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?

I think he's right. Buy in haste, repent at leisure. If the property market was rising rapidly, it would be different, but it isn't. You will find the right place in time.

@Amyc24i got asked to prove I had money for offer, fees and stamp duty by the agent whenever I put an offer in. Pretty normal when there’s competing offers on the table

I’ve always been asked to prove funds but not for stamp duty.

Are you being realistic about what you can afford? Try looking at things listed for your actual budget - don't let estate agents convince you to view lots of higher priced houses, or the things you can afford will never measure up up - they are cheaper for a reason.

If you're buying in a quite well established area there may not be many forced sellers or new build houses, supply can be low and people simply won't sell if people are offering very low. They aren't obliged to sell to you.

Its quite normal for property to take longer to sell at price points over £500k because people are very picky & personal in their preferences when buying something they think will be their forever home. It takes that much longer for the right property to be lined up with perfect buyer, when compared to urban flats etc which people are less emotional about and view as investments.

Yes. Made a post a few weeks back. Our situation similar to yours in that we were outbid on a house I absolutely loved and was 10/10 for location. We worked our fingers to the bone to quickly make improvements and get our house on the market for this particular house. It needed work doing but ticked every box for us which isn't easy. It instantly felt like home when I walked in. But understandably they went with higher offer and proceedable. Our EA knew we'd gone on market just for this house so asked if we wanted to come back off or keep going to see what else came up. We chose to stay on. A week later we sold our house for full asking price. Not a day goes by that I don't hope the house I wanted comes back on the market as two others near by did after a couple of months. I've become a Rightmove junkie like you even though I have alerts! 😄I'm listed with every EA that I know of. It's a bit more difficult for us as we're looking for a house on a particular estate (a nice one, 70s builds, people keep their properties nice, totaling about 500 houses?) and in walking distance of primary and secondary school. We also need detached as we're quite noisy 😊so not asking for much! 😂

@rainingsnoring thank you for the lovely comments,.. hopefully something will come along x wat about you? Any luck

@Paintonmyshoe lol!! Same boat then 🤣 I’m also hoping their sale falls through.. I’m actually considering dropping the sellers a text to say if your sale falls through please know we are still interested but I don’t know if that’s too far? What do you think? There’s just nothing on RM it’s annoying me!

Don't agree with you entirely; the housing market had been really bad and was starting to pick up; we actually had two other people who really wanted to buy and made much higher offers but who were waiting to sell their own properties. Unfortunately it was a 3 hour drive from where we live and as I said, we just couldn't afford to keep two houses (we didn't want to keep the heating running over winter).It was the council tax (on a vacant house with no-one using local services) that got us in the end!

I agree too. There is loads on the market round my way at the moment, lots having been reduced but nothing is moving. I’m waiting until after the budget like many others it seems.

I doubt that the housing market has picked up. I'm sure you would have waited another couple of months if it had. Unfortunately, non proceedable offers aren't viable offers as the potential buyers might fail to sell and withdraw from the market or have to lower their own asking price, meaning that they can no longer afford the higher offer. If you only had one viable offer in a whole year on the market, that is the best price in the current market. I think you made the right decision to accept it and move on.

Before I bought this one I looked every day for over a year which is extreme I know. I had been badly scarred by my last experience so I wanted it to be perfect (well perfect for me, this house is nowhere near perfect yet!).

Your home will come. I think sellers still have unrealistic ideas about the value of their houses. Nothing seems to be moving in our city and lots are being reduced.

Absolutely the right decision and agree that people who seem keen buyers and 'just need to sell their own' often change their minds and disappear (I have moved six times in several different decades and housing markets), but waiting another couple of months wasn't sensible as I was close to getting in debt paying the bills and council tax (and travelling costs of travelling to the property and back). The housing market did pick up in that area (while the whole market is poor for sellers at the moment, it does vary a little from region to region and what is going on locally eg the Elizabeth Line has worked wonders for house sales in Abbey Wood and the discontinuation of the bypass has been bad news for housing in Arundel). Selling a house after probate is slightly different from selling your own house and moving to another. In the hope of getting a higher price people forget that once sold the money can be invested in a high interest account (currently at least 4%) and that has to be balanced against keeping hold of a property that's costing money to maintain empty. I also had siblings who of course wanted their share immediately (but were happy to let me do ALL the work in the sale and maintenance despite living closer than I did - same with caring for my Dad but that is another issue). No regrets; sold to a lovely couple with kids which means the house I grew up in and where my parents had lived for over 50 years will hopefully become a happy family home again and get some TLC. And sometimes selling does have emotional ideals and not always purely financial ones.

We are looking to buy but don’t want to go on the market until we have found something as we don’t think ours will have an issue selling and we don’t want the pressure of trying to find what feels like a needle in a haystack. Based on this thread we are not classed as a good option for sellers and perhaps it may not give us as much negotiating power?

We spotted ours the first time we looked on RM but when we tried to book in it had been removed. We looked for a year and found one we liked but had to wait to sell. Then the first house came back on the market… and our house sold. We’d offered and been accepted within days.

That's all very fair and it's good that you have no regrets, as I had that impression from your earlier posts. You've obviously had a lot to cope with and siblings who were perhaps less supportive than they could have been! I agree that there are a range of considerations when buying and selling.

No regrets, but I still feel the buyers got a good deal. The problem with the housing market has always been the same; Buyers want a bargain, but don't want to drop the price of their own property when selling.

If you haven't even got your house on the market then you might not even be able to view some houses. Lots of people don't allow viewings unless the people are proceedable as it is a huge hassle getting your house and garden tidy and going out for the viewing.

They say you should also follow the EA on Instagram and Tiktok, because sometimes properties get listed there before Rightmove

It all depends on your perspective. I expect that the buyers thought that their offer was a fair one and that you got a good deal. Buyers and sellers both want the best deal they can get, after weighing up all factors. There are lots of FTBs who don't have property to sell and simply can't afford the current prices. That is far more of a problem imo. The other 'problem' is mainly older sellers at the higher end who apparently want to sell but don't want to drop their price enough for buyers to actually be able to afford them. They haven't come to terms with the fact that the next generation down don't have the incomes or wealth to buy them.

We had to show proof of all funds too as there were competing offers on the table. The EA wanted to work out which chain would be smoothest and quickest. We hadn’t done that before. We were under offer else wouldnt have been considered.

it took us a year and two failed offers before we got ours and it is better than those so it can work out.

to improve your chances get a solicitor lined up, get your evidence of money organised and you will look like a very serious buyer - good luck

We've been looking for a little while now. When the right house comes up at the right price it's gone within days.

We live in a Victorian terrace with loads of space, but not the best area. Finding somewhere with the same amount of space for a decent price, in the areas we'd like to be in, which to be honest are nothing special, is proving to be tricky.

There are quite a few new build estates going up around here, and with not many older houses coming up in the established areas we're looking at they seem to be priced with the new builds as their competition.

We had reserved a new build but the costs just started mounting up. Part of me in hindsight thinks we should have just went through with it. Part of me still thinks it would have been too much stress on finances and lifestyle.

There are a couple of places on Rightmove I like the look of but are probably overpriced / over budget. What's the general consensus with that situation? They've been on the market a while, is it worth viewing and letting the agent know we'd be interested if the price comes down?

My advice is to get relationships with estate agents, waiting for rightmove might cost you a house, my (dream) house didn’t make it back onto Rightmove after previous sale fell through because agent knew me, knew what I wanted, called me and I got it.

the market will be quieter, now is too late to be in for Christmas, January should be busier.

As already said, it's impotant to register with EAs in your chosen area.
We did this, & received calls when a property that fitted our criteria was taken on, & before it was uploaded to RM or any other platforms.

Yes I have also always got my details registered with the agents. But only once have they sent me details of something relevant and I move a lot! But you do need to cover all bases. I will also be carding my target villages once my house is listed. Not worth doing yet though as we won’t be on the market for a few more weeks.

While we are not on the market we do have an agent that is known for selling houses before they make it to Rightmove so they are very engaged in showing us these places.

we have seen one on for £350k but this is our top budget and every room needs work as well as driveway put in which would not be viable for us unless we got it significantly under offer.