Anyone else waiting for the right property to come up on Rightmove?

[Amyc24]

just posting to see if anyone is in the same boat as me really!! Been looking for about 4 months, first house was nice but sellers wouldn’t budge on price it was about £75k overpriced in my opinion. Property is still on RM and has been for almost a year. Second property we basically got outbid by £5k still breaks my heart to think about it. We did then try to re-offer a higher price but sellers say they’d like to stick to the people they had accepted their offer and felt bad withdrawing so we lost that too.. so now visiting RM everyday hoping the right property will pop up. Was really hoping to be in a new place for Christmas but that’s starting to feel like it’s not goi no to happen. How long did it take you to find the right property?

The housing market is pretty much dead at the moment with a lot of people waiting to see what happens in the next budget - several houses in my road have been on the market for more than two years despite the prices being reduced a couple of times. Frankly if the Government interferes again with stamp duty the housing market will come to a complete standstill. Have to say that if someone offered me 75K off my asking price, I'd feel insulted and wouldn't budge either - you may think it's overpriced but if you 'insult' a seller by making a very low offer it's unlikely that they will ever consider you as a buyer. Maybe the house was in an area or road which commanded a higher price (in the past an estate agent told me that if the house I was buying was in the road road the corner it would have been an extra £100,000.
I've been looking for the 'right' house for 2 1/2 years and still not found (and I'm searching in a huge area in more than one county). I never understand why people need to move into a house 'for Christmas'. Most people market their houses in January/February/March so I'd wait until then.

Fair enough. First house sellers were actually developers, house was purchased on auction for £375k and basically given new paint and new bathroom, and put on the market for £225k more (£600k). A house on the same road with new kitchen etc same size sold for £500k so yes I do believe it was very overpriced hence sitting unsold since
January. I actually offered £525k…

Anyway, I’m still holding out for the right property just starting to lose hope really. I hope the right property comes along for your pretty soon x

@KateCookson response above apologies forgot to @ you

I’m on the other side, keep finding houses i love but no offers on mine yet, so they all sell before I get a look in. Hopefully things will pick up soon as I really need to get moving asap, but can’t afford to sell for too little as I need as much as I can get for my next place as I can’t get a mortgage. Tricky times.

Fair enough; you didn't explain why you thought the house wasn't worth the price it's listed at. Agree about property developers who think a lick of paint will increase their house value by £100,000! But you have to consider whether houses in your area have also increased in value since the house was bought and of course they want to recoup their buying expenses (estate agent fees, stamp duty etc), but that's their problem! Buying and selling has never been easy but it's particularly tough at the moment and the market is very very slow. Sadly waiting 4 months is nothing in current times so don't be disheartened. Just sold my Dad's little house; absolutely gorgeous house in a lovely location for what I believe was well under it's value. It had been on the market for a year and council tax has to be paid 12 months after death (plus standing order on electricity/gas/water) - we just couldn't afford to pay bills on two houses so had to let it go cheap. I try to think of the positive; it sold to a 'nice' family who will hopefully give it a bit of TLC.

Well that's the problem with all of us; no-one wants to reduce the price on their house but everyone hopes to pick up a bargain! I'm in exactly the same position.

Sorry to hear about you missing out. This is exactly why I always recommend putting your best and final offer in first. Why risk losing a property trying to save £5K?

Good luck on your renewed search. I recommend using GeoGlider (20 free searches a month) combined with Area360 (Google both) to super-charge your home search.

@XVGN honestly it wasn’t on purpose! We were both ask to put in our best and final and the other vendor went £5k above ours really. In hindsight, we should have offered more.. anyway you learn as you go. Really hoping something comes up soon.

It took me 6 months to find what I wanted the first time, and about 4 months the second time.

Both times we wanted something that was just outside of our budget, realistically, so it was a matter of finding the place with the compromises that we could live with.

(First one, a tiny kitchen and garden. Second one, not the prettiest house externally, not the trendy part of town, small garden - but great layout inside and nice size rooms, near good schools).

Yes, me! I feel that I'm checking Rightmove an unhealthy amount... We accepted an offer 6 weeks ago but haven't found the right thing yet, two would have been perfect, one had undisclosed development next to it, the other went before we viewed. Every day I'm hoping today is the day!

Yes. Have to sell 2 houses as part of divorce. About to list one, but there is absolutely nothing suitable listed yet to buy. Tied to school and distance from ex so limited options there.
The rental will be sold once tenant vacates in December, selling that at a distance will be a pain as can’t yet see what state it’s in.

The one we live in that is being sold is a tricky sale, incredibly desirable village but thatched cottages are a bit marmite and very expensive per sqm compared to “ordinary” houses that are not in conservation villages.

I keep checking RM but on the one hand I don’t want anything perfect to be marketed until we are under offer! The next 6 months is going to be so stressful.

Rather than checking out Rightmove, put an alert on it and get them to send you instant emails when something in your price range and type of house/area comes on the market. Also sometimes worth speaking to local estate agents (some of them will 'test' out a property before launching onto the market which saves them paying portals like Rightmove. Our local estate agent does this all the time - not a practice I'd be happy about if selling, but great if you are a buyer)

I have all the alerts! But despite that I still look at the app all blinking day.

It’s taken us nearly 18 months. 2 sales fell through. We’ve been in rented for 8 months after agreeing to move to complete our sale.

We had an offer accepted a couple of weeks ago so just hoping it goes through without any issues.

I accepted an offer in may and then took 3 months to find my onward purchase as kept getting outbid - market is fast and furious here! I managed to secure mine when an agent gave me early access after overseeing another sale I’d missed out on

Why don’t you try the 1st house again and put in a very slightly increased offer on it. They may accept now.

Do you have an offer on your own home or are you FTBs?
If you are FTB, I wouldn't be in a rush at all. Find something that you really like, can comfortably afford and don't over pay. The market in most areas is falling or stagnant and is unlikely to improve with the economy in trouble.

Good luck @kirinm. I know you have had a lot of trouble along the way! I hope it works out for you this time.

If you didn't have better offers despite your dad's house being on the market for a whole year, you didn't give it away cheap at all. That was the market price! That is literally how the market works.

I agree it’s bloody tough right now and I don’t see why any seller would be ‘insulted’ by a low offer. Someone makes an offer, you accept it or refuse it, you remain in control and it shouldn’t be an emotional process. I’m in an area like many others where exactly the right house in perfect condition still sells quickly, so people attempting to sell doer-uppers or just plain miserable dated houses with the usual issues are still not pricing realistically. Tbh I actually think it’s almost impossible for sellers to go low enough at the moment, the estate agents are all playing chicken.

I say after every move that I’ll never do it again but it’s particularly awful at the moment.

Thank you!

@Advocodo hey, I don’t think they’d consider. Honestly the whole thing was a bit of a stitch up in my opinion and I am starting to think the EA was just being funny. Basically we got told there is another other on the table now so put your best and final forward, we put £555k and it seems other vendor offered £560k (property was put on for offers over £565k). We got told we were outbid and I guess I sulked all night. My husband realising how much I loved the property then called the estate agent to say can we offer £565k as my wife liked the property. The bloody EA then said yes we’ll try your luck and I’ll put the offer to the seller. The EA then turns around and asks for proof of stamp duty, which I now realise he was obviously trying to stitch us up because stamp duty has nothing to do with him! It’s my obligation to the HMRC not the seller. Long story short a few hours later the EA calls and says sorry the seller said he’d like to sell to original offer as they now feel emotionally attached as they had promised to sell to them initially. I reckon the EA said to the seller that we couldn’t afford the property to be honest. Just generally gutted by the whole thing. You live and learn I guess.. sorry for the long paragraph xx it just felt right because the sellers actually gave us their number after the first viewing so I felt they’d had like to sell to us.

@rainingsnoring hey no we are not selling anything and are FTB so patiently waiting but I do have little ones who start school next year so would have liked to settle in to a new area before that.. the schools around my current area are crap x

I understand it's tricky wrt schools but still better not to panic buy and regret it for a very long time. The children will be okay.

@rainingsnoring this is exactly what my husband said… so I’m trying to be logical, I’m not a patient person which doesn’t help 🥹