If you had to buy a house again

[labamba007]

Okay cheekily putting this here for traffic, but if you had to buy a house again what would/wouldn't you do this time round?

I've never actually bought a house before and I've just had a mortgage agreed in principle. So I'd love to ask, if you were/are going to buy a house again, what would you do differently or what were you pleased you did right the first time?

Thank you! 🙏

I never understood the whole 'south facing garden' malarkey. However, after unknowingly buying a house with the back being south facing I get it! The amazing light I get in my sitting room brings me joy and is the first thing people comment on when walking in to my home.

I wouldn’t buy a house near a pub ever again!

Yes this! I hate the fact that I have to walk through the sitting room to get to the kitchen! It does have a teeny hall at least though.

But a house with a proper entrance, not just a porch Like we have

Things I love about our house that I would look for again is - the area has pubs / cafes / shops within walking distance, open plan kitchen/ diner with a sofa and TV. Nice open back garden. Things I would not do again - fully renovated while trying to work full time

Check how noisy the water pump is. Ours is horrendous despite having it replaced.

I'm glad I checked the council's hazard maps for flooding and similar, along with area checks for crime, GPs, chemists, public transport and shops in walking distance options.

I'm glad took my kids out to the new house and after we walked around the area, we then did the trip to the schools to see what that commute would be like for them (secondary age, traveling on their own).

Very glad I paid less attention to the mortgage in principle amount, and more focused on running my own numbers on what we could comfortably afford, both in the costs of moving (the fees, getting a good moving company reduces a lot of stress) and in the long term.

If you rent, a common way to make a comparison is to take the value of the home that you are considering, multiply it by .04 &.05 (4-5%), and divide by 12 to compare the additional costs on home owning to rent. I found playing with this and similar calculations helped me find a comfortable range for us that meant we looked at places where we could put down 20-25% down payment with money back for the inevitable things going wrong in the early months and years & a few years and cost of living crisis on, we're still comfortable.

I'm also glad on zoopla, I accidentally left the area to search to be something like + 3 miles beyond range, the home we bought was in our 'beyond' range that I hadn't considered until this house popped up in the matches for that search.

Living in my third purchased house. Before that rented.

What I would do if I bought again - NEVER buy a house that needs as much doing to it as ours does! The motivation may feel like it's there at the start.... but months down the line you'll be sat looking at a hole in the wall, missing skirting board, things that don't work, peeling wall paper or paint, and realising that it takes more effort than you have to bother to fix it 😂

I would say never buy a new build as I have heard horror stories about them falling apart after 5 years as we don’t have decent building regulations in this country

I bought a house with a garden that got full sun - south facing, absolute sun trap. Small tree on the boundary but nothing to worry about or so I thought, despite the neighbour's (massive) garden being higher than mine because it is more than twenty times bigger... My tiny garden is my pride and joy and it is honestly my haven. It genuinely keeps me sane. Or did.

Sadly my lovely neighbours who kept the tree in check were replaced by arseholes who won't keep that tree trimmed, there's another even faster growing one on the boundary next to it - they won;t even touch that. These trees are 5/6 metres from my house - and now my small but once perfect garden is in shade for most of the day. They don't care. They don't want to be able to see my house at all and don't give a fuck that it makes me really upset that both trees are now about three stories high and have ruined somewhere that is my solace. I have a strip of garden at the back that is now barren of plants. I hate them and I will be extremely careful never to buy anywhere that can be so impacted by selfish neighbours.

Love the house though. Although I'm about to lose all light in the downstairs rooms so that love may be gone soon. So depressing.

Make sure you can get insurance cover, and for a reasonable price - ask the vendors who they insure with and for how much. Some houses are uninsurable. Also, make sure you either have your own parking or that there is plenty of on-street parking, particularly if you are anywhere near a school or a dental surgery.

We bought a Victorian terrace that we thought just needed a thorough round of decorating, but it's needed all kinds and it's quite wearing when the jobs don't end. And it soon gets cold unless the heating is on for hours. And there's not really any outside space. Or much of a "neighbourhood" for DS to get out in. Busy road and of course not much space to park.

We're looking to move, maybe to a new build, and this is all stuff we're thinking about.

Don’t buy a project unless you have the skills and/or funds to do the work. Especially don’t buy one hoping to live in it and do the work a bit at a time as funds allow. It will cost you ten times as much as doing it all at once and you’ll live in chaos for years.

We took my dad's advice and absolutely stretched ourselves to the max of our budget. We were engaged and no kids at the time, in good jobs with a chance at progression. It was definitely worth it because we had a house we could grow into and now house prices have gone up but so did our salaries. (We had six months savings and a five year fixed mortgage so weren't completely stupid - at the time it was hard as when we moved in we literally couldn't afford to paint a wall. When we got married we were very grateful for the traditional presents like toasters and chopping boards and bed linen as we had hand me downs, and getting the house how we wanted it has been a gradual project over the years. I'm so glad we did it this way and not the 'starter home' to 'family home' route which would have seen us pay off the agents, solicitors, taxes and so on twice.

South facing done

This!!!

Couldn’t agree more. My last house didn’t have a hall - and it was a pain in the ass. This house does and really appreciate it.

I'd take a builder with me when viewing a house a second time. They can give advice on potential issues and spot things I wouldn't necessarily notice.

Don't buy on a flood plain! Even a one in one hundred year risk one.

Check out the property and neighbourhood during the daytime and evenings, both weekdays and weekends.

Would get a full survey (got the level 2 to save money, wish we hadn't).

Would save more money than we thought for doing 'bits' those first few months - new light fixtures, getting a plug socket fixed, getting bits of storage for e.g. the garage and loft that we realised would be useful, getting odd bits and bobs we discovered needed fixing sorted. They added up really quickly!

Wouldn't go with a fixed fee churn-em-out solicitor.

Would remember the first mortgage payment can be more!

This.

Buy in the nicest area you can afford and you won't regret it. We live in a small house in a highly desirable village. It is quiet and wonderful. I look at bigger houses in other locations nearby, even 5 mins up the road, and there is no way I'd trade house-size for the amazing life we have in our village. It's something I didn't anticipate before we moved, but now we've experienced it there is no way that I'd trade our small (1 bath, 3 bed) for a bigger house with an ensuite, second bathroom, utility room, big hall, guest room etc. Trust me! It's all location, location, location!

I love my big trees

Pay for a bloody good survey!
we got the basic free one .. or the one which was cheapest. We moved in and within weeks needed a full new roof and electrical re-wire, cost thousands and we didn’t budget for that so it was a costly mistake on our behalf. We also paid the asking price, silly fools.

That being said we love the area and the bones of the house so we will make it work! Turns out it’s a long term project but hey, Rome was not built in a day!

I’d never buy an old house again - we bought a gorgeous, three storey, four bedroom Victorian terraced house with a huge kitchen and two reception rooms, loads of space. Old and cold, even after having double glazing, new boiler, heating system and wood burner installed. Managed four years there and have been in a lovely warm new build that isn’t a money pit for the last 10 years.

Big windows, natural daylight, door to the garden. No funny layout. You don’t want to be traipsing bins down flights of stairs for example if your kitchen is upstairs.

For me: a downstairs toilet, dining kitchen or a living room with space for a table, a bath if you have kids or room to add one, a wfh space, fast WiFi, storage like an outhouse or loft. I personally don’t like estates so chose a house one street off a quieter main road and love how central we are. I live in a Victorian terrace and thankfully the walls are thick and my neighbours are lovely.

House buying can be a bit emotional though and sometimes you just get a feeling. I felt relief when I bought my home, been here 7 years now and still love it. It’s felt a lucky house as we have had so many happy life events while living here. Good luck.