Selling house, after 1 week... Uh oh.

phoebe1989seb

I do really feel for you OP - as someone who fell totally head-over-heels with their last house (an extremely attractive detached Tudor house that was rebuilt in Arts & Crafts style in the 1930s) yet failed to digest the fact that it was in an area of deprivation and surrounded by ugly, poorly-constructed bungalows with owners that couldn't give two hoots about the area or anything accept getting psshed at karaoke nights at the local pub

We knew the day after we'd completed that we'd made a terrible mistake - it was totally our own fault as we had moved 150 miles to an area we'd only visited to view the house (and stupidly never even walked round the local town!) - and wanted to re-market it immediately.

With the benefit of hindsight - now six years down the line and installed in our current house for two years - I wish we had sold it straightaway, or at least within the first year. Instead we stayed three and a half years, threw £40k at it - it was bought as a renovation project so the work needed doing, but also we were attempting to compensate for how much we hated the location - and sold at a stonking £60k loss in 2011

OP, it does sound though as if most of your issues - whilst not wanting to belittle them at all - can be overcome given time. If the area itself is good and you can still see what attracted you to the house originally, stuff like the aroma of smoke can be dealt with. As other posters have said, a lot of people feel differently about heir new home once they've moved into an empty space. As serial project house buyers, we've had more than our fair share of the *what have we done?* moments over the past 20+ years, but these usually fade once you start to make the house a home. It is a PITA about the new flats, but unfortunately these things happen and that's just life, I'm afraid.

I wish you well and hope you can turn this around and grow to love your new home

Wellieboot

For smoke smells, as well as washing the curtains and cleaning the carpets, leaving a flat bowl or saucer of vinegar in each room (and replacing daily) can really help.

There must be reasons why you decided to buy this house rather than wait for a better one and it might be a really helpful exercise to write these down alongside a list of things you're not happy about now you're actually there .

You can then add in ideas for things you can do practically to deal with the bits you're not happy with whilst keeping in mind the (probably very good and rational) reasons why you bought the house in the first place.

It doesn't sound like any of the problems are insurmountable, but are obviously very disappointing for you right now. Writing this stuff down in black and white might really help you get more perspective and see that things aren't as bad a they may seem. And if you keep the list, you can also look back in a few months/years time and congratulate yourself on how far you have come

Is there anything you can buy, or do now that will symbolise how you want the house to be in the future? Could be as simple as buying a nice vase and bunch of flowers, putting a favourite picture on the wall, planting something in the garden. Just something as a reminder that you can change things and it won't always be like it is right now.

Wishing you all the best in your new home.....:beer:

yorkshire_terrier_owner

I can understand how you feel. I moved into my new house 3 months ago and there are times I just feel overwhelmed by everything that needs to be done/I want to do to it. It doesn't quite feel like MY home yet either. It will take me years to get round to all the things I want to do, and in the meantime, I am doing everything I can to put my stamp on it (like putting a new number and postbox at the front). I am sure with time and patience, you, like myself, will feel like you're at home.

gazter

C22DTJ wrote: »

I think you need to reconsider posting such useless responses.

If you don't have anything meaningful to contribute, I'd rather you didn't bother. By all means criticise my decisions, tell me there's little choice, but to simply suggest that I 'get a grip' is quite rude.

Thanks to others.

I must admit, the general consensus from friends and family has been to look for the brighter points and work on the negatives. It's just incredibly difficult to not feel like I've made a £170K mistake.

Every now and then we all need a good slap though, we are often the worst judges of when the best time is for that.

mrginge

It might seem like i post stuff like that just because i'm an objectionable git, but i just don't see the point of dishing out big cuddles when OP clearly needed a reality check.

If people want to respond back to me in the manner the OP does then i am fine with that as i can take it as well as dishing it out.

G_M

Onions.

Cut into 3 or 4 slices and leave one in each room.

They absorbe the smoke.

Change/clean the curtains.

Wash/change the carpets.

Paint the walls.

After a while you'll feel huge satisfaction at the improvements you make.

lessonlearned

Buyers' remorse is far more common than many people care to admit. That nice little house you viewed a few months ago, can when empty, look terrible once you actually get the keys.

Very often an empty house will smell stale and fusty, carpets will look more threadbare, walls and paintwork will appear scuffed, dirty and damaged.

Get rid of everything you can that stinks of smoke. If you can't afford to remove carpets, curtains etc give them a damn good clean.

You can hire a carpet cleaner and do the job yourself. Wash everywhere down with sugar soap and fling the windows and doors open at every opportunity.

If proper decorating and refurbishing is beyond your budget then just buy a few gallons of basic white emulsion and cover the lot. A few cheap and cheerful pictures and posters, and some cheap easy to look after houseplants - try the local market or your supermarkets - much cheaper than garden centres.

You can transform the place in a few weeks with very little outlay. A fresh coat of paint and a few cheap and cheerful bits and bobs dotted around the place will work wonders. Then you can sit back and plan a proper refurbishment programme when funds allow.

I've given a couple of properties the "white paint onceover" - when I've been strapped for cash. It is a cheap way of covering up a multitude of sins. You don't need to strip off old wallpaper just paint over it.

At least that way I got to live somewhere that was clean, fresh and smelled pleasant - far better than sitting in some grimy foul smelling hovel that I couldn't afford to do anything to.