Finally saw the light and now scrabbling towards it, one OP at a time!

Lois_E

fothers365 wrote: »

Thank you:)

The other thing to throw into the mix is that there are some new build houses being built near us by barratt. They are lovely layout etc and would be so easy to live in and maintain though they are bound to be relatively squashed together. They do part exchange.

I can't decide whether they are worth considering or not for the part exchange thing and not having the hassle of trying to sell with small children. It would not be a forever home though -which the other one could be- but would be an easy to live in stop gap for 5-7 years or so.

From what I can tell Barratt seem to do a reasonable valuation for part exchange and then you wouldn't have the estate agent fees.

I don't know whether it is stupid to consider an interim move for a few years knowing the chances are we may well want to move again, although it might be easier short term, or whether to go with the slog of trying to sell and making hopefully a last longer term move.

confuddled, confuddled, confuddled:(

Noooooooo! Do not buy a Barratts house. A friend of mine did and had endless problems with it. The build quality was shocking. (Just my personal opinion and my friend's experience. YMMV of course.)

fothers365

Thankfully have again talked myself out of the barratt. The idea of a house with smooth flat walls appeals but it doesn't really make much sense to move knowing it isn't what we really want and are just doing it through laziness/fear at the thought of trying to sell ours!

We are going to look at the possibly nice one tomorrow afternoon.

I think we are doing it all a bit back to front as ours is not on or even nearly on the market since I just looked at rightmove out of nosiness.

I just feel that since we bought this house 9 years ago the market and the way things are bought and sold has probably changed so much. In those days things were flying off the market and there were bidding wars galore on everything. It didn't matter if your house wasn't on the market yet as they all sold in a day or 2 anyway. I just keep hearing stories of people trying to sell for months and months now:eek:

QB_Wolf

fothers365 wrote: »

Thank you:)

The other thing to throw into the mix is that there are some new build houses being built near us by barratt. They are lovely layout etc and would be so easy to live in and maintain though they are bound to be relatively squashed together. They do part exchange.

I can't decide whether they are worth considering or not for the part exchange thing and not having the hassle of trying to sell with small children. It would not be a forever home though -which the other one could be- but would be an easy to live in stop gap for 5-7 years or so.

From what I can tell Barratt seem to do a reasonable valuation for part exchange and then you wouldn't have the estate agent fees.

I don't know whether it is stupid to consider an interim move for a few years knowing the chances are we may well want to move again, although it might be easier short term, or whether to go with the slog of trying to sell and making hopefully a last longer term move.

confuddled, confuddled, confuddled:(

We've looked at the same thing, as we've been on the market a month or so and not had a viewing yet.

fothers365

Did think of you QB Wolf when was thinking of trying to sell with kids! It must be a nightmare trying to keep the place clean, tidy and clutter free. Mrs QB has my respect!

Is yours on zoopla too? I noticed on there you can see how many people have looked at the details on line.

newgirly

Hi fothers, its been ages since I caught up with your diary, sorry!

If I were you I would be more inclined to go for a property with "potential" you can change and possibly add to if you need to, especially if you know the new one will not be a forever home.

Good luck for to tomorrow, hope the viewing goes well

gallygirl

I agree with the others - moving with kids is such a hassle, just to it once and get it over with. Good luck tomorrow :T.

HelenDaveKids

It is definitely challenging keeping house "viewer tidy" with kids. It might be worth testing the market as it can be a long process.

fothers365

Well, we went to the viewing this afternoon and can now understand why the house was so cheap given the highly desirable area. It is basically a 2/3 bedroom bungalow that is sort of an angular 'c' shape (or half a hexagon) that has had a really shoddy extnesion put on more than 10 years ago to fill in the inner curve. This contains a bedroom, dining room and utility room but is basically consevatory style plastic roofing throughout and I wouldn't be surprised if it was single brick walls. If we had time and money you could probably make this lovely, but we don't.

There are 2 offers from developers for £200k. It is just too much for us and would be too small anyway. It is such a nice area round there and where we would really like to be though.

http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-38714254.html
Link for anyone fancying a nosey...

Fothers (new) masterplan-

-Keep slaying the mortgage beast

-Replace rest of internal doors with nice pitch pine (did some pitch pine glazed ones down stairs and they are fab, will do the upstairs and cellar door and maybe attic bedroom too. Need to go and price the unglazed ones tomorrow and the door furniture).

-repaper bathroom (well, get nice man to do it)

-replace stair/landing carpet as bottom tread frayed and awful and is right in view when open front door. Not sure whether to do a stair runner type carpet as in old Victorian house?

-get dehumidifier for next winter at some point. Detached old house, condensation on walls due to cold and most of them being outside walls. Ceilings are 9-10 foot tall, lots chimney breasts etc. I think that would help as they often feel very damp/cold but all over, not just at low bits. Not helped by drying washing for 3 sprogs.

-line downstairs curtains for massive windows with fleece. Have sewing machine and great market stalls in town. Sadly lacking in skill and time...


-keep on top of clutter- regular purging sessions as carp seems to breed in our house.


If we do that then it should just be a case of a good clean and paint freshen up when we do decide to go for it.

The next move needs to be the 'forever' house in the words of Kirstie so we need to get as much equity as we can because houses on that side of town are great but expensive.



So, exciting morning at Lidl first off tomorrow for cheap shopping followed by a trip to the door shop to see how many the remainder of this months over payment fund will stretch to!


Definitely no Barratt though:)

fothers365

AS part of the great declutter plan yesterday I have off loaded 2 cars worth of baby stuff to someone I used to work with. Her husband has just lost his job so it is going to a good home. I was meant to try and flog some of it on eb@y but never get the time and as they would have been big, bulky things they would have been collected anyway. I am happy to forgo the money and them go to someone that needs them:)

3 bags of clothes of various standards to off load to the charity shop today. Annoyingly all the shops round here are in pedestrianised areas so it is a real hassle dropping stuff off when they are open but frowned upon to dump it on the door step in case it gets pinched!

newgirly

Blimey that's a lot of house for the money :eek: However if developers are after it, it is often a foregone conclusion in my experience. The right one is out there somewhere and you are doing the right thing by making sure you are in the perfect position when it does.