Comment: Forget Brexit, bidding wars are happening regardless of political uncertainty
Back-to-back viewings can stir up a sense of urgency among buyers. Picture: Getty Images/iStockphoto - Credit: Getty Images/iStockphoto
Forget Brexit – the local property market is booming, at least where houses I want to buy are concerned.
Yes, while some homes are hanging around for months and having huge chunks shaved off their asking prices, others - the ones I like - are being snapped up within 48 hours of their first viewing.
The writing was on the lovely, perfectly plastered wall for us this weekend, as our tour of what turned out to be absolutely everyone's dream home overlapped with two of the dozen or so other interested parties. One of them muttered about the living space being a bit on the small side and the other was in and out in five minutes, but that could all have been tactics. It's a game, after all, albeit a very expensive, stressful and unenjoyable one.
Having no idea of what was to come, we spent the rest of the weekend dithering over how to proceed. There wasn't as much space as we ideally wanted - maybe we could convert the loft? And the price seemed a good deal higher than the last similarly-sized home to sell on the road - perhaps they'd accept an offer? It seemed, briefly, as if there were loads of options. Apart from, as it turned out, there were none.
By the time we spoke to the estate agent on Monday morning there were already two offers on the table, one of which was from a chain-free buyer.
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When he called back a little later, having presumably reached the end of his list of weekend viewers, it was to tell us that there was no need to make an offer after all - only those coming from chain-free buyers would be considered. The dreaded sealed bids were also mentioned.
Having been caught up in a similar scenario with our last house move, I'm familiar with the emotions it stirs - and, thanks to being renters, we ended up winning that one. This time, with a house still to sell, we were out at the first hurdle.
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If there's one silver lining to all of this it's that, Brexit or no Brexit, people are still prepared to pull out all the stops to buy the 'right' house. It's just a shame their right house is the same as mine.
