You are probably all wonder what happened with the house and the silence on my blog.
Unfortunately, we were out bid again on a house.
We keep missing out. We offered 15% over the asking price and still missed the mark. This was a house with no land other than a medium sized garden.
What are we going to do now? Well we will keep looking. There isnt much out there. We will keep monitoring all the websites and then hurtle off down country lanes to look at the houses.
House price are still rising so we need to act fast. Anything that is in a village or in the sticks seems to be at a premium. We are finding they are going for north of £550k add on top of that {stamp duty} to be paid to the Government and your getting into an area where it makes me feel a little sick.
Compromise. I am not sure what else we can compromise on.
A change of tactic? I think we will now look at the edge of towns. Everyone seems to want the same as us. 30 mins tops from the nearest motorway junction. Village community. Driveway parking. A small shop, a pub and if lucky a post office.
You see my desire to have a buttery coloured stone house is really messing with our buying power.
We cant get rid of the time to the motorway, that is top priority. we have already cut the number of bedrooms to 2, Posh Boy works from home so we need an office area, that he can remote in from when he is on call.
When a house is 2 beds you then lose a dining area. we have given up on a garage or an out building. Not to mention any land. And now we are giving up on village. It all feels like a compromise to far now.
I think we will end up with a house, but it wont be anything that we thought it would be. After 10 months of looking we are now jaded. Heck we are even looking in the town we are already in.
It all feels a little out of control, we will keep looking. The dream continues.
Unfortunately, we were out bid again on a house.
We keep missing out. We offered 15% over the asking price and still missed the mark. This was a house with no land other than a medium sized garden.
What are we going to do now? Well we will keep looking. There isnt much out there. We will keep monitoring all the websites and then hurtle off down country lanes to look at the houses.
House price are still rising so we need to act fast. Anything that is in a village or in the sticks seems to be at a premium. We are finding they are going for north of £550k add on top of that {stamp duty} to be paid to the Government and your getting into an area where it makes me feel a little sick.
Compromise. I am not sure what else we can compromise on.
A change of tactic? I think we will now look at the edge of towns. Everyone seems to want the same as us. 30 mins tops from the nearest motorway junction. Village community. Driveway parking. A small shop, a pub and if lucky a post office.
You see my desire to have a buttery coloured stone house is really messing with our buying power.
We cant get rid of the time to the motorway, that is top priority. we have already cut the number of bedrooms to 2, Posh Boy works from home so we need an office area, that he can remote in from when he is on call.
When a house is 2 beds you then lose a dining area. we have given up on a garage or an out building. Not to mention any land. And now we are giving up on village. It all feels like a compromise to far now.
I think we will end up with a house, but it wont be anything that we thought it would be. After 10 months of looking we are now jaded. Heck we are even looking in the town we are already in.
It all feels a little out of control, we will keep looking. The dream continues.
17 comments:
How frustrating for you Sol. Don't suppose you would consider Ireland? There are some incredible cheap properties over here with land. Daft.ie is very good.
Don't give up Sol.
We rented/house hunted for three years, moving further and further away from civilisation and still had compromises to make. The market is supposed to be cooling. It will happen. Eventually.
Hey Dave, I dont know about work for Posh Boy in Ireland. we both still have another 30+ years we have to work.
Hey Jessica, the market around here is anything but cooling. I think if anything we are bidding against people who maybe are older and are retiring or people looking for 2nd homes. Our major competition are horse people. Life is compromise, whilst we are waiting for the dream we have to live right now. So we will buy a house and continue to look. it will all come good, we just have to wait
It must be really frustrating and galling that you have to keep compromising and compromising again over what you originally wanted. I hope you get lucky soon.
Awww - I'm so sorry to hear that. At 15% over asking I'm surprised.
Do you have Gumtree (online general sales site) in the UK? If so, why not post an ad (stating your "top" requirements) asking anyone who is thinking of selling their house to please contact you first...
It's worth a try?
After travelling +/- 3000kms over 3 weekends looking at properties and then, in desparation, searching the internet (for 2 solid weeks - 8 hours a day) resulted in our finding our smallholding - we thought it was going to be impossible given our very limited budget.
That's a bummer, Sol. It's all very well saying "keep it up" which, of course you must, but you'll be feeling a heavy weight inside at the disappointment, and that's not so easy to ignore.
Until you get there you'll be being sent oodles of good wishes from this quarter, as well as from many others I'm sure.
Hey Nick, I was told it is a dream which means it isnt real and doesnt exist. lol *le sigh* it would seem we just dont have enough money...
Dani I hadnt thought about Gumtree, we have a little sign in the 2 nearest countrywide stores. I think your ads are a great idea. Thanks for that! As for the 15% over, the people who bought it are horsey people who have horeses in livery near by. They are semi-retiring from London. More money than us.
Ray it makes me feel sick. the hope, then you start designing how it could all look, then the wait. then the NO, then the disappointment. its like a crazy cycle. it is all because I dont want to move again after this. when I really didnt care about houses it just happens. This has more feeling behind it all.
Thanks Ray and everyone else for your thoughts. it really is special that people care enough to comment. Its very touching.
That IS a bummer. I don't know anyone who has bought recently, but I highly doubt 15% over the sale price is what's happening here.
Condo with a garden for all? Does that exist?
Hey Susie, I am getting fed up with it all now.
I'm so sorry. You must feel really demoralised by it all. Keep looking, hang in there. I am sure the right place will come up. I hope so, anyway! xx
Hey Gillian, like you said something will come along
So sorry you didn't get the house, hang on in there x
Hey Chickpea, we will continue to look. For sure there is something out there for us. Thanks for your comment.
Gosh, prices sound eye-watering in your neck of the woods. Seriously scary stuff. Sounds like the only possibility of getting what you want at an acceptable price is going to be in a completely different area of the country. Is that a possibility?
(£550k would buy you something far closer to what you dream of in Newton Abbot, for example. And it has a mainline train station, and is 15 mins drive from the M5!)
Hi Caroline, I would love to move to Devon and Cornwall but the jobs petter out at Bath for the Mr.
the problem here is, and dare I say it, we are fighting people who have sold up in London and want a country house. we cant compete with someone who sold a one bed basement flat for £650k. And horsey people, they go over and above if there is land. On the M4 the houses within a comfortable hours drive or train to London are at a premium.
Oxford, Witney, down to Didcot and then east along the M4 are very expensive. the thought makes me shrivel of the money people spend on houses.
It will all come good. there is a house out there for us. We just have to wait for the right one.
thanks for your comment. Everyone has been lovely about it all.
Only just found this post. I thought we'd never do it, in the end we moved area a bit and were just lucky that a house came up that was poorly advertised and went to sealed bids that put people off. WE're trying to find my brother a house at the moment and it's tricky to say the least as he has much the same criteria as you!
hey Kev it is hard we are going to start looking again in March. good luck to your Brother!
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