Accepted offer but we can’t find anywhere to buy- feeling very disheartened!

[Sunset54]

Hi All,

I’m working myself up in to a tizz so any reassurance gratefully received!

We bought our dream home 4 years ago but after moving in we discovered it needed a lot of work doing to it. Four years in, spending pretty much every weekend fixing and renovating the house it’s taken it’s toll and during a particularly stressful period of renovation last year (cowboy builder who damaged a lot of the house, courts etc) we decided that this year we’d sell it.

There are other reasons to sell- builder lives nearby and secondary schools being two! We have a great grammar nearby but the state options are woeful and with two, albeit bright, children we decided to cut out losses and move somewhere with better state options.

It’s been on the market for a month and we had an offer in the first week. We’ve now accepted an offer on the condition that we have time to find a house but the EA is pushing to get things moving. We have an area in mind and I’ve been saving houses on Rightmove for months ready to start viewing them.

However, now it’s come to booking viewings we’re finding big problems with each of them and we’re getting pretty disheartened. Problems include no dining room, no space for home office (we both work from home), busy road to the front, tiny kitchen, requires full renovation. The other issue is we’re selling a large period property and a lot of the options coming up are new builds on large housing estates which wouldn’t work for us.

We’ve seen a couple of houses that look lovely but one is a bit overpriced in my opinion (has sat on the market for 8 months) and the garden isn’t attached to the house.

Three people who viewed ours said they’d accepted offers at least 6 months before and they were still looking. Is this just the case now? Should we expect it to take months to find somewhere?

Also if anyone can recommend somewhere in a nice village, access to good schools, period 3-4 bed house with space for a home office for £550k it would be much appreciated.

I feel your pain. There just isnt much on the market at the moment and the good stuff is going fast. I keep looking at right move and nothing changes. Why is there so much poor housing out there?

Whereabouts roughly are you looking OP?

@Haggia we’re moving from Yorkshire and we’re looking at Cheshire (or North Yorkshire) but open to suggestions.

We understand we would likely have to downsize a bit which we were happy with because if anything our house is a bit big for us. However, it’s looking like we’d have to move from a large 4 bed period house with land to a small 3-bed 1930’s on the side of a dual carriage way.

I would (and have done) take the sale and move into a rental. Gives you the time to find exactly what you want and puts you in a favourable situation as a buyer.

I agree and I’ve done the same in the past and almost did it again before finding this house.

It’s not an easy time to sell and your buyers won’t wait forever @Sunset54

It’s that or extend your search area or compromise on something like the age of the property or having a home office. If you got a 4 bed one of the bedrooms could be used as an office or if a house has a big garden you could get a home office installed in the garden.

Ah not areas I know sorry, but seems like a great scope.

I personally wouldn’t compromise on something like living next to a dual carriageway though, I think you’d regret it.

I know it sounds obvious but maybe make a list of what you could compromise on and what you couldn’t? It might help to focus your thought process a bit.

As you are finding it difficult to find anywhere, it may be that to get everything you need that you have to increase your budget. Listened to a podcast with a buyer’s perspective on their house hunt and after looking for 1 year it suddenly dawned on them that every house had too many comprises and they need to increase their budget. It was a real eye opener!!

Have you considered West Yorkshire? We’ve gone on the market in Holmfirth-outstanding high school in holmfirth and good rated high school in the nearby village of Honley. We’re selling to move to somewhere with land, but otherwise wouldn’t be going as we love the house and area. Not sure where you’re looking in Cheshire but I’m from there originally and house prices are much more than over this side of the Pennines. www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/152092040#/?channel=RES_BUY

@LindaDawn I’d considered this but the prices people are asking for are eye watering. I could afford to increase the monthly repayment but I went through an issue at work a few months ago which was out of my control and the sudden prospect of being unemployed with a big mortgage was terrifying! I’m now in a hood job which is going well but I’d hoped to reduce the mortgage. However, it looks like you need to spend at least £600-£650k now to get a reasonable house in these areas.

Really feel for you, it’s so difficult I know. And yes there are too many overpriced houses on the market not selling! Sellers are so delusional!

We were on our third buyer, having put our house on the market in September, who has then waited from February until June for us to find somewhere- we then won't complete until end of this month but fortunately our first time buyer was happy to wait. We found several places we liked but nothing we loved and the market was slow of 4 bed places coming up. It did stress me out and we were keen to get going but the perfect place came up in the end.

Also we chose not to go into rental as only wanted the one move with small children, despite previous buy to let buyers and the estate agents being keen on this.

I live in Cheshire and honestly with your budget I think you will be very lucky to get what you want and you may need to work out what you’re happy to compromise on.

Many new builds for sale around that price or older houses but in not as nice areas.

Have you considered Chester and the surronding villages itself? Some good secondary schools on the outskirts and should would get you what you're looking for in terms of house but unlikely a period property.

@Appleberrybloom we have and we’re considering everywhere in Cheshire at the moment including Malpas and all the villages between there and Chester. We’re also looking East towards Tarporley and Northwich but it’s all still so expensive. We’ve spotted a few older new builds (e.g. 1990s-2000s in our price range on the edges of villages so not huge estates but they’ll need work and at the top of our budget.
Do you know of Winsford is nice or somewhere to avoid?

I think you'll struggle with the period property requirement, unless you want to completely gut somewhere. I personally wouldn't live in winsford (sorry if I have offenede anyone!)

What about this?

I found this property on the Rightmove Android app and wanted you to see it: https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/146573354

How about moving over the border into North Wales?

@Appleberrybloom thank you for looking for houses!
We’ve had our eye on this one as it’s similar to our house but it’s been on the market a while and when I checked it looks like the large garden is quite separate from the house. We’d have to walk past two other driveways to get to the garden.

Does anyone know of Alsager is a nice place?

The wirral and helsby/frodsham are other possible locations that could work.

Something like this?
I found this property on the Rightmove Android app and wanted you to see it: https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/151992947

This

www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/152144387

www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/148786346

www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/145865540

When we were looking I looked through Rightmove Sold to see how often houses that met our criteria came up in the area, and how much they sold for. It was really helpful to realise that what we wanted came up very rarely, so we would probably need to compromise in some way.

When we were looking I found that period houses were either already beautifully done up and very expensive, or a full renovation project. I didn't find many in between. How important is the period house criteria?

After all the stressful work in your current house, a modern house needing less maintenance may have it's pluses.

I've just looked in Lancaster and surrounding areas. There are great secondary schools.

Some lovely properties old and new in that price bracket if you can consider coming further north.