To ask you to make a big life decision for me

[ShouldIBuyOrShouldIGo]

Do I buy a house - or rather do DP and I buy it? We live in a city we love but its far from family. DP lost his job 18months ago and has been looking after the DC, writing a book (has a prestigious academic book contract but no salary or big advance) whilst getting rejected again and again from a variety of institutions. I had to go back fulltime when DS2 was 5months (all a bit but necessary and I do like my job).
My parents have v v v generously offered to gift us a deposit of more money than I earn in a year which means I could get a morgage.

We have seen a house.
Small lounge,
old small kitchen,
Outside loo that is now inside thanks to a plastic roofed lean to
weird dining room currently full of fridge, tumble drier, etc that doesn't fit in kitchen.
One bedroom downstairs
2 lovely big bedrooms upstairs
1 odd room you have to walk through to get to the bathroom (which is big but has a big shower rather than bath).
And No central heating!!!
Lots of potential
Nice area, quiet near park and beach

Do we buy? On paper paying off a morgages rather than renting would save us nearly £200 a month. Or am I crazy to move a young family (2 and 8 months) into a house that needs work when DP might get a job anywhere in the country (although it hasn't happened in 18months so not holding my breath).... Oh and DP is lukewarm on the house...
Do we put an offer in?

Sounds like a lot of work is needed. I think it depends if you will have the spare money to do it up. We bought a 'do up' 14 years ago and it is still a work in progress as it's so hard to find the time and money when you have small children.,

It sounds like a house with issues. What part of the country is it? I ask because the price and part of the country will influence whether you could sell it at any profit if you had to move or are likely to be stuck with it, needing to spend money on it. Is it below the stamp duty threshold because that might have to be paid too

In general, as soon as you find something you can afford in the right location then yes, buy buy buy.

BUT if your DH is the stay-at-home-parent and is going to be the fixer-upper, he has to love the house and want to do the work on it. house-fixing can fit quite well with childcare and be a great investment.
but if your DH doesn't like the house and doesn't want to do the fixing and will spend his time trying to write his book in a semi-fixed house, then you will all end up hating it.

I reckon if a house is a fixer-upper, the person who is doing the fixing-up has to get a big say.

Is your DH a handyman? If he can do a lot of the work needed then it's doable. Has great potential and with downstairs bedroom room to put in utility room etc.
However people expect warmer houses nowadays and with 2 babies you need to make that a priority. When I were a lass we huddled round a kerosene heater in the mornings to get dressed and a hot water bottle was essential at night but folk don't live like that anymore (thank goodness). ---- makes the muscles in my back ache to think about it!
Your DH will be home all day with your DC so he needs to feel committed to any house you buy and also you need a place you can easily sell on should he get a job in another part of the country.
Good luck

I would buy. Can you post a link?? Could we see the floorplan/layout? (Love a floorplan me )

Could you reconfigure the downstairs?

Pro: Investment for you and your family, rent money does not serve you.
Saving of £200 a month
Lovely location which will always sell if you need to move
Your own home to be decorated/ designed as you decide

Against: Dp not keen. Is this just over this house or does he prefer to rent?
Are either of you good at DIY? (it's not that difficult)
Time factor, it can be exhausting.
The expense - things can mount up but there is always freecycle, auctions and ebay to keep costs down (and be stylish in a unique way)

Personally I'd go for it and have done and I'm a single mum. The worst thing is being cold and dirty/dusty so make sure there is one room that is warm and relatively cosy to retreat too. Get the wiring looked at by a professional and ask around about good tradesmen. Do as much yourselves as you can (I can now use a drill, point a wall and am a pretty good decorator). Good luck!

Another house will be along soon. This one sounds like too much to handle with your own very busy but financially unsettled lifestyle.

Sounds like that house needs thousands spending on it and what if your DP is offered a job elsewhere?

House prices are not rising at the moment. TBH I'd give it a year and then assess the position.

Sounds hellish.

How much work can you afford to get done straight away? It's one thing living in a house whilst doing it up with the funds in place, another entirely living in one without knowing if/when you can get it sorted, then discovering it needs a total rewire so that's the bathroom on hold for another year...

Also, Sod's law your dh will land a job on the other side of the country the day you exchange. The house doesn't sound like it would be rentable, either, and potentially tricky to offload in its current state.

yello what sort of horrors? Are there things that a survey wouldn't throw up? (never done this before!)

For a house like that you want a full structural serve + electrical and maybe some others.

I would expect a rewire or at least a consumer upgrade needed (so like, £600 up to £5k).
Central heating - £5k
How is the roof?
Asbestos anywhere?
Any damp inside?
The toilet will be fucking FREEZING and really unpleasant to use. You really want to be sitting in essentially an outside toilet having a shit in winter?
What is the flooring like? Will it need to be replaced?
Are the windows double glazed? Are they in good condition? Expect £500-£800 per window to get new DG units fitted.

I just think you will need love and time and money to do this - and it doesn't sound like you have time or money and DH doesn;'t have love!

If your Dh can do some/a lot of the work while job hunting then yes. Even if you ended up selling you would make money. Otherwise I would wait until he has a job as having to sell after a short time could incur a loss....stamp duty x2, estate agent fees, solicitors, etc.

House prices are not rising at the moment. TBH I'd give it a year and then assess the position

This^^^^

Do you have the cash to get the work done to make it so that you could live in it?

Sounds full of potential OP. Any chance you could lodge with your parents whilst the works are done? Find a local builder (preferably a friend/friend-of-a-friend) -and take them round with you to quote for a gut-and-redo job. I wouldn't live in it whilst works are being done - it'll be a way quicker job if you're off site. Sounds like it has the potential to be an amazing home though.

Just make sure cost of house + cost of work's = less than market value of a done up house.

Depends
If you have a lot of cash for repairs
And if you can manage in event of job loss, illness etc
That may mean your folks helping out
Couldn't you look in a different area and get something that won't need work?

Here you are shakey

what problems could there be?

If it's been left alone for too long you could be facing damp, dry rot, wet rot, death watch beetle, collapsing roof. As PPs have said, if your OH is a gifted DIY man and can call in fellow tradesmen (clearly not just his fellow writers and uni friends) then it might be sortable. But it needs major plumbing, electrics etc. You might not even get a mortgage once the surveyor has been round. If you didn't have DC and had a husband who was gung-ho I'd say take the risk. But you do, so don't. Unless you can get a builder round who could estimate what needs to be done and you think you can factor his costs in and still survive.

Why's op's DP suddenly getting saddled with doing all the DIY, on top of looking after the kids, writing a book and job-hunting? It doesn't sound a great solution if he's lukewarm on the house in the first place....

I wouldn't. It sounds as though there's masses of work to do to it. Your DP could end up really low and stressed, trying to look after tiny DC in a freezing wreck of a house that you have no money to do up, while being turned down for endless jobs. There has to be something in daily life that gives you comfort & joy. And you could come home to a sullen man, no bath, downstairs outside loo - not ideal if children wake in the night.

It's my idea of hell. You don't have to be in the same place forever. You could buy somewhere clean and warm and pleasant and stay in it for a few years, then move on. And you don't have to hurry either. Took us a year to find the right place in the right location at the right price.

Buy a house, but not that one. To do up a wreck you need lots of spare cash (sounds like you don't have) and lots of time (since you are working full time, and DP is caring for two infants, you also don't have).

Things you could find wrong:

• woodworm (we bought a bungalow with woodworm, DH learned an awful lot about it while fixing the damage done)
• damp and no damp proof course
• rot
• leaky roof
• dodgy plumbing
• even dodgier electrics

All should be found by a full structural survey.

All are fixable but you would have to live with the mess while they are fixed.

There's a bathroom upstairs though, isn't there? So no need to use the cold outdoor one.

It doesn't sound that bad to me, but then Ive always had old houses that needed doing up, current one as much, if not more, than the one you're describing, and we still got a mortgage despite needing a new roof, rewire and central heating. But we has a 60% deposit, which helped.

Is the house liveable in while work was done? (Having central heating put in took two days and wasn't much mess).

But your DH does need to be on side too. You could end up with a lovely house that goes up in value, but it will take work and cause rows, I can assure you!

In any case, to buy a house with no central heating, in the middle of winter, with two babies, would be madness.

I bought a house at auction 3 years ago and used all my money to buy it and thought I'd do it up as I went along. I'd never ever do it again. Living in a damp house where only some of the rooms are habitable is very depressing and I got myself into a horrible debt spiral trying to pay for renovations and day to day living costs. It's not just the bits that need doing up it's that the rest of it is deteriorating whilst your back is turned. We've turned a corner with it now (after DP moved in and we got engaged and are pooling our resources). Financially we will be quids in when we sell but we've paid for it many times over in stress, hard work etc. If I had budgeted it properly and had the money upfront I would buy another fixer upper, but would never do it again this way.

Absolutely not at this stage of your life.

Get your other issues sorted first ... DP needs to be in regular employment: that means anything he can do, whether its his dream career or not. And him getting a job could mean a re-location. This house sounds like a bag of worms waiting to be opened. You are likely to find all manner of expensive issues once you start stripping off old wall paper and pulling up floor boards. I seriously think that buying this house would be a waste of your parents generous gift.