Things I wish i knew before buying my house

gab3x

For those of us who purchased our first, second or third home - what are the most valuable lessons learned that we wish we knew before? I'll start with few of mine:

I wish I knew:

• I'd hate living in London, would have saved me a couple of miserable years and an unnecessary flat purchase in Zone 2 before we moved to Surrey
• full implications of being a lessee. If I did I would have never entered into leasehold agreement, thank God out of it now
• to measure on second viewing if my expensive sofa will fit through the doors or my new house, I could have sold the sofa prior to moving
• not to get fixed mortgage on too long a period when I got my first home (portering doesn't always work)

What are your lessons learned?

[Deleted User]

What did i learn ?
Not to expect the whole process to be even remotely swift moving, that 6 months is absolutely normal.

lookstraightahead

Strangely years ago my first hone was in Surrey and I wish I'd lived in central London. Bought far too early in life and was in the wrong place for me.

By far I wish I hadn't bought so young, had not thought it so important to get on the ladder, and waited until I was ready and settled. 

I wish I had known what a burden house ownership is when getting divorced. Owning a house can be a noose around your neck.

all is good now 😂

gab3x

lookstraightahead said:

Strangely years ago my first hone was in Surrey and I wish I'd lived in central London. Bought far too early in life and was in the wrong place for me.

By far I wish I hadn't bought so young, had not thought it so important to get on the ladder, and waited until I was ready and settled. 

I wish I had known what a burden house ownership is when getting divorced. Owning a house can be a noose around your neck.

all is good now 😂

Amazing how we had totally two opposite experiences  

gab3x

[Deleted User] said:

What did i learn ?
Not to expect the whole process to be even remotely swift moving, that 6 months is absolutely normal.

So, so true. I am an obsessive control freak and it almost broke me.

Markneath

I would agree with the house ownership issue and divorce. 

Apart from a pension nearly all my money at the time was tied up in a property I had no access too. 

Flugelhorn

What did I wish I knew? That I was about to meet my future husband - so we ended up with 2 houses, might have waited if I had known. 
Just buying our 10th (not all at the same time you understand - maximum was 3 at once and no I would recommend that) 

TheJP

I learnt to manage my expectations and keep a level head, its never straight forward so expect some issues.

Skylon

How much I’d hate living in my lovely house in a village compared to my duplex apartment in the centre of town.  I have previously lived in both villages and town so was not expecting to hate it. The purchase almost fell through so many times (due to the rest of the chain). I wish it had! 

I decided after less than two months that it wasn’t for me.  I was going to aim to stick it out for two years, but decided life is too short to be miserable so i’m the move back to where I was. 

MovingForwards

If knew lockdown would happen partway through my purchase, and that I would have been working from home for 20 months, I would have purchased further up the county. It was 60 miles away from my job and would have caused my lender to raise an eyebrow due to my low income.

No regrets, I love my home, but tomorrow I start a new job in the area I wanted to buy in. 

ProDave

I wish I had known how dishonest estate agents were.  I was tricked by "another bidder" (who I don't believe now ever existed) into paying more for the property.

I also wish I had known more about financing a purchase.  Before I bought my first house (a new developer box on an estate) I had the chance to buy a building plot.  I tried to finance that but got the answer we won't lend to buy the plot but we will lend to build a house once you have a plot.  I wish I had tried harder then, because if my first house could have been a self build it would have been so much better.  I had to wait another 30 years to achieve my aim of self building.