H
HoraceSilver
Guest
Hi All,
Firstly, I want to thank everyone for some of the priceless info in dealing with Auctioneers and first time buying etc, I’ve spent the last few days going through a number of these posts and there’s some brilliant and very useful info.
Apologies if most of these queries have been covered in previous threads, but I couldn’t find one with any up to date info on how people are finding the first time buyers market right now.
I’d like to ask some advice from you all concerning my own situation. Myself & my partner have been renting for the last number of years, and are now in the position to buy for the first time. We have mortgage approval, and have been viewing houses since November of last year. Two houses have come up in the market in the last few weeks, both of which we love. The first(and from reading a lot of the posts, it seems like we completely went about it the wrong way) house, we went in way too keen initially I think, in that it had only been on the market a few days, we viewed it and two days later offered the asking price. EA said he’d get back to us. A week later, he said another offer had come in of the asking price again(surely this should make no difference), but in our naivety and eagerness to get the house, we went another 5K up(I can hear a number of you already shouting “You did WHAT???!!”). Again, he said he’d get back to us, then came back that same afternoon with the news that the offer was now at 10k more than the asking price, so we bowed out.
The second house unfortunately is with the same EA. We viewed this house just a few days ago. He showed us round, but made absolutely no mention of the previous house we viewed, so neither did we. Both houses seem to have been priced low(even with prices the way they are) I think to get people interested. It definitely worked with us! But what we’re hearing from other EA’s is that they’re busy showing lots of people around houses, but nobody is buying. This EA is telling us something completely different! I find it hard to believe that the first house we looked at went up 10K over the asking price in the space of one week, and we’re now afraid to go in so eager with this next one. We are planning on waiting another 2 weeks before asking for a 2nd viewing, and then waiting again to see what the EA comes back with.
Whats most frustrating is that everyone we know who we’ve been talking to has a different opinion on what way to handle things. We have our budget, we know what we can afford. We also know what we want in a house, and the ones we’re looking at would have been unthinkable 4 or 5 years ago for people on our wages. But it’s the waiting. And waiting. And more waiting. This is the most important and expensive purchase of our lives, and from reading some of the excellent guides on this site, the whole negotiation nearly reads like the script of a play. The EA says this, so we have to say that, then they’ll do this, so you can do that and so on. At the moment, I don’t really know what to do, or what (if any) game the EA is playing. All I’m reading at the moment is how prices are constantly falling and there’s a dwindling pool of first time buyers, so I find it hard to believe that the EA’s would be playing the same games they apparently played during the boom. Again, maybe I’m being monumentally naïve in all of this as it’s our first time, but it’s getting to the stage where we’re getting that many different opinions from different people, we honestly don’t know what to think or what to do next!
Our first attempt at buying looks like it’s back fired, and now we’re faced with the same EA but a different house.
Your thoughts/suggestions would be most appreciated.
Firstly, I want to thank everyone for some of the priceless info in dealing with Auctioneers and first time buying etc, I’ve spent the last few days going through a number of these posts and there’s some brilliant and very useful info.
Apologies if most of these queries have been covered in previous threads, but I couldn’t find one with any up to date info on how people are finding the first time buyers market right now.
I’d like to ask some advice from you all concerning my own situation. Myself & my partner have been renting for the last number of years, and are now in the position to buy for the first time. We have mortgage approval, and have been viewing houses since November of last year. Two houses have come up in the market in the last few weeks, both of which we love. The first(and from reading a lot of the posts, it seems like we completely went about it the wrong way) house, we went in way too keen initially I think, in that it had only been on the market a few days, we viewed it and two days later offered the asking price. EA said he’d get back to us. A week later, he said another offer had come in of the asking price again(surely this should make no difference), but in our naivety and eagerness to get the house, we went another 5K up(I can hear a number of you already shouting “You did WHAT???!!”). Again, he said he’d get back to us, then came back that same afternoon with the news that the offer was now at 10k more than the asking price, so we bowed out.
The second house unfortunately is with the same EA. We viewed this house just a few days ago. He showed us round, but made absolutely no mention of the previous house we viewed, so neither did we. Both houses seem to have been priced low(even with prices the way they are) I think to get people interested. It definitely worked with us! But what we’re hearing from other EA’s is that they’re busy showing lots of people around houses, but nobody is buying. This EA is telling us something completely different! I find it hard to believe that the first house we looked at went up 10K over the asking price in the space of one week, and we’re now afraid to go in so eager with this next one. We are planning on waiting another 2 weeks before asking for a 2nd viewing, and then waiting again to see what the EA comes back with.
Whats most frustrating is that everyone we know who we’ve been talking to has a different opinion on what way to handle things. We have our budget, we know what we can afford. We also know what we want in a house, and the ones we’re looking at would have been unthinkable 4 or 5 years ago for people on our wages. But it’s the waiting. And waiting. And more waiting. This is the most important and expensive purchase of our lives, and from reading some of the excellent guides on this site, the whole negotiation nearly reads like the script of a play. The EA says this, so we have to say that, then they’ll do this, so you can do that and so on. At the moment, I don’t really know what to do, or what (if any) game the EA is playing. All I’m reading at the moment is how prices are constantly falling and there’s a dwindling pool of first time buyers, so I find it hard to believe that the EA’s would be playing the same games they apparently played during the boom. Again, maybe I’m being monumentally naïve in all of this as it’s our first time, but it’s getting to the stage where we’re getting that many different opinions from different people, we honestly don’t know what to think or what to do next!
Our first attempt at buying looks like it’s back fired, and now we’re faced with the same EA but a different house.
Your thoughts/suggestions would be most appreciated.
Last edited by a moderator: