What are important factors when buying a cheaper house?

redbabe

Hi

More advice needed I’m afraid. I’ve had a survey carried out on the house I was planning on buying. Some structural issues have arisen (house built around 1900’s) along with a collection of other work that should also be carried out. My dad (retired painter and decorator so has a reasonable idea about these things) went to view the property yesterday and reckons that too much work needs to be carried out and to only buy it if they reduce the asking price significantly – ie about £15-20000. He’s worried that if I don’t do the work I’ll struggle to sell it on and if I do the work I’ll lose money once I come to sell it.

I am looking at the cheap end of the market and I’m confused over what the important things are and the not so important things when buying at the low end. For example I’ve been told location is really important, not to buy where you go through a bedroom to get to the bathroom or where the bathroom is downstairs, if its got cladding/pebbledash on the outside of the house etc etc.
What are your opinions? What is the most important thing?
Many of the houses I’ve looked at have these ‘issues’, the house I was planning on buying didn’t but if so much work needs doing does this outweigh the issues above.

The survey report says nothing about holding any money back but it does say that the property is a reasonable purchase so long as I am prepared to accept the cost and inconvenience of dealing with the various repair/improvement works reported. My dad pointed out some problems that the surveyor only briefly mentioned eg kitchen ceiling is dipping a lot and as it is polystyrene is hiding something pretty bad.

I suppose I’m worried that I’ll pull out of this one (can’t see vendors dropping the price significantly) only to find that other low end priced property would also need significant work doing on it.

Any advice, comments etc welcome. Thanks

Norma_Desmond

An old property is always a labour of love and does need ongoing maintenance; however when we bought our 200 year old house the only things that mattered to us was that it was structurally sound and didn't let in the rain!
Everything else can be sorted out in time - a downstairs bathroom or pebbledash may be a bit of an inconvenience and reduce the price/attractiveness a BIT but if you're buying it as a home, who cares?