julicorn's journey 2 - Moving Up

Karmacat

Lady Gnome's queries, and your comments, are great, they take you a lot further forward in finding out what's right for you.  Knowing what was so good about your current flat is also a plus - moving for the sake of it would be a no-no!

I'm not surprised you've booked to view that Portslade house - great house, great space, quiet area, definite wfh ability and "shed" space galore.  

I love the way people are so conscious now of why they're moving and what's right for them - I went with gut instinct most of the time, and the one I'm currently in is a complete compromise that I never **loved** as such, and that hasn't gone away.

julicorn

Absolutely @Karmacat, I'm honestly really glad I posted the details here, all the comments and questions are helping me a lot. I've also been sharing them with Mr julicorn along the way, he helped come up with the list of things we are looking for / don't have in our current flat. 

We've just booked one more for Friday which I am actually really excited about, it's also really nice and central and has quite a decent outdoor space for where it is.  It actually seems fairly cheap, so I'm wondering if there's anything "wrong" with it I'm missing from the listing, but at the moment I'll just allow myself to be enthusiastic about it  
 http://www.rightmove.co.uk/s6p/107583527
(Mr julicorn is concerned about the ceiling height because he always is, at 6'3" he's got some minor "hitting his head" paranoia in anything that isn't a cathedral basically )

Sistergold

“http://www.rightmove.co.uk/s6p/107583527“
 This one makes more sense, lots of character still, more space and less money. The first one I just struggled with £650k and the size of it, ofcause price depends on area and all but? Off all things are okay on this last post it seems a better purchase if commute is still okay. 

Price might be because it’s next to door it’s commercial use? More noise perhaps 🤔? 

JennyP

Interesting to find this new diary as I followed your old one a bit back in 2018 and started one myself. But I haven't been on the forum so much in the last three years. Just logged on out of interest this evening as I'll be mortgage free in one month's time! 

Very jealous that you're moving. Keep fantasising about another move myself but am yet to persuade my OH. That blue house - the last one you posted - is gorgeous. I'd love to live by the sea! 

julicorn

Sistergold said:

“http://www.rightmove.co.uk/s6p/107583527“
This one makes more sense, lots of character still, more space and less money. The first one I just struggled with £650k and the size of it, ofcause price depends on area and all but? Off all things are okay on this last post it seems a better purchase if commute is still okay. 

Price might be because it’s next to door it’s commercial use? More noise perhaps 🤔? 

The commute is great from there, the main bus route runs along Western Road so pretty much straight past it

I wouldn't be surprised if this one went for way above asking, but we have some wiggle room of course so that's good. The commercial use next door is a good point, I suppose whatever shop it is atm could change in the future too. 

I wonder what "offers in region of" really means on the twitten house, if we did like it I'd be inclined to low-ball an offer on it. From other sold prices on the terrace, around £625k seems more reasonable. As much as you can call 625 for a 2 bed house "reasonable"

julicorn

JennyP said:

Interesting to find this new diary as I followed your old one a bit back in 2018 and started one myself. But I haven't been on the forum so much in the last three years. Just logged on out of interest this evening as I'll be mortgage free in one month's time! 

Very jealous that you're moving. Keep fantasising about another move myself but am yet to persuade my OH. That blue house - the last one you posted - is gorgeous. I'd love to live by the sea! 

Oh that is lovely, thanks so much for stopping by! Congratulations on your almost-mortgage-freedom too, that's a great position to be in. What sort of thing are you looking for with a potential move?

And yeah, I really like the blue house. It could be the best of both worlds, fingers crossed it holds up in person.

LadyGnome

The blue house looks well worth a visit.  Looking at street view, you have a school and a church across the road so that might be affecting the price.

I do think your ideas are starting to crystallise around what really matters to you and what you would comfortably compromise on.  For example, for me a reasonable garden was non-negotiable as we had children and I like growing stuff.  MrG wasn't so bothered and yet he spends more time out there than anyone (I knew he would because he is from a rural/outdoors background).

It actually makes the search easier, provided you don't have rigid list, because you can go into a property and think yes this is 90% there and the other 10% I can live without / work around. 

Sistergold

£625k is a good offer I think but hey offers are going to crazy over asking at present it seems? I am one person who is terrible at negotiating! I also have a terrible habit of explaining away why I did not negotiate or why I allowed myself to overpay. 

After viewing I think what you offer will also be influenced by how desperate you want the house? If you don’t mind losing the house then offering what you think is reasonable will do and then if someone else offers asking you then just say whatever I guess? 🤷‍♀️

There seems to be a disparity between what is reasonable and what is an accepted offer at the moment in the housing market. 

The pain of overpaying does fade away within a couple of years I found. 

julicorn

LadyGnome said:

The blue house looks well worth a visit.  Looking at street view, you have a school and a church across the road so that might be affecting the price.

I do think your ideas are starting to crystallise around what really matters to you and what you would comfortably compromise on.  For example, for me a reasonable garden was non-negotiable as we had children and I like growing stuff.  MrG wasn't so bothered and yet he spends more time out there than anyone (I knew he would because he is from a rural/outdoors background).

It actually makes the search easier, provided you don't have rigid list, because you can go into a property and think yes this is 90% there and the other 10% I can live without / work around. 

Oooh this is great, thank you. I hadn't noticed the school yet - the church is a weird plus, we've been living silly close to churches all along (including our current back garden being overlooked by one), so it's become a bit of a tradition for us
And you're right about getting a clearer idea. It's funny because I've been trawling rightmove for literal years now, but the last few days of the comments here and talking way more with Mr julicorn have made things clearer already. I wonder if the actual viewings will help more or throw spanners in the works, haha!

julicorn

Sistergold said:

£625k is a good offer I think but hey offers are going to crazy over asking at present it seems? I am one person who is terrible at negotiating! I also have a terrible habit of explaining away why I did not negotiate or why I allowed myself to overpay. 

After viewing I think what you offer will also be influenced by how desperate you want the house? If you don’t mind losing the house then offering what you think is reasonable will do and then if someone else offers asking you then just say whatever I guess? 🤷‍♀️

There seems to be a disparity between what is reasonable and what is an accepted offer at the moment in the housing market. 

The pain of overpaying does fade away within a couple of years I found. 

Here they usually do too, but things that are more niche sometimes have a habit of sticking around a little longer. I think people know roughly what they want for their money, and 2 bedrooms for £650k isn't always that around here

To be honest, if it goes over asking or there's some sort of bidding war for this one, that catapults us out of the running.  We can do £650k but that's pretty much where our budget tops out (unless we dip into emergency fund savings, which I'd really rather not). There were two houses sold on the terrace last year, one for £530k in February, and one for £550k in March. No doubt prices have gone up since then, but £650k might still be slightly optimistic. It's hard to tell though, if there are just 2 people who really like it and have the money to spend, then who knows where it could end up.