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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To not want to buy a house again

65 replies

LegoBitcho · 30/06/2018 08:05

Because buying and selling is so stressful in England.

We are selling to FTB and no onward chain for us. Sounded so easy, we could complete end of June the EA said. We've not even got to exchange 😞

It has seriously put me off buying anywhere again, I feel as though I'm trapped here and renting would have meant freedom to go when we were ready.

I know long term buying means security in old age but I'm seriously deflated by this whole insane process.

OP posts:
ConciseandNice · 30/06/2018 08:18

YANBU. We have to relocate soon at very short notice and the thought of renting out the house, storing furniture, maybe not managing to and selling up are totally stressing me out. If we were just renting it would be significantly easier. My father even said to me the other day, ‘I don’t even know why you bought the house’ - the man with a million pound house, no mortgage and a shitload of pension...

nippey · 30/06/2018 08:22

YANBU it took us nearly 5 months to sell our house, with no chain on either side. Decided to rent for a bit longer than we planned as I cant face the pain of buying somewhere!

Original poster
LegoBitcho · 30/06/2018 08:30

Is there anyone who thinks the system now is OK? I can't understand why it hasn't been amended.

nippey is that 5 months from accepting an offer Shock

OP posts:
Gilead · 30/06/2018 09:08

12 weeks in and it's driving me nuts. It's so unnecessarily slow.

lljkk · 30/06/2018 09:12

California where I'm from, 3 weeks from offer to moving in is not unusual. Certainly more than 60 days is considered especially long. It must be possible in England to hurry things up.

flugelhorn81 · 30/06/2018 09:12

Estate agents often give unrealistic timelines from my experience! It can take months, depending on the condition of your property, any modifications you've made that need to be verified, etc. I'm buying at the moment and it's so time consuming! When did you accept the offer?

KindergartenKop · 30/06/2018 09:17

Like giving birth you need deep.breaths, ceral bars and prepare for it to last a looong time. Also the last bit (packing and unpacking) is the most painful.

nellly · 30/06/2018 09:22

YANBU at all! The stress of buying my first house convinced me I'll live here forever!! As long as we don't have any more kids it will be fine Grin

Original poster
LegoBitcho · 30/06/2018 09:25

Offer was accepted in April, and it's just one delay after another although the EA thinks it's ticking along nicely Hmm

I never really subscribed to the 'forever' house thing but I can see why here you'd only want to do it once.

Although just saw the thread where OPs rent has been increased by £60 a month and she already pays £2500 Shock

OP posts:
lljkk · 30/06/2018 09:25

Both times we bought, we tried hard to make ourselves chain-free, and we seriously only considered at houses that were chain free or likely to be (people who HAD to move out of region or to dispose of family assets, not just speculating on buying a slightly nicer house 3 streets over).

I think that strategy helped... but still took months!

Somanymistakes · 30/06/2018 09:28

Can't finalise divorce until house sells. Fell through just before (very slow progress) exchange.

Now waiting on more viewers.

Fun fun fun! And we are still living together.

Happy Summer Holidays everyone!!!

peachypetite · 30/06/2018 09:29

It will be worth it in the long run.

Justwanttoweeinpeace · 30/06/2018 09:30

YANBU - I'm going out of this house in a box!

falaffels · 30/06/2018 09:31

So with you in this. Our seller was made bankrupt part way through the process, so we needed to start again with a group of trustees looking after all of his assets. Took nearly six months in total.

We thought that our next house would be the forever home, but I really don't want to go through it again.

Original poster
LegoBitcho · 30/06/2018 09:32

so Flowers That just adds a whole other level of shitness to this shitty process.

OP posts:
Limpopobongo · 30/06/2018 09:32

EAs are probably just very busy trying to draw in new business to rip off more people and sustain their incomes. Crooks in smart cars.

Hopefully the rise of the digital economy, on line estate agencies and faster legal processing will see these parasites off our high streets for good.

The market is slowing down. I travel a lot for my work and everywhere i look new developments are springing up. More homes are being built, the net migration rate is falling, the economy is on the verge of another big dip,,,there is little appetite to continue to inflate this particular bubble.

California where I'm from, 3 weeks from offer to moving in is not unusual. Certainly more than 60 days is considered especially long. It must be possible in England to hurry things up

Well thats because the USA is a great country . The people in the UK are quite prepared to live in some of the smallest and most expensive and poorly equipped houses in the developed world and certainly in Europe.

They will happily pay half a mllion pounds for some shoebox in the sky.

As we all know, in the USA you can buy a decent family sized home for a fair price as long as you dont want to live in manhattan or the middle of a major city.

juneau · 30/06/2018 09:47

YANBU - buying a house in England is horrible! We were like you, in rented accommodation and had all our finance in place, but it took from Aug to Mar to complete the sale. Why? Because the elderly couple we were buying from were buying a bungalow from another elderly lady who refused to move twice and she couldn't find exactly what she wanted in the village she wanted it - so we all had to wait for her to find something. Fortunately for us, we were knocking the house down and rebuilding (which was a whole other massive ball-ache) ...

dangermouseisace · 30/06/2018 09:51

YAB a bit U. It is stressful selling a house. It is, however, much more stressful renting due to the high chance of you having to move when the landlord tells you eg when they want to sell the house, or have just had enough of you. Being made homeless and struggling to find somewhere is much, much more stressful than selling/buying a house. For clarity, I’ve done all 3.

sobeyondthehills · 30/06/2018 09:54

I completely understand where you are coming from, but I would much prefer the stress of owning my own house than having to uplift my whole family, pay anywhere up to 2-3k and the stress of finding somewhere to live every six months

falaffels · 30/06/2018 09:58

Well yes obviously danger buying is less stressful than being homeless. Like breaking tor leg isn't as bad as having a terminal illness.

Doesn't make it unreasonable to wish that the process was better, though

juneau · 30/06/2018 10:09

When it's over though and you're in your new home and it's YOURS, it IS worth it. We went through 2.5 years of shizzle to purchase, knock down and rebuild our house and four years on I can tell you, unequivocally, that it was worth it. It nearly broke us, both financially and maritally, but it was worth it.

Original poster
LegoBitcho · 30/06/2018 10:10

That's it falaffels, it should just be a better process.

I know I'm lucky to not be homeless, but the stress house buying/selling causes in England is just ridiculous. The process is unnecessarily long and drawn out. Other countries manage fine to do it quicker, why not here??

OP posts:
Limpopobongo · 30/06/2018 12:15

Your home is only owned until the state wants it then they can throw you out of it and pay you a derisory sum . No one in this country has true ownership of land. All land is held by The Crown. If you do not pay your feudal duties you will be cast out of your home.

ElspethTascioni · 30/06/2018 12:23

You’re not a “freeman on the land” are you Limpopobongo...?

Lucisky · 30/06/2018 12:25

Eh limpo?