Tell me your 'what's for you won't go past you' stories!

[Bedtime91]

A house near us has been on the market for a while and has been reduced significantly in the last couple of months, bringing it within reach for us.

It ticks all my boxes, and is liveable but would require renovation throughout and eventually a kitchen/diner extension.

Im now in the process of having agents over to understand what we could get for our house.

I'm trying not to get too attached because the stars would have to seriously align for this to work out, we'd need an offer on the higher end of the valuation for ours and the sellers would ideally accept a bit less than currently asking for dream house, so we have some cash left for renovations.

So with that in mind tell me your stories of when your dream move didn't work out but it ended up ok or even better in the end!

Oh, good luck, I hope the stars do align for you! 🌟

We bought our first house last year. There was a house on the market for 30k over our budget, we didn't have a penny more than what we had so knew we shouldn't even view it. I really felt the house could be our forever home but had to know our limit, and was so sad about it, I could really see myself in it and spent a few weeks obsessively torturing myself over it.

We then found an 'ok' house. It ticked our boxes but was small, and in the wrong area. After months of house hunting, we decided to settle for it. I emailed our solicitor to ask her to offer on it.

The next morning at 9am I got a rightmove alert saying the forever-house had been dropped by 30k! I nearly fell over. I quickly rang the solicitor who thankfully hadn't submitted the offer yet- she'd wrote the email but hadn't sent it. We viewed the house that day, made an offer at the asking price and were accepted.

We're now in the house and so, so happy. I know I wouldn't be half as happy in the ok-house.

@MinnieDog omg talk about 'meant to be' !

So glad it all worked out for you ❤️

Slightly different but a house I thought WAS meant for us we missed out on (tried to sell ours in time to offer but didn’t manage it). We were gutted. Soon after saw another house we fell in love with and were trying ti arrange to see but couldn’t and then heard it had sold.

Found the perfect place after both of these didn’t work out, hoping to exchange next week. Looking back this is much better than either of the other two. It will work out 👌

We viewed a dream house last year. In Scotland so offers over is the norm and over can be considerable. Our best offer was (I suspect) at least £20k under what the vendor wanted.

Whits fir ye’ll no go by ye, is an old Scots saying that I live by. At the viewing the vendor came out with that exact phrase. We weren’t the highest offer by a long chalk, but the vendor liked us, didn’t really need the money (unexpected inheritance) and we got the house.

I have just commissioned a neon sign with that saying to hang in our new home.

When looking for a home during my divorce, our family home sale was going through. I had to be extremely decisive as the market was v competitive (post Covid effect, everyone from wealthy areas wanting to move to Devon according to agents). Found a place I loved which was empty, had been rented out. Put a (good) offer in which was refused. Upped it, that was accepted, then within 24 hours the vendor pulled out - a previous viewer had suddenly sold her place and wanted to pay more. I was gutted but immediately offered on my second choice and got on with it.

After a bit of negotiation on the second choice house (which had been rented out for many years and was empty), the vendors accepted and I started pushing to get it all through at the same time as my old home. About two thirds of the way through the process, the agent told me that they'd had a much higher offer from someone who had fallen in love with it the previous year and had now sold her house etc. Vendors turned it down as they were so far down the road with me and I'm eternally grateful for that because I couldn't possibly have matched that offer (and I was paying a hell of a lot for the state it was in anyway).

After numerous twists and turns, I moved in 2 weeks before Christmas 2020 with my dds. The house was a wreck and w3 have renovated gradually over the past 4 years. It's still unfinished, too small and never clean but it definitely feels as though it was "meant to be".

Best of luck with the whole process, OP.

@OneDayIWillLearn this is my fear, that we won't sell in time to put in a proceedable offer, but staying positive that the universe will bring me the right house! Glad you got yours

@Belindabelle I love the idea for a neon sign! Sounds like you got a lovely vendor. I fished for information from the agent who came to value my place yesterday (same agent as 'dream house') - it's four brothers who Inherited it, so I do worry they wont be sympathetic to a lower offer as proceeds presumably will be split in four!!

@EmeraldDreams73 I can't believe you were almost gazumped, twice! Nightmare. Glad it's all worked out x

We kept scrolling past a house because the pictures made it look tiny and over priced. We decided after exhausting all the local properties the market in the area to view it just to rule it out (it was in the ideal location after all).

Well we fell in love with it as soon as we walked through the door. Pictures didn't do it justice at all.
Offered at asking price and are looking forward to moving in soon!

@Gamergirl86 similar to us in our current property!

I had ruled it out but only went to see it as we were seeing two others on the same road so thought, why not. I'm so glad we did!

A few weeks previously we lost a house we were negotiating on because the vendor decided not to sell (change of circumstances). Current property was reduced the same week. I guess things really are meant to be :)

@Bedtime91 we also lost a house we'd offered on because the vendors decided not to sell after all!
Definitely meant to be!

I didn't want to move out of my village - was moving out of rented and needed to buy but it's a very very tiny village with VERY few affordable houses. I'd sort-of agreed with a neighbour who wanted to sell her little cottage, but she kept pushing the price up and up until I could no longer afford it. Then HER neighbours split up and had to sell their cottage and I ended up buying that, which is nicer than the hous I was originally wanting to buy, and a LOT cheaper (especially since I bought it directly from them so they took a lower offer so as not to pay estate agent fees).

I love that, @Vroomfondleswaistcoat I bet the original house owner was furious!

I'd been obsessed with a very specific street in a single village for a year; unfortunately, we'd found THE house before we were proceedable, and couldn't make an offer fast enough. The day our house sold we saw STC on the house we wanted. Gutted. We settled on a different house across the street from the first one, but after the survey and an electrician's report we were getting very cold feet (probate property, full rewire needed asap as it wasn't safe, roof leaking, rising damp, all sorts) but it was the only house on this street near the schools we wanted etc.

Our disquiet about the works required was mounting, though, so one morning my partner had a look on RightMove again just to see what else might be around, and lo and behold, THE house was back on the market. We rang the EA straight away and put an offer in.

The story doesn't end there - that same day I was told my role at work was at risk of redundancy. It was a Friday, we'd already put our offer in and had all weekend to wait to find out if (a) I even had a job and (b) if the vendors of THE house would accept our offer.

I was made redundant on the Monday, and our offer was accepted that day as well. Mixed feelings doesn't even cover it. We proceeded with instructing solicitors and arranging a survey, etc, while I scrambled to get a new job as quickly as possible. (I'm feeling all those stressed feelings again just writing this out...)

We had a small window of opportunity where I could get a new job and the mortgage offer would still be good and we could complete on the sale. If I didn't get a new job in time, everything would have fallen apart.

I managed to get a new job in record time and everything went to plan. We moved into the house a couple of months ago and I am still pinching myself every day over how happy I am to be living here. We were so, so, SO lucky. I still get a sense of cold sweats at the thought of not having found a job in time, for lots of reasons. But to have lost this house would have been galling beyond belief.

Omg @MovingToPlan I had anxiety just reading that!!! Redundancy on top of all the other moving parts would do me in.

I'm on mat leave at the moment so it's in the back of my mind

Going to view 'ideal house' tomorrow and if it's a goer I've got an agent lined up ready to Instruct - exciting!

Good luck. I do think I had a particularly rare bout of bad luck myself, I'm sure it'll be fine for you!

We lost 2 houses because part of chain fell through, either appeared to be perfect although they both wanted a fair bit of work. Gutted both times and close to being homeless but did eventually find a lovely home. Within a year of moving we had a huge storm and the first house, which had a lovely garden running down to the river, flooded. Never got into the actual building but the whole garden was under water for a while. So THATS why there was just grass and no plants! The second house really was my dream property, art deco in original condition, Persian rugs in all the main rooms too and a garden to die for. The street hit the local news big time. Turns out that the place opposite was a home for troubled teenagers and they decided that it would be fun to run riot all over the area, for quite a while their main entertainment was running races in the street, all done on the roofs of parked cars, oh and setting fire to stuff, usually high on the herbage of their choice, I'd have spent most of my time making tea for police and firemen! We counted our blessings at having had 2 very near misses.

I'm a big believer in this saying! We've moved recently and before this house came on the market we weren't seriously thinking of moving. It was over budget initially then reduced a few weeks later, said to dh we should go look. We loved it, had agent round to value ours, got it on the market and accepted over asking offer and got under asking accepted on the house. It was a case of everything aligning, I remember saying to the kids that we might be moving but the chance was slim but we did it! If it's meant to be then it's meant be. Good luck.

When we were looking for our first place we saw a lovely flat and put in an offer.

The estate agent came back and said that if we only offered £1k (this was 30 years ago) more than advertised price they'd accept it, as there was a lot of interest and he was expecting loads of offers much higher than the as advertised price but if we got in first this would seal the deal!

We were pretty green and made the offer - all good... then we were gazumped. We were pretty upset and disgusted (this was in England and this didn't happen in Scotland- smacks of dishonesty!).

A few months later we had found a much nicer place - purpose built, overlooking a park and playing fields with an amazing view of the city skyline (the original flat was on a busy road over a shop).

Then we got a call from the old estate agent saying that the sale of the original flat had fallen through (buyer pulled out). I took great delight in telling him that if they'd taken our offer they'd not be in that situation, and what can they expect from someone who merrily gazumped someone else?

My mum said at the time 'what's for you won't go by you'.

@MovingToPlan I felt stressed reading that! So pleased for you it worked out.

@Bedtime91 hope the viewing goes well today!

We went to view a semi detached property in a very desirable area with amazing views which was once a farm workers cottage, being sold off the farm with a corner of land from a field, not a garden as such, there was just a courtyard-y bit and the corner of the field the other side of the entrance drive. Was a sellers market and another party were also interested in the property so we were in a bit of a mortgage race situation as sellers said we'll sell to whoever comes first, our solicitor couldn't get the searches info nor the info from the sellers, eventually the other buyers dropped out suddenly and the info was then available. Turned out the corner of field had a zillion and one restrictions on it, which is why the vendors were reluctant to divulge the info despite putting pressure on to exchange - solicitor said avoid, so we did.
Next week a detached in another but much better area for us, though no spectacular views , came on the market below the semi's price, so for us much better value.