Anyone had regrets after buying/selling?

shabby_chic

We sold a large 4 bed terraced house last year and completed in September. Moved to a modern 4 bed detached expecting it to be everything we wanted but with 3 growing dd's starting to wonder if I have made a big mistake.
I miss the space so much and while we live in a lovely quiet area with a nice garden I hate to admit to those who said I would miss the room in our old house that they may be right.
Keep looking at big old houses on Rightmove but know it probably wouldn't be viable to consider selling up again. Anyone else had regrets? Would be interested to hear about it.
TIA

Primrose

I haven't done this, but realise it's sometimes easy to be swayed into buying something that on the face of it seems to appear an easier option in terms of cleaning and maintenance without necessarily considering all the downsides.

It's often only when you've moved into another property that you start realising the negatives and I guess it's very important to consider your family lifestyle and write down some non-negotiable criteria before changing house.

For me, the non-negotiables would be a second bathroom (to use as a clothes drying area in winter), adequate garden space to grow our vegetables, and sufficient rooms/storage space in the house for us to spread ourselves around and contain the stuff we need for our hobbies. Families with growing children will especially need to factor in all the additional needs which growing children bring like music centres, musical instruments and space to play them, quiet studying spaces for homework, bikes, and later on, perhaps parking accommodation for additional cars in the family. I suspect that the time for settling for less space, and especially less storage space, is when the children have grown up and permanently left home, otherwise one is going to have to exercise continual discipline about not hoarding and clearing out stuff on a regular basis.

Incyder

Regrets, I've had a few, but then again, too few to mention.

Forget it, keep looking forwards not backwards.

hazyjo

Why did you move in the first place? Try to remember the negatives. Not always easy as we tend to look back with rose tinted glasses!

Did you want a smaller house but with the same no of bedrooms? Or maybe you were fed up with living in a terrace and wanted detached?

Jx

mlz1413

In answer to the title - yes my mother and my grandmother, both ALWAYS loved the last house the moved from the most and it was always their biggest regret. I should add that my grandmother moved at least a dozen times that I am aware of and my mother in the dozens range.

Unless you moved on a wimp you moved for a reason, was it parking? garden? DD's being nearer school/friends/parks? Whichever please stop dwelling on what could be if you could wind back time.

My mother and grandmother were never happy with where they lived and they did all styles and ages of property in villages, estates and towns.

So my lesson has been to be happy with where I live and make friends of the neighbours.

shabby_chic

Thanks for all your replies and it's quite good to see things from a different perspective. We lived on a very busy main road which was the main reason for moving and it's not the actual house I miss more the style.
I appreciate the comments on not looking back and I certainly don't want to turn back time.
mlz1413 - I hope I don't end up like your mother or grandmother and moving that many times!

SuzieSue

My house is very small but it is detached. Everytime I find myself dwelling on how small it is, I remind myself that the most important thing is that it is detached and in a quiet area - nothing else really matters.

LandyAndy

No. Never regretted a move.

tyllwyd

shabby_chic wrote: »

Thanks for all your replies and it's quite good to see things from a different perspective. We lived on a very busy main road which was the main reason for moving and it's not the actual house I miss more the style.
I appreciate the comments on not looking back and I certainly don't want to turn back time.
mlz1413 - I hope I don't end up like your mother or grandmother and moving that many times!

That sounds a lot like us in some ways - we had a big 4 bed Edwardian terraced house on a main road, and ended up moving to a detached 1930s house.

We moved partly because my OH was unsettled because his father had recently died, and with a new baby and in a very hot summer we were struggling with the main road and bad parking, but in fact he loved the old house, and does regret moving sometimes. Still, it did come up for sale again about a year ago, and I don't think we would have moved back for all the reasons we moved away.