Has anyone bought a house in the last few weeks?

[HeadFairy]

I haven't bought a house for 12 years and then it was a very different market, it was the start of the upturn and you had to get offers in really quickly and often had to react really fast. We're just starting to look for a new house and I was hoping things weren't so frantic and the slowdown would mean we could take a bit more time and consider things a bit more objectively. Is that the case? And were the estate agents falling over themselves to help you?

WE are just starting to look for a house and agents ARE falling over themselves - letting slip stuff about putting in much lower offers, being honest (I think) about no-one else being interested - just desperate to get a sale. More bargains by the month for quite some time to come too I'd wager. So you are in a great position for buying - selling is another matter of course.

Yeah, sadly we do have a flat to sell as well, but hopefully as we're moving up the housing scale from a flat to a house although we should lose proportionately the same, in real terms we'll gain a little I think. Fingers crossed. I only asked about the estate agents because while browsing rightmove yesterday I clicked "send me more details" on a couple of properties and got home to four messages from estate agents on the answer machine! All within about two hours of me requesting details! I know things are tough for them, I'm really hoping that translates in to better service for buyers and sellers. I hated that breathless rush to put in an offer before someone else did last time we bought.

We've been browsing right move for ages and a lot of great places have been on there for months so think you can breathe out unless very unlucky.

Good luck with selling the flat - we have one too but have inherited half my mum's house which we hope we've sold this week - exchanged finally yesterday - but for enormous amount less than originally valued. Still we are lucky to have the cash in these times (although would rather have my mum).

I've been surprised by estate agents really. We're first time buyers with 50% deposit and mortgage in place. I've phoned a few places up who have tried the usual 'oh well you won't get much for that amount' line. (Our budget is pretty good and I'm not being at all unrealistic.) Only one estate agent has actively pursued us and has shown us about 7 properties that meet our criteria. It makes me laugh at the others who are still acting like the market is in their favour. But it's also sad because I know I can't just ignore them or we'll only see a small percentage of the houses which are on the market.

Normajean, I'm terrified of what the estate agent will value our place at. At the peak in Aug 2007 it was worth about £475K but I'm thinking nearer £350 now. I have £20K in savings and another £30k in some money from my great aunt's will coming to us so we're looking around £400-£450 in South West London. It's going to be a stretch but I'm hoping the slowness of the market will help us, no snap decisions, the chance to bargain down a bit.

I'm very surprised blameitonthebogey that you got such a crap response. You'd think they'd all be leaping after your business. On a slight side note, a friend of mine test drove a car the other day and the salesman was practically running after him as he drove away offering incentives for him to buy. I thought estate agents would be similarly helpful, although sadly I don't think they'd be able to offer interest free credit and a free cd changer

On the bright side, the one estate agent who was interested in us told us we could realistically offer 500 on a particular 700 house in south west london and it would be accepted...

I suppose that's the bright side I have to hope for. If I lost 20% on a £300k property that would be £60k lost, but on a £450k property the same 20% would be 90k, so in theory we'd be £30k up, but it doesn't feel like it.

Most estate agents aren't responding at the moment to buyer because they don't know what to do with themselves.
The vendors who they work for are expecting the price the agent gave them a few months ago (and lets face it that prices was no doubt a bit inflated to win the business), when the buyers are coming in with lower offers, perfectly reasonably these EA's who have basically been order takers rather than sales people for the past 8 years have no idea how to handle it.
In the past they'd get the vendor to come down a bit and the buyer to come up, but when the Building society is being conservative and the vendor is mortgaged up to the eye balls what can they do it's stale mate.
I think some of them would rather not do the viewing and get the offers and have the hard work/headache, but then they will be out of business soon.
It's time to seperate the men from the boys

Do you speak from experience ohbollox? It does seem that the next year will sort the men from the boys as you say.