HousingUpdate...
Thanks to you all for your helpful and sympathetic comments - I'm sorry I didn't reply individually/sooner - I went back up norf to see mum and dad this weekend, to try and clear my head and get back my positive feeling. I really do appreaciate all the comments though - they give me more to think about :)
We've come back to London to more bad news housing wise, we drove past the house we'd moved on to looking at on the way back, as we wanted to see the area at night - and when we got there, the house had a 'sale agreed' sign on it. So another one bites the dust. It's so frustrating and disappointing at the same time.
Frustrating because the estate agents don't seem to want to keep their websites up to date, so we're left looking at places like they are still available only to find out they're not. Disappointing because, well, because this will be such a big investment I need to have enough of an emotional reaction to a house to want to investigate it further, and therefore, when it doesn't come through, I have an emotional reaction to that too.
As a first time buyer it's also hard to know who we are supposed to turn to for help. I had this image that the estate agents not only assisted the vendors, but took buyers details and desires as well and helped you stay abreast of what was coming on to the market that met your criteria. We haven't been able to establish any dialogue with an agent at all - not even so much as a bounce-back email off most :\ They don't return our messages, don't let us know if the properties we've expressed an interest in are taken or not and basically we feel like we're alone in this.
We will keep at it though -and we'll keep saving and hoping that we'll be in the right place at the right time for the house that's meant to be ours. It's just taking a lot of effort to keep my chin up and fingers crossed.
We've come back to London to more bad news housing wise, we drove past the house we'd moved on to looking at on the way back, as we wanted to see the area at night - and when we got there, the house had a 'sale agreed' sign on it. So another one bites the dust. It's so frustrating and disappointing at the same time.
Frustrating because the estate agents don't seem to want to keep their websites up to date, so we're left looking at places like they are still available only to find out they're not. Disappointing because, well, because this will be such a big investment I need to have enough of an emotional reaction to a house to want to investigate it further, and therefore, when it doesn't come through, I have an emotional reaction to that too.
As a first time buyer it's also hard to know who we are supposed to turn to for help. I had this image that the estate agents not only assisted the vendors, but took buyers details and desires as well and helped you stay abreast of what was coming on to the market that met your criteria. We haven't been able to establish any dialogue with an agent at all - not even so much as a bounce-back email off most :\ They don't return our messages, don't let us know if the properties we've expressed an interest in are taken or not and basically we feel like we're alone in this.
We will keep at it though -and we'll keep saving and hoping that we'll be in the right place at the right time for the house that's meant to be ours. It's just taking a lot of effort to keep my chin up and fingers crossed.