Missed a house of my dream

I found my perfect one for me at Christmas - 2-bed weavers cottage with a garden, garage and driveway and the most incredible view. I’ve always wanted to live in one but most only have a yard and on-street parking.
Was a pretty serious renovation job as I don’t think it had been touched since the 60’s but I’m downsizing from an inherited house that doesn’t really have a garden, so would have been able to fit it out exactly how I wanted it. Mine wasn’t in the market and probably won’t be until June. I haven’t found anything in the areas that I’m looking that even comes close to what I want, even with compromises, and I’m terrified that I’ll put mine on and it’ll sell, and I won’t be able to find anywhere to move to.

I've missed out on two houses that I thought were the house of my dreams. (several years apart).
The first one was discovered to have a crack right through it and required extensive building work.
The second one I found out later would have been a nightmare - it had a beautiful extension, but it turns out that the vendor didn't own the land that the extension was built on! Apparently the nightmare hasn't been sorted out yet.

Did you try putting a note through the door?

hopefully you'll find something you like even more 🤞🏼

I lost out on my dream house, we missed it by a day! Then we had to move quickly as we,d already sold, so ended up buying one that would do! I was driving home after picking up the keys for new house when I got phone call from estate agent saying that the sale had fallen through and my dream house was back on the market! Cried all the way home and still think about it now 20 years later. In hindsight I should have put the make do house straight back on the market and bought it but OH convinced me to stick with it. It was beautiful double fronted Edwardian house with all original features I still can’t drive past it.

We had to leave the house we wanted as we just couldn't have afforded the work. We had an offer accepted on the house we live in now and the sale was progressing but I'd got cold feet about it. Had a phone call from the agent of the other house asking if we wanted to offer as they were willing to do a deal. Had to say no due to position with new house. Turns out they took £40k less (almost 15%). If we'd known we could get it for that we'd have gone for it 😓.

Meanwhile the house we bought that was 'less risky' has no end of problems, bit of a money pit and a twat for a neighbour (it's a semi but dream house was detached).

We drove past it a couple of weeks ago and there was scaffolding up on some of the weird bits of roof. My DP said we'd never have been able to afford to replace the roof so it's a blessing we didn't put an offer in. I'm still gutted we don't live in a 16th century cottage

OP I can relate. In our case it was dream road, possible nightmare house. It was a wreck but in a £££ area that seems immune to property slumps. Anyway this was on for about a third less than other homes! We hadn’t sold. Put ours on in new year. Just had a decent but it’s too late as some cash buyers helped by bank of mum and dad have swooped. Gutted. Seen other homes in our desired location and they’re all rubbish and ‘worth’ more than our lovely home and are selling! DH job may not be secure so probably won’t be able to get a mortgage now anyway (though we own outright now so we knew we could add future mortgage). May have missed our chance now as we are knocking on.

Will keep everything crossed for you! X

Definitely ask the estate agent to put you as first on the list to be contacted if it falls through. This happens very often, so all may not be lost OP.

This happened to us 2 years ago but we'd had the offer accepted and had started the buying process. Seller changed their mind about selling.
I was devastated as not many come up in that location that ticked our boxes and was in our budget. However, we ended up in a town which we love even more and often remark we are so glad we didn't end up in the other one for various reasons. The people selling the house we ended up buying had their buyers pull out and we were able to come in chain free and allow them to keep the property they were due to by buying. All in all it felt like it was meant to be. It took a few months before we found the new house though so don't give up hope! Best of luck with it all, moving is super stressful!

That's rubbish, you're allowed to feel sad. But do remember no house is perfect, honestly. Better to have realistic expectations!

P.s please don't make a decision too quickly, definitely have a 2nd viewing if you can. And keep your hopes down until survey and searches are back!

We did a while ago. We weren't quite ready to go and it sold before we had chance.

One of the things I keep thinking is that we never had a chance to see any of the bad sides. We moved into what had seemed like a dream house a few years ago and it's been awful with noisy and unpleasant neighbours. If we hadn't got it though we would never have known and it would have been the dream house that got away.

When we bought our first house we missed out on one that had a bigger garden and was cheaper...I felt upset but it turned out a friend had bought it and she had massive problems with damp and other issues that cost a lot to sort out.

Another one will come along I'm sure. Like you I'm just waiting for it.

We missed out on what i thought was our dream house 14 years ago, we bought one that we thought would do for a few years. Well we are still here and I love it and now cannot imagine moving. I am so glad now that we missed out. Painful though it was at the time!

The fact you are a chain free buyer puts you in an amazing position OP… Hold onto that! Am stunned the sellers would not prioritise you frankly. Perhaps they’re not so motivated to sell as a proceedable buyer can be worth more than one that offers a bit more but is in a long chain.