Hi everyone. Just wondering how long it took those of you who own a home, to actually find it?
I recently started looking to buy my first home. Just last Saturday I got myself a mortgage in principle. I've spent this week looking around and thus far, I have found just one property that I was genuinely interested in buying. However it turned out to be sold already. As of right now, I have set up alerts via a few websites for certain properties and my plan is to wait and see what, if anything pops up. But I wonder how long it could actually take. I find myself feeling a kind of pressure to find and buy something as soon as possible, because who knows what direction the housing market will go in the next few weeks and months. I'm keen to hear others experience.
Finding a house for sale - easy.
Finding a house for sale you like - more difficult.
Finding a house for sale that ticks all the boxes - nigh on impossible.
Finding a home for sale that you don't want to leave - impossible!
From my own experience i seem to think that it took me a few months to find the house im in just now but that's more from the point of view that there wasn't a huge number of houses for sale in my price range at the time. I do remember that I'd viewed one 'villa' previously, I saw this place and i had a viewing arranged for a top floor flat which was cancelled in the end as I was set on putting an offer in for this place.
Depending on your situation will probably determine how quickly you want to move? Is it just yourself looking or are you with a partner / family? Are you living at home now or in rented / shared accommodation? (you don't have to answer either of these questions but it may help in deciding what you're looking for)
Quantifying the statements up top for my situation made the decision quite easy for me as I was just looking to get my own place and i wanted to be relatively comfortable financially so i bought a 2 bed place below my top budget at the time. It's nothing fancy, just an ex council house but the area is nice enough with a mixture of young and old / families most are privately owned but some still in the housing associations ownership. No real dramas, fine enough neighbours and I've got my own wee garden to sit out in. All in all it suits me fine but I'm under no illusion that this will be my final house. I have got plans for finding a plot of land in the countryside and drawing up my own plans for a house so as of this month I'll be saving up for that since I've paid off the mortgage on this place.
Taking sentiment out of the equation simplifies decision making because if you're looking for your ideal home then you might get frustrated very quickly and I don't think many people walked into an estate agents with a wad of cash and bought their dream home right from the word go. I also wouldn't get too hung up on where the housing market will go cos that's depressing enough as it is. When the market is good, the house prices increase and you can't afford to buy, when the market goes down, prices go down but banks don't want to lend as freely!
If you can find a place that meets your needs e.g space (possibly with room for expansion), location (work, friends, family) and it's not in a complete dump it'll more than likely give you a bit more leverage to getting your next house and climb the property ladder as your situation develops.