max budget of 250K - what price house would you view up to?

Nenen

Oooohh... am pleased to report that one house we thought looked good on paper which has been marketed at 285K has just been reduced to 270K. I assume that means they are keen to sell (it has been on the market about 6 weeks so a fairly early reduction) and I can't imagine many buyers would be prepared to pay 270K given the increase in stamp duty at 250K. We are going to view it on Sunday so fingers crossed!

Nenen

Ho hum.... having seen the house I'd be grateful for some opinions.

The house was nice but with a bizarre extension! They paid 127K for it in August 2003 and have spent quite a bit of money putting in a new kitchen, bathroom (tiniest bathroom I have ever seen) downstairs cloakroom/WC, new heating boiler, UPVC windows and sofits etc. They have also built a HUGE workshop in the back garden (45ft by 12ft) and some other outbuildings for chickens etc. They originally had planning permission to build a two storey extension to the side of the house consisting of a garage on the ground floor with a fourth bedroom and ensuite above. However, they got as far as building the garage (allegedly with good enough footings etc to go higher) and decided they wouldn't bother with the extra bedroom after all and so put a sloping roof on which goes halfway up the first floor and creates a storage space upstairs (they call it a playroom) with a head height of about 4ft max! They have done most of the work themselves but it looks as if it is to a good standard.

The house is in a 'desirable' village and has stunning views over rolling countryside. I wondered how much difference the views make to the price. It has a nice (but not huge) garden at the back and lots of off road parking at the front. It is a 3 bed semi with part shared drive access. However, it is obviously ex-LA (on a street of ex-LA housing) which I don't mind at all but know it does downvalue the property to some extent.

As I said, they paid 127K in 2003 but have obviously added value through the work they've done... but I have no idea how much! It has been on the market for a few weeks now, originally at 285K and recently dropped to 270K. We still think it is overpriced for what it is but have not seen anything we like better and feel we could be happy there. We have just put in an offer for 210K (which I am pretty sure will be turned down)! If we hadn't been given notice to quit our current rented property then I certainly wouldn't go higher than 220K for this house but, given all the costs involved in moving twice (not to mention the hassle) I'm really not sure what to do. I would guess at 270K they will be hard pressed to get over the stamp duty threshold of 250K (our absolute maximum) but dh is adament it is not worth that! Not sure if my intense desire to be settled somewhere is affecting my judgement on this one. Any opinions?

PasturesNew

barnaby-bear wrote: »

Possibly so very few city bungalows in private ownership that if you have an infirm / elderly relative and *need* a bungalow it's a micro-market; but all the nasty ex-council scummy area single-skin brick things seem to be popping up at £250k
http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-22369372.html?locationIdentifier=REGION^274&minBedrooms=2&maxPrice=475000&maxDaysSinceAdded=14&pageNumber=3&backToListURL=/property-for-sale/find.html?locationIdentifier=REGION%5E274&minBedrooms=2&maxPrice=475000&maxDaysSinceAdded=14&index=20
which seems more optimistic than ever... there's similar in the hobart road estate areas....

I have family and friends that lived/live in that road.

It was always a bit rough ... with some right old sorts. The road goes round a big circle, if you come in from the Milton Road end, and go round clockwise (so left) that bit was worse than the other half.

I actually went to the school in that road

PasturesNew

Nenen wrote: »

Hi BB - nice to hear from you again. This is a stange area isn't it! I am really glad to hear you say that as I was beginning to think it was just me being either a) unrealistic or b) too fussy! It was that bungalow in Arbury that got snapped up for 250K.

We are struggling to find anything worth even going to look at. Did drive bys on 11 yesterday and out of those only 3 looked vaguely worth making appointments to view (and even then with lots of compromises on what we'd really like). I just can't believe the attitudes of some of the EAs either. It is bad enough to live in such an expensive area without having to be looked down on by many of these young 'suits'.

Why would anybody look in Arbury if they had £250k? Just 2-3 miles further out there are much better/nicer/safer places. Arbury's always had a bad reputation - and you don't have to go far to find somewhere "better".

Nenen

PasturesNew wrote: »

Why would anybody look in Arbury if they had £250k? Just 2-3 miles further out there are much better/nicer/safer places. Arbury's always had a bad reputation - and you don't have to go far to find somewhere "better".

We can't find anything we like within 2-3 miles of the city for 250K with 3-4 bedrooms (or an extra reception as my dh often works from home) PN. I really wish we could. I have a thing about not being overlooked from the back, (by which I mean a house backing onto ours whereby their back windows look directly into ours with not a lot of garden and/or trees inbetween) which cuts the options considerably. Very little is coming onto the market... we have even started looking as far afield as Linton and still no joy.

PasturesNew

Difficult to say without pawing through hundreds, but in the first 10 seconds I found this one:
http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-18269483.html

Nice area, just around the corner and it's a 5 minute walk down to the river, which is lovely.

I lived in this road once.

This isn't looked into directly (sold now)
http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-21607243.html

Nenen

We went to see the first one you linked to last week. It was OK but very, very, small bedrooms (we have three children) and nowhere for dh to work in as everything was open plan... archway from lounge to dining room and another arch to kitchen. The garden although small was lovely as it backed onto the country park and lots of trees! We did try to cost knocking down dilapidated garage and replacing with an outside office building/log cabin thing but sums just didn't add up. Thanks for looking anyway.

PasturesNew

Willingham, nice quiet village. Some historical resident !!!!!! that weren't any trouble, !!!!!! in the next village are a pain (Cottenham).

http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-22093252.html?premiumA=true

I've spent many an hour/day in this village. Had a few friends who lived there over the years, including one who bought some derelict monster/mansion overlooking the green in the mid-80s.

Nearest indian takeaway is 6 miles away though

PasturesNew

Nenen wrote: »

We went to see the first one you linked to last week. It was OK but very, very, small bedrooms (we have three children) and nowhere for dh to work in as everything was open plan... archway from lounge to dining room and another arch to kitchen. The garden although small was lovely as it backed onto the country park and lots of trees! We did try to cost knocking down dilapidated garage and replacing with an outside office building/log cabin thing but sums just didn't add up. Thanks for looking anyway.

I'll probably over-link you now ... it's all my old stomping ground

Reliving memories here!

Nenen

PasturesNew wrote: »

Willingham, nice quiet village. Some historical resident !!!!!! that weren't any trouble, !!!!!! in the next village are a pain (Cottenham).

http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-22093252.html?premiumA=true

I've spent many an hour/day in this village. Had a few friends who lived there over the years, including one who bought some derelict monster/mansion overlooking the green in the mid-80s.

Nearest indian takeaway is 6 miles away though

Thanks very much PN. However, Willingham is too far north for us. I work south west Cambridge city (a pain to get in and out of in traffic from any direction but much worse from north) and my dh has to travel to Colchester and Chelmsford fairly often so we really need to be south or west... east at a push as we like Fulbourn ... preferably not more than 8 miles from centre... but have gone out as far as Linton. S*d's law being what it is, south of city is more expensive! Really don't want to be on a big estate if we can help it... but then perhaps I am being too fussy for the money we have available. I can't help feeling that a quarter of a million should get something really nice probably unrealistic though.