3 months, looked at about 100 houses.

I think it depends on your criteria and price range and neighborhood you're looking in. If you're looking for a $500k fully renovated SFH in Arlington, good luck finding any. If you're looking for a $500k updated house in Fairfax, there is a lot more inventory.

We looked at a total of 17 homes before making an offer on the house we are about to move in to. We had reasonable expectations for our price range, which was under $600 (I know, gasp!). We had limited criteria -- good schools, a private yard that the kids could play in without adult supervision, and at least 3 BR, 2Ba. We also wanted a fairly reasonable commute, but we realized that we were priced out of most of Falls Church and all of Arlington, where we now live. With that limited criteria there was plenty of inventory to choose from, and we were able to find a house we really liked after one day of looking. Granted, we looked at about 15 homes in that one day -- with 2 kids under 5, so it is possible for anyone. Have you ever watched Property Virgins? I think a lot of people go into the housebuying process with a similar attitude as many of those buyers, and yes, it will be impossible to find a house.

Close to 100 homes for about 10 months. Lost 9 in a row with multiple bids on each home. Some homes were sold the same night we looked at it and didn't even count those. First home we bid under since it was overpriced. But the other 8 offered between 3-15% over ask while waiving contingencies and still lost to cash buyers, investors, and people with deep pockets. Finally got lucky number 10 by getting it before the open house. Learned a lot and got lucky. Could probably be a realtor after all this experience.

Anonymous wrote:1st house I went to see. Shopped around online-none were worth getting out.

Same here. Except my realtor insisted that I see other properties. I humored her, but put an offer in on the first home a week later.

Anonymous wrote:I have purchased 4 houses in the last 10 years. Only lost the first which I under bid by 40k. Since then I have always bid asking price with minimal contingencies, haven't list since.

Lost not list

I have purchased 4 houses in the last 10 years. Only lost the first which I under bid by 40k. Since then I have always bid asking price with minimal contingencies, haven't list since.

Depends on the market. The first time I bought, this area was super hot. Brand new inventory every weekend - you had to make yes/no decisions every week, because they went to contract on Wednesdays. I think I looked at 2-3 every weekend, and bid on nine things before I got one. This took about seven months.

This time when I wanted to move, the market was heating up but not super hot. I looked on and off for 18 months. At month 9 I had sold my old place and moved into a rental. At that point I had stopped looking seriously and my agent would occasionally flag something that met my criteria. At month 16, we found a good one and put in an offer. Much drama ensued as the seller tried to play games, and we didn't get it. About a month later, another strange one came on. Didn't care for it super much, but it met my criteria and it was almost in my price range. Bid the top of my budget (but still under the asking). Seller rejected it, and then a month later came back and settled at that price.

Good luck.

1st house I went to see. Shopped around online-none were worth getting out.

OP here -

We are in the midst of our search in the tight market for almost a year now. All in all, must have seen about 40 houses.

Our home search in the first six-nine months was as the PP 20:31 mentioned mostly market discovery and refinement of wants versus needs.

However, we are wondering whether our current knowledge is making us more cautious and whether ignorance might be better in such a tight market.
The experience is starting to wear us out as well.

Good to see that others have a several-month search as well.

We are weary and want it to be over soon.

About 10 months. Saw at least 3 houses per wknd so about 130 total? That sounds insane but I think that must be about right.... We wrote offers on 5 houses - we're very close on 3 of them and got the last one (in bidding war with 14 people). Pretty grueling experience all around and thank god every day that we're done.

Close to 18 months, but the first 12 were much less aggressive and largely market discovery, though we did put in one bid at about month 3, but was outbid. And in retrospect, I'm so glad we we're outbid bc we were both much smarter about the market in general and our wants/needs with each additional house we saw. Ultimately we realized what was most important to us (neighborhood) which made it much easier to commit to the house we finally bought. Over the 18 months we wrote two offers and were super duper close on two others (both competitive situations) before ultimately bailing because we knew they weren't quite "it".

Around here, it can take a long time especially at the mid-to-high price range as there is simply not much inventory and the market is so competitive in the very desirable areas.

We were relocating and saw about 17 or so houses over 2 days, then picked one. There were others that would have been fine, too, but we picked the one we liked best. I can't comprehend taking a year or two to find a house. I guess if you don't really have to move you could stretch it out.

1 year. We probably saw 10 houses in person, but checked listings online almost every day. We offered on three houses.

We bought the first house we saw.

How many houses did you look at and how long did it take before you settled on buying your new home?