Anyone found their new home soon after starting the process?

[icecreambrownrice]

Apologies for the terrible title. Menopausal brain fog and I'm feeling a bit despondent. I'd love to hear some positive stories from those who found their new homes soon after starting the search. Especially if you viewed properties hours away from your current home.

How did you know it was the one?

House was on the market two weeks and sold, we found our house and closed the chain 3 days later. Have hope!

We knew we couldn’t have perfection, and plot size and street trumped my desire for a kitchen diner. I will have a modest kitchen (though high quality) in the new property and a separate diner. All the other perks outweighed this concession and I’m at peace with it.

What are you looking for, and what’s on your will/won’t compromise list?

For what it’s worth I studied Rightmove like a crazed raccoon nightly for around two months but ultimately we only viewed 5 properties in total. Those viewings helped me what truly mattered to us in the end.

location is 30mins away from where we currently live but as a kid I remember us spending weekends viewing properties hours away! It was hard on my parents and they ultimately bought a stopgap house before moving again up the road to their dream house a few years later.

Yes, pretty much the day we started looking!👍

Knew we wanted to move to a specific town, knew we wanted a newbuild and had a really good idea of the type of house we wanted.
There were several developments in the town so on a single day we drove there and did a tour of the developments seeing if we liked the feel and layout of each one in turn. Narrowed it down to two developments (A&B) and on the same day looked around a couple of the show homes on development A making a firm decision on which design we liked most (we then dismissed development B from our minds). One plot soon to be available which ticked all our boxes so we reserved there and then and after that it was just paperwork (and waiting for the house to be built).
14-Months later we moved in.🙂

I brought the first house I ever viewed. I didn't go to any other viewings.

We weren’t even really looking, we’d had A vague conversation 6 months previously along the lines of “don’t think we’ll be here forever”
I saw that the house was on the market on the Saturday night, viewed it on Monday at 2pm, and by 3:30 it was ours.

Then it was “fuuuuuck we need to sell the house”, went on the market inside a week, and sold within a week on the market. We moved 8 weeks later (Scotland so no ridiculous system)

We did last time we moved (last year). On market 3 weeks. Sold. Had already spotted next house, 1.5 hours away and made an offer the day we got an offer. Chain closed within 24 hours.

Incredibly lucky as we haven't seen anything we would want to buy in the same area we needed to move to since!

I’d been looking a week.

Eight of us viewed a house the day after it came on the market. I was the last one on day one and was leaving as the owners returned home (they did a weekend of viewings and this was day one). I offered there and then in front of the agent. They accepted immediately - even when the EA asked if they wanted to go best and final - and cancelled all the viewings planned for the next day. I offered £10K over the asking pricee and tbh they could have got more.

They just ‘liked the look of me.’ Whole process took three months. They were buying a vacant property so no real chain as I was a FTB

Total dream tbh.

Edit: I knew it was the one because (A) good garden for my dogs and they’re few and far between and B) it needed work doing but not complete gutting. Meant I could turn it into my home without needing to do everything and take things slowly. Plus it felt like a ‘home’ rather than a show home when I viewed it

Found ours within a week of looking- it was a relocation and we'd been stalking Rightmove for about 10 months previously before actually going to look round places, so had a pretty good idea of what we did and didn't want. Took a week off work as soon as we had an offer on our place, stayed up there and saw as many places as we could squeeze in!

I try not to fall too deep into the idea of 'the one', although that being said of all the houses we saw, the one we bought we the only one where afterwards we were both completely sure. Had it fallen through though I'm confident we'd have found another- our house is nice but it's very much a 'type', of which there would be many more in the area we're in.

Ours went under offer after five days. Two days prior to this, we viewed three houses (our first three from our Rightmove list). Number three got us completely confused as we fell in love with it despite it not ticking all our list. I took my dad back the next day who loved it too. We put an offer in (provisionally) that evening which was accepted on the proviso we could sell ours fairly quickly. Two days later and we had an offer. Chain of three - cash buyers our end, no chain for our vendors. Three months later we were in and we still pinch ourselves this beautiful house is ours!

My DS is a FTB. Viewing for the first time tomorrow. Buying on his own, so he's asked us to join him.

Within a couple of weeks of searching seriously we had made an offer on one house that was over the asking price, but someone else had made and insane offer.
Found our current house it ticked the boxes we were looking for somewhere we thought for 5 years or so that we could improve. Didn't take long of living there to realise it was the forever location, we now just need to turn it into the forever house which we are working on.
It ticked all the boxes location, size and needed we seemed a small amount of work. To make it the dream we are totally reconfiguring, but it will become fabulous.

Yes - we were looking for houses 4 hours away too

We set up a few viewings and when we walked into the one we are buying it felt like home

Our current house was the second we viewed (plus we’d seen two up for rent in a similar area). Put ours on the market that week and sold ten days later, vendors accepted our offer the day after. Moved in 3 months after that. It was back in 2019 but market was said to be slow at the time (it was around all that Brexit stuff/ end of Theresa May).

This time it’s taken a year so far. We are relocating which does make it harder but going somewhere and staying overnight (which we’ve done a few times) helps and is quite fun. I just think it is a more complicated move for us this time and the slow market hasn’t helped.

hopefully you’ll have something more like my previous experience!

From starting to seriously "look", after getting my mortgage agreement, to putting in my first offer, was about 6 weeks.
I viewed 6 properties in total. 2 of them were "almost certainly nots", but I viewed more out of curiosity than anything. 3 were "fine - would have done", and when I saw "the one", I just knew.

Our current house was the only one we viewed. We put an offer in the next morning for asking and it was accepted (Oct 2020)

We did drive past 4 more houses the day of the viewing that we had favourited on right move but all that did was cement why we liked the house we had the viewing booked for. It can be as smooth as that, and don't forget people tend to share/ask for advice on their horror stories and bad experiences than the good ones.

However our move was a a few towns over (so new schools but we knew the area) but we are planning a move about 4 hours away when this mortgage fixed term expires so will read answers with interest for tips! One estate agent we know advised to go to rental if you can in the new area. Makes you a chain free purchase when the time comes to offer plus you'll know the area better and can move faster

We had found the house we wanted even before putting ours on the market as it were.

For context we are moving 200 miles away so needed to properly scout out the area. We were honest with sellers and estate agents about our proceedability so needed to get viewings in to see what the area was like but explained why and most were happy to let us view. We only viewed 8 houses we were genuinely interested in however and the last house was the one. We told them we liked it and would offer once ours sold but didn't want to offer as it's not fair.

Our house went on the market the week we went looking, and we got ours sold fairly quickly for the price bracket we are in.

As luck would have it the house was still on the market (it had been on for 11 months), so we phoned up and put an offer in and arranged a second viewing if it got accepted. It did and we got a decent reduction in price too due to how long it had been on. We are hopefully moving in a few weeks.

My son's first viewings were interesting

One was cancelled by agent due to sickness. We did a drive by and it looks suitable and price fair. They are rescheduling in week when staff are well again.
Two were on a road that in week was OK for cars and parking but dreadful today. Otherwise one house was OK but overpriced the other was dreadful. One over priced by about 20k (7%) and the other by who knows- looked more like an auction property to me.
Fourth was OK but road noise today terrible and a crack inside to outside upstairs and downstairs on back of house. Overpriced even if that crack turns out to be nothing by about 25k (8%)

Yes. Went on the market with our house on a Monday night, under offer on sale bu Wednesday, found a house to buy Friday/Saturday and firmed ip the purchase offer on following Monday. So 7 days to sale and purchase offers. 3 months for completion of legals and moving in. We had a very clear idea what we wanted and a lucky break finding a probate sale.

@Ilovemyshed

Did you get full asking?

Good stories to read OP and PP.

Especially as I’ve seen the house we want an haven’t sold ours yet (10 days up, equestrian property).

The stories are really encouraging that you all did it so fast.

I love that you all instantly knew. I think it’s like this when buying a home. In all of mine I’ve just known in a few seconds of walking in. You get that feeling.

Yes. Three offers at full asking, so I chose the one in the best position to proceed - cash buyer. The other two were FTBs with a huge mortgage need.

Cool!

Viewed and made an offer whilst standing in the garden!

We had seen 8 houses previously, but months prior. Covid lockdown happened and DH saw the house online we eventually bought and we went to see it the day lockdown lifted.

It was very different to what we'd been looking for initially and was a complete renovation, rather than just a bathroom upgrade! We are still getting there, but love it.

Moved back to the UK on 12th February, offer accepted on house on 26th. Viewed five houses. Dh was still overseas at the time and saw the house for the first time three weeks after dcs and I had moved in