Buying a house that I'm not sure about?

m0t

Brief history:

Been looking for a year, fell in love with a property and placed an offer. House was sold to another FTB.

Month later house is back on the market, agent calls us up and we place offer. House was sold to a cash buyer after some funny business.

Reason I mention this is because with this house both my partner and I were sure we wanted to buy it.

On Saturday we saw 2 houses:

First house was in a good location, needed a lot spent on it. I think we could live there and do it up (plus brother in law is a builder so can do some of the harder stuff for cheap). My girlfriend doesn't like it because she can't see what it would look like finished.

Second house was not in our ideal location and in standard form was very small (only 61sqm). Plenty of space to the back and sides to extend outwards but in current configuration the lounge was barely big enough to fit our standard size sofa and the main bedroom was barely large enough to hold a double bed. Oddly my girlfriend loved it and wanted to buy it.

The first house represented a far better investment (cheapest on the road) plus I got a much better feeling about it, but it was vetoed. Question is should I buy the second one that I am not keen on?

poppysarah

View some more.

Don't rush.

Ask her what she loved so much about it.

Annisele

If the choice was between only those two houses, I'd also want the second one - I've no desire to live on a building site. I wouldn't want to live anywhere too small either, but of the two a building site would be worse.

However, those are not your only two choices. As poppysarah says, view some more until you find one you both like. Don't buy either of the ones you saw on Saturday!

unsure

Don't rush it! This will be possibly the biggest investment of your life. Keep looking until you find something where you both say "Yup, this is the one". If one of you has to make an unwelcome compromise at the outset it could be the seed for dissatisfaction and tension later. If you want a project and your other half wants a home you need to clarify the situation at the outset.

We found it helpful to write a list of exactly what we wanted in a house (location, rooms, age, style, state of decor, garden etc). That gives you both a chance to have some input and an idea of where compromise is/isn't possible. It took us a year to find our house and we were on the point of giving up when we went to another viewing, opened the door and both said "Yup this is the one" -- we've never regretted it.

It's worth taking your time to get it right for both of you.

m0t

At some points it almost does seem like we have to rush - we currently live in a rented flat which has turned into a bit of a nightmare and we are desperate to leave for the sake of our own sanity.

I think this is why my girlfriend really wanted to buy the second house. I wanted to buy the first because of the large potential to make money from it, but appreciate why my girlfriend wouldn't want to live like that.

Our backup plan is to wait a few months when hopefully her brother will move out of the family home, allowing us to move back in for a few months and save more money. But this does rely on him actually moving out (which he has been thinking about for a year).

arbrighton

In the current climate, how can you say any property has the potential to make money? Especially if you're planning on getting a mortgage, then increasing your investment by renovating?

carslet

i would not think about making any money from a house unless house prices are rising which they are far from doing at the moment, renovation almost everytime costs more than you first plan,

BUt on the other side of things dont rush just keep viewing, it is a buyers market out there, something else will come along.

Davesnave

If you and your GF want to stay together, don't give in to her just because she really wants a particular property.

Similarly, if your GF doubts that buying a doer-upper is a good idea right now, she has a right to have her opinion respected.

There are millions of houses out there. Nearly all the ones you'll ever afford will be a compromise in some respect, but it has to be one both of you can make, comfortably.

sunshinetours

Keep searching for one you both like. if you don't eventually it will come back and bite you especially when one or other keeps bringing it up ! When we were house searching we always said if one didn't like it genuinely (after viewing) then that was that

exarmydreamer

We rushed into buying ours, and it now does not suit our needs. Don't feel rushed, houses come on to the market all the time and you would kick yourself if something better came on soon after your purchase.

We now are desperate to move but are stuck, be absolutely sure between you or it could come back to a blame game at a later date. Good Luck.

pinkteapot

Being in a bad rental property is not a reason to panic-buy a house you don't both like. Wait until the right property comes along and in the meantime, if the rental is that bad, move to another one. All you've 'wasted' is one set of removal fees. Although another rental will have a minimum 6 month contract, it could easily be another couple of months before you find something and then it can equally easily take 2-3 months for the purchase to go through.

MrTeapot and I were looking for 18 months before our house came along and I'm very glad we didn't settle for the others that we saw in the meantime.