Anticlimax After Purchase?

MovingForwards

Nope. Will be mid 40s this year. Saved for 3.5 years when I started my life over and my purchase completed in May.

My home (tenement flat) is 110 years old, has some original features, others span over the last 40 years.

It was a rental for at least 10 years before I got it, but prior to that someone cared for the flat as there are some hidden beauties.

Every morning I open the blinds and look out at the water and hills. I sit on my sofa or go room to room and smile as I look around knowing it's mine.
The artex ceilings in some rooms, the woodchip wallpaper in the lounge and hall, the 70s wallpaper tucked away in cupboards, evidence of the old paint scheme in the kitchen cupboards, it's all mine.
The added bonus of a private garden, where now it's receiving TLC flowers and other things have woken from their deep sleep, together with the history I'm finding when working in it.
The pleasure I get seeing old photos and my building in them, knowing I've made my home in this former old village.

Maybe it's different for me as I didn't max myself out to buy and will be mortgage free in 10 years.

Davesnave

grumiofoundation said:

Davesnave said:

In my experience, it's like being married. You wake up in somewhere like Torquay and think, "Did I just dream that?"

Then you realise, yes, it is Torquay (this was a long time ago!) and that orange sitting room hasn't gone away overnight, so you might as well get down to B&Q.....

We were robbed on honeymoon and left with £4 to buy petrol to get home. All the houses we've bought have been similar in having nasty surprises hidden in a sugar (or artex) coating, but like your partner, you get to know all the quirks, nooks and crannies and it becomes familiar and safe.

So then you get the 7 year itch....

and then you open a hotel...

It's felt like it since lockdown ended, but we are in a nice location, with a caravan or two. Not Torquay though!

Secretsusie

Only once, a new build.   Other purchases before where doer uppers and always had plans of what to do and doing them up made them mine.  The new build, well moved it and it never felt homely, was there ten years, but never had the feeling about it.  

Falafels

Last time I bought, years ago now, it had been a difficult sale and a difficult purchase, and adrenaline had somehow kept me going though the horrendous process. I had a real downer once all that had gone away.

Not for long, though....

fiwen30

MovingForwards said:

Nope. Will be mid 40s this year. Saved for 3.5 years when I started my life over and my purchase completed in May.

My home (tenement flat) is 110 years old, has some original features, others span over the last 40 years.

It was a rental for at least 10 years before I got it, but prior to that someone cared for the flat as there are some hidden beauties.

Every morning I open the blinds and look out at the water and hills. I sit on my sofa or go room to room and smile as I look around knowing it's mine.
The artex ceilings in some rooms, the woodchip wallpaper in the lounge and hall, the 70s wallpaper tucked away in cupboards, evidence of the old paint scheme in the kitchen cupboards, it's all mine.
The added bonus of a private garden, where now it's receiving TLC flowers and other things have woken from their deep sleep, together with the history I'm finding when working in it.
The pleasure I get seeing old photos and my building in them, knowing I've made my home in this former old village.

Maybe it's different for me as I didn't max myself out to buy and will be mortgage free in 10 years.

This is lovely @MovingForwards. Sometimes this forum gets so hung up on numbers, and statistics, and legalese (which are important!), that the loving descriptions of how we live in, and feel about, our homes gets lost.

iwb100

I think this happens when you've not properly viewed/surveyed a house. I know we were down the line with a house well over a decade ago and we'd viewed it a couple of times but each time was a bit rushed for various reasons. We decided not to do a full survey as it wasn't too old (and we were foolish) so instead went for a third viewing with our builder friend who lived on the same street we were moving from. This time the owner wasn't in the agent couldn't be bothered, so the owner simply left a key with the neighbour who was meant to come round with us but instead gave us the key and said to pop it back when we were done. Instantly upon walking in we noticed how much smaller it felt - clearly for two previous viewings everything had been put away but now they hadn't bothered. Then we noticed that the kitchen which looked pretty new was completely botched - it looked all nice shiny gloss cupboards on previous viewings but now as we looked more closely we realised the finishes didn't all match, the plinths were actually a slightly off white and nothing was quite fixed properly - one cupboard didn't even open the right way! Clearly a home fitting job from random offcuts! House was only about 20 years old so obviously new owners just wanted to update kitchen on the cheap.

Then as we went round we just kept finding little things that were just not right or how we imagined them - the bathroom smelled very musty and revealed very quickly a shower leak that clearly was ongoing - the main bedroom ensuite didn't have a working fan and so on and so on. Obviously isolated small things but the overall impact was to make the house far less appealing. We wouldn't have pulled out over these things even though they took the shine off - what we did pull out over were signs that the extension was starting to 'sink' according to our builder friend and subsequent structural survey confirmed there were definite problems to address - that alone again might not have been a deal breaker but combined with a long list of 'issues' that on a proper viewing became very apparent was more than enough reason for us at the time. In the end that house went back on the market was SSTC again but never completed and we learned from the EA that current owners had ended up having to spend close to £20K to fix the extension issue and further amounts to improve other aspects before they sold a number of years later.

It taught as a valuable lesson - always view properly when you can assess 'behind the curtain' and always survey. But if we'd moved in without that third view I'm sure we'd have had buyers remorse as the issues and costs totted up and I reckon quite quickly the day one excitement would have evaporated. Always know (as best you can) exactly what it is you're buying. 

RelievedSheff

We had some regrets about our first house we bought together which were not helped by the pick up truck we had borrowed to move house being stolen on our first night in the property. After that we never really felt at home living in that house, not helped by having nightmare attached neighbours as well. We never fully settled in that house but found ourselves stuck there for 12 years due to a combination of negative equity and not being able to afford the move.

Last year we finally managed to move to a detached new build in a different town and it instantly felt like home. From the moment we moved in we felt settled. We have been in 18 months now, over lock down the OH went through the house sorting out the drying out cracks and decorating most of the rooms and putting our own stamp on the place, turning it from a bland white out of the box house into our long term home. We have a couple of minor snags to sort still which should hopefully be sorted out next week but it is now feeling like a finished home.

Soot2006

hazyjo said:

Not for me. Although I do for several months think I've bought a lemon and every creak, or when something breaks, has me worrying the house is about to fall down or blow up.

I'm so glad that's not just me. Even when I love the house, I assume the worst.  Years later, when the house is actually  falling to pieces around I'm more of a Shrug person  ... same with vehicles. New-to-me vehicles are not allowed to do anything but hum quietly and behave perfectly ... even if they're already 10 years old.

[Deleted User]

I always imagined buying my first property with someone else & when I eventually realised that wasn't the path for me I think I buried those thoughts.
So when I actually received the keys and realised I'd be living alone and there wouldn't be any cute 'firsts' with someone else I was gutted. 
In hindsight, I'm glad that I bought alone and live alone, but at the time it was horrible. Plus everyone was telling me I should be so happy and I didn't feel it. 
Luckily, those negative feelings don't last. 

Hannimal

I am expecting that this will happen to me and no, it is not buyers remorse.
The simple fact is that currently I am renting a beautiful flat in the city centre and I love living here. However, a similar flat across the street sold fro £450 000 recently. My budget as a FTB is £250k. Whatever I viewed is further out of the centre and in worse condition. I have pretty much maxed my budget on the place I am buying and I cannot afford all the things I want to do to the house to make it 'perfect'. While I am overwhelmingly happy to be getting out of the cycle of paying £1100pcm to my landlord who owns over 80 rentals in this city, I am also aware that it will be a downgrade in my living standard for quite some while. 
How could it not be a bit of an anticlimax?