Did I mention ...?

I've been house hunting recently and I've learnt it is a mine field: one wrong step and boom!

There is a lot of legislation out there that make it very difficult for genuine buyers to buy.

One of the worst situations I've come across is falling in love with a house that was repossessed. (Which in itself left me in a quandary - because I'm aware it means someone else couldn't afford to keep it and lost it!)

Like any buyer I put in a bid to buy and the bid was accepted. Then the estate agents decided to tell me that because the house was repossessed it meant that anyone could come and bid more, effectively gazump you, right up to the day you exchange contracts. Obviously this means that you could lose money on solicitors fees, surveys and searches. But that is completely within the law because the house is repossessed. All the time this is going on, the previous owner, as well as the banks, are out of pocket. The property sits empty, and the estate agents can keep traipsing people through your potential home.

The honesty of the agent is also an issue. They seem to play one person against the other - or did in my case. This is because they are not working for the buyer, but the vendor, and the bigger the sale price the better their percentage.

Naturally, I was gazumped and invited several times to keep upping my bid, but it was all some game that I didn't want to play.

I walked away from it. I can't be bothered with nonsense like that.

To be fair, there are a million houses on the market, and I have my pick as the buyer, so what it the point of stressing over one house?

Anyway - the next one I saw was going to auction and that is an equal nightmare! YOU not the VENDOR get CHARGED to buy a house. So if you buy for £150,000 then the auction house will ADD £15,000 for their trouble.

Does that seem fair? Clearly I'm having NONE of that either.

So, that option is out. Now I'm looking at houses in a popular seaside resort; and there's plenty, but most of them need a considerable amount of work.

Like I said, it's a mine field.