10 Tips So You Don’t Miss Out On Your Perfect Place
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by Stephanie Evans
- 01/05/2022
- 10, Home
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Anyone who’s trying to buy a property at the moment knows how it feels to keep missing out on homes you’ve got your heart set on.
That’s why we’ll be sharing with you tips and advice on how to not miss out on finding and securing your perfect place in a fast pace market.
Tip 1 – Change your home search habits
There’s a quote by Albert Einstein which says…
“The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result. “
So take a step back from constantly scrolling on Zoopla and Rightmove and begin to drill down into the detail of your home search.
Talk to friends and family or better still someone that hardly knows you and ask them to challenge you on what it is you’re looking for, why you’re looking for this and why you think you keep missing out on homes.
This will help you gain clarity on aspects of your search and help you make tiny changes to your home search habits to bring about big results.
Doing this alone isn’t easy, so find someone who can help you take off the road to insanity and on a new and exciting journey.
It may be that properties in your budget are always going for £20K higher than the advertise price. Consider adjusting your search and setting your upper limit a little lower. This gives you the ability to make a strong offer when the property goes to best and final bids and gives you a better chance of securing the property.
Tip 2- Make friends with uncertainty
You’ve a picture in your mind of your perfect place, right?
Every time you find a home you tell yourself this is the one and when it isn’t then you feel a huge sense of disappointment. Seeds of uncertainty plague your thoughts and you begin to believe you’ll never find the right property.
Accepting the uncertainty that is an intrinsic part of the home buying process and feeling at ease with this, will begin to open your mind to opportunities that you may have previously dismissed.
This doesn’t mean it’s going to be easy but making friends with uncertainty will help and allow you to explore possibilities that you’ve previously overlooked at they didn’t fit within your previous fixed mindset.
Tip 3 – Realise when you’re trying too hard
We’ve all been there, we want something so much that we over think things, putting so much effort into what we want but it just doesn’t seem to be going your way.
The frustration builds, you try harder, and the outcome is even worse.
Being able to recognise when you’re in this place is a skill, and like any skill it needs practice for it to be effective.
Next time you find your frustration building as you hunt for your new home, and you get the sense you can’t try any harder. Remind yourself it’s time to pause, take a breath, calm your mind, and get yourself in a better place mentally.
Pressing the pause button like this, whether it be for a minute, a day, a week or longer can help give you some headspace to make clear, well considered decisions that will get you where you want to be.
Tip 4 – Believe you will find your perfect place
When you’re constantly missing out on homes it’s flippin hard.
You begin to question what you’re doing and why.
Its time to unleash your inner Ted Lasso and BELIEVE.
By exploring this feeling and regrouping your thoughts will bring you a new openness to possibilities.
Adopting this openness and acceptance of where you find yourself will mean you’ll begin to consider homes that previously you wouldn’t have.
Think, are you fixed on a specific location and then ask yourself why? Is it driven by being close to family, maybe its school catchments or could it be it a village or even specific house that you’ve always dreamed of living in.
By reconnecting with the reasons that have driven you to want to move, can help open your mind to possibilities that you haven’t previously explored.
It could provoke conversations with loved ones around child-care, allowing you to seek clarity on schools and what they can offer and digging deeper as to why that village holds so much attraction for you.
Reconnecting with why you’re moving can lead you to look beyond the boundaries you’ve set. Reigniting your belief that the right place is out there for you, albeit it may be a little different than the picture you originally had in your mind.
Tip 5- Find the right toolkit to help you through
Finding a home, securing that home, moving into your new perfect place- it all has its challenges.
Accepting that this is going to take you out of your comfort zone, that you will need support and that you will need to make decisions you’re not familiar with is something you’re going to need to get your head round.
That’s why finding the right toolkit to get you through is key.
What this toolkit looks like will be unique to you and your own personal circumstances, whether its tweaking your morning routine by getting up ahead of the family to take your morning coffee in the garden, listening to the birds and giving yourself a moment of peace and calm to set yourself up for the day, it could be practicing taking 3 deep breaths before taking a call from the estate agents on a home you’ve got your heart set on, or getting advice from a financial advisor as you’re search switches to a new build home and you’re unsure whether things are different when you buy a new build home (which in case you were wondering, they are)
Equipping yourself with the right help, advice and support mechanisms will set you well on the way to securing your new perfect place.
Tip 6 – Talk to Strangers
When was the last time you spoke to someone you didn’t know?
Whether you’re someone who chats merrily to a stranger in a queue, or it takes all your resolve to say a cheery hello as you pass-by on the pavement. Interaction with our fellow humans however brief is scientifically proven to have significant positive effects on our anxiety levels. We’ve become accustomed to communicating in an online manner, mistaking this as be equally as beneficial as in-person interaction.
So why not try switching an online enquiry for picking up the telephone and speaking to an estate agent about the home you’re seeking and see how introducing these small, regular changes to the way you search for your new home will help you feel happier and less anxious.
Gradually increasing your exposure to speaking to strangers will put you back into the driving seat to find your perfect place.
Tip 7 – Explore the choices available to you
It’s not unusual to feel the pressure of having to find a new home and find it now. This feeling intensifies the minute you accept an offer on your own home.
Reminding yourself that your move is your choice will help reduce this intensity. Even when the circumstances for your move have come about because of something you have little control over. You have choices as to what you do next, some may be ones you aren’t comfortable making, for example temporarily moving in with family whilst you improve your deposit so you can buy a home that better suits your needs or opening your search area to explore new locations you may have previously dismissed.
Reminding yourself that you are in control and adopting a mindset that helps you explore the choices available to you will help you find your new home.
Changing your mindset isn’t always easy, this article by Dr Julie Smith has so great advice and is worth checking out – https://doctorjuliesmith.com/how-to-change-your-mindset/
Tip 8 – It’s ok to kiss a few frogs
Switching your time from scrolling online to getting out and seeing homes in person will transform your search.
We’ve all heard of the all-important feeling haven’t we. Unfortunately you can’t get that ‘feeling’ from a search online.
Coupling this approach with a shift in your mindset from ‘this is going to be the one’ to ‘I’m going to see what this home has to offer me’ will mean you will see some homes that absolutely don’t suit you, but by kissing these frogs means you’ll be better informed, more receptive and in a better place to secure the right home for you when it presents itself to you.
Tip 9 – Rewrite the narrative in your head
Feeling like you don’t have enough time is dreadful and not something many of us are comfortable with.
Your anxiety levels hit the roof, your ability to make clear, well considered decisions goes out the window.
Whether your childhood bedroom in your parent’s home has now become your living and workspace making you desperate to get your own place. Or maybe you have a buyer for your house that wants to be in “as soon as possible”, it’s worth reminding yourself buying a home takes time.
Try replacing the narrative in your head, rather than thinking “I don’t have time” switch this narrative to “I have sufficient time to make the right decision for me”
Couple this with positive action, why not try taking your daily dog walk down a street or in a location where you’d really like to live. Combine this with tip 6 and take the time to chat with a stranger in the street.
This could lead to opportunities you never anticipated and put you back in control of your time and in turn your search.
Tip 10 – Visulise yourself in your new home
Tip 10 – Visulise yourself in your new homeToday is the last in our series in ensuring you don’t miss out on your perfect place.
There will be times in your home moving adventure that the challenges will get to you.
By shifting your energy and focusing on where you want to be will help you, we know this may sounds a little off the wall but visualisation can really help. Paint that picture in your mind of you turning the key on the lock and stepping into your wonderful new home.
Give it a try, you’ll be surprised how effective it will be.
Now its time for you to take bacl control of your home search and and put these no cost tips into action to find your perfect place.
Until next time.
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