Buying Your Home

[paradigm]

Finding our first house was easy. We knew it wasn’t our forever home, it just had to have a few essentials (driveway for at least 2 cars, garage, be on a quiet dead-end street). We found, offered and completed within 6-months.

We started the task of looking for our forever home as a family of four in 2019. Nothing was ever quite right, then unfortunately my mother passed away in late 2021, and we took on her property, buying my brother out in mid 2022. It’s close to what we wanted, and it’s nice to have the memories of my childhood close to heart, but it’s not perfect, and will take some time and money to make it what we really wanted.

Will we move again, possibly, possibly not, it depends. It took almost three years to make the second move, and for such a small possibility of improvement (within the budget and location constraints we have), I highly doubt it will be worth it.

 

[Scort]

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.

A little over a year ago, we sold our previous place, and spent upwards of about 3 months trying to find the next - think we viewed 29 in total, had offers on 5 that were beaten, and we put in a couple of offers that were accepted; but we ended pulling after finding a few things we weren't happy with (area in one, and house in the other).

We moved this month to a new County, and even though we loved this place, we had to make a few compromises - nothing major, but owing to the odd housing market now (falling prices where we sold, and static/rising prices where we looked), coupled with my Wife's new role waiting for us to move (for 4-5 months), we just decided to go for it.

I'm sure our next move will be closer to the sea, and more aligned with our desires - but where we are now, is going to be perfectly fine for the next ~10 years I reckon; unless we get a windfall and decide to move things forward.

 

[DB_SamX]

5-6 viewings over 2 months for my first flat.

 

[The_Arbiter]

Being a first time buyer puts you ahead of the other buyers in terms of reliability and less hassle to deal with, this leverage only happens once obviously. Moving is also expensive and stressful. Point is, take your time. Do your homework on building maintenance and this will help in choosing, and will make life less stressful in the long run.

Took me 2yrs to find my first place to buy, and it was a serious stroke of luck buying it. Ended up with most boxes ticked for what i would've liked but i only expected to get one or two ticked, and i'm still amazed that it worked out so well. I wasn't being picky either, i hadn't the budget to be picky. I didn't want to extend my budget even if something came along and it was possible, but your position will differ. And therefore your timescale will vary too.

 

[mattyg]

How long is a piece if string?

Twice as long as half its length

 

[HangTime]

First house we bought we probably didn't spend enough time looking. A few weeks, viewed only 5 propertiesIi think. I'm not sure why but I don't remember viewing much online at all, it was all going into estate agents in the area we wanted to live. Seems odd because this was 2006 I'm sure there were online portals by then.

Second house was a new build, I think the laziness factor kicked in a bit here, a lot easier if you can just part exchange. We looked at 1 house that wasn't a new build, I liked it but my wife was put off by the owners being present. Shouldn't matter, but you know, house-buying and rational thinking isn't for everyone.

Since then we took things a lot slower, I looked at literally thousands of homes online and we visited 5(?) different new build developments.
When I say we took things slower, that means about 2 years and then we abandoned the idea because we needed to apply for schools so had left it too late to move.

My wife wants to go sooner rather than later because she doesn't always get along with my family (I don't either but it doesn't bother me as much as it bothers her). That being said, I don't think it's a good idea to find literally anything that we can live in, just to have our own place.

So our first house in hindsight was basically a case of we were desperate to move in together and just bought the first thing we both liked. It wasn't the best decision, the house needed some work like having a DPC put in, then the 2008 crash came so we actually lost money on that house. My advice would be similar to what someone said above, it's OK to be fussy but you will inevitably need to compromise somewhere, just get clear as a couple as to what is non-negotiable and what is a nice to have.

 

[MatsyLR]

I moved last year in February (it's feels weird that next week is the 1 year mark!) into my first home.

Took roughly 1 year of solid looking around. Did a few viewings every month.

Offered on many that where beaten. Accepted on 4, the first 3 I pulled out of quite quickly.

1st - was too far away from home after thinking about it a few days and had questionable issues (frost damage on the side wall that would only get worse due to where it was located. Was lovely inside though, had a really nice kitchen (owner was a kitchen designer)
2nd - is actually one street away from where I am now, however it was on the expensive side and a schools basketball court was joined to the back garden with the playground within earshot. After thinking I just didn't want to deal with the noise (can't hear it where I am now)
3rd - again a distance issue although the house was decent, but after a few viewings after accepting it came to my attention there was a big leak under the bath they attempted to hide. Had my dad come (surveyer) and insisted to look under the bath. Was a horror show of mold and warping. Out! Was the beat house design through.
4th - where I am now. It's the smallest of what I mostly viewed being only a 2 bed semi and one of the cheapest. However its in a decent enough place and didn't need anything done with it. Semi glad I went smaller as I'm very minimalist as it is and don't have or want "things". My cat has more than me I'm also within 10min drive from work and parents so good spot.

The only thing I dislike...is well the noise.
For the first 5 month or so peace and quiet apart from the odd bang now and again all happy, but then something changed.

Next door seem to be rearranging furnature or something every other day (no idea what they are doing) and had the smart idea to mount a soundbar to the parting wall separating our living rooms, I could hear their TV in the bathroom due to the base vibration. Already discussed multiple times about the noise and even invited them over to hear how loud it is.

They took the soundbar off the wall and TV sound isn't a problem now but they are still noisy, banging doors, cubboards and God knows what else. It's only a small house I have no idea how they can make so much noise. It's not every day but when it does happen I just get a temptation to bang back and shout the shut the f up through the wall.

Also not a massive fan of the front door not having a seperarte porch the heat just gets sucked away from upstairs and I have no way to block it off. I don't mind the cold much more of an annoyance as there is no point heating anywhere but the living room.

I will be leaving at some point and will be looking for a detached home with a porch but not in a massive hurry. Nothing has been on the market. when I've had a quick look.

Still glad I moved though, spent far too long at the parents.

 

[paradigm]

The only thing I dislike...is well the noise.
For the first 5 month or so peace and quiet apart from the odd bang now and again all happy, but then something changed.

…

I will be leaving at some point and will be looking for a detached home with a porch but not in a massive hurry. Nothing has been on the market. when I've had a quick look.

Our first was a semi, and they are both a blessing and a curse. We appreciated the fact that we only bled heat from the front and back (the detached side had no windows/doors), but the random noises from the guy next door who liked to play Golf in his integral garage was the most annoying thing ever.

The current house is detached, and massively more expensive to heat!

 

[chrismox]

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.

I don't know what area you're looking in, but in many areas supply seems to be lagging demand. In my (limited) experience, many properties never reach the websites because the agents have a list of buyers that are interested and they're snapped up. It's worth working out what local agents seem to be offering the type of property you're looking for and registering with them directly. If you're in a good position, they'll be contacting you as soon as they get new listings, often before they reach Rightmove etc.

When I last moved 8 years ago, it took me 6 months of looking before I found the house I now love. Good luck, you'll find something that grabs you eventually.

 

[Pawnless Endgame]

Stafford, 2006, so a different era really.

I looked at 3 houses. 1st house would have been around April, 3rd house in June. Fell in love with that 3rd house and put in an offer which was accepted. Then it's the 2 months of legal proceedings, waiting game, more waiting, even more waiting, exchange contracts and finally get the keys to the house. What's really annoying is that even though everything went to plan, you don't know which day you get the keys until the very day itself. So it was about 4PM on a Friday, I'm still at work, my phone rings and it's the estate agents and they were like "yeah you can pop in and collect your keys now". At 17:00, I ran from work into town so that I could grab the keys before 17:30 estate agents closing time.

This was late August, so thankfully a 3-day bank holiday weekend to help with moving stuff from my rented bedsit. Told my landlord that I was leaving which needed a month's notice. So my notice started there and then as I didn't know exactly when I was moving out to my new house due to the business of not knowing about the keys until the day itself I was able to collect them.

I still live in this house now, with a mortgage that finishes in 2031 Currently fixed at 2.79% so I'm over-paying at the moment to get as much money into the pot as I can before the fix ends. In 2006, my mortgage rate was probably more like 4.79%.

 

[cuke2u]

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.

Took us years to find our current property, we started in 2019 but ill health and covid were all delaying factors. Firstly I had an extremely enlarged prostrate, which required an operation, then I had PMR, which is when the defence mechanisms attack all of your joints and I could hardly move, took five months to diagnose and treat this. Then there was covid, and lastly, just as we were coming out of covid I had a new knee. In 2022 my partner was diagnosed with cancer, fortunately treated with a mastectomy, chemical and radiation therapy.

These kind of things slow you down a bit especially when we were looking at moving away from the south coast to either Norfolk or Lincolnshire. So viewing of several properties had to be arranged at the same time and accommodation as well.

We eventually found our current property in March of last year but it took until August to complete the conveyancing as our buyers had used a 'job's worth' two bit online conveyancing agency which resulted in various long winded debates about the private road in which the property we were selling was situated.

We finally moved in at the beginning of September into what should have been our dream house, only there was also some hiccups along the way to overcome. We've about to replace the front north facing windows, as the old ones were double glazed wooden versions and draughty.
We had planned to do both patio doors in the summer but one of them is disintegrating, so we're also having them done soon. Now we've just had to call in pest control as we're being kept awake at night by something chewing above our bedroom window reveal.
The heating is a bit manky as two radiators don't get very warm and I think there's an issue with the boiler temperature control as when it's turned up high the temperature overheat kicks in and turns it off.

Oh the joys of house ownership, but we wouldn't change it for anything. We purchased this house for £400,000, it is a very large 4 bed detached with a double garage and views of fields back and front. A garden to die for and located on the edge of a tiny Lincolnshire village, where everyone keeps themselves to themselves, as it should be.
Where we moved from this kind of property would have easily topped £800,000.
We are, despite it's 'foibles', very content.

 

[-UnderClocker-]

Thank you for sharing. It seems as though experiences vary widely. It's reassuring to read that it takes some people a while to find their home. I'm only two weeks in at this point but I'm not finding much to suit my needs. I've suddenly come to realize that perhaps my biggest barrier to owning a home is the fact that I don't know how to drive. I've spent all of my life living within TFL's Zone 2 in London. I spent the first eight years of my working life, working just ten minutes (walk) down the road from where I live. As such, I never really saw the need to own a car, as I wouldn't use it. I could (and still can) always jump on a train to get to somewhere important, relatively conveniently. My job now is around 20 miles away from where I live. But it's still just one 50 minute train ride away. Unfortunately, there is no way I can afford to buy a property here. I'm currently stuck looking for properties within a certain distance of the TFL network while not having all that much spending power. That being said, the fact that I am in a position where I can look for a home to buy at all, makes me feel quite lucky. I believe it's becoming impossible for more and more people these days, to get themselves into a position where they can buy their own home.