Baffled by property decision

[Arobase]

Escape to the Country has become my lockdown vice/escape route. This fairly recent programme frustrates me, mostly because I just can't understand the prospective buyer's decisions - www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m000r0hb/escape-to-the-country-series-21-14-pembrokeshire

Summary: Prospective buyer (PB) wants to move to Pembrokeshire from Walton on Thames, budget £7-900K, priorities include a lot of land, remoteness, views. Also wants land to be self-sufficient, and outbuildings with development potential. Absolutely loves house no. 2 (so do I!) which is a 5 bedroom house in the National Park with gorgeous views, and 5 acres of land including woodland and a stream; also has a separate annexe she could make an income from, or use for things like therapies that she wants to look into. Guesses price for some reason at £480K, when told it is just under £800K dismisses it out of hand as too expensive. Suggests that she underestimated the price because she thought it was small!

PB is then shown house on a cliff. It's a fairly modern build, middle of nowhere, 62 acres which is predominantly clifftop views over the sea which are lovely. No prospect of the land being self-sufficient, no outbuildings. She doesn't like the house outside or inside, but decides to snap it up at £900K purely because of the views.

I mean, whut? I get it with the views, but paying £400K extra for them only to live in a house you don't even particularly like? And no money left over to improve it or start up your therapy or whatever business?

Ultimately she didn't get the clifftop property and is apparently still looking. Doesn't seem to contemplate going back to the other house.

I'm not criticising her, she's an experienced property developer who clearly knows what she's doing, but I just feel frustrated that she wasn't asked about and didn't explain her completely unrealistic valuation of house no. 2 and why she wouldn't even consider an offer on it - yet would pay so much more for something she didn't even like.

In an ideal world she'd be on MN and come and tell me; but, failing that, any ideas?

Im guessing A mix of

1. people wanting to be on the show more than seriously looking (if so they would never have guessed so low for that national park property). This happens a LOT
2. Being absolutely seduced by something which makes other more sensible requirement momentarily fly out of the window.

Friend of mine is selling a house right on the beach in Kent and has had a few who weren’t at all looking for 180 degree ses views and direct beach access etc but see it and fall in lust. Then their sensible head kicks in. It’s a problem selling really unique unusual properties. Have to try to sift out the unrealistic excitable types !

This one seemed pretty serious, especially given her property develop background. I did wonder whether, when she lost out on the clifftop property, a sensible head might kick in and she'd realise that there was no way a 5 bedroom house would be too small for her, given that for most of the time she'd be living on her own.

She didn't tell the truth about why she didn't think it was worth the money or part of her rationale was edited out?

It may have been edited out though it's difficult to understand why it would be. If it was, that makes it more frustrating.

Sounds like the view was the most important of her criteria, and as a developer maybe she plans on going for a demolish and rebuild?

At least she bought it. I have rarely seen one when they actually bought a house they were shown.

She didn't buy it. The owners of the clifftop property put the price up as they were getting so much interest, and it was out of her reach. So clearly she wouldn't have had any money to spare for demolishing and rebuilding or indeed doing anything major to the house.

I think many of these types of shows focus on people who have rose tinted glasses of what their big life change will be like;

The ones who go to Australia who think they will get a huge house with pool near the beach for the same price as the 1 bed flat they are currently living in.

The baby boomers who allegedly want to down size but find every house is too small.

The ones who want to move to the the countryside, but don't realise they won't have the conveniences of city life.

True. I've seen some where city types plan to go off and start farming when they blatantly have no idea whatsoever of what's involved.

I had to stop watching it because it infuriated me! I used to be an elderly nurse specialising in getting people home. I remember one baby boomer couple who were adamant they wanted somewhere smaller but they wanted to “not be able to see any neighbours”. They chose a 4 storey house (including cellar and attic rooms). Now the reality is that while it seems very romantic to make this move and have peace and quiet, it’s much more difficult to get you home if you’re elderly and frail in a house where you can’t climb the stairs and it won’t allow for a stair lift. Also the more remote, the more challenging it is to get a care package and district nurse visits sorted. You’d be much better off buying a bungalow in a nice village with a GP practice and shops nearby. But that doesn’t make good TV.

I found it strange too. The second house had so much more charm and the scenery was very special. But it was the sea view that knocked her for 6. The house itself wasn't very nice at all.

Thank you for sharing the link. I live escape to the country but hadn’t yet seen this episode. I know the location of her house and the one she renovated/sold to her now friend! One of the perks of walking places nearby that we didn’t walk about pre covid!

I can fully understand why she wanted the mystery house. The programme started with her saying she wanted seaviews. Plus there’s the huge outbuilding that ticked a box for her as well as the income (though small) from the grazing rights. We also saw in the beginning she’s a keen gardener growing her own veg, has a little green hiuse too and with 62 acres, she can do a lot. So I can understand why she wanted the house. She was sold before she even entered the house.

Shame she didn’t get it.

I could see why she preferred the sea views, but to pay effectively £400K extra for a house she didn't even like to get them? I did wonder also what she was going to use for money to do up the outbuilding.

These programmes are heavily edited. Dh and I were on one once. One house they showed us was presented on the programme as a huge detached place in a quiet area. It was actually a tiny apartment in the house and you had to walk along a busy road to get to the garden. Neither of these things were mentioned in the broadcast. It was just awful. But the programme made it look like we were being fussy!

Not watched it, but if it had 62 acres maybe she thought she could try to get planning permission and easily get back her money?

@RunAwayNow omg I’ve been dying to talk to someone who had been on one of these properteeeee programmes! Sadly my driving instructor is just turning in so I have to take a break but I’ll be back!

Just watched it now -the 2nd house was very dark. I think it’d be quite a gloomy place to live by yourself if you didn’t really know anyone. I couldn’t imagine her living in 3 either though, ( but that could be based on her shoe choice!)

I like the program but I only look at the houses and non of the cut scenes or local interest scenes. The last one I watched had over 10 mins of the presenter talking to some farmer.

Top pet peeves:

Beautiful kitchen in house; we will need to rip it out.

Say no barn conversions; the love barn conversions.

No matter even if they have a 1m pound budget; they want more than they have.

Couple approaching old age, now want animals, move away from family, go to rural situation with less services just as they will need more.

Some can’t just be non emotional about not liking a house and pull faces and are offensive.

People who suddenly think they can keep Llamas.

DP and I were on ETTC some years ago, and although the editing was fairly true to the experience, 2/3 houses they showed us were very wide of the mark, and I still think they showed us one to teach us a lesson (that we wouldn’t get what we wanted, where we wanted it). The third would have worked for us, but needed to accommodate a relative, and it didn’t work for them, so we didn’t pursue it. Rightly, with hindsight, though it was disappointing at the time.

Overall, EttC didn’t work for us, but it was a really good experience. We actually escaped to the country soon after, just a very different part, and haven’t looked back at all.

I saw that episode -and unless we missed something -it was a farce.
Also she wanted to live there alone. I can not for the life of me understand that.

Many episodes want "peace and quiet" I had the same -but it's a whole different story when you are on your own =not even part of a couple. I know many many couples and single people wanting the French dream. Many want a French house in the middle of nowhere. When we brought our place as a family -it was in thriving village, with two shops, hairdressers, schools etc and a 5-10 minute drive from a hugh town. Not in the middle of nowehere. However, it's been hit hard. No shops left. 30 years later -people can not sell their houses there. Because the bus routes have dried up etc.French people don't want to buy the old farm houses with land -they want the modern Pavillon.

I had a huge house in a village but in the middle of nowhere in the UK. Cheap and would buy you a flat here. Trouble is divorced and single and I worked out very quickly- yes I have no immediate neighbours and yes I have parking. But large amount of land to look after and work full time is shit and expensive. The kids are teenagers and there is no buses. No way for them to get to friends. The nearest two is a 1and a half hour walk -that's just a tiny town with barely any shops etc. Lockdown would have been shit. Totally isolated if ill.

And everyone forgets snow -snow in the French village -cut off for weeks. Snow at my old place or car trouble -you've had it. We aren't in a city but a large town 10 minutes by bus into a city.

I couldn't live somewhere isolated. I'd be terrified at night time. She might be different, but I wonder if people can really know how they'd suit living somewhere isolated without experiencing it. I suppose it's probably easier now we are connected online

I love Pembrokeshire, but it’s a nightmare to get to, so she probably wouldn’t even be having many visitors either.

I'm always bemused by the retirees who insist on having several bedrooms because their children and grandchildren will be visiting them. I'm shouting at the screen "You're moving three hours away from them, FFS, they have children, they have jobs, they're not going to be visiting all the time - do you really want to spend your life dusting four empty bedrooms?"

I do also wonder how the presenters restrain themselves when someone who claims to want to downsize looks around a big kitchen, sneers, and says "Eeuw, it's smaller than our present one". I remember one where the punter said a large kitchen was too small because where would the freezer go, the presenter pointed to a large utility room with room for several freezers, and it was still allegedly too small.

@Tamingofthehamster

Not watched it, but if it had 62 acres maybe she thought she could try to get planning permission and easily get back her money?

Not on a cliff top, I think.