Buyers Market?

Decisions, decisions? Choice is good , right?

Surely having an Agreement In Principle from a lender in hand, a deposit in the bank and a strong motivation to buy then means being a buyer right now is pretty much the perfect buffet lunch!

But it doesn't appear to be as easy as it sounds. Think of the time you went to the restaurant with more dishes than cutlery, the sweet shop in the 1980s with the wonderful jars behind the counter or just the supermarket car park on a Sunday morning.

Choice, or should we say decision, can turn into a dilemma very quickly. So choosing the wrong meal in that restaurant is no big deal, but buying a home is, and the greater the choice the greater the deliberation.

Right now as a buyer you may have not just the current properties shown online to pick from but then you get new ones coming on to your inbox every day. After that it's the reduced stock that could be dropping into your price bracket (and its hard not to think, is there something wrong with it, why hasn't it sold,  and will it drop more??).

Finally one of the hardest and self-punishing situations is when you commit to a purchase, enter into the fun of conveyancing and surveys but still keep Rightmove alerts on your phone, its like checking your lottery numbers each week even though you stopped playing in 2010!

So what's the solution? Well it’s a mixture of the practical and the emotional.

Location is probably set pretty fair so you can use the handy map on the portals to draw your own boarders and make sure that the distance to schools, parks and stations is where you need to be.

The budget. An expert mortgage broker, will show you what the good and the bad looks like, what is comfortable and what is affordable should the dream home appear. You should then be a bit nerdy and work off of a wish list, with desires, what can be compromised and what can't. Then start to tick them off, even from the very first look on Rightmove and then start to view (take your list with you, we wont judge).

Finally there are two crucial elements that come into play, The first is the brilliant estate agent who gets to know you , what you love, and will work with you tirelessly to find you the perfect home. They will go off market and also introduce you to a property that you might not have considered. That is proper old school agency right there and sadly it’s a dying art. The next, and this is the emotional bit , is the amazing (or dreaded) feels.

That feeling you get when you walk in and it hits you, but then you look down and your have barely any ticks on your list, it feels right, it feels like home, and it feels like you're in trouble…..relax , you're not, you have just found your new home.