It's a Buyer's Market: experiences in 2023/2024 ?

[wheretolivehelp]

Just wondering what other buyer's experiences have been like on this side of 2023? Any horror stories? Issues with sellers? Guzumping? Guzundering? Problems with EA?

There's a few threads with Seller's experiences on MN (many saying their buyer can't afford the mortgage for their (overpriced?) property and so re marketing them).

What good and bad experiences have you had as a buyer?

Hope this thread will be useful to the buyers of 2023 and 2024!

I suppose it's the crazy way houses are marketed in this country by number of bedrooms instead of square metreage as in other countries which encourages EA/sellers to do this.

We struggled with buying as only wanted three actual bedrooms for sleeping in but also needed rooms for two home offices - had to set the search criteria at 3+ bedrooms to make sure we didn't miss anything which meant wading through loads of unsuitable listings. We ended up buying one marketed as a six bed and turned the two downstairs bedrooms into WFH space!

That is a good example.

People will say that House 1 has potential which is obviously does and has "lovely bones" as they say - it could be a lovely house for someone after a lot of work.

But the vast majority of Buyers including myself would think Screw that - I'm going for the easy option, the house in great condition for only 10k more.

I think you must live in a different area from me. Where I am in the SE, Buyers absolutely focus on square footage and in London, they do so even more.

When I sold my Dad's flat in central London, all the potential Buyers were obsessed with square footage. We got a few offers (mostly low) and every one mentioned the square footage as the justification for their price. It was a certain square footage and in a certain condition (not great) so it was worth x amount. Funnily enough, you could have sqeezed an extra bedroom into that flat as the living room was huge but it wouldn't have increased the price.

100% this! Thanks for sharing.
I've seen worse that the first property in the South, some with mould spreading even - all up for the same prices as the house done up (which is already overpriced)

Scotland buyers here. Technically we bought in February 2023, but the sale was agreed in August 2022 (long, boring hold up on the sellers part).
We bought a detached Georgian three-bed cottage with fairly large garden - and had to pay 29% over the home valuation report. We weren’t even the highest bidder - somebody overbid us by 10k, but they had a bad rep and the estate agent warned the sellers off them. From my understanding, there were 15 notes of interest on the property and over six offers.
I think potentially we could have bought this for a little
less in the current market, but I’m not sure. A property (semi-detached cottage) went on the market recently and was snapped up quickly, so I’m curious to see what it went for.

Hmm, weird, we sold on the outskirts of London to relocate north and it was all about number of bedrooms. House rather than a flat though?

House 2 needs MORE work than house one for me, I would have to completely structurally change it... thats major work.

One is not in 'worse' condition, its in more 'dated' style but the condition is equally live in-able.

Putting in new carpets and a touch of plastering is piss easy in comparison to major building work to the layout.

@housethatbuiltme what about having to spend 80/100k on house 1 to bring it up to the standard of house 2? Not to mention the time, stress and heart ache to do so?
And at the end of spending that 100k, it’ll have increased in value by about 15k, looking at the local market.
House 1 is vastly overpriced. It was on at 450k last year!

wow, so they tried to get it for 450k and now reduced to 375k? LOL. this is an excellent example. thanks so much for sharing. in the South, places like Surrey, this is happening with houses priced at 750k+!! the nerve

Buying in west London.
Viewed around 20 houses over the space of 8 weeks, that included one day viewing spree of 7 houses suggested by an estate agent.
Anything nice, priced reasonably snapped immediately within a week, that included one house which went to closed bids and sold for 150k over asking.
A lot of good size houses on good streets with awful decor, needing 90’s bathrooms ripped out, new kitchens and a bit of a revamp, but not dirty jobs like rewiring, plastering or plumbing. Those are overpriced and sitting there without much interest AND sellers rejecting very reasonable offers.

Then, there is a lot of nice Edwardian terraces priced somewhere at higher end, which usually have nice living room and ok kitchen extension, but apart from one nice big bedroom, all other 2-3 bedrooms are a size of a study. Also not selling.

a lot of plastic loft extensions with slated roof sat on top of a nice period house. Hot like a sauna and mostly for crawling and people below 4ft.

a lot of complete wrecks needing gutting, extending, often not in the best location (right behind tube tracks), priced at 1m

This is interesting. Would love to know the outcome too. I hope you're happy in your new home :)

Where on earth are you pulling these numbers from?

What 'standard' other than your own personal taste?

My house I'm buying is in far worse state than house 1 and its costing £20k to renovate. No heartache in having the house decorate and made to our own taste.

Viewed around 20 houses over the space of 8 weeks, that included one day viewing spree of 7 houses suggested by an estate agent.

Wow, how did you even do this. That is... astonishing!!
I agree, reasonably priced nice houses will go and tbf to the seller, good on them. they looked after the house, sold it at a reasonable price, hope they do very well in their new home too.

A lot of good size houses on good streets with awful decor, needing 90’s bathrooms ripped out, new kitchens and a bit of a revamp, but not dirty jobs like rewiring, plastering or plumbing. Those are overpriced and sitting there without much interest AND sellers rejecting very reasonable offers.

For me, this has been the majority of houses.

Are you still looking now or taking a break? :)

Hi, I can't speak for the person you're responding to, but for some buyers inc myself a reno includes rewiring and replumbing for us too. If a house has not been rewired in a suitable amount of timeframe, I will get it done for safety reasons. I will replumb if I am getting a new kitchen and bathroom too and want a different layout. My reno would be about fixing the house back to good condition.

Is the £20k you have spent been on decorating and making it look nicer, rather than a reno? If so, just to be clear, to me personally, this is not a reno. A reno is when you need to bring a poor house back to good condition, but i suppose we all use the word differently.

@wheretolivehelp I was very determined to find a place as got a buyer on my current flat over a month ago. Just this week I offered on a house that was on the market for 3 days and got accepted. I was only interested in quite a small area so I got lucky.
The house needs work but it was 300k less than other houses I had been looking at. I have really good builders who did my previous place. Funny enough the day after I got accepted, I got a phone call from the estate agent saying that the people who rejected my offer on a house 2 weeks ago had reconsidered and now would like to accept. Sorry too late

congratulations! you did really good! 300k less sounds fair if it's a reno for sure. i hope you are happy in your new home. And yup, the EAs are calling everyone back LOL.

Re-plumbing, rewire, removal of terrible 1970’s fireplaces, removal of ancient gas fires/heaters, add extra radiators, new kitchen, new bathroom, removal and repair of all ceilings with polystyrene tiles, new flooring throughout, ditto decorating, removal of DIY car port, ( probably more to spend outside with that dodgy concrete) replace flat roof ( you can see corner has been repaired so need to factor replacement in), one bedroom seems to need replastering, though with 130 year old houses, need to expect quite a bit of replastering, questionable front bedroom window not standard compared to next door so lintel needs investigating.
And that’s just what is visible.
Bit more than a coat of magnolia.

‘Also a conservatory never adds value. They are ugly and a cheap option for people who need more space or want to pretend they’ve added value.’

just couldn’t let this go….we put a 20sqm triple glazed conservatory on our previous house ( we imported it from Norway, a great deal of excitement in the street when it was delivered!). It was so ergonomic you could sit having dinner watching the snow falling outside and have to turn the radiators off. When we sold, we got £60k more than the exactly similar house next door which had been completely renovated the year before, but without the conservatory.

(BTW, it didn’t cost anything like £60k …..)

That’s an anomaly. Most conservatories are cold & leaky or too hot. They are marmite and as likely to repel buyers as attract them.

I really dislike conservatories too, with the possible exception of fabulous Norwegian ergonomic ones. Round here in a city centre where space is a premium they stick them on the back of a house and eat into the already tiny bit of outside space.
I’ve lived in places with them in the past and found them either too hot - would rather have a bigger patio and sit under an umbrella- or cold, hard to heat and make the adjoining room cold and hard to heat too.

2 of the houses my son made an offer on in June are still on the market and not sold and no reductions

The other house sold but has just come back on the market this week at 25k off what they wanted in June

The house my son is buying was 325 he got it for 310
i think
it went on RM on the Monday and my son was the first to view and made an offer straight away which was accepted
The other viewings were cancelled

He should be moving in mid Oct

Aww congrats. I hope those prices suit him and he has a wonderful time living there.

Hi, When did you sell?
I also still dislike all conservatories but if it was useful to your lifestyle why not.

@wheretolivehelp we are looking at similar dilapidated houses that are way over priced - the only thing on the market in our area at the moment. One agent explained that the reason there are so many and the prices aren't moving is that the residents have reversed their mortgages or borrowed against the house to pay for care. The bank now owns most or all of it and they will not reduce the price for a year or more unless a certain number of buyers offer significantly less over that period of time.

Also, we sold our house last year but were outbid on six houses. We are considering going back on the market (we have a great starter home) but as prices up the chain aren't coming down, we couldn't reduce our price as we couldn't afford to move up (unless we buy something that needs at least £100k worth of work). So we are stuck.