House search drawing a blank

lookstraightahead

GDB2222 said:

housebuyer143 said:

GDB2222 said:

markin said:

Your just wasting the buyers time, It could be years before your perfect home comes up.

That’s what I fear. 

Unless you have exceptional luck it isn't going to work out timing wise for you. It's not really fair to make your buyer wait unless of course you are honest from the get go that you are looking for the dream house and it couly take months and months.

I had a chat with the EA, who of course didn’t want to hear! Yes, if we get an offer, we will be frank with the buyer.

If there's nowhere you like and you're not in any hurry  and you don't want to go out of your area and you won't go into rental, I don't think you will move/want to move. Listen to your gut instinct.

What will happen is that you will just kept telling buyers you can't move yet, and they will move on.

being frank with buyers doesn't help really as they won't hang around ad infinitim.

I would stay put for now.

Mstty

Interesting read.

Did the OP ever indicate the reason they want to downsize. Is it monthly ongoing costs of the current property, release equity?

From the face of it and the sporadic replies from the OP it really doesn't sound like their heart is in this so unless there are compelling financial/health reasons then they might as well stay put.

The bit that made me laugh the most was the expectation that the per square foot price was equal across all types of property. It is not so if that bugs the OP as a seller you need to reprogram your thinking on that one.

We once had a buyer with the same mindset moving from the "poshest" area and when they viewed our house their first meaningful interaction was, but you are asking XXX amount psf and we only got this amount per square foot how can you justify that.

Well the justification in our case was the property was only 5 years old. High B and a renowned housebuilder, the finish and decor was immaculate as in show home condition and the house has over £20k of extras when new. It also sat prominently as onf of the houses on the village green. We received an offer the same day from another viewer and then said psf person said can we come back and take another look and offer you more than the other person. No sorry off you pop 👍

silvercar

Mstty said:

Interesting read.

Did the OP ever indicate the reason they want to downsize. Is it monthly ongoing costs of the current property, release equity?

Yes, you can see the other thread started by OP.

 https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6429679/downsizing-from-family-home/


Pertinent post here:

The present place is too big. We only heat the rooms we use, but that means the corridors are cold, etc.
We are looking to stay in the same neighbourhood, and to buy a house on two or three floors, as we think it helps with fitness to have to go up and down stairs. We may get to the point where that is impossible, but there are always stair lifts, etc. 

Just to add a few points: Nearly all the houses in this area were built around 100 years ago. They nearly all have *terrible* insulation, so are expensive to heat. 

DW is looking for a house with enough space to install a downstairs shower room, in case one of us becomes unable to go upstairs. In reality, that's very hard to find. 

Mstty

silvercar said:

Mstty said:

Interesting read.

Did the OP ever indicate the reason they want to downsize. Is it monthly ongoing costs of the current property, release equity?

Yes, you can search other threads started by OP. They currently leave some rooms unused and unheated.

Great thanks for this info I will Sherlock Holmes a bit more in the future.

Do you know from your search of the OP other threads exactly how many rooms are left unoccupied by the OP and unheated. what is the square footage of those rooms and the reduction of house size in square footage this would calculate as. This will provide a very crude amount the OP could save by downsizing.

If not perhaps the OP can add a little more detail?

silvercar

Mstty said:

silvercar said:

Mstty said:

Interesting read.

Did the OP ever indicate the reason they want to downsize. Is it monthly ongoing costs of the current property, release equity?

Yes, you can search other threads started by OP. They currently leave some rooms unused and unheated.

Great thanks for this info I will Sherlock Holmes a bit more in the future.

Do you know from your search of the OP other threads exactly how many rooms are left unoccupied by the OP and unheated. what is the square footage of those rooms and the reduction of house size in square footage this would calculate as. This will provide a very crude amount the OP could save by downsizing.

If not perhaps the OP can add a little more detail?

I've edited my post with the link now. Having chatted on a friendly thread that closed years ago, I could probably go into stalker mode and find the answer to your questions, but I'll leave OP answer. I imagine we are talking of dropping from a 5 bed, 3 storey detached to something more manageable.

Slinky

How much money for stamp duty will be paid/lost in a house move? That amount will surely buy a lot of heat in the existing one.

Mstty

I finally got round to reading the reason the OP is on the market and searching for a downsize home.

One paragraph stuck with me and may explain why they may struggle

We are not great ones for having the builders in, as we hate the disruption, so we have done practically nothing to the house for the last 25 years. So, downsizing would be an opportunity to buy something in good condition, so we don’t need to worry.

With doing nothing to a property in 25 years it is going to reduce the value significantly and the downsize property they want in good condition will have a decent price. The gap might not be there for real savings.

YoungBlueEyes

When we were house hunting we always liked to see un-done-up houses. No work done means it's not full of bodges where people have done something cheaply just to get it on the market. 

I got sick of walking round god-awful shiny grey plasticy looking kitchens/bathrooms that had been slung in so it looked 'modern' on the listing. EA's fizzing with enthusiasm for the brand new kitchen that cost thousands of pounds. Meanwhile himself is opening cupboard doors thinking "I'm not sure how they managed to spend £10k on this ship, but if we buy this place it'll be out in 48 hours".

No work in 25 years was absolutely not a problem. Edit - for us.

housebuyer143

YoungBlueEyes said:

When we were house hunting we always liked to see un-done-up houses. No work done means it's not full of bodges where people have done something cheaply just to get it on the market. 

I got sick of walking round god-awful shiny grey plasticy looking kitchens/bathrooms that had been slung in so it looked 'modern' on the listing. EA's fizzing with enthusiasm for the brand new kitchen that cost thousands of pounds. Meanwhile himself is opening cupboard doors thinking "I'm not sure how they managed to spend £10k on this ship, but if we buy this place it'll be out in 48 hours".

No work in 25 years was absolutely not a problem. Edit - for us.

This! I have seen some with a complete rewire but they couldn't be bothered to put the cables inside the wall as it's more expensive and the whole newly decorated house had trunking everywhere 🤢

Also not a fan of the brand new kitchens in the cheapest Refurb. You can see them a mile off and generally have minimum wall cupboards and the bathrooms have the bare minimum of tiling. 
A real bug bear is when people just paint gloss over all the woodwork so it's white for the viewings. It then proceeds to chip off very quickly leaving the new buyer a huge headache. 

silvercar

YoungBlueEyes said:

When we were house hunting we always liked to see un-done-up houses. No work done means it's not full of bodges where people have done something cheaply just to get it on the market. 

I got sick of walking round god-awful shiny grey plasticy looking kitchens/bathrooms that had been slung in so it looked 'modern' on the listing. EA's fizzing with enthusiasm for the brand new kitchen that cost thousands of pounds. Meanwhile himself is opening cupboard doors thinking "I'm not sure how they managed to spend £10k on this ship, but if we buy this place it'll be out in 48 hours".

No work in 25 years was absolutely not a problem. Edit - for us.

I suspect this is true of GDB's current place and where he wants to move to. If the new house has been done up or left for 25 years, the sellers and EA will expect that the new owners will want to rip out and start again, so there won't be much differential on price.