Property buying support thread

[HinzKunz]

Anyone interested in a buying support thread? There’s a few selling ones but we’ve sold already but I’m finding the search process no easier than selling.
There’s not much coming to the market despite agents pretending there will be an autumn rush before Xmas. At the same time rates are going up which is scary.
if you’re hoping to buy how is it going?

My rental is working out ok so far. It’s a tiny studio flat but it’s safe, warm, and most importantly the cat has really taken to it. Definitely don’t want to be here longer than necessary though.

I’m doing a viewing on Saturday. 10% over my absolute max price limit but the EA said to have a look anyway. It does seem overpriced so I guess I can wait in the wings should the vendor decide to drop, I doubt they will at this point as apparently they have already dropped the price and this is the new price. I think it’s been off-market the whole time as I can’t see anything anywhere about it being listed before.

@GoldTieSounds promising. Market has changed and I know when we were selling, getting any offer was a bonus, plus its winter and offers are going to be scarce. So they may bend.

Ive gone from conveyancing on a purchase to pulling out and now we have seen another property on which I will get a viewing tomorrow. All in a matter of 4 days. Ive gone all business like zero emotion and being blunt with facts. Im not interested in how pretty the garden or kitchen is, I want to know the paperwork is sound and where the vendor is going. The property is oiro, its 15k over priced so thats my starting position and possibly end. If they dont accept Im leaving the offer on the table and walking away. We are now cash no chain and personally im not in the mood for bs. We like it but I know something else will come on in jan and as we are out renting, we'll wait.

I know what you mean about moving to emotionless. I’ve offered on one so far, which went way over asking price, and then almost on the other that had damp and possible structural issues. I’ve viewed about 12 in the last 3 months. I’ve had to detach myself emotionally from my old house (which I loved but I dislike the area, and the house itself had a lot of issues) and just move on into this limbo.

The house I’m viewing on Saturday is an impractical Georgian house, in the sense of maintenance of enormous single glazed windows, and the roof looks very old. I’ll have a look though as there is not any other houses that look close to what I’m after (which is just a standard Victorian terrace, but there are none available that don’t need a complete overhaul).

Yes to paperwork being sound, I accepted quite a few dodgy things with my last house and regretted it. I’m hoping after the budget a few more listings will go up but I don’t think it will really make an impact, so New Year it is.

I have an offer in at the moment and anxiously waiting. There was already an offer on the flat so we have offered 5k over asking! Its a retirement flat for my mum and it will solve a lot of worry - its perfect 😬

@frenella hope you had some good news?

@2longinthetooth how was the viewing?

@HinzKunzviewing is saturday, they have kids so they are doing weekends only. Fair enough.

Anyone found anything good. So the house viewing on saturday is cancelled. Looking at the area more closely, there are enviroment issues as in open cast mine causing air pollution. Fucking crazy. Saw a house today on same estate as me its a reno, thought yeah we could do that, looked at it council tax band is wrong so that will be bumped up, they did it to us a few yrs ago because someone complained about us. Inevitable it will happen there. Houses on at the moment are crap. Rang solicitor advised to give us the money on completion we will wait til next yr. What a load of ole shit.

Oh no! That’s a shame!!

maybe taking a break and focussing on getting the right rental is the right way forward?

it’s exhausting and the market is very confusing atm.

hopefully after a rest you’ll feel ready for the spring market.

ive all but given up for this year. Nothing new on worth noting for 2 weeks now.

there have been a couple of threads on hear mentioning conveyancers going out of business and today I heard of an agent locally closing. I wonder if this is a sign of things to come… 😢

@HinzKunz yes you are right, we have made peace with the fact nothing is likely to come on the market before xmas. We will still lurk but not aggressively look. For now it feels like closure which is nice, rang around about rentals and people have been very sypathetic and kind and said they will be able to accomodate us so that gives me reassurance. We went out tonight for dinner and its a break from seeing the boxes and whats still left to do for tues.
As for EA and solicitors going under its inevitable, i did mention it to dh. If EA are consistantly over pricing their stock, the likelihood is that it sits there, its not real, people dont have the money for mortgages. Plus what we found when selling is people no longer put in cheeky offers, yrs ago that was a thing.
If solicitors are taking twice as long to conveyance compounded with the decrease in sales, what money are they making. Yrs ago 8 weeks max conveyancing was complete and that was for a chain, today 16 weeks. So thats a loss of 1 fee. Crazy times.

I’m seeing 4 houses tomorrow. I don’t have high hopes of any of them but feel all information is good to have. One is way out of my budget, two back on to an alleyway which I don’t like security-wise and the other is just a bit meh for location and has a garden which is horribly overlooked by a building which I can’t quite see but doesn’t look great.

@GoldTiethis is it, whats left on the market is not great. Every house we have seen has major flaws. We dont mind doing the work but living by a potential illegal dumping ground for toxic waste is a stretch too far. Plus knowing too much can hinder searches. I suppose this goes with experience. Yrs ago I bought blindly, didnt really look at the risks. Bought a house with zero planning for a loft conversion. Wouldn't do that today, yes it turned out ok but foolish. No house is perfect but you dont want to inherit a lemon.
There was a lovely bungalow by me but on viewing the neighbours were right on top of you, they had even cut their fence down. When we were walking around the garden, they were sitting in the conservatory watching us. We could see right into their home. Yes we could have put up a 6ft fence but we didnt fancy getting into a war with neighbours. Its still up for sale. EA said oh you could put up a bit of trellis 🤣. Plus it needed 50k of work. Its a nightmare.

Yes, all the ones I’m seeing today have been on the market for a while, except one. One compromise I can handle but everything is coming with 2 or 3 almost deal breakers, which is too much. I’ve been looking at all the sold houses in the area on rightmove to see if I’m being unrealistic and tbf there aren’t many there I would have bought either.

I’m going to hold out though until at least end of January for something I’m more happy with. Another area might come up that I haven’t yet considered that could be a bit cheaper and just as good, in other ways. Or prices might drop enough that more comes into range.

The illegal dumping ground is worse than the issues I’ve been balking at!

@GoldTieGood luck with viewings. We've knocked it on the head fir this yr. Have a look at the ones with the alleys it maybe over come with a secure fence, last house had an alley that we started conveyancing. House was on an estate, looked clean and obv just used for cutting thro dog walking. No graffiti. I know what you mean tho, its not ideal. Dont compromise just because its a house. There will be loads more houses on next yr.

We didn't get the flat for my mum that we offered on 😓 😩
There was another offer already made a while ago apparently and, that offer had just had an offer on their place so both were accepted. Its still a chain though and we are ready to make the move, funds in place...so something could still falter and go in our favour I guess!

Am I right in thinking that an accepted offer does not mean a 'done deal' or am I wishful thinking 🤔 🙃

@frenella thats odd, you,d think they would have gone with the cash, that is guarenteed. Chains collapse, mortages are not granted etc anything can happen. Watch this space. The survey is the biggie.

Im in a somber mood tonight, we have been busy all day packing and sorting, rels have been over. For those who are already in rental do you now regret selling your home or was it the right decision and this is just a blip. It seems like no matter hiw hard we try and compromise to find an onward home, it has been twarthed. Sometimes i wonder if the universe is saying to me what the hell have you done.

@GoldTie how were the houses irl?

@frenella what a shame!! Also odd that they went with the chain rather than cash buyer. They may still come back to you!

@2longinthetooth I’m sorry to hear you are feeling down. If I’m honest I do miss our old house. I would recommend finding the nicest rental you can get. I often think of the house when I look at something in the rental that annoys me (many things do which isn’t ideal 😂!).

I miss it but I know we had to move. I’m grateful I got to live in that house for as long as I did.

I’ve been in a rental for a month. I had an absolute meltdown in the week of leaving my old house thinking what the hell have i done. The feeling settled down once I was actually in the rental. Do get somewhere reasonably nice though. I don’t regret it as I feel I’ve come close now a few times to finding a nice house in a much better area than I am currently in, which was most of the point of doing this.

The houses today. One is a bit meh but better than I thought, but at this point I don’t want to make an offer on it. Other 2 were uninspiring and I really didn’t like the alley they backed on to. Last one was a higher than my price range one, which I absolutely loved. I’ve asked the EA a couple of questions though on it before I make an offer, as it looks like it has a roof issue.

So odd. Maybe they felt they should honour the original agreement even though your offer was better. Still might come back to you again, yes.

@GoldTie aw promising for the overpriced 1. What is the issue with the roof, full replace or just fix. I was snooping on rightmove and saw a lovely house, great flow but down side, no central heating. It had this 80,s air duct heating. plus needs about 60k of work. Shame.

So glad everyone has settled in rental and im sure I will to, I rented for yrs so its not that, its me getting frustrated with all the packing, organising and uncertainty. I want a night off 😂. Had a right cry fest this morning. My poor dh.

Yes the unpacking, uncertainty, and the stress of it is really a lot. I ended up being off work with stress for a couple of days as I was crying all the time. I was fine once I was in the rental!

The roof, I don’t know. The ceiling has been patched a few times recently in the bedroom, there are borehole marks and repainting. Problem is it’s a Victorian / Georgian house with a weird roof where there is no actual loft space. So who knows what is going on between the tiles and the ceiling. I just don’t have the funds, even if they drop to cover price of a new roof, to then pay for any other more serious issues with rotting beams or whatever once the roof tiles come off. So I’ll probably let this one go unless I’m told something very convincing about how they have fixed it.

Not the result we were hoping for. Saw a new build property on RightMove that was the right price and looked good in theory, but OMG we went to the development, which is part of a larger development we have been keeping an eye on since early spring this year, and did we get a reality check!

the property is built on a very (and I mean VERY!) steep sloping ground, as it drops down to the Severn estuary. It's a lovely area, which is why we're keen to stay here, but the developer has had to put 8 steps up from the house and patio to the garden area. So effectively you'd be sitting on the patio and all you'd see is a 2-3 metre brick wall, with no visibility of your garden because it's above your head!

so disappointing - the advert calls it your "Sanctuary" - ha! Caveat emptor, let the buyer beware of that one!

Developers are desperate to sell the properties, they've knocked about £30,000 off the asking price, which is pretty rare, but shows they're really struggling to sell. Also we were able to look from the upstairs windows right the way along at all the gardens of the other plots so zero privacy on any of them. all the fences were on such a huge slope our first thought was subsidence! Talk about intense housing. God knows how they've managed to get that through planning permissions.

we have a few options at the bottom of the development on the level ground, which are due for release in spring / summer 2027 so we're now in the dilemma, do we keep our house in the market (at a reduced price) to try and secure a buyer or withdraw next week and relaunch in spring as a new property at reduced price. We will definitely be getting a rigorous survey done, not one commissioned by the developer, to know any potential flood risk. They've built attenuation ponds in several areas, so that could be sufficient, who knows.

we're keen on new build because we've done with reno's and living in a building site, we just want to have respite from all that. There are always compromises though, either flood risk, lack of additional healthcare provision to cater to hundreds of new families moving in, traffic noise etc, no perfect solution.

@GoldTie sound judgement, it cost us 18k for a roof with a gable and that was back in 2009. As you say, if the roof had just come to the end of its life fine but its obv leaked and god knows how the joists look. If you can see the problem then the job will always cost double because of what you can see.

Alot of house buying is assessing the smallest risks and costs. There is only 1 property on rightmove that we absolutely loved but sure as eggs so did others and it sold within 24hrs, we hadnt even had a offer on ours at the time, absolutely gutted. Its still on there sstc, just hoping it falls thro, it wont and dh says it just wasnt meant to be.

@daisychain01 oh the good ole new builds 😂. Careful what you wish for. We saw a stunning new build, thought great lets view. Omfg, as we drove into the estate, bearing in mind half of these houses are yet to be built, there were loads of kids on scooters, people who had bought the 2 beds obv had very little outdoor space. 1 house had a sofa just outside their front door and people were sitting out chatting, drinking and vaping with the kids running round. We view the house which was stunning but the area geez. That put us right off.

There is another development and houses are on for a higher price but its right along side a major river which has known to flood, its on a flood plain but they have done the same as you said. Im a bit like with climate change getting worse do i want to take the risk of that, plus we live in wales and it rains alot, we have started seeing lots more areas flooding that never did. The developer has said they have put in systems to drain the water away but systems fail as we saw in our local village and they were flooded out. Devastating. Then who would insure us. Like you say buyer beware. My old dad said never buy a house by a body of water, i never have. At this rate we will be buying a tent in a field 😂.

I don’t think the ‘good’ houses are even making it to rightmove in the area I am looking. They all spend about a month off-market before Rightmove so about a third are bought at that point. I’m firmly in all the estate agents minds though now, so I’m in the off-market zone. Never imagined it would be this hard!

Last week I vaguely considered a new build in an area I could no way afford normally. It has just been reduced by over 10%. Problem is it’s a 1 bed, and they are using the photos of the 2 bed, so totally misleading. I think from the floor plan it would be too much of a compromise.