AIBU to offer this for ex council house

[Honeycombskl]

I'm pregnant and me and DP are desperately trying to buy a house big enough for us and baby and his 2 kids. The problem is that we live in a beautiful part of Scotland where property is currently flying off the market, being bought by people moving here after the pandemic who can afford to put on crazy offers over the house valuation. We have a good deposit saved but have been struggling to get a look in and can't afford to put in much over the asking price.

A place came up which I went to view straight away. The house is lovely, done up beautifully, has a fantastic garden and backs onto a lovely forest area. Bedrooms are a bit small but it has the number we need so great. My main concern is it's an ex-council house and although most of the homes in the area have now been bought, they definitely look like council houses (in terms of style outside, etc).
I've put in an offer, which is £7000 over the valuation and I'm waiting to hear back from the seller. I'm now questioning myself though if this is a financially stupid move. The house has been done up to a high standard so was valued at far more than the neighbouring houses, I'm just worried about losing money if we come to sell further down the line.

On the other hand it would be a great family home for us and I can totally see us eating in the kitchen or playing outside in the huge garden and forest.

YABU- you're daft and going to lose money if the buyer accepts
YANBU- property prices are going up just now anyway, just focus on how it will be as a home and not what it might sell for in a few years time.

£7k spread over a 25yr mortgage is nothing really.

I bought an ex council house 4yrs ago and thought I overpaid at the time but a house across the street with one less bedroom has just sold for what I bought this one for so not concerned now. If you’re planning to stay for a while I wouldn’t worry

My two last houses have been ex council. Lovely big rooms and big gardens. You get bad neighbours everywhere but I would take a drive round at night to see how things are. I would do this wherever we moved to now as we had a bad experience.

No matter what house you buy, if you buy in a boom, you risk losing money during the bust. The fact it’s ex council won’t affect that. That snobbishness has largely disappeared.

I bought an ex council house many years ago,and it was really lovely, It was very solidly built, and had a huge garden,and had been extended,with a large utility room and a small bathroom downstairs,with another large bathroom upstairs. It was in small village,with countryside all around.My house was in a row of eight houses,I was in the end one, which had more space outside,and the previous owner had built a carport there, that had enough room for two cars side by side. Besides the front gardens, there was a good driveway, that two cars could park on too.

I bought the house for cash after I was divorced,and made quite a big profit selling it much later. I did quite a lot of landscaping in the long and wide back garden, which was a good selling point I was told. I actually wish I still lived there, it was a perfect house for me,and a great location in a pretty village.

We've owned 2 ex-council properties as first rungs on the property ladders, first a flat then a 3 bed-semi. Both were much more solid and well built than the more modern privately built houses that were steps 3 and 4 for us. If I was starting again I think I would go for the ex-council house every time. (If I remember correctly the council tax is always much lower on ex-council properties, but not sure if that's true in Scotland)

I don't think being an ex council house will have much impact.. Some people love the build quality /decent cupboards etc you usually get with them, some would prefer a better outside aesthetic.

Buying any house over HR is a gamble but if it ticks all your boxes and you think you'll be in for a few years then it'll be worth it. Consider the alternative and think of staying put as you don't find anything and what you'll have spent on rent or whatever in the meantime.

We've just sold ours (central Scotland) for 11.5k over asking at a similar price range, and we've made a profit from when we bought 3yrs ago. Being chain free at the moment is a big selling point and if you are likely to have no issues with getting the mortgage approved I. E. Not been on furlough /have a mortgage in principle etc.

The gamble is always scary no matter what house it is, as nothing is guaranteed and it's a lot of money but you just have to do what feels best at the time.

£7k over asking so will you be into £142k? Have I got that right or is £135k including the £7 you’ve offered over? If it’s £142K, you’ll be paying £27,000 more than the most expensive recently sold at £115,000. That’s a 23% mark up. (Not quite straightforward as that because it’s been improved and might be bigger then previously sold properties but that’s just cold numbers from what market info there is).

Do the ones that have recently sold have the same number of beds?

Was the house you’re looking at built with the number of beds it currently has or has the floor plan been rejigged? E.g: Has a room been split?

If the house and area feel right and you plan to move in the medium term maybe look at overpaying the mortgage to give yourselves a bit of wiggle room when you come to sell.

A lot of these posts are making me feel a lot better.

Did you provide a note to the passed to the buyer explaining your circumstances. Its one of those that would either be discarded unread or read by a seller with empathy. I done it with mine and my offer was accepted.

Yes I have passed on about our situation, including that DP is from here and that we live here as I have seen some locals online saying they would like to sell to locals as many are being pushed out to other places away from their family. Just in case the sellers are thinking along these lines.

The rooms aren't huge, good sized kitchen and okay living room, bedrooms are definitely a bit pokey. The garden is huge though which I suppose is the main selling point for me. There's a gorgeous big tree with a tree swing and treehouse, it would just be fab for kids!

From being there I get a sense it's not an area where the house prices are going to shoot up way more than where they're currently at but then I suppose you never know. I think I wouldn't worry so much if it wasn't for the fact we're considering moving at some point in the near future.

Try not to worry, many people have a story similar to yours. I paid 122k for my first house and the other same style houses that had sold on the street went for 113k and 114k in the previous 6 months. We sold 2 years and 9 months later for 155k, it was definitely worth it for us although I worried about overpaying so much!

We moved to our next house and had to stump up a 4k redemption fee on our mortgage which stung, but we soaked it up for our home..it's gone up in value I believe, but we still love here. you win some and lose some in housing, it's a long and stressful game. Good luck! I hope you get the house x

£7k over asking so will you be into £142k? Have I got that right or is £135k including the £7 you’ve offered over? If it’s £142K, you’ll be paying £27,000 more than the most expensive recently sold at £115,000. That’s a 23% mark up. (Not quite straightforward as that because it’s been improved and might be bigger then previously sold properties but that’s just cold numbers from what market info there is).
You're right so the offer is £142000

Do the ones that have recently sold have the same number of beds?
Some do but some are only 2 bedrooms. Most have much smaller gardens though and generally seem to be a bit smaller.

Was the house you’re looking at built with the number of beds it currently has or has the floor plan been rejigged? E.g: Has a room been split?

Not as far as I know.

Op I'm in Scotland (currently West central) and have just bought a house in the East coast to relocate home closer to family. We have paid almost 7 over valuation, also for an ex council property. I consider myself lucky as other houses have gone for 10s of thousands above home report value. A friend has just paid considerably above valuation for an ex council. I know people keep saying the bubble will burst but I can't see it. There are more prospective buyers than there are properties.

FWIW, we have had to go for a 2 bed with a view to extending/converting the loft. We were completely priced out of all three beds. Properties both where I currently live and where I am moving to are going within days. I don't see it changing any time soon.

I hope you get the outcome you want whichever way you decide.

I’m in the exact same position, I’m not even entertaining the idea of a new build.

I’m currently living in a one bedroom, top floor tenement, housing association flat. We have nowhere for my partners 12 year old to sleep and I’m due in Nov/Dec. We’ve been looking since year (we didn’t have the full deposit until December but we could have made it work) and as such, all the ex-council houses are being valued way way way above what they’re actually worth in the area I’m looking. They’d normally be between 95k-105k at the very most. They’re currently being valued (Home Report) at 120k-130k with people paying way over this and I mean like 20-30k over the HR. It’s absolutely mental.

We were going to wait but I’m starting to panic that we won’t find anywhere and I’ll need to lug a baby and all it’s stuff up 4 flights of stairs, so it seems like we are just going to have to pay the exaggerated price. We would be staying in it for a long time but these houses aren’t ever going to gain much value tbh (the area isn’t sought after in the least) so we will probably lose money if we decided to move eventually.

Good luck and I hope you get the house 🤞🏼

I'm guessing this is a fairly small place? In which case the valuations of other houses perhaps mean less as it's likely there's not a huge turnover.
I live in a Scottish ex council house bought mainly for the garden. Never regretted it. Doubt we'll make big money on it but it's our home and we love it.
Fingers crossed you get it. If you are worried you have paid too much, look at a mortgage overpayment calculator. Even on a fixed term most let you overpay as long as it doesn't exceed 10 per cent of the value. If you can manage even £10 a month you'll save more in interest than you might theoretically over pay.
House buying is always a gamble especially if you buy something 'done' but the extra few thousand might be well worth the hassle saved if you have a young family

Ahh that’s good, more bedrooms usually command a bit more and if it’s a high spec the numbers probably stack up for the market atm, you might be paying a little premium for it being pretty and ready to move in and start living but you won’t have to worry about anything with new baby.

You mentioned about not expecting the area to rise that much but you might find if the market continues to rise and more people get priced out of the rung above, people start looking at your price bracket as a good contender. Especially with some of the tiny new builds about. Ex council are good value and there will always be demand for them just give yourselves a cushion by overpaying. You’ll save on interest and as long as you break even you’ll get it back when you sell. Hope it goes well for you.

Calm down, I was typing as you posted... x post. Agree with you about overpaying.

We actually also have another option which I had put to the back of my mind but has come back to me tonight and I'm now wondering about.
There was another property we viewed a few weeks ago. It has been on a month which right now here is long. It is big, 4 bedroom with big rooms, but needs all redecorated and central heating installed. It would be a lot of work. I have something of value I can sell for the money to fix up, I would rather not sell it for a house but if I'm putting it into a property I'm raising the value of then I'd see it as more of an investment. We put a lowball offer in though which was declined and they didn't come back with an alternative so I haven't really thought about it since then. It still appears to be on so we could try putting in a higher offer. My main concerns with this one is the volume of work it requires (however I fixed up my last 2 properties so not scared of the work, but I didn't have a baby in tow then) and it is beside a big yard which is up for sale and we have no idea what it will end up being. It could be something that brings down or raises the value. Weighing up this option again if the seller of the first house declines.

Stick with the Scottish phrase 'what's meant for you won't go past you'.
If your offer is accepted, it was meant to be. Stop overthinking. If it's not, re-evaluate the other options.
At the end of the day, there will always be another you. A family house with a family sized garden at a lower end of the price scale will always have appeal. It's where you have a four bed flat or a large house with no garden that finding a more specific type of buyer becomes hard. Something ideal for young families is likely to sell whatever the market

@Calmdown14

You're actually spot on! I'm a chronic overthinker! Just need to chill out a wee bit and wait and see what happens.

I lived next door to a chap who worked for a company like Barrett, Bloor etc I can't remember which. Anyway he said it's well known that council houses are very well built and that's why he bought an ex council house and not one from his own company. As for the way they look what would you say if houses in a private estate looked like council housing and council houses looked like private houses do? I live in a house on a decent private estate and the houses look no better than council ones.

As for the way they look what would you say if houses in a private estate looked like council housing and council houses looked like private houses do?
I've seen plenty of nice looking council houses but these ones aren't the nicest looking on the outside. Gardens are all well kept though (although surrounded by not the nicest chain link fences which takes away from them a bit), it's just whatever material the walls are covered in outside looks very dark which can easily look quite depressing in Scotland in the rain. A couple have been painted white and they look much better, but most are a dark pebbledash.

I'm an estate agent in Scotland, ex local authority houses sell really well here, especially if they've been done up. Most properties at the moment are going over valuation and £7k over an asking price of £135k is reasonable.
Did the estate agent say if there were any other interested parties?

West central scotland here too
DD bought a modern flat at christmas £15000 over asking price. She would have got much more for her money buying an ex-council house. They do hold their value and are good solid built houses.
Your other option - well l would be worried about what was happening to the yard next door
Can you give us a clue to which area in Scotland you are looking at?

Did the estate agent say if there were any other interested parties?
They didn't say, I think I was the first person to view it luckily and I put the offer in straight away.

Can you give us a clue to which area in Scotland you are looking at?
On the North East coast in the Grampian region.

My DD is also just started looking, NE Scotland also and I can also confirm house sales are going mental at the moment. I wouldn’t wait too long, every house we have looked at is being offered on.

I purposefully looked for an ex-council house last time. They tend to have useful sized rooms (if not large), so no shoe-box sized 3rd bedroom. Lots of storage, and well built. Once I fix the previous owners improvements and finish redecorating, it will be lovely. Also, here at least, ex-council seem to hold their value as well as any other.

Good luck with your offer OP.