Any regrets about decisions you made as a FTB?

leftism

We are FTBs, and a few months ago my mindset was- can’t believe we can buy a house! It’s daunting so let’s try and get something under budget that doesn’t need any work doing. We need it to be near good primaries (we’ve got babies) but if it’s not near a good secondary, we can always move again in a few years. At least we’ll be on the ladder.

But the more I look and think, the more I feel like I’d regret doing that. And we should just stretch ourselves to the biggest place in the nicest area. Even iffy needs loads of work and we’ve got to borrow a bit from family to afford it and we won’t have the cash to do it up straight away, at least we’ll know we’re in a place that could eventually become our dream home.

Any of you have any similar backs and forth a when you were FTBs? Or any other things you’d wished you had done if you could go back?

RelievedSheff

If we had known then what we know now we wouldn't have bought the first house that we did.

It was an ex council house in a not great area which we bought in 2007 right before the housing market nose dived. A combination of negative equity, nightmare neighbours and house prices struggling to reach previous levels in the area meant that it was only last year that we finally moved away from that house.

The house itself was nice. A great starter home but the area let it down.

We wished we had spent more and bought somewhere in a nicer area.

Doozergirl

Living in a house that needs work or is having work done makes me utterly miserable. But I also want things exactly the way I want them, so I love a wreck but am a bit of a princess.

The first time was okay because I stayed at my
mum's and left him to it.

20 years on, I just wish we'd kept our second flat in London and rented it out

Moneyminded

The only regret I had as a FTB was the person I chose to buy with.

leftism

Moneyminded wrote: »

The only regret I had as a FTB was the person I chose to buy with.

Who was it? Just so I can make sure I don’t buy a house with them.

gaz_moose

believing that the charming old couple selling the place were a charming old couple, when infact they were bodge artists and liars.

nomorekids

Leasehold

If I had my time again I would never have bought leasehold anything

kuratowski

My regret is using the "free" conveyancing service that came as an incentive with my mortgage

DD265

I don't regret it; we bought the right house for us based on what we knew at the time (that time being a year ago that we moved in).

If I'd known how much I'd love having a garden, we might've looked for a house with a bigger garden. Given our budget we'd definitely have had to compromise on something to get that though.

Also we have a conservatory that we use for a dining room, and I didn't realise how cold it'd be in winter/hot in summer. If we'd realised, that might've affected our decision as the living space downstairs isn't massive otherwise.

GoingOn30

I regret buying a place that we feel like we have slightly outgrown in a short space of time (bought 2 years ago and looking at moving on in 12 months-ish).
Buying/selling and moving costs are so high that I think I would hold out to get slightly more space and buy somewhere that we could have stayed in for at least 4 or 5 years. Spending on solicitors and stamp duty feels like throwing money down the drain.

steampowered

I regret buying a place a bit too far from work. The commute was too much.