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Would you view it?

Having a little dilemma at the moment, I have seen the below house and fallen in love, it's more or less exactly what I'm looking for.

http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-47208307.html

I'm booked in to attend an open day on it but a concern has been raised by the agent when I booked it. The vendor wants all potential buyers to be financially verified before viewings, which is fine by me, I can appreciate they would want a stable buyer but the EA also mentioned that the house was offered on in a previous sale with a mortgage and the mortgage had full retention placed on it which is when that sale fell through.

Sadly they could not say what the value or extent of work the mortgage retention was for.

I know that there is clearly a lot of work to be done on this house but I also know that it has the potential to be a great home for a long time and also a good investment based on values in the area and as I say, it's exactly the type of house I envision buying. but I'm now apprehensive about viewing the house as I know there is a 99.9% chance of me falling in love, but I would hate to fall in love and offer, only to be thwarted by retention later on. My partner and I don't currently have a lot of money extra saved outside of our deposit, we could save about £2000 in the next couple of months but apart from that we won't have much to pay with.

I'm the kind of person who would feel very emotional if everything went wrong. If you put yourself in my shoes, would you view the house and offer on it, risking the potential of retention and having to drop out, or would I be better off preserving my emotions and cancel the viewing?
Paid off my debts, saved up my cash and now I'm finally buying my own home!
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Comments

  • TheCyclingProgrammer
    TheCyclingProgrammer Posts: 3,702 Forumite
    Ninth Anniversary 1,000 Posts Photogenic
    edited 21 November 2014 pm30 5:15PM
    What have you fallen in love with exactly? I suppose it might have potential but right now it looks like a s**thole.

    Full retention to me suggests some serious structural or damp problems, but I'm no expert. At the very least the place needs gutting and I suspect you'll find redecorating to be the least of your concerns. It also needs reconfiguring upstairs to turn it into a proper 3 bed house.

    To answer your question: I wouldn't have even clicked on the listing! I think it's sad that people neglect properties to such an extent they end up looking like that.
  • Ahh...are you sure you've posted the right link?
    It really doesn't look anything special, certainly not worth jumping through hoops for.
    If you an your partner don't have much saved up how are you going to be able to do the work it needs?
  • What have you fallen in love with exactly? I suppose it might have potential but right now it looks like a s**thole.

    That's a very fair question and I know that I am probably in a major minority of usual buyers but I absolutely love old, tired houses (and just old things in general really)

    My mum raised my brother and I in crappy houses like this and did them up gradually over the years as it was all she could afford to do as a single mum in the 90's with a poor job, but I always mucked in to help in diy and decorating and we had fun doing it. I suppose that has rubbed off on me over the years (we've moved into 3 such houses over the years, most recent one being the worst which we moved into 5 years ago) and is probably mainly to blame for my desire to do the same with my own home.
    Paid off my debts, saved up my cash and now I'm finally buying my own home!
  • Lord_Baltimore
    Lord_Baltimore Posts: 1,348 Forumite
    edited 21 November 2014 pm30 5:28PM
    Hmmm, you need a close look at that place. It is quaintly dated but the decor is original which means not much has been going on to maintain the property. Looks like it needs a re-wire and central heating and is that damp on the bedroom wall?

    There's a commode too so older people were the occupiers (I suppose that's pretty obvious anyway!) and they tend not to do things that need doing in a house.

    Get your business head on. Falling in love with property is like juggling fire - sooner or later, you will get burnt.
    Mornië utulië
  • Seems overpriced though when you consider that for the same amount you can get this
    http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-47197069.html
    Which looks a similar size but has central heating, double glazing and looks to be in generally good condition.
  • AnnieBox
    AnnieBox Posts: 116 Forumite
    Debt-free and Proud!
    edited 21 November 2014 pm30 5:35PM
    Seems overpriced though when you consider that for the same amount you can get this
    http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-47197069.html
    Which looks a similar size but has central heating, double glazing and looks to be in generally good condition.

    We viewed that house yesterday and absolutley hated it! It's tiny in person and the whole house is built on an angle, the rooms are all parallelogram shaped and small in usable size, I wouldn't even pay £100k for it. Even the staircase was angled which made me feel rather drunk trying to walk up and down them!
    If you an your partner don't have much saved up how are you going to be able to do the work it needs?

    If we could get the house, we could save enough money to get really important things done first, for example central heating, electrics and damp. My partner and I both live with parents at the moment, so we aren't in a position where we would need to immediately move into the new house which would give us some breathing room to get essential works done. For cosmetic stuff, we are happy to live in it and just do it up a room at a time sort of thing.
    Paid off my debts, saved up my cash and now I'm finally buying my own home!
  • How much do you expect to need to spend on the property before you even get to the redecorating stage? Central heating and electrics will probably cost thousands, damp could cost thousands but depends on the cause, then there's the inevitable things that you don't yet know about that come up in the survey and the things that get missed too! What are the windows like? Does it need new glazing?

    As a ballpark, I think you could easily spend £20k on the house addressing the above issues, reconfiguring upstairs, gutting the place etc. and that's before you even start on new kitchen, bathroom and decorating throughout.

    It could easily cost you £30-40k to get the house into tip top condition. How much would you expect the house to be worth then? Will you see any of that money back, assuming you could afford it in the first place? There will be a limit to how much you'll get for that house regardless of the work done on it.
  • dimbo61
    dimbo61 Posts: 13,727 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Name Dropper Photogenic
    No it needs far too much work and cash buyer as you will not get a mortgage in the state it is in
  • I'd have to agree with the velocipedal code monkey. It looks like a money pit.
  • Cissi
    Cissi Posts: 1,131 Forumite
    Personally my first thought was that I'd landed on the wrong thread and that this was supposed to be on the "have a look at this" thread :rotfl: but after reading your further posts I want to say good for you! This probably does have the potential to turn into something lovely, in the right hands - you'd just have to be really sure that you know what you're getting into.


    My concern, from your first post, would be that there is a bit of wishful thinking in there and that you may perhaps miss some essential structural problems? Make sure to keep your practical hat on if you do go and view it, and if you like it, try to get someone knowledgeable (a builder friend maybe?) to come back with you. And in your shoes I'd want a full structural survey, and maybe pay for additional ones as well, to make sure that you know what you're getting yourselves into.
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