First time buyer: three bedroom in Belper

zeroRPM

Me and my partner have been looking for a house on/off for 9 months now. We've been through many iterations of what we want and have settled on Belper. It looks like a beautiful place and has quite a few period properties and houses with great views which we really like.


We've seen one house we particularly like and are considering if to put in our first ever offer. That's led me here to read through all the helpful advice and benefit from the experience of others.


We have a deposit of about £40k and can afford mortgages up to about £230k (at least on the calculators) but we'd like to keep the mortgage <£200k and not use all the deposit money, just enough to make an 85% LTV.


The house is this one: [see post below].

The list price is £230k and as far as we can tell nobody has made an offer yet but the house hasn't been listed long.


I couldn't see there being anything immediately concerning about the integrity of the house, although it is c100 years old. A few niggles were:
Single glazing almost exclusively throughout

One fire place needs work doing to not get damanged when using it
The bathroom is at the bottom of 4 floors (master is on the top floor) which would probably be annoying for a family (which we plan to have there)
The ceiling of one of the bedrooms has cracks in it and looked like it was sagging (the cracks seems to have a square shape, so maybe whatever the ceiling is made off is in square shapes?)
There's no parking, just on street - but this is common in Belper



Stage 2 of my research has been trying to get a decent valuation of the house; this is difficult as there aren't too many similar properties around as spacious as this one. From what I can tell the vendors have listed it at a bit of an aspirational price as they don't yet have a house they are buying and hence have time to test the market. To the best of my abilities I estimate the value to be £200-£215k based on:
High end of the 'hometrack' range - £194k

High end of the zoopla range - £195k

Mid price of the mouseprice value - £215k

High end of the inflated 2011 purchase price - £201k


My inclination is to wait a bit for the vendors to get a feel for the market, assuming nobody offers the list price outright. However, I'm under pressure from my partner so am wondering how the bank would value the house and if that would cause problems if we offered too much.

Any thoughts/reflections/suggestions would be really appreciated as well as insight into pricing and negotiating approach!



House buying is stressful alread :eek:

lindens

https://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-64561098.html

this one?

zeroRPM

Yep that's the one

need_an_answer

Have you actually viewed the house in person?



My concern at looking at the floorplans is that the only bathroom appears to be in the basement...it looks a nice bathroom but
I bet its a faff in the night if you sleep in the attic room and need the loo.

That doesn't lend itself to a family situation in any shape or form in my mind so unless there were the ability to put at least a loo in somewhere in a higher floor its not that practical.

how does that situation fit with you and how you would use the house?

Its quite pretty inside but I suspect that a lot of work has been done to make it attractive but they have overlooked the bones of the house

zeroRPM

Yes we have - and agreed it's probably the biggest drawback for the house.
It'd also be very difficult/expensive to add another bathroom/reorganise rooms...


We'd have to get bedpans


We don't have a family currently so there probably is time to add another bathroom - the middle floor bedrooms are quite sizeable and the larger one's above the kitchen (for plumbing considerations). We could probably cope for a couple of years but I agree long term we'd need to figure out how to add a bathroom.


I'm also worried that'd leave the current bathroom stranded...

sal_III

Only 1 loo in the basement, quite the hike from the attic "main" bedroom. Also look overpriced, compared to 3-bed semi down the street with garage at £200k

https://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-75275783.html

need_an_answer

The EPC is interesting too...its quite low and although its valid for 10 years and technically doesn't need updating I would have thought that if substantial work has been done on the property since it last changed hands in 2011 they would have at least spent £60 or so in updating the EPC.


What work have the current owners done on the property since they purchased?


It could be that they have done extensive cosmetic work that was expensive and have set the price of the property at what they want to achieve taking the work into consideration rather than what the property value actually is.


Is it in a conservation area that would prevent the windows from being upgraded or as I said earlier have they refurbed cosmetically rather than paying attention to things like windows,electrics,heating and the roof.

You clearly like the house and are smitten...but bedpans...no way!

davidmcn

How old is the loft conversion? And how compliant it is with things like fire safety - the floorplan doesn't have a door marked on it. If the saggy ceiling is below it then maybe it's the culprit?

need_an_answer

zeroRPM wrote: »

Yes we have - and agreed it's probably the biggest drawback for the house.
It'd also be very difficult/expensive to add another bathroom/reorganise rooms...


We'd have to get bedpans


We don't have a family currently so there probably is time to add another bathroom - the middle floor bedrooms are quite sizeable and the larger one's above the kitchen (for plumbing considerations). We could probably cope for a couple of years but I agree long term we'd need to figure out how to add a bathroom.


I'm also worried that'd leave the current bathroom stranded...

If you're looking at ways to put in a bathroom between existing bedrooms and loosing them from doubles to singles or at least 1 single then I suspect its the wrong house for you.

Find something that's a little less pretty with a better base layout and make the changes to it that you want....don't take an already prettied house that has a price ticket to reflect that and then change it...that's a very expensive way of doing it....

hazyjo

It's lovely - BUT I'd rule it out due to that basement bathroom. (I'd rule it out with a ground floor bathroom!) Absolutely totally impractical.


Also, spotted an extension lead - and played hunt the plug socket. Think I clocked another in the kitchen. Am guessing they will be very sparse (not great - I live in an Edwardian house like that). Yes, you can add some, but ideally you want a project for that. Not a 'done' house.


It's all fur coat and no knickers I'm afraid. Would rather buy one with character and do the nice decorating, etc myself.


Plus it must be on quite a steep hill so I'd be wary about cracks, subsidence, etc.

zeroRPM

Thanks for the link Sal - I agree that it is a good 'check' on the price, that one also has an en-suite and plenty of utility spaces.


Need:

I agree about the EPC. My guess is that of the list of potential upgrades there is only LED lighting completed and therefore it won't make a big difference to the score.


I haven't got a full run-down of the work done but I'd say mostly cosmetic - fixing chimneys, some woodwork on the windows, new oven. Still I could imagine £10k or so spend, its really hard to tell though. They'd said that they + family had done most of the work though.


Great comment about the conservation area - it will be. It looks like most permitted development rights are removed and therefore planning permission would be required to replace the windows. I guess that means you could still replace them but it would be more expensive?! Further research required I think.


Bedpans was just a joke - I'm here trying to reign in the smitten-ness. Its lovely but I am a well practiced party pooper