House Buying - Regrets & Boo-boos

Saga wrote: »

Structural or Home Buyer's?

A Home Buyer's at the very least. We've had no problems with our home but I just wish we had done it!

1. Underestimating how noisy a road could get. We thought our brains would get used to it. Lived there for 4 years and hated it.
2. Large garden with plenty of bushes. It looked great when we bought it and didn't realize how much time it takes every week.
3. A mile is too long to walk every day, particularly when it's dark, cold and wet.

Early buys should be considered as stepping stones.

Bigger can be better but you want something that has other characteristics that make it a solid step as in most cases you need it to sell.

Some upgrade potential is useful.
Solid target market
Downturn resistant.
...

Skiddaw1 wrote: »

I agree with the large garden thing.


Our previous house had a 90ft garden which included several mature trees and which had been neglected. It took me years to get on top of it (and it wasn't until I no longer had to work that I was really able to get it the way I wanted it to be). It was a labour of love and I enjoy gardening very much, but never underestimate how much work is involved in keeping on top of a big garden especially during the growing season.

The house I grew up in had an absolutely enormous garden - going on for an acre maybe - and my parents could never keep on top of it. They spent many a day off toiling in the garden, which always seem to end up a jungle anyway.


Nevertheless, us kids had a great time - hacking our way through the undergrowth, having bonfires, camping out. :j
Also, there were fruit trees galore - apples, pears, and also raspberry canes, gooseberries, rhubarb. It was a happy garden.

CarbonImage wrote: »

Purple Bricks - would avoid houses marketed by them or at least have a frank chat with the vendor about their seriousness about selling. So much time wasted.

See we had a very positive experience with Purple Bricks - two in fact! The first house we didn't view in the end, as the seller messaged in good time to say that she had accepted an offer. The second house is the one that we bought.

Skiddaw1 wrote: »

Do your research when you find somewhere you like. Think about all the cons as well as the pros. It's so easy to get blinded by the 'I want to live here!' factor. It's hard to be objective but you really have to be.

Definitely agree with this. There's a lot to be said for gut feel, but barring one estate agent f*** up (see below) we only viewed houses that met our criteria. I had a spreadsheet and everybody laughs at me for it, but it worked! It had everything from must have/nice to have/won't touch to commute averages, flood risks and crime stats for the area. I've done another spreadsheet for my next car. :rotfl:

I would say...

Don't trust estate agents. We were looking in two areas, and in the first area, I spent a lot of time looking on Rightmove etc, researching properties and filling in the aforementioned spreadsheet. Only when I rang to arrange viewings, I think out of something like 8 properties I could only arrange a viewing on 1 - the others were all off the market. That one - despite me saying we didn't mind cosmetic work as long as the property was liveable - had a ceiling you could see through and I'd be amazed if it were mortgageable. It was also massively over priced. In the second area, I signed up to all the local estate agents (took an hour or so of phone calls) and only short listed the properties they sent me. We were able to view everything we wanted barring one where the seller had a family emergency or something.

We have private parking outside the house and a shared driveway/access road. Not had any issues with our neighbours at all, but it could all do with resurfacing and obviously it'll be faffier than if it was all ours. If there's a next house, we'll make sure we avoid this.

I did underestimate one thing that is important to us, and that's the garden - in contrast to some of the complaints here, I wish we'd known we would like a large garden. What we have is a decent size, but ultimately I think that's the thing that would lead to us moving in the future.

We had a survey done and the surveyor mentioned about the house needing some cosmetic work, a good clean etc. We hadn't noticed, even with two viewings, but when we moved in it was really disappointing. I've actually since found out that getting the keys to a dirty house is extremely common, but I wouldn't dream of doing that to somebody else. I think there's a difference between giving it a quick once over and down right dirty - particularly when it's somebody else's dirt! I would allow time to clean before unpacking, if you possibly can.

Lastly, our seller took down built in wardrobes that were on the fixtures and fittings list as being kept. We didn't mention it in the end (they were also pratting about past the time they were meant to be off - luckily we weren't in a chain or anything) but maybe we should've done as it meant us buying another wardrobe. Just didn't seem worth the hassle in the end.