Any regrets about decisions you made as a FTB?

katkatmachine

I’m curious, how long is your commute?

ian1246

My only real (slight) regret is listening to my dad and partner's dad when deciding what sort of survey to have - we went with just a valuation survey, on the basis that the house looked completely sound and it would save us a few hundred £££.

As it is, our house, so far has been absolutely fine so they were right in their advice - We ve lived in it for 5 years this November. The issue is now that we are starting to think about vaguely selling (maybe.... undecided!), I worry that any future buyer will have a survey done and discover something we are currently unaware of which could sink any future house move/sale.

In terms of maintenance over the last 5 years - we've replaced the old Aluminium Patio Doors with modern PVC, replaced the rotten wooden back door with modern PVC & we had to decommission the back-boiler after its yearly service revealed it had been leaking water (we'd live there 2 & 1/2 years by then!). More recently... we ve had issues with the guttering being blocked and have finally started decorating (previous d!cor was dated but fine... just "old lady") - so we ve been quite lucky really.

In terms of the house itself: We stretched as far as we could, getting a 3 bed semi-detached extended house with off-road parking and a garage, in a really nice area of the village I grew up in, a few miles from family & within 30-45mins commute for both of our works, with the Primary & Secondary Schools (which I went to!) both rated as "Good" currently.

Best decision we ever made - fortunately I was able to persuade my then girlfriend (now wife) to stretch as high as possible, whereas she originally preferred a 2 bed house. Now we re actively trying to start a family so having a 3bed house is handy....

So... I'd strongly suggest pushing as far as possible. Only other tip I'd give is pay attention to the extension if your looking at any houses: our house has an extension which is absolutely fine... except its built the wrong way around! Its at the rear of the house with the kitchen located in it, opening onto the dining room. The bit which is wrong about it? Its half the width of the house, on the "left" hand side of the rear of the house, with the right hand side of the rear of the house consisting of a patio (opening onto the lawn) & a set of patio doors opening into the dining room - something which sounds lovely, until you realise the sun comes from the left hand side.... meaning the patio and patio-doors are in constant shade! If the extension had just been "flipped" on its side and was the whole length of the house we'd have a much brighter/sunnier kitchen/dining room!

olgadapolga

That we didn't wait until we could afford a detached house. We settled for a semi and the "attached" neighbours were just awful. Then they moved out and sold to people who were worse. The neighbours on the other side weren't much better.

I loved the house, adored my garden but hated the noisy, inconsiderate neighbours. Although both sets did such stupid things that we had quite a laugh at their expense. The latter set of neighbours had a thing about sheds and used to move his around his garden at regular intervals. When we left he had about four and was attempting to build another one, but clearly didn't realise that the LA required him to have planning permission due to the position it was in. There were other things as well but I'm not sorry that we left, although I occasionally missed my house, but I think that was mainly because we ended up in a rented property.

Best thing we did was to buy our detached home. It needs a lot of work but we never hear our neighbours, who are all lovely, considerate and kind people.

leftism

Incredibly helpful.

You’re confirming what I was thinking. Better to really stretch now and live on beans and toast for a bit with an ugly kitchen and bathroom, in somewhere we won’t have to move from in a few years and pay all the associated costs.

Then, maybe instead of moving we can get an extension ��

suki1964

Buying a doer upper and having to live in it whilst work was ongoing

Not so bad as my husband is a builder but I didn't realise how much work was actually required

We moved in on a Thursday and on Saturday morning I took the dog out for a walk and came home 30 mins later to find the living room ceiling was on the floor :eek:

And that was the start of 18 months of ripping out, including two months with no back wall and the back of the house opened to the elements with me having to cook on the BBQ

The only thing left of the original house by time we sold was the front wall and the roof

Never again

silvercar

My only regret was selling it.

Bought for 49k in 1986, sold for £63k in 1988. Now it is worth around £300k. If only let to buy had been a thing in the 80s I'd have held on to it.

Davesnave

nomorekids wrote: »

Leasehold

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

Same old nonsensical blanket slagging-off of leases, which are very common in some parts of the country, but maybe you don't know that all leases aren't equal?

Yours may have been unsatisfactory, but my first house was leasehold and I paid a shade over £9k for it. It last sold in 2014 for £340k.

It's still leasehold.

anfieldred

I wish we'd stood up to the estate agent more, who was an absolute **** and wouldn't communicate with me even though the mortgage and house was in my name only - kept going to my wife, and messing us around.

Also, I wish I hadn't bought an older house (1930s) - keep finding problems now and botch jobs that the previous owners did

Davesnave

olgadapolga wrote: »

That we didn't wait until we could afford a detached house. .

Realistically, however, in many places an FTB would be the wrong side of middle aged before this could happen. Fine, if it's possible.

We had 34 years of being semi-detached in two houses. We never had a neighbour issue, but people like us don't tend to report how easy it is living next door to other reasonable people. Not interesting!

Now, we have a 5 acre buffer zone and a troublesome, unreasonable neighbour at the other end of it who needs 'management.' We also have a very civilised difference of opinion with another, which means possible legal work.

No matter where you live, there is no guarantee that you'll have reasonable people next door.

coffeehound

Buying off-plan.
Underestimating the total costs of buying