Can’t find a house to buy

[Owlsandeagles]

We had an offer accepted on our house over a month ago and still can’t find a house to buy.

Where we live the pricing gap between 3 bed semi and ‘next size up’ 4 bed detached is nearly £200k, which we just can’t afford.
We’re even considering other 3 bed semi’s, 4 bed semi’s but because the price gap is just so big no one is putting this size house on the market.

It’s just insane, and really depressing! If I’d have known we’d be stuck in this house when we bought it 10 years ago we probably would have stretched ourselves and got something bigger back then!

We can’t rent as we have a low mortgage rate that we need to port.

This is so ridiculous!!!

Take 25yrs and just plan to repay before. I am taking a 25yr mortgage out now and i’m 49. Ideally I wanted 18yrs max to take me to retirement but repayments would have been a big stretch as single income and a 300k mortgage. I have plans to increase income and possibly an inheritance at some point (but no guarantees) so do plan to clear before retirement, but my final fall back is I get a large enough lump sum at retirement to clear it, or I can keep paying mortgage in retirement as i’ll also have a good monthly payment. I just had to complete a form to say i’d be working beyond 70.

We've never been able to move up from a 3 bed mid terrace, to an end of terrace, semi-detatched, detatched, or any sort of 4 bedroom anything in the area we live in, despite career progression and salary increases. So we sucked it up. Now we're in our 60s and looking to downsize. Looks like I'll never experience a spare bedroom or utility room, poor old me.

Won’t your kids move out?

They will but we'll downsize as soon as they do. We're early 60s and were old when we had them so atm they're recent post-grads and returners to the nest. My point was actually that house price inflation has affected home owners too, and that actually you can live well in a 3 bed terrace in the UK compared to probably 95% of the world's population.

If you’re desperate for a spare room… why not just stay where you are? Mortgage free or near enough?

how long ago did you buy this property?

We are in much the same position, 4 bed interwar terrace and want to go to a 4 bed detached in an area about 3 miles away where the housing stock is mostly 70’s/80’s. Ours sold in 3 weeks and there is very little new coming on the market in our range, we have a good budget. I know family homes don’t change hands as much, but literally nothing - really hoping the bank holiday weekend see’s a bit of activity.

Quite a bit on the market that’s been on the market for ages - all very optimistically priced and/or has issues that we could live with, but not at a premium price (poorly maintained private road, lacks building regs for loft conversion, lovely view that is likely to go for a new development, probate and needs a complete overhaul etc etc). We’ve had conversations with agents on a couple at what we feel is a reasonable price and they’ve been shut down, but the properties are still on the market months later and the vendor unwilling to budge.

Very frustrating, “if it’s meant to be it’ll happen” is a well used phrase at the moment!

Quite. We had an offer £25k below asking price for no real reason beyond it was what the buyers fancied paying for it. Flat out no. We sold 2 weeks later for the asking price. Don't know why they bothered.

Since when has @LindorDoubleChoc said they are 'desperate' for a spare room?

The way I read it was that @LindorDoubleChoc hasn't been able to move to a larger property in previous times, due to life circumstances and actually has a very healthy and magnanimous attitude, by saying they are now downsizing and are in a more fortunate position than so many others. I'd say that's the opposite of being desperate, it's being content and accepting of where they are in life.

eek

i wasn’t going deep!

On the basis of them having zero justification for taking £25K off your price, you did the right thing. There are a lot of chancers around, who think they can just throw an offer at the wall and see if it sticks.

i once sold a property and on day of exchange the purchaser told us unless you drop the price by £10K we're pulling out. Chancers. We held firm, they had invested in solicitor fees and survey just like us, so they had just as much to lose as us, The price was the price.

Surely you could see what properties were on the market when you went on? You only had the offer a month ago, how is this such a surprise? You cannot afford what you want in the area you want it in. Hardly an unusual scenario

What happened? They caved?

Goodness are you Hassell by name and Hassle by nature? I didn't think I posted anything too hard to understand.

OP - what I'm saying is that you can't afford a bigger house. It's not uncommon, especially when the market has been rising crazily for decades. People seem to think that prices will fall quite considerably, quite soon (I'm not entirely sure I agree but I live - by chance - in a desirable area) so why not wait for a year or two? Prices falling generally benefit those moving up.

Nice one! 😆

To be honest my point is it’s crazy how few houses are coming to the market, whether it be an upsize of ours or same size. There’s literally barely anything which is depressing. We’d move to a house same size as ours but on a better road, but there’s nothing coming up!
It’s not a surprise, just frustrating!!

All that comes to market are houses that are ridiculously priced or in terrible condition or both! And they hang around for ages! Our estate agent said one is coming on in the next few weeks £50k over the agents valuation as that’s what the vendors think it’s worth. madness….

Well to state the obvious you need more money and/or to look at cheaper areas.
Your post is basically an entitled “why isn’t the world the way I want it to be?” post.

That’s just your area. Look elsewhere.

This

You’ve had an offer and want to move from the house where you live on a main road, but can’t find a suitable house, hence your thread. So, no, you haven’t sold. Or am I missing something?

You have 3 options

• stay where you are
• move to somewhere slightly out of your ideal area
• put a cheeky offer in one you like and hope for the best

i wouldn’t want to loose that rate at the moment, especially with all the uncertainty.

@Owlsandeagles write a list of must haves and nice to haves and not important. View lots of properties even if you aren’t sure about them on screen.
your lists may change through this process but it will help you find the best option for you now.
then offer what you believe it’s worth and would be happy to pay.
I’d also suggest you broaden your search to styles or locations you aren’t considering.

MN post of the week. Nothing within 3mile radius 😂

How long did it take to find your buyer? Are they putting any pressure on you?

Your previous comment was we need to think about a realistic asking price for ours…. But we’ve already accepted an offer on our house so we don’t need to think about an asking price.

To be fair they’re not putting any pressure on us at all. We sold within a week.
It’s just a frustrating position to be in.

Have they progressed a survey or anything legal?