaisyNGO I can see pros and cons to both open afternoons and ad hoc viewings. We have a 5yo so cleaning and tidying ahead of viewings was an absolute pain, as was having to find somewhere to go with her whilst they took place. So, it was easier from our POV to have several viewings in a block and only have the hassle once. None of the viewings done like that came to anything though - the eventual offer was from an individual viewing done in the middle of a Wednesday!

From the buyers' perspective, very much depends on your target market. I found block viewings intensely annoying when trying to find somewhere to rent - we were moving 200 miles and I had limited time to view so really needed to the letting agent to fit around me rather than the other way round. I'm still wary now we've started looking for somewhere to buy as we only have limited childcare availability and I don't want to have to make expensive purchase decision with 5yo in tow.

Oh no @wannabeamummysobad that's awful. What a load of time wasters.

@areyouhavingagiraffe what's the problem with the bathroom at the front? I've had both in different houses and can't see that it makes much difference?

@RidingMyBike, no big problem I guess. I am just not used to it. Bit yes, it could stay there. It needs renovation though but guess that is cheaper than moving it.
It's the lack of fireplace. I know it sounds trivial, but I have always wanted one and to be fair most houses I have seen have one. Except this. I am a bit worried about doing all the work, extension etc. I would have to keep some of my deposit for this but then I will end up paying more in mortgage as my LTV will be higher. I dunno guys. Also it's just me, one salary.....would take me years to save to do the work

@areyouhavingagiraffe I saw your post and wanted to say that nowadays you can have brilliant alternatives to a real fireplace that look just as good - stovax type gas studio, gel fireplaces, wood burners, even the evershot that people rave about here. We reverted a closed up chimney breast in the last house for a slimline fireplace to give the place some character. The cost was less than £4K

Having said that we are going to bow out for a few months a house in the village has just come on the market. I feel a bit awkward because the lady who lived there only died 3 weeks ago but it is literally just around the corner and there would be lots of advantages to staying in the same village.

The compromises are that it faces North, has a smaller garden than we want and is probably smaller than we want inside with limited scope to extend . Dh says if we don’t look we won’t know so I’m going to call later and see.

@wannabeamummysobad. So sorry for your situation. I'd carry on marketing now. We were still marketing this time last year (after junking a really flaky set of FTB) and got an asking price offer! (OK, it took nearly 7 months to actually sell to them, but only due to lots of ridiculous situations that in more normal times, wouldn't have happened anyway!).

People looking now are more likely to be serious. They might also be the more sensible, pragmatic viewers. If they see the house when it's wet, windy and gloomy outside, they won't automatically change their minds on pre-exchange viewing when the house isn't bathed in glorious technicolour sunshine.

If there are problems with the house (damp, leaks etc) they are more likely to show up in late autumn/winter. So if your house doesn't have these problems, it's more reassurance for the buyer that they are making a good purchase.

@Siouxtse1 I didn't know I needed to read something like this about marketing at this time of year... but I did, so thank you! Even though it wasn't aimed at me it's helpful to remember that lots of viewings isn't necessarily a good thing...

But also don't get too excited if we end up going into lockdown and you suddenly get an uplift in viewings. When the shops and cinemas are shut, people will do anything not to be stuck inside their own 4 walls!

This is where the estate agent needs to get firm with their filtering. I'd suggest trying to get a marketing package with a video tour (ideally the walking around one, not the point and click) and absolutely insist that room dimensions are included. The estate agent needs to ask the prospective buyers if they've looked at all this before agreeing to a viewing. It filters out a lot of gawkers and reduces the number of people viewing that then say "I didn't realise the bathroom was so small!"

@areyouhavingagiraffe we found that a front bathroom had many advantages, although dependent on house layout and area. Certainly the one we had it meant that bedrooms were mostly to back of house which was quieter than facing the road outside, and more private.

And we did the big house building work/renovation thing in our previous house. Yes, it added to the mortgage cost but saved us money as stamp duty lower on house that needed work (ie money that would have gone on stamp duty could be used for refurb instead) and more opportunity to 'add value' and make it how we wanted it.

I admit that it was utterly horrendous getting it done though - stressful and annoying but worth it in the end!