Another house question....

tiacattiacat Posts: 22,521
Forum Member
✭✭✭
Right, we have seen a house today in our desired location.

Pros - within our price range,
garage,
lovely south facing garden,
huge front garden,
off street parking for 3 cars to the side of the house so I wouldnt have to see cars parking in front of the living room window (pet hate),
3 beds,
2 receptions,
quiet road,
not over looked in the garden,
main bedroom is big,
nice light landing,
house had a nice feel inside.

Cons - garage roof needs waterproofing (gaps at the side of the roof between roof and wall of garage) and it is asbestos,
price for house seems excessive and is a 'fixed price' ie no offers,
no utility room (and no prospect of putting one in),
its a cul de sac and is quite small so sort of feels a bit hemmed in,
there was a car parked on half of the pavement outside this particular house today and further down the road (where you cant see ) - pet hate of mine - roads where people have to park half on the pavement,
dining room is extremely small 8x8,
kitchen is 10x8 so you could knock through but it still wouldnt be very big,
house also is slightly raised from the road so looks a bit dark and forbodeing on walking up to it,
windows in upstairs bedrooms are way too high in the room leaving a large expanse of wall below it which gave an impression of a prison cell ( I might be exaggerating a bit here, OH has no idea what Im talking about but Im talking proportions of how windows are positioned and placed into walls, it gives a context and identity to the whole room),
general decoration has been done by Stevie Wonder as architrave/skirtings/coving/doors are painted with no regard to their edges, light switches, sockets, all merrily painted on.
electric hob

Now clearly some of these issues are livable, changeable and petty. Others I dont know whether I would grow to tolerate or they would continue to bug me (windows).

This is our preferred area and houses come up about every 4 weeks if that. We have a buyer who has hassled our EA to see when we are buying something which makes me feel under pressure but I dont want to panic buy something and then end up hating it for the next 10 years. We cannot afford to sell and buy again in that period as its costing us 10k at least to buy and sell at the moment.

Comments

  • [Deleted User][Deleted User] Posts: 12,881
    Forum Member
    ✭✭
    Please don't take this the wrong way, but if you need to ask strangers on an internet forum whether to buy a house then I reckon it is not the house for you. Go with your gut instinct. Do you want to live there? Are you excited about seeing it again? Can you imagine your furniture and bits and bobs there?

    Incidentally high windows is a pet hate of mine as well. And cars will park all over the place everywhere, so I am not sure you will be able to overcome that one.
  • DiscombobulateDiscombobulate Posts: 4,242
    Forum Member
    ✭✭✭
    I wouldn't do anything until you have seen what the parking is like during the week (daytime) as it could be better or worse.

    If the parking is OK when you go back then I would put in an offer (yes I know you said no offers) but its worth a try and depends how long its been on the market \ how keen they are to move.

    Then if they accept you have a house, if not you have done your best and won't be left with the "if only feeling"

    good luck
  • tiacattiacat Posts: 22,521
    Forum Member
    ✭✭✭
    Please don't take this the wrong way, but if you need to ask strangers on an internet forum whether to buy a house then I reckon it is not the house for you. Go with your gut instinct. Do you want to live there? Are you excited about seeing it again? Can you imagine your furniture and bits and bobs there?

    Incidentally high windows is a pet hate of mine as well. And cars will park all over the place everywhere, so I am not sure you will be able to overcome that one.

    Well the market doesnt allow for gut instict at the moment otherwise I would agree with you. When we bought our current home, it was a buyers market, we had months to find somewhere and months to make decisions, in fact if I recall we had a spreadsheet with pros and cons of various choices we had, all desperate for us to buy them and we went through them like mini Alan Sugars firing each property that wasnt quite right.

    At the moment, properties come on, either you cant book on for their viewing day as they're full up or they go before the viewing day even comes. Its worse as we are buying in a more expensive area than we are selling, we are also very narrow with our areas so things just arent coming on.

    So I know there are compromises to make and am just wondering what others think.

    Yes I can see us there and our furniture there (albeit a bit downsized as its a bit smaller than ours), but I dont feel particularly excited about, but then I cant remember what we felt about buying our current house, I think I felt a bit unsure then?
  • tiacattiacat Posts: 22,521
    Forum Member
    ✭✭✭
    I wouldn't do anything until you have seen what the parking is like during the week (daytime) as it could be better or worse.

    If the parking is OK when you go back then I would put in an offer (yes I know you said no offers) but its worth a try and depends how long its been on the market \ how keen they are to move.

    Then if they accept you have a house, if not you have done your best and won't be left with the "if only feeling"

    good luck

    well it will go on Monday so seeing parking in the week is unlikely as we live 2 hours away. It wouldnt affect our ability to park, I just dont like the look of it, I think it looks scruffy. Its been on since Thursday and will probably sell after today's viewing day.
  • [Deleted User][Deleted User] Posts: 12,881
    Forum Member
    ✭✭
    tiacat wrote: »
    Well the market doesnt allow for gut instict at the moment otherwise I would agree with you. When we bought our current home, it was a buyers market, we had months to find somewhere and months to make decisions, in fact if I recall we had a spreadsheet with pros and cons of various choices we had, all desperate for us to buy them and we went through them like mini Alan Sugars firing each property that wasnt quite right.

    At the moment, properties come on, either you cant book on for their viewing day as they're full up or they go before the viewing day even comes. Its worse as we are buying in a more expensive area than we are selling, we are also very narrow with our areas so things just arent coming on.

    So I know there are compromises to make and am just wondering what others think.

    Yes I can see us there and our furniture there (albeit a bit downsized as its a bit smaller than ours), but I dont feel particularly excited about, but then I cant remember what we felt about buying our current house, I think I felt a bit unsure then?

    I understand what you are saying. I sold my house within days and then panicked I wouldn't find anything. Like you I was 2 hours away from the place I wanted to move to (my old home town). But the same argument about places being snapped up would surely also apply to your house? Did you get much interest? Did you sell quickly? If you lost this buyer how easy would it be to sell again? Are they selling and getting pressure from their buyers? Do you think they love your house enough to wait?

    All I know is when I have found a property I have liked (I have moved over a dozen times) I couldn't wait to go and see it again. If you have real doubts about the house and the external environment my advice would be be brave and wait until you find something you really like.
  • tiacattiacat Posts: 22,521
    Forum Member
    ✭✭✭
    I understand what you are saying. I sold my house within days and then panicked I wouldn't find anything. Like you I was 2 hours away from the place I wanted to move to (my old home town). But the same argument about places being snapped up would surely also apply to your house? Did you get much interest? Did you sell quickly? If you lost this buyer how easy would it be to sell again? Are they selling and getting pressure from their buyers? Do you think they love your house enough to wait?

    All I know is when I have found a property I have liked (I have moved over a dozen times) I couldn't wait to go and see it again. If you have real doubts about the house and the external environment my advice would be be brave and wait until you find something you really like.

    Its a much slower market down here. We had an open day with 11 viewers arriving, and only 1 offer which was the price we wanted. We dont have much competition and we have a lovely house (although I would say that wouldnt I!) but I dont know what would happen if we lost the buyer. I suppose I dont feel too worried about losing them, EXCEPT for a massive issue that when we were offering on properties before we had our buyer (as we had to wait 2 weeks for the viewing day due to EA timings) we were not taken seriously as offers and lost a dream house. Now that house I could cry about and I feel we will never find anything like that again. In fact every time I see the same estate agent name/board I could spit.
    So, if we lost our buyer we would then be in the same situation again where we wouldnt get offers accepted whilst we waited for a new one.

    Im doing the same by the way, moved away from our home area out of London and now want to move back. Very difficult and we're now stuck on buying on the fringes of the m25. Its cheaper and less built up but also less choice.
  • MustabusterMustabuster Posts: 5,973
    Forum Member
    tiacat wrote: »
    well it will go on Monday so seeing parking in the week is unlikely as we live 2 hours away. It wouldnt affect our ability to park, I just dont like the look of it, I think it looks scruffy. Its been on since Thursday and will probably sell after today's viewing day.

    Look at the road on street view to see how the parking was like then. You won't know the time or day but it's another perspective.
  • tiacattiacat Posts: 22,521
    Forum Member
    ✭✭✭
    Look at the road on street view to see how the parking was like then. You won't know the time or day but it's another perspective.

    street view is the first thing I look at! yes, there are 2 cars parked half on the pavement on the entrance to the cul de sac on street view (out of the view of the house)
  • tiacattiacat Posts: 22,521
    Forum Member
    ✭✭✭
    If I were to use the word excitement I would apply it to...

    the garden
    the village as a whole as it has a river running through it, is on the route of a regional river walkway, is walking distance to a pretty riverside pub where they serve the biggest portions of lovely food we have seen in a long time

    the rest is 'ok' or 'nice'.

    the problem is, in that particular village, houses seldom come up at our price range, the last one was my 'dream house' which we didnt get. I think that was about 6 weeks ago now, it sold in hours to buyers that were ready to proceed which at that point we were not because we hadnt held our viewing day and so didnt have a buyer
  • Red ArrowRed Arrow Posts: 10,889
    Forum Member
    ✭✭
    Regarding the parking, I'm guessing it's a driveway you have space for three cars on. If so what does it really matter what the parking situation on the street is like? If it's a really nice house I wouldn't let a car parked half on the pavement down the street put me off. :confused:
  • tiacattiacat Posts: 22,521
    Forum Member
    ✭✭✭
    Red Arrow wrote: »
    Regarding the parking, I'm guessing it's a driveway you have space for three cars on. If so what does it really matter what the parking situation on the street is like? If it's a really nice house I wouldn't let a car parked half on the pavement down the street put me off. :confused:

    No I know, I just dont like the look of it, it makes streets look cluttered and messy and I dont like cluttered and messy
  • Red ArrowRed Arrow Posts: 10,889
    Forum Member
    ✭✭
    tiacat wrote: »
    No I know, I just dont like the look of it, it makes streets look cluttered and messy and I dont like cluttered and messy

    Oh I agree. I'm just saying it seems like you missed your dream home once, don't miss this one because of a couple of parked cars. Especially if it has a large front garden, I would assume then the street isn't right a your front windows.
  • tiacattiacat Posts: 22,521
    Forum Member
    ✭✭✭
    Red Arrow wrote: »
    Oh I agree. I'm just saying it seems like you missed your dream home once, don't miss this one because of a couple of parked cars. Especially if it has a large front garden, I would assume then the street isn't right a your front windows.

    This isnt my dream home but yes you're right the expanse of front garden which is all lawn (and I plan to replicate my plants here, there - mexican orange blossom, lilac tree, lavenders at the end so it would be even prettier) means you feel very far away from the cars which are parked there. I think the front garden is about 40 foot.

    I am now wondering if you can make windows bigger if they're at the front of the house of similar looking houses? Its not a conservation area and they are just bog standard ugly 50s houses. That would solve my main issue with the house which is that prison cell look inside the bedrooms.
  • SupratadSupratad Posts: 10,402
    Forum Member
    ✭✭
    I've bunged you a non committal answer to the window question, but maybe a redecoration in light bright colours and new window dressings could solve the darkness... er ...ness.

    One of my pet hates is Semi-D's where the neighbours haven't matched colours or renders etc, so different sized windows would really irk me. I used to see lots of it on the train commute. Bonzo dogs had a song about it " my pink half of the drainpipe"
  • tiacattiacat Posts: 22,521
    Forum Member
    ✭✭✭
    Supratad wrote: »
    I've bunged you a non committal answer to the window question, but maybe a redecoration in light bright colours and new window dressings could solve the darkness... er ...ness.

    One of my pet hates is Semi-D's where the neighbours haven't matched colours or renders etc, so different sized windows would really irk me. I used to see lots of it on the train commute. Bonzo dogs had a song about it " my pink half of the drainpipe"

    The rooms arent dark at all, its quite a light and airy house inside. Its a feeling, an expanse of wall instead of a nicely positioned window, very poor aesthetics (IMO) inside.

    I also agree about houses matching, thats something that annoys me too. I also wanted to paint the outside white and none of the others in the close have painted their brick work.
  • maxsimaxsi Posts: 2,412
    Forum Member
    ✭✭✭
    It sounds to me that you have a picture of your ideal house and this one isn't it? The main thing though is the location so are you going to have a ok house in good location or wait months for a better house?
    I would go for it and slowly put your own stamp on it, but only if the location is 100% where you want to be otherwise you will never be happy there?
    Could you rent for a while in the meantime?
  • tiacattiacat Posts: 22,521
    Forum Member
    ✭✭✭
    maxsi wrote: »
    It sounds to me that you have a picture of your ideal house and this one isn't it? The main thing though is the location so are you going to have a ok house in good location or wait months for a better house?
    I would go for it and slowly put your own stamp on it, but only if the location is 100% where you want to be otherwise you will never be happy there?
    Could you rent for a while in the meantime?

    No, we would lose thousands in terms of my redemption penalty, charges and fees and we have pets which most rentals dont take.
  • [Deleted User][Deleted User] Posts: 12,881
    Forum Member
    ✭✭
    tiacat wrote: »
    Its a much slower market down here. We had an open day with 11 viewers arriving, and only 1 offer which was the price we wanted. We dont have much competition and we have a lovely house (although I would say that wouldnt I!) but I dont know what would happen if we lost the buyer. I suppose I dont feel too worried about losing them, EXCEPT for a massive issue that when we were offering on properties before we had our buyer (as we had to wait 2 weeks for the viewing day due to EA timings) we were not taken seriously as offers and lost a dream house. Now that house I could cry about and I feel we will never find anything like that again. In fact every time I see the same estate agent name/board I could spit.
    So, if we lost our buyer we would then be in the same situation again where we wouldnt get offers accepted whilst we waited for a new one.

    Im doing the same by the way, moved away from our home area out of London and now want to move back. Very difficult and we're now stuck on buying on the fringes of the m25. Its cheaper and less built up but also less choice.

    Keep in touch with the agent as you never know what may happen to your dream house. I was in the same position. The minute I had an offer on my house I phoned the agent again just to check the offer on my dream house was solid. An hour later he came back and said it had just fallen through. I got it!
  • tiacattiacat Posts: 22,521
    Forum Member
    ✭✭✭
    Keep in touch with the agent as you never know what may happen to your dream house. I was in the same position. The minute I had an offer on my house I phoned the agent again just to check the offer on my dream house was solid. An hour later he came back and said it had just fallen through. I got it!

    Ive emailed him twice as I would love this to be the case and my OH left a message for him I think, but no reply.
  • maxsimaxsi Posts: 2,412
    Forum Member
    ✭✭✭
    tiacat wrote: »
    Ive emailed him twice as I would love this to be the case and my OH left a message for him I think, but no reply.

    I would be waiting on the door step Monday morning if I wanted it that much.
  • tiacattiacat Posts: 22,521
    Forum Member
    ✭✭✭
    maxsi wrote: »
    I would be waiting on the door step Monday morning if I wanted it that much.

    What would that achieve, we contacted him as soon as we had a buyer 3 x in case the sale had fallen through. He didnt respond and the likelihood if it not going through is slim, they chose first time buyers over us and they didnt need to buy, so presumably it would go through in weeks. We did drive past it again today and I did comment to my OH that the car that was there had a number plate (private) that could have been the estate agent because it contained his initials and I wondered why he might be there.

    Maybe Im reading too much into it and wishful thinking. In my email I did say that if he could confirm if it had gone through that would be useful because we were at that time going to make an offer on something. We can never get through on the phone and left him a message too.
Sign In or Register to comment.