Would you buy a house if it took you a while to save to get it sorted to your standard?

[chickenriceorspud]

If I can ask your advice please? Would you buy a house if it was in your perfect location for schools and close to parents etc in a lovely area but would likely take a few years to get it how you want it?

My dp seems to think you only buy either a house that's ready in showroom condition or one that you can afford to and have the cash ready to get started on anything you wish to do. I on the other hand think it takes time to get any house the way you want it.

I bought last year and thought I'd do it up...but now I wish I'd gone slightly smaller and bought an already done place. The thought of dealing with tradespeople and hassle is daunting. I'm dreading it.

I did. But I set myself very tight deadlines to get it renovated in (which I achieved). I completely sign up for "worst house best street" it's the only way!

Done it a few times.......kirsty and Phil are correct, location, location, location is the most important thing! So long as liveable, my last one had no kitchen at all when I moved in just an old tap sticking out of the wall😂even if it looks good on viewing there are always things you want to change I've found so I prefer a wreck🤷‍♀️

Absolutely, have done twice. But it doesn't suit everyone, and IMO there are seasons in life when you're up for it and times when you are just not.

Especially if you are doing the DIY route it can be grim, stressful and go on for years. Not something to take on under protest.

I have a lovely friend who spent years with her DH doing an amazing extension and refurb. She is an interior designer - it was a work of art. By the end of the project they both were so sick of that house that they put it straight on the market. It costs some people their marriage. Don't do it, with limited funds and no end date in sight, if you're not both up for it.

I agree with @Daskier

It's all good and well saying best street worst house but it's more complicated.

My first flat, I renovated the entire thing. It was hard but I was up for it and understood what I was signing up for.

My DH was not a practical man when we met - he was looking at absurd "grand wrecks" when we came to move. He had no real concept of what renovating meant...
Ie you give up your football season ticket to fund LG paint purchases and you are prepping/priming or painting skirting boards and wood work before work every morning from Oct -Feb.

I knew how much strain it would put on us and how badly he'd cope with it so wouldn't budge.
we picked a mid point period house.
First year we/I redecorated (DIY) 6 rooms my DH complained all the way !!!

Plan was to keep kitchen but despite being newish the layout was SO bad we couldn't live with it. It actually made me very angry 😂
(it sounds dramatic but it was why it wasnt selling and pretty much everyone Inc the EA who sold it! commented on it)

Post kitchen my DH can now admit a neglected grand wreck would have mentally destroyed him 😅

Surely this is normal?? I've only owned 2 houses but made £100k on each. It's tough, and I'm not sure I'd do it again, but I guess we're not rich enough to buy the perfect houses.

Yes, in a heartbeat. In my area it’s pretty much the only way to buy a house since most people move there in their 40s and stay until they go into care or die. As long as there’s nothing wrong structurally (we always get a full structural survey) it’s worth it for the space and location.

How much work? As in does it need new plumbing and electrics or is it just run down and stuck in 1985?

We are in our dream home that we had a 5 year plan for on moving in. 1 year in and honestly I fucking LOVE this house. We did what @DNLove said and bought a house that is inhabitable, but by far the worst on the street.

Our kitchen is rank! So old and every drawer has broken once. No workspace. The bathrooms are clean but dated and for some reason, at some point, someone who lived here decided both toilets can only function if a door can touch them. The lights all work but randomly turn off when others turn on, so whilst they are safe (been checked) they clearly need re doing. There’s some really dodgy plastering and decorating. Windows all need replacing. House was pinned 30 years ago but historic movement cracks need filling on front (detached Victorian). The whole place felt sad and old when we bought it and to do what we need to do architecturally is a good few years away.

However, it’s ours and it’s amazing what a deep clean, new carpets & rugs, a few pretty lights and a lick of paint will do. I cannot believe we were able to buy here!! I feel so lucky every time I get home.

You get so used to things quickly that as long as a place can feel clean and warm you can live with “needs work” for ages.

We bought the worst house in a very snobby and expensive area. The house honestly sucks but so far we’ve redone the bathroom, new floors and new kitchen….then we ran out of money so now we have to wait to do more things 😂

The location is everything. The house, not so much. Somedays I’m happy with our choice, others days not so much. But at the rate the cost of living is going I don’t think we’ll be able to move anytime soon so I am glad we went with location over house.

There's a difference between completely re-doing a wreck and cosmetic touch-ups though.
Not everyone can or wants to do the former, so they compromise on a less perfect house. And some people, like myself don't even have visions of our 'dream' house. I hate DIY and have the design sense of a gnat!

Absolutely.
My house is/was mostly liveable but it hasn’t been maintained for decades and is very dated. It also came with a lot of land which needed significant work/tidying. (Horses)

We’ve been here about 10 months. So far we have done;

• lot of work on the grazing
• Removing/redoing/repairing fencing
• Rebuilt the stables
• Repaired electrics
• Wallpaper stripped and painted 3 rooms

The to do list of endless;

• Plough up and reseed a further 3 acres
• Fence said 3 acres
• Resurface private road
• Build further storage by horses
• landscape garden
• Redo 2 bathooms
• Sort roof (needs membrane)
• Redo kitchen tiles and paint units
• Paint the rest of the house

and that’s just the short list! It will take years and years but it’s liveable, it’s a beautiful old house and I plan to live here for the next 20-30 years at least so it doesn’t matter if it takes a while. I’m currently spending an hour a day scraping paint off wood paneling in view of staining it.

My parents did this. It took them a few years, but they ended up with a lovely house in a great location that they wouldn't have been able to afford otherwise.

Thanks for all the replies! It's a lovely, spacious 4 double bedroom house in an area that NEVER goes in the market until couples are older and their family has flown the nest and they are looking to downsize. It's just in need of new floors, painted and we want to put a new kitchen in ( I know this will be a pain in the ass) it's close to all the good schools, parks and the town centre ( my parents live a 5 min walk too)

That doesn't sound too bad. I'd go for it. Surely you can live with shit floors/kitchen and peeling paint.

My advice is that things need replacing over time - we are about to recharger the hall stairs and landing - our bedroom needs refreshing and new carpet - I’ve painted multiple times over the years. It’s just what you do.

So long term it makes no difference as there’s always something that needs doing.

We’ve lived here 14 years and now need a new kitchen - it’s now more expensive to replace a kitchen than it was 14 years ago when it didn’t need doing.

It depends. We moved into a house we knew it needed work so it took around 4 years to do it bit by bit.

But - apart from an emergency kitchen (6 months earlier than scheduled) we had no issues living in it and all was done before we had DD.

The current house was in general fine, it took 6 years to start work on some areas.

But - I wouldn't want a house I need to do larger structural changes to like opening rooms, complex extension etc. I don't want to live in a building site.

I like adding my personality to a house so buying picture perfect does not really is for me.

We had to. Couldn’t afford anything else.

Only, it’s in a shit area, shit schools and surrounded by drug dealers, but you know, no choice! Had to move 150 miles to be able to afford this as well.

We did - it was the only way we could afford the space we wanted/ needed. The only room that desperately needs doing is the kitchen and we thought we had held back enough to do it, but by the time we got quotes we realised we would have to wait a bit. The rest of the house has been well maintained, just needs updating gradually.

I would have loved to move into a 'done' house, but didn't have the extra £150 - 200k needed. Our house wasn't that much more than the wrecks, so we wouldn't have had enough to completely gut and remodel somewhere either.

I strongly believe that when planning renovations, you need to double the expected costs and length of time you'll take to do them. So for me, no I wouldn't move into a house that I expected to take "a couple of years" to sort out. Because if I expect two and can live with that, you know it'll take 5. And materials and labour are getting more expensive all the time.

It also does depend though what the work is that needs doing. If it's functional and I just want to update it for my own preference, I would maybe consider it. If stuff needs doing to be comfortable or I needed to change the floorplan, I never would unless I could afford it straight away.

It's just in need of new floors, painted and we want to put a new kitchen in

But, but... honestly, that's NOTHING. Assuming you have reasonable income, you can sort that in a couple of years. Ours need a new roof, new render, some new windows, replacement gutters and downpipes, bathroom fixing, new electrics, probably plumbing, garden room needs demolishing, the kitchen floor seems to be rotting... (and that's not everything, just the bigger stuff!)

Buy it, it won't take long to sort the things you want to change! And as changes, decor and new kitchen have a lot of impact on living there for not so much stress. It'll be well worth it.

There aren't many houses that are in showroom condition and even if they are, you might prefer different flooring, not like kitchen style/colour etc. Making a few changes can really make it feel like yours. Sounds like you've found a property that'd rarely be available and in a really good location for you, so I'd seriously consider it - maybe go back and have another look today.

I've always bought run down shit holes and updated over 2-3 years. It's how I've got such a lovely house now

If that really is all it needs that's nothing and not a big project. Is the kitchen livable until you replace it? You can always tart it up a bit.

I'm not trying to encourage you to go into debt but if it's affordable you can spread the cost of flooring and then kitchen on interest free credit.

That sounds like an amazing buy! Kitchen isn’t too bad, you can save a fortune by buying it from DIY-Kitchens & Worktop Express and getting a local carpenter to fit. The floors is harder but can wait til you’re ready

For comparison, I replaced windows, reroofed, put new wood floors in, and did completely new electrics plumbing plastering and painting. Took 5 years but the place is fabulous now.