What do you prefer when buying a house?

[CVVFan]

I’m pretty sure I’m in the minority group that prefer either houses that are ready to move in or that are liveable for at least 2-3 years. I never buy based on a vision/project/putting my stamp on it.

We’re selling our house in 4 years, and quite frankly as much as it’s liveable for whoever buys it, it does look outdated.

I think we’re already on negative equity, so we think we’ll at least need to refresh the kitchen somehow (and possibly the bathrooms) the question is how much work is it sensible considering we’re selling it? The whole pint of the remedial work would be to sell it faster and not get cheeky offers because to some it might look more like a project than a liveable house.

We’d use the same builders (we’ve used them under their recommendation).

the one on the market is up for £10k more than we paid for. So if we’re lucky maybe we’d get the same amount back? I doubt it though.

So the quote for £12k / same builders they used? Have you actually accepted the quote? Have you looked around there conversion? Asked what viewers thought?

I say this gently op.,, but are you and your husband procrastinators?

He came to give us a bunch of quotes as we have things that need to get done (we did explain to the man that it wouldn’t be immediate, but he did put decking and fence).

we're not procrastinators, we’re (or at least myself) I’m a long term planner they does things in an order that maybe not everyone would do.

for example rather than prioritising the garage, we all went on holiday to California.

but the garage is our next logical step in October.

you bought the place with a view to updating the kitchen and bathrooms pretty sharpish? But 4 years have passed and nothing? Why?

I dont want it ready to move in, it probably means I'm being charged more for boring or not quite to my taste styles that most people find just inoffensive. I'd rather live with something I'm not keen on, knowing I've saved some money and will be able to update it.

Me too

especially if only bits around the edges have been played around with.

No I didn’t! I bought it thinking they were more modern/recent. This hoping they’d last until we moved again.

But surely once you’d been there a day or two… you realised the kitchen and bathroom were decades old?

Yeah but by that point it was “it is what it is”.

it’s now that we can finally say : we’ve got solvency let’s do something about the house

by day 1 or 2, you had resigned yourself to “it is what it is”

you didn’t think that you’d decorate as what was the point??!

ah just seen… it was money that was stopping you?

I’m a bit confused about this house so I’ll bow out

good luck!

Yes! I got made redundant the day we exchanged. DH was on NMW and we could only get £100 on UC or something. Renovating the house was definitely not our priority

Bloody hell…. What a mess

good luck with the conversion. All the best,

Just thought… presumably this impacted your mortgage offer?

Not really as we were existing customers. They offered to put us on a “holiday” which we didn’t take.

We’ve basically cleared it since then.

our mortgage is £300 these days.

i bet that seriously took the shine off the move. No wonder you didn’t notice that bathrooms and kitchen was stuck in the 90s!

when will garage conversion start?

Of the 12 identical houses of which you are one, only one of them has taken the decision to convert the garage. And they failed to sell their property a year ago and so took it off the market? And it was in a much better condition than yours?

I get that you’re desperate for an office / gym, but you’ll be pouring money down the drain, possibly making your property even harder to sell.

In your shoes, I’d rent it out to students and for the next 3/4 years rent somewhere that ticks all your boxes.

Then I would sell

There are no houses with that many rooms that aren’t student homes.

plus nobody would take us with two dogs and a cat (plus the children).

even If we were to find somewhere we’d be worse off due to rental costs over here

How many children are there to house?

and your current house has 2 dogs and a cat?!

It even if you got a student home Op, would it be very different from a property with 25 year old bathrooms and kitchen?

Probably more modern! Much more, and you might get the extra space

There’s 4 DC,2 dogs, 1 cat and my DM that visits 12 weeks. I also wfh ft

I’ve just gone back to the floor plan

You must all be on top of each other. No wonder you want the garage conversion. Sod any considerations of reducing value or ease to sell and get that done asap!

Where on earth does your mother sleep when she visits for 3 months????

4 bedrooms, 1 of which is barely a bedroom, and another a small single.
6 people, some teens?
2 dogs and 1 cat
and another adult with you for 3 months
and you wfh???!!
Practically zero storage

This is mind boggling. You must feel like you’re constantly in the eye of a tornado?