Cold feet. I’m freaking out. Help me.

Tink_x

We are first time buyers and it has taken us a while to find a house. We spent about 18months actively viewing houses until we found this one - I think the main problem was not being able to decide on location. I wanted to stay in my town with family friends n near my job but partner wanted to move to another city (only 40min drive from where we are now so not really that much of a change!) anyway we found this house just up the road from where we currently rent a flat. Our offer was accepted at the end of March - we are close to exchange now but there’s been some hassle. It’s a leasehold house - £10 a year ground rent. But there’s been issues with the title. My soliciotor asked them to upgrade the title from good to absolute but this application with the land registry was rejected twice. It’s now finally been upgraded to absolute. However the solicitor can not locate the headlease mentioned within the original lease so we need indemnity policy to cover that.

Basically. I’m getting cold feet. My gut feeling is telling me it’s not the right house. I’m so stressed and feel like crying. My parents are pushing me to buy it, they think it’s a great house, good location, fair price.
My partner doesn’t seem bothered either way.
I keep changing my mind. Thinking it’s fine, it’s a good house, you’ll be ok once you’ve moved in. Then the next day I’m like no. It’s not the one. It’s not feeling right.

If we pull out we will lose around 2k which in the grand scheme of things is nothing if you know for sure it’s the right decision but short term it’s a lot of money to us and will make us short on our next attempt at purchasing a house.
I’m worried about pulling out of this and then not being able to find another house. I’ve been checking rightmove weekly since we made the offer three months ago just incase something better came up - nothing has. So this worries me. Because we are stuck looking in quite a small area because of access to local train station for partners commute.

Sorry for the long rambling post - basically has anyone had their gut feelings tell them something isn’t right and pulled out of a house sale? Did it turn out to be the right decision? Or has anyone bought a house n wish they hadn’t? Please help.

tacpot12

Please don't pull out on the basis of a gut-instinct. Gut instinct can turn out to be correct, but it can also give false alarms. There may be a reason for the gut-instinct; something that you are aware of, but which you can't put a name to. Have a hard think about what your gut-instinct is telling you: if the house too much money? Is it too close to your parents?

I expect it is, as you say, just cold feet. It can be nerve-wracking finding a house and completing the purchase; there are pitfalls, but your solicitor sounds like they are doing the right things. You will have an indemnity policy and recourse through the Legal Ombudsman, so you have a lot of cover. Your mortgage will be covered by life insurance, and I would recommend you take out some Income Protection Insurance to ensure that the mortgage can be paid what ever might happen in future.

You will enjoy having your own house, and be safe in the knowledge that you will never have to move unless you want to.

There was a book published a while ago called "Feel the fear and do it anyway". I think this is the best advice for you. :-)

letitbe90

Why is the house a leashold? Other than ground rent, are you sure you might not be liable to other charges (e.g. service charge) - I'd be concerned about that.

Plus, if you have to sell, wouldn't it being leashold put others off? I understand the rational of leasehold flats, but not so much houses...

westernpromise

Leasehold houses may be on Crown or other land where the owner basically doesn't ordinarily sell the freehold. If it's a silly lease, who cares?

The cold feet are just FTB cold feet. What would give me cold feet is decades of unfunded rent!

Davesnave

letitbe90 wrote: »

Why is the house a leashold? Other than ground rent, are you sure you might not be liable to other charges (e.g. service charge) - I'd be concerned about that.

Plus, if you have to sell, wouldn't it being leashold put others off? I understand the rational of leasehold flats, but not so much houses...

Not sure if you have taken on board the bit about indemnity insurance.

Many older houses in the north are leasehold and so are a minority in the south. My first house in Bath which cost just over £9k in 1977 was leasehold; it sold recently for £340k and was still leasehold, so it doesn't seem to put buyers off! The ground rent was, and probably still is, £5 a year.

Doodles

I think you need to ask yourself if the house wasn't leasehold and this issue hadn't come up, do you think you would be feeling the same uneasiness?

If so, then this isn't the house for you.

I do believe in gut instinct with these things, but do figure out first whether it is about this one issue, or really about the whole thing.

hb2

Is this purchase expected to be your 'forever home' or just the first step on the housing market?

When we bought our previous house, we expected to stay there for a couple of years and then move on/up. So we were not bothered about everything being exactly right, good enough was good enough. As it happened, we stayed there for 29 years!

Our current flat is intended to see us through until at least 1 of us dies. There was a lot more pressure to find something as close to perfect as possible. We have only been here a year but are very happy here and feel sure we made the right decision.

So, what I am saying is that, IMHO, a forever home needs to meet stricter criteria than a 'good enough' first step.

Tink_x

Thankyou for all the replies feeling a little better. Friend at work said I should just arrange to view it again. It’s been 3 months since we last saw it. Think having another look and feel for the house would help a lot.

Tacpot12 - that sounds like a good book. I might have to give it a read!

Letitbe90 - it’s just ground rent of £10 for the remaining 950 years. There’s no service charges or maintenance like there is with new builds.

Davesnave - yup this is a house in the north west. Well guessed

Westernpromise - the amount of rent we have spent in six years is sickening haha.

Doodles - I think most of this uncertainty has arisen from the leasehold issues the solicitors has to smooth out. If it had been freehold, it would of been a lot smoother and we’d of been in by now. So I do think maybe a lot of my nerves are about the lease rather than the house itself.

Hb2 - it’s most likely going to just be our first step onto the ladder - but time does go by so quickly, before you know it it’s 10years later and you still haven’t moved. We were only suppose to rent for two years...six years later still stuck here! I’d like to think in the future I’d have my “dream home” but that doesn’t happen for a lot of people.