Hi Sweeties,
Man, I am a stressed and emotional bunny right now (send hugs & chocolate!)
In life the three most stressful things you can do are: buying a house, getting married, and I’m going to probably take a guess with having children… as I am not yet engaged (emphasis on the yet) or with child I am going to talk about buying houses…. Or not as so far is the case.
As you’ll be well aware, Ian and I are searching for our dream pad, actually that’s a lie, we have found some houses that could easily have become our dream pad but unfortunately, so has everyone else and they have succeeded. Currently we are searching for House D as so far we have lost out on House A, B & C to other people for varying reasons. I remain hopeful (although this is sometimes a challenge) that we find and get an offer accepted before we get to House Z otherwise we’ll have run out of letters of the alphabet!
Let’s just get one thing very straight, now is the most stupidest time to try and buy a house. The market is totally in favour of sellers who are putting their houses up for sale and on for money that is in most cases way over their actual value. The really stupid thing is that people are paying these stupid prices. One of the core reasons this is the case is because of the Government’s Help to Buy Scheme which has allowed first timers to approach buying their first house with only a 5% deposit. Aside from the fact that this has now clogged the market of buyers all going for a limited amount of properties, I actually do think this is a good scheme as it gives people more options and owing to how house-buying obsessed we are in the UK, the opportunity to do so has been opened up to more (younger) people.
Buying your first house is an incredibly exciting prospect and undertaking but my golly is it stressful, I am now even crying at property programmes (yes, really)! It’s been unfortunate that after each submitted offer we have had to wait a while to find out the outcome so for days (even weeks in one case) you just find yourself glued to the phone waiting for that precious phone call for it to just never happen.
Kirstie and Phil have a lot to answer for, I have watched hours and hours of Location, Location, Location and they make purchasing a house look so simple. Participants get the searching done for them, shown a core selection, take a second viewing of the one(s) they like, decide which one they want and over a coffee or a pint their offer is submitted and in most cases, accepted shortly after. In the market currently, getting a viewing is a challenge, having a selection to choose from is unlikely owing to the previous point and a second viewing is definitely not a possibility, you need to decide fast! You’ll also be probably one of several putting an offer on the table and the sellers either selfishly hold out for more, take ages to decide or (understandably) choose the people in the best position. Call me strange, but that isn’t always the people who are actually in the best position. Saying that, Location Location Location is a cracking programme and as soon as applications open for the next series I am first in the queue!
The next thing I am going to put out there, Sweeties is that Estate Agents are complete shits! Without offending anyone (although I appreciate I might have just done so) that’s all I will say on the matter. If you are in the same situation as me then you will know exactly what I mean and if you are an Estate Agent reading this then you will also know exactly what I mean and realise that you and your colleagues have a lot to prove to a vast majority of the nation (*shakes fist*).
So why am I trying to buy a house in what I have deemed to be the most stupid time to try and do so? Well, if it was up to me I wouldn’t, a woman would not have planned it this way but now I’m in amongst it, Boyfriend and I have to keep going and hope that before we get to Z we have found the house that has in fact, been waiting for us all along.
Until next time Sweeties x
