Thread 2: "Anyone not being picky - and STILL can't find anything?"

[Momniscient]

Just spotted the first one is full so have set up thread two so we can keep talking with minimal delay. Hoping that tagging works regardless ...

RightMove addicts, and serial refreshers of other property websites, share your troubles!

Posters from last two pages in the thread and OP:
@PessimisticOptimist
@Eastie77Returns
@RidingMyBike
@beguilingeyes
@DanisEndo
@EmmaH2022
@dubyalass
@BennyBean
@ByeByeMissAmericanPie
@areyouhavingagiraffe
@CheltenhamLady
@doubleraspberry
@YukoandHiro
@TulipsfromAmsterdam
@MummyJ12
@starseeking
@GoinSouth
@MiracleBaby2022

Original thread: www.mumsnet.com/Talk/property/4346330-Anyone-not-being-picky-and-STILL-cant-find-anything

It's reassuring that people are beginning to find things to offer on!
There's still not that much coming on the market here - it was a very intermittent drip and now it's more like a very slow steady drip. Not even a trickle!

Congrats Goinsouth Well done and fingers crossed everything runs smoothly for you going forwards😊

Momniscient I get the impression my solicitor would love to get me out of her hair! I actually hardly chase her but when I do the answers are fairly terse one liners.

EmmaH2022 – tbh even if the forms were delivered by post the vendor would probably open them but not take any action. It seems the EA will have to continue hand holding and doing everything for her. He said he is spending this week going through all the enquiries with her. I dread to think how she is going to manage removals etc and physically getting to her new house which is almost 50 miles away….

starseeking I should probably graduate to the Buyers Roll Call thread you tagged me on but this thread is my safe space so I’m staying😊 Plus most days I wake with a dull thud of anxiety, wondering if something is going to go wrong and the purchase falls through so I don’t want to jinx it by moving to that thread!

Giraffe – if the location isn’t right for you then that’s a no but I personally wouldn’t be put off solely by the school playground as at least you know the fixed times/days you will subject to the noise and it will be quiet during the holidays.

One of the EAs I’m registered with sent an e-mail last week with a list of properties, subject line: 'Collapsed Chains – Properties Back on the Market' so it does seem as if a few are falling through.

Welcome coffeesnob!

Hi all,

I’m glad this thread exists, it’s a relief to know it’s not just me struggling to find and buy a house in this crazy housing market. We’ve only been searching for 5 months and I’ve had enough already.

Owned and sold a property 20 years ago and rented since. Decided we need to invest in our own property, got our sh*t together, saved our deposit thinking we’d get a house no problem, followed by a complete slap in the face moment when finding out how hard it is to find and buy a home right now!

Not a huge amount of stock coming to market, we’ve viewed 10, offered on six, 4 of those went £10-20k over asking so we were outbid. Have had 2 offers accepted but both times the sellers have pulled out deciding not to move. The latest seller pulled out yesterday ☹️ So frustrating and we’d already paid for the surveys. Why do people do this to others. Grrrrrr.

So, the search continues, the obsessive refreshing of agents Facebook pages, RM and Zoopla resumes. Seeing house prices rise before my eyes month on month is very soul destroying 😬

Apologies Easter, I had got confused and tagged you there by accident! I'm also not moving bank onto that thread until I have both exchange and completion dates set in stone

Sorry, Eastie!

I used to live next to a school. Other than the mad parking, the only downside was the weeks in the holiday where they ran music camps and played the same songs over and over and over again.

Let's hope some movement begins soon. It doesn't feel like good karma to be pleased about chains collapsing, although if it's because the over-offering is dying down when mortgage companies get involved, it might be good long term.

Eastie, sorry, I got confused there.

I didn't know there was a thread to graduate to....! AFAIC it's not done till you have keys in your hand...and ideally they should work in the door, lol.

With schools, I walk past one on my way to mum and that is in use all the time for one thing or another, though I see a very low volume of people in the holidays, so that might not matter.

A note on being near a school - if you have a pumpkin out the week of Hallowe'en you'd better have sufficient sweets for all the kids who have earmarked your house to come back to! You will be utterly raided. In a mostly lovely sort of way.

I'm vaguely lurking on the buyers/sellers rollcall as a seller... firmly sticking here as a frustrated buyer-to-be!

Oh I just called it the 'Graduation' thread as it seems to be for people who have had offers accepted and are on the path to Exchange & Completion...although there have been some horror stories on there of chains collapsing days before Exchange, terrible buyers/sellers and never ending legal sagas!

I agree, until I have a key in my hand (and locks changed!) I will not consider anything done. I read a thread a few months ago where the OP had just had an offer accepted and was planning to order and pay for a new kitchen. Despite multiple people advising it was a bad idea because it might all fall through she was insisting that she wanted to buy the kitchen before the Sales ended and was confident all would be fine.

I almost wished I still had that naïve belief that everything would just work out

God, that thread is scary.

As there's so much knowledge here, does anyone know what the stamp duty law was in 2018? I have a somewhat scatty relative who bought then, off plan, a flat that would have been considered a second home but then he sold his original flat.

I have a feeling he is owed a stamp duty refund and maybe his solicitor didn't tell him? I haven't said anything to him but if he is owed five figures from the tax office, then I do hope he's been told...maybe he's telling me the wrong thing.

I don't have a Memorandum of Sale yet. Trying not to worry about that!

Can someone link the other thread please - the one with chain horror stories etc?!

@RidingMyBike graduation/horror stories thread here

I don't know if this has been done to death or not... but what are we supposed to do now until spring when this rush of houses is supposed to come on? Just wait it out, or buy the dregs and regret it later? My RightMove habit isn't particularly healthy at the moment but I also don't want to just... wait around..?

Oh my word, that thread is terrifying.

Thanks for the link!

Yes, I'd been wondering similarly - at what point do we just jump on something from the non-selling dregs? At what point do we compromise and by how much?! How long do we wait? Realistically we've got until about early June to find something and get through conveyancing before our 12 month tenancy is up. So in theory past the spring peak. If that happens. But there are so many others looking even a spring peak isn't going to be enough for everyone!

@RidingMyBike

Thanks for the link!

Yes, I'd been wondering similarly - at what point do we just jump on something from the non-selling dregs? At what point do we compromise and by how much?! How long do we wait? Realistically we've got until about early June to find something and get through conveyancing before our 12 month tenancy is up. So in theory past the spring peak. If that happens. But there are so many others looking even a spring peak isn't going to be enough for everyone!

Are you on a fixed 12 month tenancy or an AST with a rolling month’s notice?

It's a 12 month tenancy with no break clause before 12 months (not what we wanted but no letting agents were considering anything under 12 months) although it can be continued past 12 months if we have to. Hopefully on a rolling basis as really don't want to commit to even vaster lengths of time!

It's hideously expensive though so ideally we'd have liked out under 12 months. Last time we bought from a rental we had a break clause at 6 months, after which we could give 2 months notice to move out - gave notice at 8 months and moved out at 10 months after doing lots of work to the house we'd bought.

I am also wondering about whether to jump on something or not. Had a viewing today, was so so. Okay location, lovely outside, total shithole inside and needs a full renovation. I dunno anymore, do I offer or not? I don't feel excited about it, but I am just fed up, or is my heart not in it....It is so hard!

Random point in interests of fairness

I said upthread I couldn't get homebuyers insurance on the probate flat.

Actually, Oops have said they will cover it, so thank you to the poster who suggested it.

@EmmaH2022 guilty as charged. You're welcome

I guess the whole "wait for spring" thing depends on what situation you're in - have you sold and so the chain is waiting on you, or do you have time to wait? That sort of thing.

I suppose the problem with settling for something from the current bottom of the barrel dregs that doesn’t really excite you is if something you love comes along after you’ve committed to your purchase and you feel really regretful. A bit like settling for a bloke/woman you don’t really fancy and then someone better comes along

All that said, I completely understand the need to try and buy something now as there are no guarantees. And I still believe the house you end up buying is the one you were ‘meant’ to get even if it’s not your dream property.

[quote Momniscient]@EmmaH2022 guilty as charged. You're welcome [/quote]
You are the Momniscient!

Hi everyone can I join? I've been lurking so I hope this is okay. DH and I broke our chain at the end of last year and even though there are more places going online I can't tell anymore whether I'm really not being picky or whether I've fooled myself. What counts as picky? I go back and forth with what we need for us and our two DC and then remembering that plenty of people used to have whole families to a room and just wondering where to draw the line.

I know what you mean @ToodlesMcGee - my Mum grew up in a two up two down that didn't even have an inside loo, let alone a bathroom!

I think 'picky' also depends on your situation - we want a house that will be right for us for 15-20 years so we definitely need certain things because of that whereas we are tolerating quite a lot of things in our rental as it's only short term (I hope!). We've considered increasing the search radius we're looking in but it really isn't feasible as would mean DH walking more than 5 miles a day for the schoolrun - feeling like it's very true 'location location location'! So a truly lovely house further away would ultimately be a nightmare.

We have become less picky about some things eg we started out looking for a detached but have now started considering semi and terraced too.

It's frustrating though as the problem is basically that there's nothing out there that's big enough!