Buying agents?

[Hamsterrific]

Our much-anticipated house-hunt isn’t going well. 8 months, a handful of viewings and one offer on a lovely place which we were (soul-destroyingly) vastly outbid on. We’re now toying with a few options: keep obsessively checking Rightmove 5+ times per day, wait until the demand starts to tail-off (risky, as will it ever?!) or consider finding a buying agent.

Has anyone used a buying agent in this latest wave of housing market madness? We can be pretty flexible arranging viewings (our search area is 1.5 hours from where we live now, so it’s a bit of a trek but do-able at short notice), and we wouldn’t want to offer on a house without seeing it in-person, so the main advantage we’d be looking for from an agent would be getting sight of properties off-market. But is there really that much activity going on off-market right now when vendors have so much to gain attracting multiple bids and going to best and final?!

Any thoughts or wisdom would be most welcome. Conscious it wouldn’t come cheap if we went down this route so keen to explore the pros and cons!

You need a buying agent who works in your specific area you are moving to.
Our house through a buying agent actually came from a previous client who he had found the house for 5 years earlier.
Local knowledge is the key, if you are looking around South East london/Surrey I can pass on details

Thanks @Alexalee - that’s really good to know and glad it all worked out for you! We’re looking towards Oxfordshire so I’ll do some more research and reach out to a couple to find out more. Just curious to know if there’s a lot of off-market activity going on now or if most of the stock ends up on Rightmove anyway!

Hi, did you end up using a buying agent? If so who? We have been recommended https://amityco.co.uk/ by my husband's colleague, but looking for some more suggestions based on experience. Many thanks in advance.

Glad to hear you found somewhere in the end, we were in a similar position a few years back and struggling to find a bigger family house in West London. A nightmare of failed offers, sealed bids and a seller who pulled out at the last minute on what with thought was our dream house. Honestly one of the most stressful, rollercoaster of emotions ever. Felt like a never ending circle of viewings and disappointment. Anyway we did use a buying agent in the end and I can't recommend them highly enough www.curetons.co.uk They found us an amazing off-market property that we would never have found without them. Quite expensive yes, but totally worth it. I genuinely think we might still be looking without their help.

I found our house by approaching a stranger in the street behind a house we were thinking of viewing to ask him about the area. He gave me his number in case we had further questions. The following weekend we were back and agreed the purchase in person. Perhaps you can take a similar approach and say “may I give you my number in case you hear of any neighbours selling because no. 3 isn’t quite right for us.”

They weren’t intending on going to market until September but decided fate bought us there and we were the right people to take care of their carefully renovated home.