Invited to view house out of our price range

TheCyclingProgrammer

It's mostly academic as the garden wasn't a usable size for us (I eventually plan to get a garden office as I work from home) but had it ticked all the boxes, I think it still would have been too much work for us. Getting it for £10k less would reduce our mortgage but not significantly increase our cashflow (we are aiming for 80% LTV so it would give us another £2k to play with that we would have used as a deposit); not enough to do a good enough job I think.

The amount of time required is also a bit of a showstopper. We can afford to redecorate and improve somewhere over time, just not all in one go.

You're right though, for somebody who can afford the time/money needed there's definitely a deal to be had. Probably a BTL investor.

Thanks for the good luck. We are now seriously contemplating moving a bit further out and looking around Colchester. A bit more culture and character than Chelmsford but with equally good schools and the craziness of the property market doesn't seem to have spread that far yet. Lots more on offer and a lot more house for our money, including detached houses and quite a few 4 beds in our range. It's an hour into London by train which is almost twice as long but fortunately I don't have to commute in that frequently. Could be a good move financially too, if house price increases continue to spread outwards, but it's not a primary concern. We just want a family home.

Campervanman

We had friends in Colchester - lovely place to live. Good luck and let us know where you settle in the end!

ClareTeaches

That all sounds sensible. Partner's got some family over that way, definitely cheaper and there's stuff being built that way, so I think you're right about prices improving in the future. Also know someone who commutes to London from Ipswich, so again, it's doable.

Best of luck!

TheCyclingProgrammer

Campervanman wrote: »

We had friends in Colchester - lovely place to live. Good luck and let us know where you settle in the end!

Thanks. Just need to start the research process again as I've already done with Chelmsford, figuring out where the best and worst places are, the best schools etc. and travel arrangements etc.

My wife's grandparents have a holiday home on Mersea Island, about 15 minutes away, so we might plan a weekend away to go and visit the place and get a feel for it.

Who knows, we might be in our new home by September! Fingers crossed.

TheCyclingProgrammer

I just noticed that the agent (Haart) have re-listed the property; it's now dropped to £265k.

Some photos on there now; they've tried very hard to make the place look nice with judicious use of lighting and wide angle lenses but you can still see how manky it is if you look properly.

http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-45903986.html?premiumA=true

Check out the kitchen! The thing that makes me laugh is the EA has obviously come back a few weeks after we viewed the property to try and get as good photos as he can possibly get to try and sell the place, and the vendors haven't even made an effort to clean the place up. How can people live like that?

ClareTeaches

Yeah, you can tell it's pretty grimy - the pictures of the kitchen made my skin crawl!

BUT ... If the price were right and I were getting a bargain, it wouldn't put me off! It actually doesn't look as bad as I was expecting ... Though I did notice there are no pics of the bedrooms, so I'm wondering if they're the worst bit?! :rotfl:

uk_american

I'm in a mortgage free flat in Chelmsford, been here 5 years. I've been squirreling away the pennies to move up to a 3 bed house, but the market here is too hot. They say our promotion to 'city' status last year has something to do with it, who knows.

Saw a nice 3 bed nearby, it went online on Thursday with an open house on Saturday, which I missed. I called on Monday, they said they were doing sealed bids, final bids by 4 PM that day as they had over 50 viewers at the open house. Crazy, you'd think we were London.

If you're not a regular commuter into London, there are plenty of other nice areas in Essex. Friends and work colleagues recommend Bishops Stortford (those with kids) or places like Shoeburyness if you're seeking coast, Braintree while further out is highly affordable too, although quieter.

For comparison purposes, I bought my 1 bed in 2009 at 140k. Others after sold at slightly more in the months after, usually 145. Original selling price on the flats in 2006 was 160. Now, in the past weeks a few have listed at 170-175 and sold at 165-170. They're all 1 beds and roughly comparable in size/space. Crazy.

TheCyclingProgrammer

uk_american: you're right, the market in Chelmsford is very hot and it's not helped by lack of supply of decent property. The best places are getting snapped up fast. We've already lost out on one place we did offer on and we don't want to keep going through that hence we are looking at Colchester now. Market isn't slow there either but a lot more supply and cheaper too.