Tell me how you found your dream home! House we are buying is probably falling through :-(

[houseofwater]

Been trying to move for ages now; house we were about to exchange on is probably going to fall through tomorrow and feeling very disappointed and deflated. Don’t want to start the process again! Worried my kids will all be grown up and gone before we find the right family home.

Please tell me how you found your dream home, give me hope again!

We were pipped at the post having an offer accepted on a house and in desperation I just took a drive round to see if any new for sale signs had been put up.

Ended up convincing DH to view a house that we had discounted online for months. The EA failed to mention the size of the enormous garden in the listing. As soon as we viewed we knew it was eventually going to be better than the one we lost out on. We likely would have moved on from the one we lost out on to something like where we are now.

We didn’t unfortunately, had to compromise a fair bit and although we’re in a house much better than we were, it’s still not the dream house. Not everyone gets their dream house unfortunately.

No dream house here either. Still in the first house I bought, and I’m mid forties. Finding anything better than this seems impossible at the moment or outrageously expensive. This house ticks a lot of boxes so don’t want to spend three times as much for another house that still has lots of compromises.

Went onto Google maps and drew a maximum distance from the children's primary school, then looked at secondaries within that with the idea of keeping the children in the primary.

Roughly drew that map on Rightmove put our maximum budget in, number of bedrooms but flipped the search ie lowest to highest because some might be open to renovation or with potential to extend. My friend had done this, she had seen a very small house but there was a large side garden and they knew someone in the planning department so had a casual conversation about whether it would be possible to mirror the house to the side. Sometimes you have to think outside the box. Sometimes a few streets out of a particular area is considered "less desirable" because it is in X rather than Y. We bought in X.

Most people have to make compromises, but I think putting your mindset in a place where you are looking for the house that can become your dream home rather than is currently your dream home can be important. Mine certainly wasn’t when I viewed it - but I could look past the disrepair and the renovation it needed and see what it would be once that was done. We’re now in a place income wise where we could move to something worth at least twice as much if we wanted to - but we won’t any time soon, as this really is the perfect place for us and has so many things we enjoy every day.

Draw up a list of the really vital things in a home that you don’t have control over and can’t really be changed - location, size of garden, atmosphere etc. Then view houses with those as your top criteria, being open minded about the things you can change in time.

It is partially mindset

There's no such thing as buying a dream home - only buying a house with potential. And remember you have to kiss a lot of frogs before you find the prince.

List out things you need in a house, things you would like in a house and things you will not compromise on. I sometimes thing onside galleries of photos mean people don't look around enough properties - nothing beats getting through the front door of a place to find out about it. Yes it takes time, but your house is the most expensive thing you will probably buy so doing the legwork is vital.

Oh and don't fall in love with a house until they give you the front door keys

We got our current house, slightly morbidly, when one of my mother in laws neighbours passed away. My mother in law posted a letter through the door of the relative of the deceased, (who lived on the same street) letting her know we were looking for a house and would be interested in buying it if it was going to be sold.

It was a bit mortifying at the time due to her pushiness, but we’ve been here for 8 years this month and it was a tough buyers market it the area at the time.

Thank you all, some really practical advice here, I don’t think anyone enjoys the house buying process and I’m finding it hard.

The house we almost got had compromises and we are viewing everything with a really open mind and I am willing to put in some time to make a house good for us but it feels so slow. Probably because it’s taken a while to be in a position to buy a house we want.

I’m not great at imagining how we would use a space and I don’t want to disappointed with what we do choose, also don’t want to wait so long for the perfect house and never move.

Sorry your sale is not looking good OP its such a roller coaster. We focused on location only as our top priority. In that we looked at detached as we figured we could do anything as long as the property was detached and in the right location we would fix the rest. This lowers your budget, we have a big fixer upper in budget. the road is quiet, views amazing, very sought after safe village with great links but rural. But my god its a fixer upper....

We pulled out of one just before exchange and had to start over. It’s not our dream home, but it was clear we loved it as soon as we saw it. It took months, but view anything and everything and yes there will be compromises. We are now working with what we have to make it as good as possible and have accepted that the dream home is very unlikely.