• Visitors can check out the Forum FAQ by clicking this link. You have to register before you can post: click the REGISTER link above to proceed. To start viewing messages, select the forum that you want to visit from the selection below. View our Forum Privacy Policy.
  • Want to receive the latest contracting news and advice straight to your inbox? Sign up to the ContractorUK newsletter here. Every sign up will also be entered into a draw to WIN £100 Amazon vouchers!

How long did it take you to find your first home?

Collapse
X
  •  
  • Filter
  • Time
  • Show
Clear All
new posts

    How long did it take you to find your first home?

    So having got the wedding out of the way, we've been looking for our first home. We've got a decent deposit, a mortgage AIP (thanks Ben @ Power Mortgages) and afford to pay up to £250k (strictly speaking, based on what we can borrow we could go up to £275k but on a worse mortgage deal and it would be really stretching things a bit too much, not to mention the extra stamp duty).

    When I started looking on Rightmove around 6 months ago in the area we are looking (Chelmsford/Billericay) this would have given us loads of choice. Now it seems to be slim pickings, with fewer new houses coming on the market, prices slowly creeping up and buyer competition going crazy.

    I think we've seen about 17 houses so far. We saw one last week that we came very close to making an offer on (it was a weird, period cottage that had been extended and done up to a very high standard) but its location and potential issues over construction put off us in the end.

    I've just arranged a viewing for a property we're both really enthusiastic about - I'm fairly confident we'll make an offer on it. That's if we even get a look in - 15 other people due to view on Wednesday evening besides me, with a second "viewing event" scheduled for Saturday morning. I've been advised to put an offer in on Wednesday with best and finals being taken on Saturday afternoon.

    3 bedroom semi-detached house for sale in Mountbatten Way, Chelmsford, CM1

    I can just see us viewing this, confirming how much we like it, putting in an offer and being beaten by a cash buyer willing to take the extra stamp duty hit. And I expect we'll find ourselves in the same position every time a half decent property comes on the market around there. We've been to places that have had 20+ people view on the same day. Everybody suddenly feeling flush or the market flooded with buyers with 5% deposits using the Help To Buy scheme? I'm wondering why we bothered saving up for a 20% deposit...

    Is it normal to take so long to find somewhere decent?

    #2
    Originally posted by TheCyclingProgrammer View Post
    Is it normal to take so long to find somewhere decent?
    Its hardly a normal market is it? Tories have decided that the solution to the credit crunch is more credit.

    Comment


      #3
      look at the ceilings not the decor! If you look at true room size & location there are always bargains to be had.

      a house can be right despite the look.

      Good luck, ours was the 4th we looked at, a couple of months.
      Always forgive your enemies; nothing annoys them so much.

      Comment


        #4
        A long time since we bought a house, but I do remember seeing loads that looked great when we weren't really looking (in the local paper in those days!), but when you actually started looking at them, there was something you didn't like. In the end we ended up compromising, as I think most people do.

        Comment


          #5
          Got married, moved into her parents' council house while looking for a job. (The parents had moved out by this time). Got a job in Newcastle, found a flat we liked, rented it. After six months had saved enough for some furniture, so moved into an unfurnished flat for another six months while we looked for a house. Found a small mid-terrace we liked, for £23'000 and bought it. Moved around many times since then, getting first time buyer discounts on the grounds that we tended to move into rented first, then look around.

          I think the only time it took us longer than a few weeks (in the UK) to find a house we liked was in 1999. It was three months before we found one she liked.

          It took us three years to find our current house in Switzerland, since the housing market is relatively small and doesn't move very much.
          Down with racism. Long live miscegenation!

          Comment


            #6
            It's easy to find a place you like, just set the filter on zoopla to twice your budget...
            While you're waiting, read the free novel we sent you. It's a Spanish story about a guy named 'Manual.'

            Comment


              #7
              Is a silly market at the moment, my sister has just sold a 3 bed in Springfield, Chelmsford: 2 viewings before it went on the market, 3 viewings the day after it appeared on Right Move & sold for £5k more than asking price, £10k over was offered by couple B but sister felt they were risky & so settled on the £5k uplift from couple A.

              & there is nothing special about the property; it’s not a bad house, but it does needs double glazing to rear ground floor & only has 1 wc, but is all sound beyond that
              Growing old is mandatory
              Growing up is optional

              Comment


                #8
                First 2 houses I bought, I hadn't looked at many before buying. This time round 15 or so.

                Next time will be a self build.
                "Ask not what you can do for your country. Ask what's for lunch." - Orson Welles

                Norrahe's blog

                Comment


                  #9
                  We brought last year. It was quite difficult as we were trying to stay under the 250K stamp duty level, but wanted a minimum 3 bed semi in greater London (Not asking for much eh!)
                  Eventually after seeing nearly 20 properties and none meeting our minimum criteria we had to bit the bullet and take the stamp duty hit, by going up another 10K we finally got something we quite happy with, even though we still had to make some compromises.

                  All the best with your search, hope you find something your happy with.

                  Comment


                    #10
                    Bought 1st property in London in 1995 (2 bed garden flat) for about £55K - I sold that for a massive profit a few years ago, by then I had paid it off, tax free profit on primary residence.
                    Bought a further 4 flats as BTLs (deposit only), by sinking every penny of my contracting earnings, in the boom time of the 90s/early 00s. Sold those for large capital gains albeit the taxman took his chunk.
                    I shudder to look at the housing market now, I was lucky enough to live and profit from the easiest housing market ever, due to good luck in timing.
                    Hard Brexit now!
                    #prayfornodeal

                    Comment

                    Working...
                    X