How to get a house?!

[Tee20x]

Hi,

Silly thread title but my question is exactly that. It seems as if as soon as I enquire about viewing a property, the agent comes back telling me it is under offer or reserved?!

So simply what do I need to do? Keep my eye on the market and message the second I see something I like?

I'm mainly looking at shared ownership due to single salary if that makes any difference.

Please help!

I would register with as many agents in your local area that you can. That way, they will notify you if they have something available or coming up.

The order we used was:-
Save a deposit (at the time I aimed for 5% of what I assumed I would be able to borrow)
Speak to a mortgage advisor to see what I would be offered (this will then solidify deposit goal)
Online scour of properties in my price bracket to get a general idea of what I could afford
Back to the mortgage advisor once I has the deposit saved to get an Agreement In Principal.
Speak to various estate agents so they knew what I wanted/could afford
Book some viewings
Find a solicitor to do the conveyancing (don't use the one the EA recommends)
Make some offers
Hope and pray you get them
Hope and pray it doesn't fall through

Best to be in a strong position- agreement in principal, nothing to sell, which it sounds like you are.

Hi,

Yes I am currently living with family and have a decent amount saved for a deposit so I guess I'd be at the stage of speaking to a mortgage advisor then?

I'm currently on mat leave so was a bit hesitant but am now coming towards the end of it and due to return back to work. From what I understand some lenders will still make an offer as long as you can evidence that you are returning back to work and what your normal salary is?

My only concern with this is any affordability checks - at the moment I'm on SMP so have had to supplement that with my savings. Something to ask a mortgage advisor about I suppose, but would they consider a hypothetical scenario based on outgoings and my actual salary?

Any suggestions on mortgage advisors, I've read that free ones can be just as good as paid ones - is that really the case?

I would set up alerts from multiple websites not just rightmove as someone of the others update much quicker. I found on the market was good for that when we were looking. Call the agent the second you see it, you can always ring and cancel if need to. We were looking for over a year and never got anywhere with registering with agents and asking them to contact us as soon as something came up, they just haven't needed to bother in the last year, they've been knee deep in buyers. Be quick and be decisive- good luck!

Most shared ownership houses - especially resales - never make it to Rightmove because the housing association gets first refusal so they get advertised via the Help To Buy agent website for the region and their own website for a certain period of time first. They also tend to work on a first come first served basis as it is a fixed price not open to offers, so you have to formally 'register your interest' as soon as they come up. Look at the Help To Buy agent website for your area and register on there, the Share To Buy website and on the local housing associations own sites, and check them regularly! Good luck!
Also we went to a free mortgage broker and a paid one - glad I didn't pay attention to the free one's advice or we'd have given up - not to say good free ones dont exist, but worth getting a second opinion if it doesn't go your way (the difference in the two I talked to was massive though and mine has been worth his weight in gold).

We struck lucky with our house in terms of finding it, we viewed the day it went up for sale and offered that night.
We used London and Country who are free and we couldn’t fault them, they pushed things along for us and made it really straight forward in terms of explaining mortgage options.

Book a viewing as soon as they come up and view it on the first day - some buyers choose one of the offers they receive on the first day and cancel the rest of the viewings.