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?

What do you write on the cards as what is something I could be interested in replicating?

A lot of agents probably wouldn't let you view as you're not proceedable. I've never had it happen to me but it's common, I think.

It is VERY unlikely an offer accepted now would have a completed sale if there's a chain. It might be possible with chain-free purchase but even then it's probably taking 12+ weeks.

I usually just put an honest description of what I am looking for.

So my name, that I am looking to buy in the village for x reason and if they have any thoughts of selling here is my name and email address.

I have also put messages on village social media pages to the same effect.

It doesn’t necessarily mean anyone will contact me direct (I’m not trying to avoid an agent) but it might give someone that is thinking of marketing the push to actually list. Some of our local agents also card certain areas when they have waiting buyers too.

When I last moved it was a sellers market and you had to be proceedable to get a viewing. At the moment around here agents will let anyone view as otherwise no-one can view anything as it is quiet. There are incomplete chains all over.

I get what you are saying but in the past I had an offer lower than 65% off the asking price (that's a third off for those who struggle with the maths as I sometimes do). After all, you take the time to clean/tidy the house and show someone round and then you get a ridiculous offer. Might add that this particular couple visited my house 3 times, each visit over an hour - I had young kids at the time who had to be taken to grandparents on each visit. Personally I found that insulting - complete timewasters. Not everyone is desperate to sell; if they can't get what they consider is a "fair" price on their property, they may decide a move isn't worthwhile. I'm hoping that the autumn budget will have a positive impact on the housing market and not the negative one that many people are expecting.

Yes same here.

I’m in no rush to sell and don’t have to so I want a sensible offer

'I'm hoping that the autumn budget will have a positive impact on the housing market and not the negative one that many people are expecting'

It depends on what you call positive. If you mean, measures to encourage people to move and right size in terms of property or measures to put a gradual downwards pressure on house prices so that people can afford to buy in the future, eg gradually reducing mortgage multiples and terms, that would indeed be positive. Obviously, the latter is not going to happen, as they have just done the exact opposite! I'm certainly not naive enough to expect the UK government to try to reduce house prices, as they have spent the last 30 years doing the exact opposite but reducing SDLT gradually while imposing LVT in proportion to value on all properties would help. There was another thread on this recently.

Again, what is a fair price is all about perspective. Of course, you get some buyers and sellers who are total time wasters. It's irritating for everyone when people mess around.

I am one of those people who now has a smaller household and I'd love to downsize, but where to? I live in what was a village a just decade ago and where the population has increased more than 3-fold - thousands of new homes but nearly all 4 or more bedrooms, no single layered houses for older people and very few 'affordable' homes. (Always promised by developers, never delivered). The last time the housing market was this slow, the Government introduced a break from stamp duty - absolute disaster; sellers simply increased their prices by adding the equivalent amount of stamp duty and prices went up dramatically. The threatened increase in tax on properties over £500,000 won't make people in larger homes move. Some won't be able to afford moving costs because of it! Even if they can afford it, what will they down-size to? A positive impact for me would be to leave things be and not interfere with the market (which will improve a little when people are no longer worried about the unknown) and build more affordable housing in the right places. When 30 year olds can get on the housing market instead of renting or still living with Mum & Dad, things will start to move again. Reducing mortgages? Not sure about that one; I lived through a time when it was 15% interest rate and a lot of people lost their homes because of it.

The reference to living through times where rates were 15% has been debunked as relevant so many times. Rates were 15% when you could buy houses on one salary. People are now having to borrow high multiples of two salaries with massive deposits to be able to buy. It’s not comparable.

@KateCookson
I agree that there is an mis match between what is being built and what people want. The developers don't care, of course, as they are only interested in lots of £££. Unfortunately, at the moment, developers have massively scaled back building because they can see that house prices are falling and they are struggling to sell their stock. The government could make changes to improve this but no one them have as yet.
I also agree that brief periods of tax cuts and arbitrary cut off levels distort the market and simply cause more problems. Introducing higher levels of tax on more expensive homes (instead of 1991 based council tax), especially if the costs of moving were reduced. would encourage people to try to down size.
It is possible that people may feel a little better once they have certainty but, equally, with taxes inevitably rising more and the cost of food and energy continuing to rise plus stagnation here and a recession looming, they might not! Unless some action is taken to change policy, ie reducing credit available slowly, those 30 year olds, 20 year olds, etc will not be able to move out of mum and dad's house and will continue to be less likely to afford their own homes.

Agree, but someone has to live in the big expensive houses - adding higher tax will make them more difficult to sell, so even less likely those currently living in them on their own or in a couple after the kids have left home will be able to downsize. I think the Government has got to step in and start to make developers build smaller houses or bungalows on every new estate and certainly make sure they are included in the new towns. And it is ridiculously expensive to sell, especially when estate agents take a 1-2% cut; a massive amount on any house over £500,000. Hardly encouraging for anyone wanting to downsize.

Fair enough, although thousands lost their homes during that period. We were on decent (but not huge) salaries and still needed both to get a mortgage. Might also say that my endowment mortgage which promised to pay off with a nice lump sum, was in deficit by £30,000 at the end of it's 25 years. That was b...y tough!

Another sneaky thing is the new estate charge so you have to pay council tax and the extra charge which could keep going up.

also the big 5 bed homes don’t seem that big itms and the downstairs is quite small in some 4 beds with too many bathrooms. Nowhere to put wardrobes. Not that many cupboards in kitchens and not deep enough for plates up top.

I agree the building suitable homes section, although the government wouldn't be able to force developers to do this, unless they promised them subsidies from tax payers, as they are all about profit. The government could consider a government building program. There are also changes that could be made wrt the land.
I agree that increasing taxes in proportion to value would lower the prices of the more expensive homes. That's a good thing though as they are totally out of kilter with incomes. Most of the owners are older and will already have made an excellent profit over the decades. Given that, the costs of moving (I assume you mean buying as well as selling) are relatively small, particularly if SDLT was permanently reduced or replaced. In the end, it's often a choice between moving into a home that suits your needs better when you are still fit enough to move, probably releasing funds or (likely) struggling more as you age when managing a large home and garden becomes too much and leaving your DC to deal with everything.

Lucky children! Can't believe the number of moans I hear about "having to sort out parents homes"