To all the not-yet-buyers out there...

[HavenSprings]

I see that there's a thread for the buyers & sellers currently in the buying/selling process, but I'd like to create a space for those, like me, who still haven't joined the buyers ranks!

So, DH and I viewed every house we needed to viewed, offered on every house we needed to offer, and now we're back to where we started from (with a bit of extra knowledge on what we want and what we don't want, at least): waiting on new properties to come to the market, or old properties to come back.

What's your situation? Are you still desperate to buy or have you made peace with it? Do you still hope for a miracle before Christmas or are you already stopping your daily checks on RM and thinking about picking them up next year?

Speaking of RM, I have a random question: the houses that do not appear under offer or sold STC, have they been taken off the market before selling? I'm assuming so, but was curious to double-check with you.

So, I'm the only one left without a house. Fair enough 😂

Others will join this thread soon I'm sure.

In the meantime you can take consolation from the fact that you have actually made good progress by identifying exactly what you do and don't want. Something will come up soon & you'll be in a good position to move fast as you've already learnt a lot about your local property market.

So you have moved forward even if you don't feel like you have.

Thank you @Twiglets1, this is very reassuring. I do feel less overwhelmed at the idea of finding the right house and go straight to offer stage. Before now, I was overthinking every house we viewed, I clearly had very confused ideas on our needs/hopes! I don't have any regrets though on any house we might have 'missed', so that's good.

That is good.

My daughter viewed lots of flats (some with me) and some seemed a waste of time as totally wrong for her. But they all helped her really understand her priorities so when the right flat came up she was able to offer quickly and secure it.

I don't have one either. Well I do, it's a perfectly nice rented house but we do really want to buy.
I am still checking rightmove regularly but all I see are properties that are drastically overpriced so we are continuing to save and hoping at some point the sellers and estate agents realise they're being delusional!

I am in the same boat, offered on one and got pipped by first time buyers, nothing coming on in the areas we want so frustrated at the moment!

We're looking for our youngest DC. But we have a three/four year horizon so we're in no rush and are building up the war chest. It's increasing much quicker than house prices so we're not concerned.

@wherethecityis this is so annoying, isn't it! Have you tried taking them back to earth with a more realistic offer, or did you think it wasn't worth the hassle?

@Travelcrazy ugh. If it's any consolation, we are first time buyers and we still lost against... no one! 😂There were no other offers on the table for both houses we offered on, the sellers just decided to wait for a knight in shining armour that will eventually arrive to them offering full asking price (for one of the offers, we are talking about 5k more😂)
Do you have a deadline or can you wait a bit longer?

@XVGN that's a good window. I honestly don't know how much time I've got, because our current landlord is selling, and who knows what the new landlord will want to do? Maybe they'll want to convert our maisonette into a snooker club 😅
I do wonder how it is to look for a house on the occasional basis... is it a nice feeling? I'd probably get super hyped at one point anyway!

We put in a very very generous offer on one house, and they wouldn't even consider it. It's been on the market for about 18 months now with only a very small drop in asking price and they're still adamant that it's worth what they're asking, and that it's in almost perfect condition (it absolutely isn't and needs quite a lot spending on it which is obviously influencing what we're willing to pay). But an almost identical house with the same agents has now gone on the market for 50k more. Come on, if the other one hasn't sold in all that time why would you put a second on for more. They're mad!

Don't lose hope though - you might find that they realise this knight isn't coming along and come back to you with their tail between their legs.

You're right. We are very lucky. But I appreciate your difficulties too. We moved into rented before buying this home for ourselves but we still felt under pressure to complete before getting notice. Best of luck to you.

My situation is I have been a buyer for nearly 2 years. Actually had several offers accepted and then fallen through.

I have tried private sale (fell through as seller wasn't doing his part), Traditional EA sale (fell through due to probate issue), Corporate sale (gazumped), Auction (lost in a bidding war).

I'm at the end of what I can take with house buying. Its the most ridiculous process in the world and despite doing everything right and trying everything nothing is in my control and everything keeps failing.

I'm a bloody chain free cash buyer offering full price or above and willing to take on renovations (even structural ones), how is it this bloody hard?

And theres so few houses on the market. The town here I live has a notorious 'bad' strip (derelict houses, drug dens, constant crime) that has literally hundreds of houses for sale (probably because no one sane would live there) but then everywhere else in town your lucky if a even a handful pop up in a month and most aren't suitable being small 2 up/2 downs.

@wherethecityis honestly, some sellers are really deluded... and I'm starting to think that EAs are partly to blame for it. I think they really convince their sellers that they will sell at their dream price... and when they are faced with reality, it's too late to use a completely different approach.
I think it's good that at least you are in a nice house at the moment, that will definitely help. You are not wasting away somewhere you are not happy, but you can hold out for the right house at the right price! And you are right, I also think that at least one of the sellers who rejected my offers will soon realise that there's no one willing to offer as much as they want at the moment. We'll see. Good luck to both of us!

@XVGN I will be the same. I won't be able to give notice before being absolutely certain that the purchase is going ahead!

@housethatbuiltme I am so sorry :( that must have been really awful. Are you bound to a specific area so you can't look elsewhere nearby?
I know what you mean, I was originally searching in an area where houses would pop up only in a specific place. Going there, I realised it was the worst bit in town - drug dens, etc. I scrapped that town completely only because I'm lucky enough to have a few options. I would have grown old by the time a decent house had appeared in a decent area! Anyway, I really hope you are at the end of your tribulations.

me 🙋
Currently in rented and desperate to move. Lots of movement in the lower end of the market but the midsection where we’re looking there really isn’t much on market. Viewed too many with just blind hope I’d fall in love with them. Many houses come up on main roads but I just don’t want to live near a road after doing so previously.
I think some sellers are nuts the prices they are asking, but then someone comes along and buys it after many months, so they are just waiting it out.

I do wonder for how much they sell them after many months, though. Can't be the full asking price, surely? I wouldn't trust to buy a house that's been too long on the market to buy it at asking price.
So you've just not found a house you love, then, and not put any offers through? I haven't found a house I 100% love either, but I did try my luck on a couple. They would have been OK and possibly I wouldn't have hated them. I'll never know!

@HavenSprings we have now bought but spent over a year as wannabe buyers so I do understand the frustration. I think your attitude towards EAs and people selling their houses is a bit wide of the mark though. Have you ever had your house valued by EAs? They come round with pages of stuff off Zoopla/ RightMove etc and go through what similar houses have sold in your area recently and what they’ve currently got listed and how it’s going in great detail before suggesting what they think is a realistic price, they’re not just plucking figures out of thin air. They don’t earn any money AT ALL unless the houses sell so while EAs may have their faults (they do), their business models relies on actually selling houses. If they just list them at inflated prices which will never sell all they have is cost (costs of viewing, marketing, right move….) and they literally don’t see a penny until you complete. A quick sale at a lower price is always better for an EA than a very very long sale at a somewhat higher one. It’s not an exact science though and it’s a strange market at the moment so it doesn’t always pan out as you want even when if your asking price relates to a lot of data on other houses in your area and is in that sense perfectly reasonable. There’s nothing ‘delusional’ about that though.

As a seller, part of why you choose one offer over another is in how easy you think those people will make the sale process and if they start off giving the impression they basically think your house is quite shit and overpriced then I wouldn’t want to enter into a conveyancing process with them even if the offer was good. They’d be sure to be the kind to want more money off for everything single thing that came up in the survey and generally drag their feet and make out they were doing you a favour by buying your house. I’d far rather sell to someone making a lower offer but who really liked the house and wanted a smooth sale.

I’m sure you’ll find something though, I was giving up hope around the 12 month point in our search and then the perfect house came along, it’ll happen!

Where exactly have I said that sellers are plucking figures out of thin air? Another PP did, and in that case I said that most likely EAs are also to blame because, as you said, they come with long lists of figures from other properties, and they should help the seller realise they are being too unrealistic, in order to secure a sell.

In my personal experience, I don't think the houses I offered on were overpriced (well, one was, just slightly though). I didn't offer full price on the first because I just couldn't afford it, and I made that clear and apologised and said that I was really stretching it because the house was worth it. On the second, I didn't offer full price because there was work to do in the house.

What you are saying should happen is exactly what didn't happen in my case. A quick sell at a lower price was not what they went for. They preferred to choose no offer at all, thus proceeding towards an undefined period of waiting (and therefore a possible long sale). One and a half months later, that house is still there. And we definitely never dared comment that the house was shit (it wasn't) and we were making them a favour offering on it. Far from it.

On another occasion, I'm fairly convinced that someone who is an investor and is getting rent each month and recently sold another property at a fair profit and, despite all this, still declines a 5k under price offer with no other viable offer to pick from, is greedy and ridiculous no matter what other similar properties sold on the market that they can use as proof they can get more. So, in that case, it was definitely us who didn't want to go into the process with this kind of person, and all the better for it.

I'm hopeful something will come up, I'll just need to wait and see!

honestly, some sellers are really deluded... and I'm starting to think that EAs are partly to blame for it. I think they really convince their sellers that they will sell at their dream price... and when they are faced with reality, it's too late to use a completely different approach.

This is the comment of yours which I feel is wide of the mark. I don’t think the idea that sellers are ‘deluded’ or that EAs trick them (or ‘really convince them’) into listing at their ‘dream price’ is representative of what happens. Which is why I asked if you had ever had your house valued by an EA. Estate Agents don’t have an interest in having lots of overpriced houses on their books so it wouldn’t make sense for them to behave in that way.

Sellers might have a different set of priorities to EAs though and having chosen an asking price that the EA has given them evidence for then a super quick sale at a relatively low price might not be in their best interests. Waiting or taking their house off the market for a while might make more sense in their circumstances than accepting an offer that is lower than they can afford to accept. That isn’t necessarily ‘greedy’ or ‘ridiculous’, it might well be prudent in their circumstances and ultimately it’s their prerogative.

I do sympathise with the frustration though - we had a similar situation where we were offering on a probate property last year that hadn’t sold at auction and didn’t have any other offers on, standing empty through the winter. We made an offer 95% asking price and made the offer not subject to survey even and they took ages about it and then turned it down! We said and thought some very choice things about these people and I was quite angry about it at the time (and I know the house was still for sale 6 months later which I was quite gleeful about it) BUT ultimately I decided it wasn’t helping me to think in that way. In the end I think, well that was their choice and there must have been something about their circumstances I didn’t know which made that choice make sense to them and shrug our shoulders and move on. And now I’m glad because the place we’ve actually bought is much nicer! So they kind of did us a favour.

Sounds like you haven’t really found a place you love yet either so maybe these people have done you a favour too!

"honestly, some sellers are really deluded... and I'm starting to think that EAs are partly to blame for it. I think they really convince their sellers that they will sell at their dream price... and when they are faced with reality, it's too late to use a completely different approach.
This is the comment of yours which I feel is wide of the mark. I don’t think the idea that sellers are ‘deluded’ or that EAs trick them (or ‘really convince them’) into listing at their ‘dream price’ is representative of what happens. Which is why I asked if you had ever had your house valued by an EA. Estate Agents don’t have an interest in having lots of overpriced houses on their books so it wouldn’t make sense for them to behave in that way."

It's not that wide of the mark. They did say that only some are like this - not all. If you watch the UK Property Market Stats show on YT then you'll see people who work in the industry saying that this actually happens. They then took at some local stats and can demonstrate that happening. They don't celebrate it.

It's not that wide of the mark. They did say that only some are like this - not all. If you watch the UK Property Market Stats show on YT then you'll see people who work in the industry saying that this actually happens. They then took at some local stats and can demonstrate that happening. They don't celebrate it.

This. Some are like this. Some are not. I've got loads of evidence, and not just my personal and relatively new experience, to remain convinced of this. I stand by my comment. 🙂

Same as some people are just greedy. Not all, but some are.

I'm at peace with my situation, as in I won't live to regret those two houses. Sure, I will still judge poorly some of the circumstances that were presented to me, but that's just a thought in the corner of my mind, I won't certainly let it cloud my judgement moving on.

I've been in the 'game' for a short time, but I've already had to face some of the crude realities, that's for sure! This will just help me move past them quickly if they represent themselves.

There is a sucker born every minute, even overpriced houses sell eventually.

We went to see one right at the beginning of looking. It was bought a couple of years ago for £89k by a Londoner moving up north who paid instantly £10k above asking to 'secure the buy of a century' without even viewing.

The price of the street is 70k a house, she then listed the house for £130k (wildly above the ceiling price of the area). Kept saying what a 'bargain' it is and can you believe a house could be so 'cheep' while comparing it to detatched town houses in estate (maybe in London its cheap but this is a norther pit village and a small terrace with no parking).

It was on the market over a year, just saw the land registry update that she did manage to sell... for £142k 😮.

Several other houses on the street are still sitting at £70k and not selling, I can only imagine she sold to one of her deluded London mates because absoloutly NO local would pay that... but she has officially sold it somehow.

Also househunting. Also struggling with houses that have been on the market for months, but aren't willing to budge from asking price. Maybe someone will pay it eventually but it won't be me. And, for now, they're still unsold...

I'm seeing other houses dropping prices repeatedly before they sell 20% or more below the price they were originally listed at. Yet the papers a few days ago were saying that prices were up, which simply doesn't reflect what I'm seeing.

My impression is that a lot of estate agents don't quite know how to price in this market. I don't mean they're deliberately overpricing. But if you're entire professional experience has been a booming market where, each year, prices are more than the next, and houses fly off the shelves, then the current market must be a challenge.

Prices are slightly up @Motorina but that’s an average and it’s only by about 2-3% so really the market is still pretty stagnant if you take inflation into account.

In some areas prices won’t be rising or it will only be certain types of housing. It may be that you are looking for a type of property that is struggling to sell in your particular area. For example, in London flats are struggling to sell in many areas, whereas in other cities it might me detached houses that are selling slowest.

So many houses around here are overpriced. .any have been for sale off and on for the 2 years we have been looking with real intent, some even longer. One issue is loads of new builds with deals so people aren't buying the older housing stock. The other issue is the prices. People are so unrealistic and so many of these houses need so much work. I have a 3 bed semi to sell, will probably get £350k ish for it. The 4 bed detached houses down the road which are actually smaller than our house are on for £500K, the fourth bedrooms are an office or a cot room. So we looked at more individual houses, they are all priced at £800k plus. Every time I ring about a house at the moment the estate agent says "Well they are just testing the market" which means they have no intention of moving unless they get their ridiculous asking price.

"One issue is loads of new builds with deals so people aren't buying the older housing stock. "

From the latest official house price index. It's quite shocking how developers are successfully separating people from their money.

https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/uk-house-price-index-for-july-2024/uk-house-price-index-summary-july-2024

@Motorina that's exactly it! It's the same as what I've been thinking i.e., EAs were accustomed to a linear type of market, specific selling times during the year, booming market, small increase each year, etc. Then, something happened to break the market routine and they were like 'no, we won't acknowledge that, we don't know how to deal with it' and are just ploughing on set in their old ways. That's exactly the feeling I got when speaking with a few of them.

For example, one of them said 'this house in September?! It will be gone in a heartbeat' - almost mid-October and the house is still there 😆