Anyone struggling to buy a property even with funding?

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flibbage0

Soldato
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Strange situation but has anyone tried recently buying a property? I'm trying to jump onto the property ladder as a first time buyer, mortgage in principle and all. But every time I go for a property and try to either book a viewing I get the response of either sorry sir 35 viewings have been booked (even though the property has been up less than 8 hours.)

Or they're buying it without even viewing! If I manage to get a viewing and put an offer in I have been beaten by cash buyer on 4 separate occasions, each time I've put an offer over the asking price.

Anyone experiencing a similar situation?
 
Not going through it personally but heard on the tv (can't remember what show, was background noise) that some sellers have so many potential viewers that they are being very selective over which offers they will consider. Apparently first time buyers were seen negatively as they cause too much hassle with buyer survey concerns :confused:

Always thought being a first time buyer was a positive due to no chain but everything property wise just seems mental at the moment.

Your location obviously has way too much demand, perhaps widen the search.
 
It’s been like this for years on and off.

You should be a reasonably strong position as a buyer with no chain. Just setup alerts on right move and call the agents the moment something new is posted.
 
If it helps I am in the same boat. Offered 817500 on a house that was 760000 and got told they are going with a lower offer from a chain free buyer.

Play on the fact you are chain free... alerts on RightMove etc..
 
dLockers said:
If it helps I am in the same boat. Offered 817500 on a house that was 760000 and got told they are going with a lower offer from a chain free buyer.

Play on the fact you are chain free... alerts on RightMove etc..
Click to expand...

Crikey. I am not sure I could stomach paying nearly 60K over asking price simply out of principal!

I phoned around the estate agents and simply advised that I was on holiday for one week and wanted to buy a place by the end of the week - view anytime - this was as a FTB.
 
Just got to hang in there, keep saving and the bigger deposit the more desirable you are. As said FTB means no chain too.

I tried to buy a flat for my FTB, ended up with a doer upper house instead as it was impossible to get a flat with the instant sales they do. Extended my budget rather a lot. Saw one place come up in the morning, it was sold by noon. Lots of the rubbish or short lease flats have hung around by no surprise.

Sure as hell i'm not moving for a long time. Not a stressful experience, it was just hassle, and the companies involved are just poop.
 
Yep, been in this position for almost 3 years now.

I'm a cash buyer and I don't need to sell my current property yet I've only managed to view 3 houses. Everything's snapped up instantly, either without a viewing or before the property's even listed on the property websites. Don't mind paying over the asking price to get what I want but I'm not spending the sort of money it takes to buy a house without viewing it first.

Pretty sure people trying to escape cities to move down to Cornwall during COVID was the start of this but it's not really improved or stopped.
 
Completed on a house in Feb as a first time buyer. Saw a lot of properties go up for sale only to be told they'd already sold it. Lots of others taking limited viewings simply because they'd already had so many and knew there'd be offers.

House down my mums road was sold within 48 hours with about a 20% increase to initial asking.

We became friendly with the estate agents, asked them to let us know of anything coming up etc, and a few times had them contact us whilst the paperwork was still getting done, so we were in before even the For Sale sign was up.
 
Buy to let vultures are stealing FTB-type homes from the market, and their liquidity advantage means they win the head to heads.

Honestly, this is end game stuff right now. Birth rate is falling off a cliff thanks to this sort of ****.
 
Unseul said:
We became friendly with the estate agents, asked them to let us know of anything coming up etc, and a few times had them contact us whilst the paperwork was still getting done, so we were in before even the For Sale sign was up.
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This was my situation, make yourself known and friendly, keep on at them in a good way and not as a nuisance - available at a drop of a hat.

One of my first jobs was a rental/estate agent a couple of decades ago and whilst the market has changed tenfold; one thing I learned, customers who show they are keen, known to the agent, and genuine (irrespective of budget) will be positioned as a strong bet to the vendor.
 
Been trying to buy for roughly a year.
Many many viewings but there's always loads of other people and get into a bidding war to a point where its not worth it anymore. Even when offers are accepted something comes up during the process that is a deal breaker or the seller pulls out.

The most recent one was the most ideal house I had found so far 3 bed detached with garage, decent area pretty much new inside and ethernet sockets all over. I offered asking price (don't even bother going below) with a 50% deposit so I thought I was in a better position than most and I was the first viewing/first offer. But then someone came in and offered full cash later in the day so the seller went with them. It wasn't even on the market for a day. Really miffed about it still, hoping they pull out as I'm first reserve.
 
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It’s been the same round here since before we got our first house 16 years ago and it was ridiculous last year when we were looking to move. No viewing unless you were ‘proceed-able’ or on the market and sold or a cash buyer. Everything was going 20% over asking to cash buyers it was nuts we ended up keeping our old house as a buy to let even though we didn’t want to just so we could be a no chain buyer and then we eventually got a house we really wanted.
 
dLockers said:
If it helps I am in the same boat. Offered 817500 on a house that was 760000 and got told they are going with a lower offer from a chain free buyer.

Play on the fact you are chain free... alerts on RightMove etc..
Click to expand...

We encountered issues by having an offer, over asking price, accepted!

The house was listed for £760k, we ended up getting in to a bidding war which we won at £806k. It came to the bank survey, and the surveyor ended up valuing the property at £740k, as such the bank were only prepared to loan based on those figures and not on the £806k agreed sale price.

We ended up having to enter a re-negotiation with the vendor, and ended up settling at £775k - that £35k over valuation figure had to be paid directly out of our left over capital / renovation fund rather than stuck on the mortgage which was/is a pain!
 
PermaChanged said:
We encountered issues by having an offer, over asking price, accepted!

The house was listed for £760k, we ended up getting in to a bidding war which we won at £806k. It came to the bank survey, and the surveyor ended up valuing the property at £740k, as such the bank were only prepared to loan based on those figures and not on the £806k agreed sale price.

We ended up having to enter a re-negotiation with the vendor, and ended up settling at £775k - that £35k over valuation figure had to be paid directly out of our left over capital / renovation fund rather than stuck on the mortgage which was/is a pain!
Click to expand...
Yeah possibly the situation I was in too. Estate agents weren't forthcoming on much feedback after all was said and done.
 
House prices grew at the fastest annual pace for more than 17 years in March despite the cost of living crisis, according to Nationwide.

Annual growth in house prices hit 14.3% in February, the mortgage lender said, the strongest pace since November 2004.

The cost of a typical UK home reached a new record high of £265,312, rising £33,000 in the past year, it said.
.......
.......
In recent months, there has been a shortage of homes on the market to match demand, which has pushed up asking prices.

Gabriella Dickens, senior UK economist at Pantheon Macroeconomics, said that the housing market was going from "strength to strength" but that March "probably marks the peak for house price growth".

"For starters, mortgage rates look set to rise further in the coming months," she said.

"In addition, we expect housing demand to be hit by a sharp drop in households' real disposable incomes."

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-60938262
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£33k in a year! The average house earns more annually than the average worker :eek:
 
On the flip side my sister is buying a house as a first time buyer and to be honest they were just looking to keep afloat of the market etc and noticed a house that had been up for a few months. Decided to punt at it for below asking and got it 10k cheaper. House is part of an estate so it needs the usual redecorating/floors and kitchen doing at some point but its not a wreck as far as houses of that nature can be. Its in an average area for our city.
 
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