Shitty homes

[madcatladyforever]

AIBU to think that if you have bought a huge investment i.e a house you should take take care of it?
I've moved 300 miles from home with work and I'm renting a bedsit while I look for a house to buy.
Every single one I've looked at is a shit hole. Dirty, not decorated in years, a mess and overgrown garden. I feel so despondent.
I don't want to buy a house I'm going to have to do tons of work on and start from scratch in the garden
My own house was modest but it was nicely painted by me, the garden with a bit of hard work was lovely and it sold in 2 weeks after going on the market. The buyers said it was the nicest house in the price range.
I really don't want to buy some shit hole and spend the next 5 years doing it up and having to deep clean it at my age.
Houses here are much cheaper but just so run down and dirty.
If you had an expensive investment would you not want to maintain and look after it inside and out? I just cannot understand the mentality.
I had a look at what should have been a lovely bungalow today in an area of oupstanding natural beauty owned by a sinice bloke and it would have taken several big skips to remove all the crap from the house and Garden before even starting to refurbish and he wanted top dollar for it.

I think it's quite obvious that if some lets it get so bad and actually it's even shown like that it's not a simple case of being messy.

You need to up your budget if everything you have seen so far isn't up to scratch.

You say you have moved 300 miles and property is much cheaper, but maybe you have been misled on how much cheaper?

You know that generally speaking houses don't come with the stuff in them, don't you? Why would you need skips?

@bluebeck maybe that's it - I live in Leeds and my London mates seem to think they'd be able to buy downton Abbey for the price of a london Semi - they're often astounded to find that they would be lucky to upgrade to a detached if they want a nice area.

Buy a new build - most houses of cheap prices are so for a reason - new aren’t needing work so the extra money would be better paying than a renovation job !

My hosue hasnt ben decorated for 15-20 years its not modern and it needs work-im not going to spend thosands when someone will come along and re-do it to their own taste

Put in an offer that reflects how sit the decor is.

You get what you pay for.
We’re looking for s property, budget £800,000. 3beds gorgeous, 4 beds need work, 5 beds need renovation. That’s how it warms, you get what you pay for.

I think OP may be falling into that cliché of moving from an expensive area to another which is considered to be cheaper but actually in the nice areas you still pay a premium. I moved from the Southeast 20 years ago to a northern city. A thriving northern city with the biggest financial and legal centres outside London, three well respected uni's and incredible transport links (for up here, obviously no investment in rail outside london) accessible countryside famed across the world on the doorstep and world renound theatres/ballet/music etc. Everytime I visit family in the south east I am patronised by family and their friends as the poor relation. The fact they live in a bloody town with none of this on their door step, no multicultism, children at 16 still being driven every where rather than getting a bus is a mute point.
Loads of people is people move to the city expecting it to be 'cheap'. Of course if you look at the red light district and certain highly deprived areas. The shock if that the middle class/professional areas (and lots of more gritty but ok areas) are not. The property market it red hot. I moved up in 2001 and sold my first house at the height of the national property market in 2006, making a 200% profit. The local market here right now is unbelievable. Houses in really deprived areas are selling for 50 % more then 18 months ago.

Sorry, loads of typos.

@willstarttomorrow NW and prices are rising here.
People are joking it's all them southerners coming up here and rising prices😁

I 100% agree with you..
I've viewed some houses and they are so dirty and run down ( all being lived in) I think you myself how can people.be living this way. You can have very little and a house be clean.

@Perunatop thanks for this advice!

Prices static in my desirable part of the NE.

Different parts of the country demand different standards. To you something spic and span inside and out seems the basic standard. Unless there are funds available, the energy/capacity physically and mentally to maintain these standards of course they slide. If a property is grotty tgen surely the price will be reflected. Why can't you use a bit of elbow grease on a dirty property if you like it. Or is that beneath your pristine standards.

If a house in kept in bad condition it will sell for less money. If it is painted and looks nice it will sell for more. Not everyone is able to paint and do DIY. I have bought a few houses and done them up but it is very hard work. If a house is dirty and unpainted it is easier to do a deep clean do it up when empty. It is rare to find a house done to your own taste anyway.

OP you've obviously hit a nerve with some people here 😂
I agree with you, there is absolutely no reason to live in filth. It costs exactly nothing to not leave shit lying around and let dirt accumulate to the point where a place looks run down. It's got nothing to do with finding a place that's done up to your personal taste as some are suggesting, rather that if you're trying to sell a house, present it as something other than a pig sty.
People on here feeling attacked to the point where they're trying to address things you haven't even said
Just tell them to put down the pitchforks and pick up a broom

I would look at houses at the low end of your price range and the highest end then see the difference, people have other priorities if they have a house to live in it doesn't mean they always do it up.

I know what you mean OP I'd rather have a smaller nest and tidy well decorated house than I large one that looks like shit that I can't afford to the upkeep for

The thing is, it's up to people whether they want to put in a bit of elbow grease or not. They aren't obliged, and they don't need a reason not to do it. All the arguments about how easy and cheap and accessible it is apply just as well to OP as they do to the vendors. If they don't want to clean it before selling and she doesn't want to clean it after buying, well, they just won't be doing business together. That's ok.

I’ve been shocked at the state of some houses we’ve looked at where people are living and it’s on at the same as one you can move into. And not open to offers.

Lovely lady selling but you couldn’t see the state of the place for stuff. Convinced that it would go for the same as the immaculate 4 bed over the road...

Most weeks someone will post on Mn bemoanimg how other people aren't like them in some way and essentially they are better than 'they' are. With 7 billion people in the world and a multitude of lenses I always find these posts narrow minded and nasty. From parenting, to relationships to how people keep their houses. The OPs only ever reveal their own deep help insecurties and toxic attitudes.

I don't know about houses up North being increasingly comparable to Southern prices. I just looked in Newcastle and drooled at the palatial, handsome, golden sandstone terraces with massive gardens in leafy Gosforth and Jesmond, with perfect, tasteful new kitchens and huge glass extensions, in mint condition, all for under £500k. That, in my village, would buy you a cramped ex-council house doer-upper.

There are areas of the north that are southern priced, and other areas that aren't but are increasingly out of step with the rest of the local market. But the general picture is of cheaper housing. That said, the north is lots of small markets not one big one, and from what I can tell the north east is cheaper than other areas in the north generally.