Broken hearted over the housing market

[EarthSight]

I'm a first time buyer who's been looking and struggling to buy a suitable house for a while. On Friday, a decent house came on the market that wasn't perfect in terms of the area that I wanted to live in, but I thought I might actually have a chance if I moved quickly.

I got on the phone with the estate agents on Saturday who couldn't do a viewing that weekend as they were full, but asked me to call back today, and then the agent who was in charge of the property would be in too today.

I've just been contacted to say that the house has already received an offer. Although I won't know for sure, when houses in my area receive offers that quickly in Wales, it's usually because a cash buyer from Manchester or Cheshire has seen the place online. Almost all houses under 150k in my area are owned by people who live in those areas. This cooled off during 2023, but it seems like we're going back there again. :(

What hope do first time buyers like me have when we can't even view the place, somewhere that's going to be the biggest purchase of our lives before others put in an offer?? It's really hard to not be defeatist because I know I don't stand a chance against these people who can afford to outbid average working class people like me by 5-10k each time, for their lovely little holiday home or investment in Wales.

No real point to this post but I feel so incredibly down today. It's been a really hard past 5 years and I just can't get a break.

@Dolphinswimmer There would be no 'our' in my situation. I'm a single buyer, so lucky to even think about buying, have no experience of renovation, don't have builders or tradesmen in our family, and no friends or family that would be able or willing to spend long weekends doing up a house like that.

Also, it's not just about the work that this entails - it's also how much it costs. A lot of working class first time buyers are already stretching what little we have. We can't afford to spend an extra 20 - 30k on a house, and the sellers don't want to knock off more than 5k even if this is the case.

@Startingagainandagain Because of how few houses are available, and the fact it's the countryside, I'm not sure if you or others understand how incredibly wide I'm already searching. It's not like I'm just searching in a 10 miles radius. Also, in many places in Wales, flats costs exactly the same as houses. You might get 5k off, but that's it. Anywhere that's much cheaper than a house is that way for a reason - usually extortionate ground rent or lease costs. Some of the decent ones are grade 2 listed buildings, which can be costly and difficult to maintain, as well as cold.

@Startingagainandagain Also, kudos to you. London is tough. Much toucher than what I'm going through now. I wouldn't even be in my current situation if I was trying to buy in London.

I gave up a long time ago on living in the place I want to live in my county. The one next to it is as bad. I've made so many compromises there's not much left to compromise on.

Today, it's mostly wealthy English people selling to other people like them. We've moved so far beyond the days where it was mostly working class Welsh people selling these houses!

Find someone to buy with. It’s inevitable single people cannot afford what two incomes can. Was always like this.

Have you tried to book a viewing yet @EarthSight ?

Seeing as the offer hasn’t been accepted yesterday.

The flats might not be much cheaper, but I bet there's less competition. End of the day buying a house is a numbers game, if you are repeatedly being outbid, you need to pay more or look at cheaper places. You can blame wealthy English people if you like, but it's not going to help. The rest of us in England are also competing against "wealthy" English people for far more expensive houses. Compromise some more - there's nothing else to be done. And vote wisely.

Yup - it’s no easier in England with lots of additional competition from international buyers particularly in expensive areas with an influx of rich buyers from countries like Hong Kong.

It’s rare these days that a child born in London for example will be able to afford to buy in London unless they have family money. And large parts of the South East are also ridiculously expensive for FTBs.

@Kinshipug @Twiglets1 Very true. I do feel for the many in the South-East who are struggling with the housing market.

@Twiglets1 Yes - booked a viewing because the owners are interested. I cant afford not to really. If I were much younger, I might wait until next year because there's a lot of uncertainty in my local housing market at the moment, and has been for a while because of various issues, but if I like somewhere I'm going to view it.

I like the house, but trying to keep my cool and not get too excited. Trying to remind myself that even if this one doesn't work out, or if there's something really questionable with it that wasn't in the photos, then there will be more properties to see.

That’s good @EarthSight that you will get to view it. I’m sure it will be useful research even if that one isn’t right for you

So ignoring the being unable to compete with other buyers when it comes to price, try as others have said, getting to the front of the list for being given viewings.

We bought in 2021 when it was MENTAL.
To get pally with the EAs i would call up and ask for viewings on bungalows that were sitting on the market a while. I viewed all the weird and ugly houses noone wanted, the over priced probates etc. I'd turn up on time to viewings, feign some slight interest, but ultimately turn them down when called for feedback. What that did was get me face to face meetings with the EAs and get them to remember me for future houses coming onto their books. I would ask them if they knew of any they'd be getting a listing for soon in my price bracket etc.
It was a pain to do but it did start getting me viewings of houses BEFORE they went live and loads sold before hitting rightmove.

Also, keep looking at the old listings on rightmove. If the sale falls through, they bounce back to the bottom of the listing page if within X amount of time. The house we bought was one we'd viewed and lost out on. But it magically appeared at the bottom of rightmove when their sale fell through! So i got straight onto EA and offered on it within an hour of it reappearing.

Good luck!