Please help to make a decision re house purchase

sharnad

Fly_Baby wrote: »

Thank you very much for your thoughts.

I know I sound pretty negative - but my feelings aside, what do you think of all the cons I have described?

The lack of a private driveway and being exposed to neighbours' unsightly gardens (I am really bothered about those - is it just me?)? Walking down the dark secluded alley (it is a council estate after all). The immediate neighbours look lovely but just a bit up the street there is a foreign family with many chldren. We have lived in this area for a while and it seems quite safe.

Are these dealbreakers or is it just my perception? Again, my husband is fine to go ahead with the purchase.

I dont think you should get it if you have that many doubts about things that you cant change.

Fly_Baby

sharnad wrote: »

I dont think you should get it if you have that many doubts about things that you cant change.

Would you have doubts about these things?

It is an honest question - maybe I am getting jitters about nothing. After all, I have lived in this area for over a year, in a very similar ex-council house (albeit with a driveway!).

Fly_Baby

Can I plant bushes or something along the path to conceal the metal net fencing the adjacent neigbours' gardens and make the route to the house look nicer? Am I allowed? Would I need to ask permission of all residents and the council?

There a path leading to a similar row of houses to the different side of the road and that path has lovely tall trees - it is actually quite cosy walking into that valley!

sharnad

Fly_Baby wrote: »

Would you have doubts about these things?

It is an honest question - maybe I am getting jitters about nothing. After all, I have lived in this area for over a year, in a very similar ex-council house (albeit with a driveway!).

If it was on a hill is it on a slope i love having my garage and driveway and dont have children if you do and all the spaces near your house get taken up it may be a pain to get park

I would go there at tea time when everyone is pretty parked up and see how many spaces there are.

The garden wouldnt bother me that much as I could offer to help the neighbours with it or share cost of a fence the dark alleyway would

sharnad

maybe you could ask the council to put a light up along the alleyway

Froglet

I still feel ,fly baby, that most people who buy a house don't have to talk themselves into it like you seem to be doing!

Good luck anyway whatever you decide.But as you are not under pressure to buy i would not be rushing into it.No matter how much money you will have to spend on it,there are things you cannot change.Sharnad makes a good point about going round to the outside of the house when it is dark,latish on in the evening,not just for parking but to see if kids hang around the back alley.

Errata

Don't spend nearly a quarter of a million quid on a house that you're not deeply in love with.
Don't buy a house next to houses with unsightly (untended?) gardens, they will have owners to match.
Don't believe no other car will park outside a house with no drive, leaving you to find a parking space a hundred yards further down the street.

Fly_Baby

I drove past it at midnight and the path that leads to it is absolutely dark - but then the neighbour has a sensor torch by the entrance that reacts even to cars passing by on the road.

Thanks again for everyone. I wish I could just wait and see, if other houses come on the market, if the house with the conservatory can be bought cheaper, if I change my mind about this one - but the vendors are in a hurry to secure the place they want to buy. I expect the EA to start ringing me on Monday to see if I have appointed a solicitor yet.

Fly_Baby

A question - maybe daft, in which case forgive me.

Do I have to love the house? If I know (well, hope) that it is not going to be my home for the rest of my life, if I just need it to "sit out" a few years until my child secures a place in a good school and then be free to mover wherever - would it make it a good investment? To buy a good house (the house itself is good) at a cheap (in comparison) price, and then be able to either sell it as cheaply and hence easily, or to leave it as our pension fund and rent it out?

Anything wrong with this plan?

Graham_Devon

Forget the investment part. It has to be your home first.

Quite a few people have said don't go ahead, but you seem determined to do so, so not sure what else people can say really.

Sounds like a lot of money to be spending on a home that you have so many reservations about.

Also sounds like you are more worried about losing a "deal". However, it's not really a deal is it. The seller has refused your offer, and now decides as he wants another place, your offer is good enough, and you seem to not only think thats all fine, but appear to be chasing the deal because you don't want to lose out.

I certainly wouldn't be spending that amount of money on somewhere I didn't actually want. You may say you do, but it doesn't sound like it!