To sell the house and drastically change our lives

[julyjulyjuly]

I’m in my 30s, married with one DC and live on the outskirts of London. DH and I are both self employed and whilst the year started off well, the lockdowns have been awful financially and have also taken a massive toll mentally on both of us.

We have a big mortgage (£1500 a month) which was doable before, but with things looking so much less certain due to Covid, we’d now like to hugely reduce our outgoings.

We’ve always wanted to live in the countryside and we’ve found a place we really like the look of. It’s a long way from London and is in bad condition inside - it would need a new kitchen and bathroom straightaway and all the other rooms need completely redecorating (paintwork, fixtures and floors). The garden is an overgrown mess.

DH and I have never done any painting, decorating or floor sanding in our lives and don’t know anything about that sort of stuff. But it’s always been a dream to take on a rural project like this, do as much of the work as possible by ourselves and create an amazing family home.

We could afford a “finished” house in the location where we want to live on our budget, but it would be two bedrooms as opposed to four, with one reception room compared to three. I’ve always wanted the big rambling house so we can have family to stay at Christmas and friends during the year. Obviously that wouldn’t be possible with a two bedroom cottage, but if we bought the house that needs work then we’d have that.

The major issue is the finances - whilst our mortgage would be reduced to around £600 per month (that’s the cost of the house plus £50k to do it up), we worry that moving hundreds of miles away from London is a risky move career-wise. In our current state we can work from anywhere, but what if our freelance work dries up and we need to get full time jobs again? This is something that would be much easier to do near London than the far flung but beautiful corner we want to move to.

I know I’ve probably answered my own question here, but is it too risky to take this step and rely on getting freelance work in the future to pay our bills? Is there any way at all we can make this work or is it a total pipe dream?

I just feel completely and utterly drained by this year, am craving a massive lifestyle change and feel like this is a now or never moment.

WWYD?

My initial impression is that it is a risky time to make a big move like this with uncertainty around your careers.
Is there a compromise between outskirts of London and totally rural doer upper?
Somewhere that would be commutable to a city where you could find work if you really had to?
Is your dream the rural living , the renovation, ?
I wouldn't take on a renovation lightly.
What about schools?

I think you should go for it because it's your dream, but iron out a few things first so that you choose the right area and house.

Renovating is hard work and always takes more cash then you think. Why not use some time in next few weeks to re-decorate a room in current house and see what that’s like. It seems like a big jump from current life and need to find a way to test the water with it all.

Myself and my my husband did something similar and it was the best thing we ever did. There's nothing quite like having to make something work to make it work and our business went from strength to strength in spite of being in a completely different location several hours away from our client base.

We also had no experience of DIY or renovations before, but you learn and improve as you go. Some things obviously (and legally) require professional input, but most things aren't half as difficult as you'd believe.

If it is your dream, life is to short not to go for it IMO. Worst case scenario, you've renovated a property, hopefully added some value and you can sell on and move again.

Good luck with whatever you decide OP

The thing is, even if you did lose your jobs you wouldn't need the same level of salary if your mortgage was cut by nearly two thirds, so I wouldn't get too hung on salary. But yes, definitely generally less career options outside of London (dependent to some extent what industry you work in obviously).

Also it's worth asking yourself what your current lifestyle is like? If you are into restaurants several times a month, and regular cinema, theatre, gallery trips etc, you might find moving to the country a bit boring.

Also do you drive? It might sound a bit of an odd question but public transport links in rural areas are rarely great, and can be a huge shock if you are used to having to only wait a couple of minutes for a tube to only having 3 buses a day. I live in a rural-ish area and being able to drive is basically a necessity or I would struggle to get anywhere.

I don’t think 50k is a realistic budget if you need a new kitchen and bathroom plus redecoration and doing the garden.
It sounds like a nice idea but if your both working when will you have time to get the jobs done? If your bringing people in to do the work that will increase your costs

The schools by the new house are rated good and outstanding by Ofsted, for what it’s worth.

I think the dream is the big house with loads of room to spread out and plenty of space for family to stay, plus the stunning rural location. I also love the thought of a big practical project and returning a beautiful house to its former glory, though maybe I’m being naive about that and what it actually entails.

I’m quite an all or nothing person so would love to go for the dream house in the dream location, even though it’s probably not practical. But I’m so scared that we’re being ridiculously reckless and could end up in massive trouble financially!

Do it....there are jobs in the countryside, you can live rurally and be close to London transport links. The world is changing, working patterns are changing...roll with the change and do whatever you want to do.

if you can face a massive doer-upper in grey November, you've probably got what it takes

Do it....there are jobs in the countryside, you can live rurally and be close to London transport links.

The thing is, the place where we really want to live is several hundred miles from London and absolutely not commutable!

If it’s a large house with 4 bedrooms and 3 reception rooms, your 50k wouldn’t go far at all. It’ll probably need rewiring, perhaps new plumbing, what about the windows and the roof? Clearing the garden and planting it again would be £££. Given your lack of DIY experience, I think you’d be taking too much on.

IMO it would make more sense to buy a more affordable and manageable house to give you a chance to settle, see how you get on with work and countryside living etc You can always move up the ladder into a larger house in a few years.

Move. Why not?

Work that's remoteable will only get more decentralised after this, not less. Just be sure your location has good internet.

I only have one piece of advice. Get a full structural survery.
The lovely grade 2 listed house in the country I was going to buy was a hell house, all the damage cleverly covered up by the current owners, horrific structural faults, none of the above obvious. It was £800 very well spent.
Decoration is neither here nor there, look up tutorials on youtube, I do all my own DIY and decorating it's easy but serious problems like dry rot and woodworm is an absolute nightmare.
If there are problems get quotes for the repair before buying the property.

Yes we do drive, so transport links wouldn’t be an issue fortunately.

I'd do it!

As others have said, don't underestimate how much work it would be. But what a goal.

YouTube videos are brilliant for a lot of DIY skills but don't attempt electrics or gas plumbing yourself.

I think 50k is totally naive
Lenders are also being very cautious so it may not be mortgageable

Do it, as op said you could always sell up later if it wasn’t working and you would have improved the house so make a profit AND your outgoings will be less.

Best time to do it now whilst Covid making people rethink, you only have 1 child etc.

Otherwise before you know it you will be back to commuting full time, more children and more outgoings then it’s harder to Jack the job in.

You only regret the things you didn't do.

(Sorry, not helpful, but so very true!)

As an estate agent myself before you even entertain any of this please go see a mortgage broker. The mortgage market is ridiculous at the moment with lenders changing their criteria all the time. As you are self employed and its been a bad year this no doubt will affect you when coming to compare whats out there. Please seek advice. Good luck!!

If it’s a large house with 4 bedrooms and 3 reception rooms, your 50k wouldn’t go far at all. It’ll probably need rewiring, perhaps new plumbing, what about the windows and the roof? Clearing the garden and planting it again would be £££. Given your lack of DIY experience, I think you’d be taking too much on.

You’re probably right. £50k for renovations is the max we could afford right now sadly!

Are you planning on doing the renovations yourselves, will you be able to work and do them at the same time?
Doing up a house will always take more money and time than you budget for.

I really wouldn’t do the countryside move and a renovation at once.

You’ve said yourself that you and DH don’t know the first thing about DIY. You’ll hate doing it within a fortnight and be stuck in a falling down house in a rural area in WINTER knowing nobody.

By all means move away for a fresh start, but do so to a nice, warm, functioning house and get DS settled happily in a good school. Meet the locals (when Covid allows), join community groups and settle in (may take a year or so).

The only way I’d suggest otherwise is if you were seasoned house-refurbishers, but you’re not, so I wouldn’t attempt it.

and you would have improved the house so make a profit

True, but I think the money spent would likely negate any profit!

Lenders are also being very cautious so it may not be mortgageable

Do you mean because it’s in a state or because we’re self employed? We’re hoping that because we’d be massively decreasing our monthly repayments, we wouldn’t have any trouble getting a new mortgage, but perhaps I’m being naive especially given the current climate.

I meant it’s current state. Have you even viewed it? Valuation surveyors are essentially assessing risk and can be brutal

I’d be dead keen for this but having done two renovations of houses that were in reasonably poor condition, I’d say £50k is optimistic. Unless you can live in it in its current condition and do the renovations over a long peridot of time.

Unless you can live in it in its current condition and do the renovations over a long peridot of time.

We’d need a new kitchen and bathroom immediately as they’re so grim. The other rooms are also bad - the plaster is all intact but it’s really not pleasant beyond that!