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Original poster

Lack of houses on the market

156 replies

HalleLouja · 28/03/2022 20:59

We have put our house on the market (just outside St Albans) and have quite a few viewings in the last couple of weeks since its been on the market and even an offer (which is too low). But typically there is nothing that hits our brief on the market.

I know no-one has a crystal ball but do people think the market will pick up? Not sure why I am asking but maybe to find other people in the same boat.

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Webbedlife · 02/05/2022 17:21

I couldn't view over the Bank Holiday as I was away on Saturday and the estate agents are quite rigidly sticking to Saturday viewings as they know they'll get the offers flooding in. I've been on the brink of giving up but one came on over the weekend that ticks all our boxes apart from being medium surface flooding risk and Grade 2. At least it has charm. Bet it's already gone by the time we phone tomorrow though...

Original poster
HalleLouja · 02/05/2022 20:26

Webbedlife · 02/05/2022 17:21

I couldn't view over the Bank Holiday as I was away on Saturday and the estate agents are quite rigidly sticking to Saturday viewings as they know they'll get the offers flooding in. I've been on the brink of giving up but one came on over the weekend that ticks all our boxes apart from being medium surface flooding risk and Grade 2. At least it has charm. Bet it's already gone by the time we phone tomorrow though...

Fingers crossed it all works out. We couldn’t see the house we wanted over Easter, as we were away but it all worked out ok in the end. Mainly as they overpriced it.

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LedTasso · 07/05/2022 06:41

Anyone else starting to worry about interest rate increases? I feel like we could offer on a house and then not be able to afford the mortgage once it actually goes through!

dubyalass · 07/05/2022 07:13

Not at the moment, I've built a bit of resilience into my budget. I based affordability on rates at 5% and whether I could afford to remortgage at that rate on my current salary, just in case that's what they were at by the end of a five-year fix. I may well have had a pay rise by that point but I'm trying to be sensible.

Swayingpalmtrees · 07/05/2022 07:39

We want to move, but there is so little on the market where we live, and what is for sale is getting snapped up by cash buyers within a day. I don't know how we can move....unless we move into a rented house first, which I am not keen to do. We are in the south west. Op, I hope your new build is the one and even if it isn't absolutely perfect - it might be a good option to go for it anyway!

The demand is surging, and easily outstripping supply.

LedTasso · 07/05/2022 08:13

We were planning to borrow close to the max possible as I'm currently part time but planning to up my hours next year (when our childcare costs will also go down). Also don't want to have to move again. Seriously considering a 10 year fix.

@Swayingpalmtrees we are also looking in south west, it's an absolute nightmare.

Paddingtonthebear · 07/05/2022 08:25

Also in SW. We were offered a better rate this week than we were this time a year ago, and we are borrowing a fair bit more. We’ve decided to lock in for 5yrs. If it goes through.

Original poster
HalleLouja · 07/05/2022 12:21

We were supposed to be seeing a house that came up at the end of last week, but aren’t now as we have ours all sorted. Anyway the viewings are today and apparently people are trying to put offers in before they have seen it. It does look amazing and is in great condition.

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LedTasso · 20/05/2022 13:00

I'm getting really quite stressed over this now. Think we could lose our buyers in the next couple of months if we don't find anything. Getting bloody fed up of packing up every weekend to go and look at extremely expensive houses that are inevitably not suitable for various reasons! Think we probably need to stop doing quite so many viewings but it's hard as sometimes the house can strike you quite differently when you see it in person.

Original poster
HalleLouja · 20/05/2022 13:07

@LedTasso that is so annoying. We were so lucky a house on our ideal road came up and weirdly there was no bidding war. Nothing has really come up since.

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LedTasso · 21/05/2022 19:51

@HalleLouja that is very lucky! We are thinking of putting an offer in on a hoise we saw today but but it already jas several offers on it, including a cash buyer so not very hopeful 😫

Original poster
HalleLouja · 22/05/2022 06:30

@LedTasso what part of the world do you live in?

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Beach1983 · 22/05/2022 08:15

We sold in April and offered on 2 properties and lost both, one to a cash buyer and one was so close but in the end picked the other person purely because their buyer had progressed their sale more than us! Nothing else we want to view atm, wonder how long buyers hang on before they get bored & pull out 😩

ottanxious · 22/05/2022 19:20

Finding so little we want house wise we've begun to consider buying a flat.

We're FTB with a toddler and want to get on the property ladder and in the hope that we can then buy a 3 bed in the next iteration of moving and stay there longer term

However, we think we;ll outgrow said flat in 3 years to 5 years (already have a 1 year old) - and no idea whether to fix for 3 or 5 years in this climate. Either risking £6k early repayment, or being squished somewhere (and then forking out moving costs

Houses within our budget seem to either need a ton of work - but buying the house means using our savings, or out of our price range

Is a flat a really stupid first time buy now (for a family with a baby so contending with childcare costs and about to have the most exensive 5 years of our lives so far, but with a fair amount of earnings increase potential as early in our careers).

It seems like the worst time to buy for first time, and has only got worse in the 9 months we've been looking (on and off) in terms of market options and costs.

Anyone else desperate to buy anything ok -but trying not to let that cloud their judgement?

LedTasso · 22/05/2022 19:46

@HalleLouja we live in Cambridgeshire but looking to move to the south west to be nearer to family. It makes it even harder being so far away as houses get sold before we get to view them even though we go down most weekends. Considering offering on a relatively new house, my concern is that I'm not sure will suit us longterm and will it be worth the same amount in 5-10 years?

@Beach1983 I feel your pain! I'm hoping our buyers stick around a bit longer, there's not much else on the market for them either.

@ottanxious I really feel for you, it's extremely difficult at the moment. Being a FTB works in your favour at least in that you you are chain free. We have had similar thoughts about buying a house that needs renovating. I am leaning towards a renovation project, because even though it's hard to get labourers etc at the moment, at least you would have the option to add value to the house (or flat!) if values did start to fall. But there are so many cash buyers out there it seems impossible to get one anyway. Argh I just don't know. Considering giving up for a couple of years, just would prefer to do it now while the kids are younger.

Original poster
HalleLouja · 05/07/2022 07:01

Just wondering if anyone on here made any progress? We are still going through the legal stage but all seems good so far.

@LedTasso @ottanxious @Beach1983 and anyone else I have missed.

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Beach1983 · 05/07/2022 10:17

@HalleLouja we had an offer accepted just over a month ago. Pure fluke as I managed to get in to see it before it went on right move as was with our agent. Amazingly had an offer accepted a bit over asking.

how are you getting on?

LedTasso · 05/07/2022 11:31

No joy. Had another offer rejected recently. I don't see any light at the end of the tunnel.

Original poster
HalleLouja · 05/07/2022 13:38

@LedTasso that sucks. Literally nothing has come on recently we would even want to see. I think we were lucky.

@Beach1983 sometimes everything does line up in your favour. Fingers crossed it stays that way.

Our chain may take a while as the top of the chain is waiting for probate. But our buyers are still keen from what the estate agents has said. Its just a waiting game.

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Katkincake · 05/07/2022 13:48

No joy here yet. We have just pulled out of one we had an offer accepted on as we realised that we had only gone for it as nothing much coming on & we’d compromised too far. Decision cemented by seeing one on Friday that we fell in love with. We offered highest and on lost out to chain free buyers, but it made us realise our hearts weren’t in the one we’d secured.

This is the 3rd time that the vendor has gone with someone chain free over extra £s we’ve offered. It might be because they've all been vacant (probate or moved to a home) so they want a quick sale. One who was selling her uncles place even said “I’m in my 70s, I don’t know what I’ll do with the money it’s on sale for, let alone more - I’m sure her children /grandchildren / nieces etc will love her!)

Anyway, back to rental market we go. We were about to sign a tenancy agreement a month ago, but our buyers 1st time buyers pulled out at last min. Thankfully we found out the night before. Our buyers sold again in the week, so now we’ve a bit more time till we exchange/complete whilst their buyers do searches etc.

mentally going into a rental will be a comfort I think, this market is the pits. At least then we’ll be chain free and have a whopper deposit!

hope peoples plans become a reality soon

MsClavel · 05/07/2022 15:09

@HalleLouja thank you, hope yours goes smoothly.

I think we also had the highest bid on the last place but they went with chain-free cash buyers. There seem to be a lot of those, which is why I've pretty much lost hope. The only thing we can hope for now is the planets to align and the right house to come on by vendors who want it to go to a family.

I'm extremely reluctant to rent as the rental marker is also v difficult and expensive. And where we're looking there seem to be a lot of cash buyers so we'd still be behind them anyway.

Katkincake · 05/07/2022 16:33

Yes it’s not a lot easier to rent is it @MsClavel . Hopefully we’ll be able to find somewhere as we get nearer to exchange. We don’t seem to be coming up against lots of cash buyers here though, so it’s worth the risk for us.

My only concern are the increasing mortgage rates (we have 3yrs fix at 1.6% we’ll have to say goodbye to & pay a fee to close!) we don’t want to be out of the market too long as I fear I’ll keep rising in price. We’re hoping to rent somewhere small at a good chunk less than our mortgage payments, so we’ll save the rest towards the purchase. We need a furniture declutter anyway.

Original poster
HalleLouja · 05/07/2022 21:06

Katkincake · 05/07/2022 13:48

No joy here yet. We have just pulled out of one we had an offer accepted on as we realised that we had only gone for it as nothing much coming on & we’d compromised too far. Decision cemented by seeing one on Friday that we fell in love with. We offered highest and on lost out to chain free buyers, but it made us realise our hearts weren’t in the one we’d secured.

This is the 3rd time that the vendor has gone with someone chain free over extra £s we’ve offered. It might be because they've all been vacant (probate or moved to a home) so they want a quick sale. One who was selling her uncles place even said “I’m in my 70s, I don’t know what I’ll do with the money it’s on sale for, let alone more - I’m sure her children /grandchildren / nieces etc will love her!)

Anyway, back to rental market we go. We were about to sign a tenancy agreement a month ago, but our buyers 1st time buyers pulled out at last min. Thankfully we found out the night before. Our buyers sold again in the week, so now we’ve a bit more time till we exchange/complete whilst their buyers do searches etc.

mentally going into a rental will be a comfort I think, this market is the pits. At least then we’ll be chain free and have a whopper deposit!

hope peoples plans become a reality soon

Better to buy the right house rather than a house just because you got an offer accepted. Hopefully the market picks up.

The job market is the other way round (in finance at the moment) lots of jobs and very few candidates.

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Original poster
HalleLouja · 05/07/2022 21:09

MsClavel · 05/07/2022 15:09

@HalleLouja thank you, hope yours goes smoothly.

I think we also had the highest bid on the last place but they went with chain-free cash buyers. There seem to be a lot of those, which is why I've pretty much lost hope. The only thing we can hope for now is the planets to align and the right house to come on by vendors who want it to go to a family.

I'm extremely reluctant to rent as the rental marker is also v difficult and expensive. And where we're looking there seem to be a lot of cash buyers so we'd still be behind them anyway.

Thank you. I have everything crossed.

The rental market here is insane. Not many properties and people fighting over them.

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Original poster
HalleLouja · 24/09/2022 03:34

Just a quick update. We finally moved into our lovely new house. Am never moving again. 😂

Hopefully, everyone else managed to find something suitable too.

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