first house purchase worries/regrets

Hannimal

It's entirely understandable to feel like this. It's the biggest purchase you'll have ever made, it would be madness if you weren't overthinking it and worried. If you are talking about few grand and you're in a UK city, and you've "overpaid" by 10%, then a year after buying it'll be more or less the going rate. 

Hannimal

propertyhunter said:

This feeling is absolutely normal, honestly.

I bought a house at 4% over asking, 14 offers on it in total. I think to myself, I probably 'overpaid' vs the next highest bidder by £25k. However, in the grand scheme of things, this isn't going to mean anything when it comes to your mortgage payments over X number of years and also with the effect of inflation eroding your debt over time (providing wages catch up, which they typically would, just not now). 

If you lost the house, you'd have regretted not offering more. I could have bought a house for 60k less if I just offered on a house 6 months earlier at 4% over. 

Could've bought a house for £80k in London 20 years ago. You're absolutely right. In the grand scheme, if it's a few £k we are on about, it makes no difference.

garydufley

ShilvaA said:

Another thing to consider is that if you upset the seller and they pull out, there is a very real chance that you may not get such a good interest rate when you apply for your next mortgage on a different home.

So not only would you be solicitor fees, search fees, survey fees and potentially wasted rent down, you may end up paying more per month on your mortgage due to interest rate rises.

I don’t know how much you think you overbid by, but if you are trying to claw back just a few grand, then I wouldn’t risk it personally.

thank you, I was struggling to keep it in perspective so its good to read balncing words like these

it would only be a few grand which seems more foolish

garydufley

propertyhunter said:

This feeling is absolutely normal, honestly.

I bought a house at 4% over asking, 14 offers on it in total. I think to myself, I probably 'overpaid' vs the next highest bidder by £25k. However, in the grand scheme of things, this isn't going to mean anything when it comes to your mortgage payments over X number of years and also with the effect of inflation eroding your debt over time (providing wages catch up, which they typically would, just not now). 

If you lost the house, you'd have regretted not offering more. I could have bought a house for 60k less if I just offered on a house 6 months earlier at 4% over. 

thank you for those words

garydufley

SavingPennies_2 said:

Your "initial overexuberance" to pay 10% over asking is exactly what got you the house over the other bidders, so not a good enough reason to drop the price, though of course there's nothing to stop you doing so. Old boilers are a standard thing when buying a house and something you knew about when you made the offer. It sounds like you are having cold feet/ first time buyer jitters. At the end of the day if you like the house then a few thousand pounds is neither here nor there in the long term. If you ask for a price drop be prepared they might say no and you will be back to square one (with higher interest rates, more solicitors fees, survey fees etc) so not necessarily any better off.

thank you, it is cold feet/jitters as you say

SusieT

If the asking price had been a lot higher, and you had put in a offer under asking which was accepted, you would most likely still be having jitters and thinking have you paid too much. It is very normal for people do do that. 
As others have said, if you gazunder and pull out now, you will still have to pay the costs to date, mortgage interest would be a lot higher, and you would probably still have the jitters about whatever house you bought instead, even people who have bought and sold several times can still think like you when the end of an often stressful purchase is in sight 

newsgroupmonkey_

2 things here....

What did the valuation come back at?

Also, it appears that other people think the house is worth what you paid, or they would not have bid quite so much.

garydufley

newsgroupmonkey_ said:

2 things here....

What did the valuation come back at?

Also, it appears that other people think the house is worth what you paid, or they would not have bid quite so much.

the mortgage valuation came back at the price that I paid, which at least means that it wasnt downvalued. my home buyer survey valued the same but Im not sure about how close the homebuyer valuations are

garydufley

thanks for the advice all, I feel a lot better about the situation now. 

its amazing what a different outlook can do

garydufley

newsgroupmonkey_ said:

2 things here....

What did the valuation come back at?

Also, it appears that other people think the house is worth what you paid, or they would not have bid quite so much.

sorry forgot to add I don't know what the other peoples final bids were (other than the asking price initially), which played into my mind