Having no luck finding a house. How does everyone else go about looking?

[needahouse]

We've been looking for a house for 3 or 4 weeks now and getting nowhere fast. TBH I don't think we are going about looking the right way. One of our problems is actually getting to see the properties. A typical example is this:

We see 4 houses on RightMove that look OK, at 4 different Estate Agents, on a Monday, and ring to ask to view tomorrow.

House 1 is already under offer.
House 2 we can't see until Saturday (EA not available, not us)
House 3 we can see Thursday
House 4 we can see tomorrow

We go to see House 4. It's OK but we aren't sure. We need to see the others. House 3 isn't quite what we wanted. On Friday the EA rings to say House 2 has been sold. We decide that perhaps House 4 was the one after all and call to make an offer. Someone else has offered and been accepted. We don't like house 3 on further reflection.

We've had several houses sold out from under us like this, but so far haven't yet seen a house that either ticks all our boxes or makes us feel "this is home".

How does everyone else do this, because our way isn't working? I'm sure I've overlooked houses that with hindsight would have been ok, and not even looked at them.

Ok. For a start if you haven't already done it, load property bee on your computer. It allows you to see how long houses have been on the market, what they were originally priced at, any price decreases etc. It's a great (free) tool.
Secondly, if you like a house and the EA says they can't make it until much later in the week I would drop a note through the door, explain you would love to see the house sooner and leave your phone number. Don't knock, you don't want to scare the owners!
Thirdly, don't discount a house because of a few dodgy photos. There was one aspect of our house in the details that put dh off so much he didn't even want to view it. Luckily he has a stubborn wife and I went to see it and loved the house, dragged him to see it, he also loved it and now (after renovation) we have a wonderful new home.
Ignore decoration, it's easy to fix, also look carefully at the floor plan, could rooms be knocked together to make the layout that you want (eg family kitchen diner?) Finally, keep your ears open in the playground, mention you are looking to anyone who will listen and you may find somebody has a friend who is thinking about selling.
HTH Good luck

We have been looking for somewhere to rent for 3 months now , every time i phone up the property has either gone or its just being viewed, its really frustrating.

Sorry but 3-4 weeks isn't that long to look ! Are you in a proceedable position ie. under offer/cash buyer ? Any pressure to buy ? ime you really need to meet the EAs, explain your position and have them ready to tip you off about anything suitable as it comes on to the market or if a deal falls through. Remember they are after quick deals with minimal effort.

Thanks for that thing about the property bee, ADuckCalledBill. That's extremely useful information!

Yep, definitely agree with getting registered with all the EAs.

Also I think you're right about probably overlooking houses. The house we've had an offer accepted on (please please let the sale go through!) looks very odd from the outside and the pics on rightmove didn't do it justice at all. My husband only went to see it because he was looking at another one in the next street. But he came back and said he wanted me to see it, we went together and it just felt right - it doesn't tick all our boxes but we are so excited about it! We saw several houses that did tick all our boxes, but we just knew they weren't 'our house'. So I would say go and see houses that you might not have initially -obviously not if they have deal-breaker problems - but you might just find something you never knew you wanted!

Actually it reminds me of wedding dress shopping - I went in with a clear idea of what I wanted, tried some on and ended up with something completely different (that I loved!).

Good luck!

Meant to say we registered with the EAs first. The only one regularly ringing us with new properties is too far away. I've also already got the propertybee.

We have a buyer for our house and it's all going through. We expect to complete on the sale by the middle of next month. We are renting ATM so we aren't in a mad rush except that I need to register DS for school this autumn for Sept 2011 start.

We had hoped to buy in the area where we are renting but there is nothing in our price range (and hasn't been since we got our buyer).

I'm pleased to hear that 3-4 weeks isn't long actually, it's driving us demented.

You need to register with all the local agents - mindnumbingly tedious though it is - and tell them you have a mortgage agreed or are cash buyers, so when new stuff comes up you're the ones who get phoned first.

Also when you look at one house ask to see any others nearby that might tick your boxes - then they can show you round any that just came on that day and see what sort of things are pleasing you/not acceptable.

Last time we arranged to look at 4 'serious' houses one Saturday, plus 9 others to fill in time, which helped us decide what was vital to us, and went back to the two leaders. It helped that we cared about location, number of rooms, and as much space as possible for our budget, all things the EA could easily assess, and not at all about decor or style.

You're not doing anything wrong. The right house will wait for you. You just haven't found it yet. It's a lot of money and you're probably going to live there for a long time so it needs to be right.

We're moving next week. It took us two years. Looked at loads of houses but either they weren't right or we got pipped at the post. New house is right for us in every respect. Hopefully it was worth the wait!

We spent most of last year house-hunting. It can be hugely frustrating - OTOH I quite miss it (we did find our nice house in the end) because I just adore noseying around houses

It isn't "selling out from under you" if a house gets sold while you're interested in it - it's just what happens. Give yourselves more time and you'll get a feel for it all. And probably sooner or later you will walk into a house and think "I love it!" and be in a position to make an offer immediately. After endless faffing and things falling through etc. last year, we finally bought our house very fast just three days after it went on the market and moved soon after. It's a matter of waiting for the right thing and then moving decisively when you are sure.

If you have a specific area in mind, have you thought about putting a short note through doors on a couple of streets saying that you are looking to buy a house and are in a position to move soon? This happened on our street and resulted in a sale which actually didn't involve estate agents. People might be about to put their house on the market and you might spur them on. I know it's paper-related which will wind some people up, but it's not like you're going to do it every week. Good luck.

Just wanted to agree with PPs that 3-4 weeks is a very short time. Think 6 months minimum. We found ours through RightMove because we were changing area, we looked at plenty of awful ones before finding ours.

Also, the more you look at online and then see in reality, the easier it will be to spot dodgy photos and see past them. The more properties you've been in, the more quickly you'll know "this is it" when you get through the door of the right one!

It's out there, somewhere...good luck