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Considering pulling out of house purchase

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  • teaselMay
    teaselMay Posts: 665 Forumite
    500 Posts First Anniversary Name Dropper
    Sounds the right move to me, there'll be other places, places that feel right and have the garden you need. Well done, I know I'd have found it hard to pull out but if you need a garden you need a garden. 
  • incus432
    incus432 Posts: 432 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 100 Posts Name Dropper Combo Breaker
    Right decision I think. We withdrew from a house offer after doubts crept in over subsidence history and vague replies to questions.  Admittedly it was only a week after the offer - but we felt bad and the estate agent tried to guilt trip us - but better that than years of regret.
  • ReadySteadyPop
    ReadySteadyPop Posts: 1,587 Forumite
    1,000 Posts Photogenic First Anniversary Name Dropper
    Don't buy something you know you are compromising with and are not happy with. Something else will always come up so don't feel like you need to buy the first thing that is suitable.
    Withdraw and buy something you are excited about. 
    Good advice.
  • newsgroupmonkey_
    newsgroupmonkey_ Posts: 1,269 Forumite
    Fifth Anniversary 1,000 Posts Name Dropper Photogenic
    Just as an aside, we're coming up to 3 years in our current home.

    We bought it thinking that it had a few minor niggles that we could either live with or fix.

    As it happens, some of those niggles are a bit more than that. For instance, the whole of the front needs rendering. The rather large driveway is falling to pieces. The bathroom had a "paintover" which is hiding gremlins (because it's terribly ventilated with just 2 small windows). The bedroom had mould on the wall behind the fitted wardrobes.

    We're fixing these all as we can afford, but with 3 children, would it not be better to have a "turnkey" property rather than one which you're going to have to find a lot of money to do up. If the kitchen isn't going to be replaced for say 10 years, because your children take all the spare money, is that going to be an issue for you?

    I was a single parent for many years and I chose to rent, because not only was I struggling saving for a deposit, but I wouldn't have had any spare cash to fix up a house (and I certainly wouldn't have been able to buy a turnkey property). Our rent was actually less than a mortgage would have been on the same property and I had to put my children first.

    I also do understand that living with parents might be a bit uncomfortable, but this is the biggest purchase you'll ever make, so make it count!
  • housebuyer143
    housebuyer143 Posts: 4,254 Forumite
    1,000 Posts Third Anniversary Name Dropper
    edited 24 May at 9:10AM
    Just as an aside, we're coming up to 3 years in our current home.

    We bought it thinking that it had a few minor niggles that we could either live with or fix.

    As it happens, some of those niggles are a bit more than that. For instance, the whole of the front needs rendering. The rather large driveway is falling to pieces. The bathroom had a "paintover" which is hiding gremlins (because it's terribly ventilated with just 2 small windows). The bedroom had mould on the wall behind the fitted wardrobes.

    We're fixing these all as we can afford, but with 3 children, would it not be better to have a "turnkey" property rather than one which you're going to have to find a lot of money to do up. If the kitchen isn't going to be replaced for say 10 years, because your children take all the spare money, is that going to be an issue for you?

    I was a single parent for many years and I chose to rent, because not only was I struggling saving for a deposit, but I wouldn't have had any spare cash to fix up a house (and I certainly wouldn't have been able to buy a turnkey property). Our rent was actually less than a mortgage would have been on the same property and I had to put my children first.

    I also do understand that living with parents might be a bit uncomfortable, but this is the biggest purchase you'll ever make, so make it count!
    Some of these "turnkey" properties are just as bad, if not worse. They look great on the surface but they have literally done them up as cheap as humanity possible to maximise profit and as soon as you do any minimal digging, all the things they covered over are obvious. My mate received bought one like this and she was super set on buying it, but one walk around and I could literally see they had done the above and she has since moved in and has so many issues. Because it looked great, she paid top dollar for it, when in reality it will have been better to save the money and do it herself. 

    I would prefer a house that's been lived in and doesn't look perfect because at least you know they are not trying to hide things from you and what does need doing is more obvious. So what you need to live with an old kitchen - better that than have a kitchen thrown in and it not be suitable. 
  • Slinky
    Slinky Posts: 11,003 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Photogenic Name Dropper
    Hmaz_2 said:
    I have now withdrawn from the purchase and feel so much better today about it all.  I hadn't realised quite how much the idea of not having a proper garden was getting me down.  I feel like a weight has been lifted today.  Thank you all for your advice

    Have you offered on the other property?
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  • RHemmings
    RHemmings Posts: 4,894 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Photogenic Name Dropper
    Some of these "turnkey" properties are just as bad, if not worse. They look great on the surface but they have literally done them up as cheap as humanity possible to maximise profit and as soon as you do any minimal digging, all the things they covered over are obvious. My mate received bought one like this and she was super set on buying it, but one walk around and I could literally see they had done the above and she has since moved in and has so many issues. Because it looked great, she paid top dollar for it, when in reality it will have been better to save the money and do it herself. 

    I would prefer a house that's been lived in and doesn't look perfect because at least you know they are not trying to hide things from you and what does need doing is more obvious. So what you need to live with an old kitchen - better that than have a kitchen thrown in and it not be suitable. 
    I'm precisely the same. I lived in a rented house which had minimal 'doing up', but the flooring and the workbenches in the kitchen looked nice but were as cheap as possible. Problems with both. The sink was very poor quality and bits of it would fall to bits and need reassembly all the time. There was a power socket in the kitchen, but it wasn't connected to any electricity. They did fix that one when I complained. 

    Anyone can walk around B&Q and see the cheapest possible materials and objects that could be used in a refurbishment. And, they superficially look good but aren't going to last. 
  • newsgroupmonkey_
    newsgroupmonkey_ Posts: 1,269 Forumite
    Fifth Anniversary 1,000 Posts Name Dropper Photogenic
    Just as an aside, we're coming up to 3 years in our current home.

    We bought it thinking that it had a few minor niggles that we could either live with or fix.

    As it happens, some of those niggles are a bit more than that. For instance, the whole of the front needs rendering. The rather large driveway is falling to pieces. The bathroom had a "paintover" which is hiding gremlins (because it's terribly ventilated with just 2 small windows). The bedroom had mould on the wall behind the fitted wardrobes.

    We're fixing these all as we can afford, but with 3 children, would it not be better to have a "turnkey" property rather than one which you're going to have to find a lot of money to do up. If the kitchen isn't going to be replaced for say 10 years, because your children take all the spare money, is that going to be an issue for you?

    I was a single parent for many years and I chose to rent, because not only was I struggling saving for a deposit, but I wouldn't have had any spare cash to fix up a house (and I certainly wouldn't have been able to buy a turnkey property). Our rent was actually less than a mortgage would have been on the same property and I had to put my children first.

    I also do understand that living with parents might be a bit uncomfortable, but this is the biggest purchase you'll ever make, so make it count!
    Some of these "turnkey" properties are just as bad, if not worse. They look great on the surface but they have literally done them up as cheap as humanity possible to maximise profit and as soon as you do any minimal digging, all the things they covered over are obvious. My mate received bought one like this and she was super set on buying it, but one walk around and I could literally see they had done the above and she has since moved in and has so many issues. Because it looked great, she paid top dollar for it, when in reality it will have been better to save the money and do it herself. 

    I would prefer a house that's been lived in and doesn't look perfect because at least you know they are not trying to hide things from you and what does need doing is more obvious. So what you need to live with an old kitchen - better that than have a kitchen thrown in and it not be suitable. 

    As above, I totally get that. And absolutely, it could have been done on the cheap (although it's usually easy to spot).

    My point being, if you have children and money isn't tight, but not free-flowing, where are you finding say £30k from to have all the windows replaced, bathroom, kitchen and carpets.
  • ReadySteadyPop
    ReadySteadyPop Posts: 1,587 Forumite
    1,000 Posts Photogenic First Anniversary Name Dropper
    Hmaz_2 said:
    I have now withdrawn from the purchase and feel so much better today about it all.  I hadn't realised quite how much the idea of not having a proper garden was getting me down.  I feel like a weight has been lifted today.  Thank you all for your advice
    Good move.
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