How to house hunt

The nostalgia of your Rightmove search history, waiting for 'the one', and some simple but practical tips

Potential dream house

In each town or city I’ve ever lived, I’ve always found my ‘dream houses’. The homes I stumble upon on a walk or a drive or a bus ride and then forever more - or as long as I continue to live there - become part of an elaborate fantasy that begins “When I make it really big/win the lottery/marry rich… (jk on that last point, that’s never been my style).

I am always house hunting, even when I have no intention of actually moving.

When I lived in LA I had many dream homes, the architecture being so rich and varied. I had my eyes on large Craftsman houses in Pasadena, spotted on the drive to my kids’ (now burned down) school; bougie-boho-rustic bungalows (it’s a thing, surely) nestled in Beachwood Canyon under the Hollywood sign, discovered when I’d drive up to visit my then brother-in-law; brightly painted clapboard cottages in Venice Beach, when we’d take the kids for an ice-cream and to oggle the body builders on the beach; and of course the occasional clifftop Malibu mansion, spied in the distance from the non-private part of the beach where us plebs had to stay.

In New York where I went to high school for a bit, there was a huge old loft in the Meatpacking District (it was the mid-nineties before Gucci, Apple, and Prada set up shop there); in Boston where I went to uni, my night-time bike rides home from studying in a coffee shop found me my grand townhouse on Commonwealth Avenue; in Texas where we lived for a couple of years, there was a dusty ranch I called mine; in Seoul we lived in a high rise on a US army base, but I had my sights set on the split-level sixties grey brick mansion tucked behind a gate in the tony hills of the Pyeongchang-dong district.

I didn’t have a type, much like with men. My head was turned by architecture with style, substance, mystery, character, a story.

And now that I’m back in the town where I lived from age 10-17, I realise I was house spotting all those years ago, before I’d had any of the experiences described above. I’ve even become friends with a few people who bought - how dare they - the dream houses that 15 year old me had dibs on in 1990’s Broadstairs.

But now I really am house hunting. And all that practise has made me quite savvy. I’m certain I’ve put in my 10,000 hours.

I’m writing this having not yet sold my house (or even listed it, although that is imminent) so this is likely premature, but I’ve still been going on viewings to whet my appetite. I’ve been driving alternate routes to see what I might find. I take my morning runs in areas I’d like to live, keeping my eyes open for streets I’ve never noticed, looking for signs - those on wooden posts in driveways, not the mystic sort, although I’m always looking for those as well.

So what’s my strategy? Well, based entirely on personal anecdotes and not a shred of factual evidence, I can share a few things I’m doing that may help when you’re house hunting. But please remember, I’m not an expert, just an over excited, house obesessed over-sharer.

I think it’s safe to say that most people begin their search on a large website that has conveniently compiled all listings from all agents. Here in the UK, Rightmove is the big one. We spend a lot of time together these days.

My ten year Rightmove romance decoded

I had a nostalgic half an hour when I logged back on after a few years of search inactivity. Rightmove saves your saves so I took a quick trip down memory lane, re-viewing the ones that got away or that weren’t the right fit.

I was reminded of the properties I’d ‘hearted’ ten years ago when I was looking to buy in North London, which have now likely doubled in price, despite being on a main road and practically derelict.

Then, a flurry of homes saved in 2017/2018 when I first thought about buying a place by the sea. And later a few in the posh bit of Essex when I wasn’t sure if we could go to far from London yet, so a house on the edge of Epping Forest was the compromise (our offer was rejected, thank goodness).

In 2020 the seaside property search began in earnest, when the arrival of the Covid pandemic and the imminent departure of my kids from the roost made the beach move idea more of a reality than a daydream. There were a lot of saves in Hastings at first when I couldn’t yet bring myself to move back home. But after a naughty lockdown drive with my kids to what is now my local beach, the number of properties I started saving and viewing in Thanet - where I now live - began to increase.

Right up until the house I now own and am hoping to sell.

Not every move is into your dream home

In fact, I’d hazard a guess to say it rarely is, for most of us. My strategy with this next house is two-pronged. I’m hoping it will be a home I want to remain in for a while. Roomy enough for my family and friends to stay with me and for me to run my business in all its forms, from wallpaper design, prop styling/set design, writing etc.

We can assume that anywhere I buy will be great for renovation content creation, the side of my job that currently brings me zero income but heaps of satisfaction!

But.

Sometimes you have to be strategic.

If I see a place that doesn’t tick all those boxes, but is the right price and seems like a good property for me to flip for a profit in a couple of years, then I’m open to that as well. I’m lucky that I no longer have to think about schools or commuting or anyone else’s opinion. Hallelujah! So I can be flexible. And being flexible is important. More on that later.

Wait for the feeling

Now this might be terrible advice and I appreciate that it’s not always possible due to timings, budget, who knows what else, and it might not even work out this way for me. Butttttt. I’ve been holding out for that feeling when you just know.

Last time around, I viewed so many houses that I could’ve made work. I even put in offers on some. I actually lost the same house twice after it came back on the market. Thank goodness. I drive past it all the time now that I know the area better, and it would’ve been a really bad buy.

I’m the queen of making it work. Case in point, in my job as a set designer/stylist:

I’m on a Christmas shoot and the tree is too tall and the wreath didn’t arrive? Give me a saw and I’ll make it work. Just kidding, I already have a saw for exactly these situations.

At the last minute - i.e. while we’re mid shoot with a crew of 20 standing around - the client on an advertising shoot wants the model to hold a different and very specific greeting card than the ones we’d agreed weeks before - the new one must be orange, with a symbol that suggests “You’re a great dad!” but doesn’t actually use any words because the campaign is global. Never mind the pile of copyright-free greetings cards I painstakingly designed and had printed ahead of the shoot.

Fine, give me three minutes, some scissors, wrapping paper, a piece of lace cut off a tablecloth on my props table and a Pritt stick and it’s done.

I make things work.

And there will always be an element of making things work for you as the new owner of a home. It’s rare that we get everything on our list. But wouldn’t it be reassuring to also have that feeling when you first view it, that it’s the one?

Irritatingly I had that feeling last week. Too soon. I haven’t even listed my house yet, let alone sold it. After seeing a lot of houses that I could make work at a push, this one spoke to me. I walked through it trying not to gush in front of the agent, just as I had tried with my previous bungalow.

Play it cool.

But I saw myself there. I saw my kids visiting me there. I saw parties in the garden, walks to the (very close) beach, chats with the seemingly lovely neighbours whom I’d met.

My current bungalow gave me ‘the feeling’ four & a half years ago. Once you’ve felt it, you learn to trust your first instinct and hope for that feeling again

It is unlikely I will get this one because, you know, the whole needing to get serious offers on my own house first thing.

But what that feeling did was make me realise that there is life after my current home. There are other homes that I will love as much, maybe even more.

I’ve gone through all the emotions in the past month – sadness at realising I should sell, excitement about finding a new home, brief dips back into sadness and regret, overwhelm when I think about the actual moving part, back to excitement at having a new project.

And now? After falling for a new home, even though I probably won’t get it? I can’t get out of the old place quick enough! Which presents a entirely new set of middle of the night anxieties – what if it doesn’t sell and sits on the market for a year?

Be flexible and unattached

I feel like this is contradictory to my last point, but I also believe there can be multiple ‘the ones’. Being flexible and open can help you not get too attached to a particular home, even if it feels like THE ONE. I’m practising this as I write, knowing that the bungalow I have my sights set on might be it or it might not and no amount of wishing will speed up a selling/buying process over which I have little control.

In this post I briefly mention the links I see between romantic relationships and homes. Some people meet the great love of their life and stay with that person for decades. Some people find a fabulous house in a place they love and stay there for decades.

Others have a series of relationships, some good, some bad, some long, some short. (I‘d argue, more people have this experience). Some people have a series of homes, some good, some bad etc…

Having been in a relationship for almost 20 years (17 married), which ended when I was 41, and then another relationship which ended after almost seven years, with various dalliances before and after each, and having never lived in a home for more than about seven years, I fall into the second camp.

You learn to be less attached because you know there is life after. After marriage, after selling a house you loved, after leaving someone you once loved, after leaving neighbours you adore, after making a home yours.

The eternal optimist in me believes (for those of us fortunate to live freely) that there is always an opportunity for renewal. With homes, with love, with work. Onward!

A few practical tips to help you house hunt

Take a compass

I got lucky with my current house, not really paying attention to what direction the garden was facing. Guess what, it faces all directions and gets sun from morning to night. It’s magical. The next owners are so lucky! So now I’m obsessed, whipping out my compass app on every viewing. The house I have strong feelings for has a north facing garden (bad) but I’m letting it slide because of ‘the feeling’ and the fact that I was in a south facing garden last week that didn’t get much sun.

Explore with street view

I thought everyone did this, but it seems not. Take advantage of the street view function on the map where your house is shown. I can’t tell you how many times a house has looked incredible from the exterior photo and then when I drop into street view, it turns out it’s on a roundabout or it’s the only nice house on a street of horrible ones or its “unobstructed view of wheat fields” is about to have hundreds of houses built on them.

Conversely, the house I currently love looked pretty dull and ugly in the photo, but street view revealed what a short and lovely walk it is to the beach and how nice the neighbourhood is. I can work with dull and ugly. So ‘walk’ the neighbourhood on streetview before adding or crossing it off your viewing list.

See them all

After beginning with a pretty wide net that was just ‘desired area + 10 miles + price’ (on this I must be rigid) I’ve now set my search parameters to be pretty tight: Detached bungalow, maximum price £x, and three areas that I want to live in'.

But within that I view as many as I can. I almost didn’t see the house I’ve just renovated and am now selling because I’d seen so many and it just didn’t look great on paper. We know what happened there.

And the one I’m currently in love with ('“strong feelings” has developed into true love in the space of a couple of paragraphs) looked really ugly and unexciting in the listing, but I went because of the location.

You can never tell, so see as many as you can.

Finding a home is liking finding a partner

Someone once told me that I got into my last relationship too soon. They thought I should’ve dated more before settling into another long term thing, to educate myself on all the different types of men and which ones suited me. I don’t know if they were right.

The same can be said of house hunting. You may be looking for ‘the one’ but if you haven’t seen enough of what’s not right you have nothing to compare it to. You have to kiss a lot of frogs in the process of dating and house hunting.

Location, location, location. Boring but true.

I saw a house that I really loved. Great windows all around, weird layout that I liked, unusual retro details, spacious for a bungalow, side access garage/driveway for easy shoot prop sorting. But it was opposite a primary school, on a busy-ish road, next to a bus stop and it was a bit removed from the areas I want to be in. No matter what changes I made to the house, it would always be in that location.

Then I saw a house in an area that I loved - so close to the beach that I could realise my surf shack dream (note to self: must learn to surf). But it was tiny and would always be tiny. Neither one was right, but if I had to choose, it would’ve been small house in great location.

Sometimes you get lucky or, if you’re willing to sit it out for years, the world catches up with you and a ‘bad’ area becomes ‘good’. Hello gentrification. But that’s a whole other post.

Record a video of each house viewing

I always tell the agent that I’m going to do a walk through first and then go back through and film from the front door all the way through the home. Don’t let them rush you. It doesn’t take long and it really helps when you’re seeing a lot of properties. I don’t always remember things accurately - being a rose tinted glasses person - so a video reminding me that the boiler is in a weird place and has a big unsightly pipe going through the hall closet is useful when I’ve created a fantasy about this being my dream home.

Narration over your videos also helps. “North facing garden, but private”. “Neighbour’s dog hasn’t stopped barking”. “Weird smell”.

All useful when your memory fails you.

Thanks for reading x