Move into new build or not, wwyd?

[ThinkingOfMoving]

Looking for advice please! I know we have to decide for ourselves but writing it down & hearing your thoughts will really help.

We live in a small 3 bed semi. That's me&dh and two children aged 7 and 4 (girl/boy). We love this house but it is very SMALL, especially the bedrooms. It's perfect for diddy kids, can't imagine living here with teens. I had assumed we would move at some point, but not for a few years.

We don't have a spare room, which until now hasn't been a problem. We do have a tiny study that's taken up just now with a big desk/shelves/filing cabinet but I WAH so need that space. However I think we now need to be able to offer my in-laws a bed for the night sometimes. (They used to have a flat a short drive away but just sold it) They are not sofa bed people!

There's a new build development at the other side of the village. We love one of the house types, it has a proper spare room, loads more SPACE generally, like the location etc etc. We can afford it, taking into account the incentive deals that are being offered, but we currently have a very small mortgage and a nice lifestyle, this would mean a much bigger mortgage and living on a strict budget.

We'd never seen ourselves in a new build, both of us always preferred period houses. However we've learned quite a lot about ourselves in the past 10 years - we will never be rich, and we are fairly rubbish at DIY and keeping up with maintenance.

I suppose the dilemma has come up now because this isn't a large town and so the new build development (and the associated incentives) won't be around for ever - plus my strong feeling that we need a spare bed for the grandparents.

There is another option - we could convert our garage in our current house. It's not attached to the house so isn't an obvious conversion but it would give us another room, possibly for big desk/filing etc. We could then squeeze a double into our tiny study.

I'm rambling now and keep thinking in circles, any thoughts at all?

You are exactly where I was 5 years ago... 3 bed semi, a boy, a girl, no spare room, no study though.

We moved to 4 bedroom (plus boxroom) house with double garage and a study.

I am so so glad we did. We are rubbish at DIY and this new build means that when anything goes wrong we just ring the builder and he sends some to fix it under the 10 year guarantee thing.

Oh... and we did a part exchange to get this house, so didn't have the hassle of estate agents and time wasters troooping round every weekend.

Best move we ever made.

It's worth bearing in mind that new builds tend to drop their value as soon as they aren't new any more (i.e. when you come to sell). Which probably isn't an issue if you would be there a long time - but if you might move again in a few years is a bit more of a problem.

How often do the GPs come to stay? If not very often, could you kip on the sofa bed when they come and give them your room?

If you have a decent size garden, you could also look into a "garden room" i.e. like a rather smart shed in the garden with heating and light that you could use as a study. May be more expensive than converting the garage, but you get to keep the garage.

Thank you thelunar66, it's great to hear a positive story! Part-exchange is an option I think and a very appealing one.

Minipie - thanks for highlighting that about the sale price. I don't think we would want to move again in a few years but will have to factor that in. As for the GPs - I don't know yet, they have both just retired from full-time jobs and we are all adjusting to a different set of circumstances. I think possibly they would come more if they could stay more comfortably - catch 22!

I wouldn't mind sleeping on the sofa bed but all bedrooms are upstairs and sofa bed down, and ds still wanders through at night [sigh].

There's no space for a garden room, lovely idea though!

I would move, get it over a done with now, although things may seem tight at the moment they will get better, and as the kids get older you will be facing this decision more and more.
We moved to a new build 5 bed house when there were just the two of us, we got a good deal and went for it and have never looked back. We are now in our "family home" with DD and we love it.
We bought in August 2007 (a week before the crash so a shit time) and ours is now worth £75k more than what we paid, so not always true about new houses dropping (we did hammer them on price though as we were not in a chain)
Go for it...

Your situation sounds very familiar! We are in the process of moving to a new build from a small 3 bed. We ummed and ahhed about moving, older properties were preferred etc etc.

We had our house on the market on and off for 2 years and nothing was budging. So, we compromised and our 4 bed with study, playroom, double garage, utility room and good size garden will be complete in 2 weeks!! We've part-exchanged which (please god don't let me speak too soon) has gone fine and I'd recommend. We also bought off plan so could haggle a little on the price.

My advice if you do go down this route would be to try and haggle (sp?) even if its a popular area, don't worry too much about buying off plan, try and agree to be able to look around the build periodically, don't necessarily get the extras through the builders (carpets for example - we're saving about 40% by going to a small carpet shop) and try and agree before exchanging to be able to occupy both properties over a weekend to help the move process (we didn't and now they're going back on their verbal agreement). I know there will probably be a huge snagging list when we've moved in but with an older property you risk getting everyone's DIY mistakes so can't win either way.

Re the part-exchange - our current house is now going through a sale with the builder for about 20k (we think) less than what they are giving us for it so for our situation this has definitely been the way forward.

Good luck!

Only the British are fool enough to see any redeeming value in 'period' houses and old pieces of shite excuses for housing that are inefficient (therefore wasting more money), a nightmare to keep and never have enough sockets or spaces for modern living.

I'd move into a new build in a heartbeat.

Thanks everyone, it's interesting to see most of you think we should move! HavetoWearHeels, you are right - I think if we decide not to, it will still be on our mind all the time. Cal79 - good luck! Sounds fabulous and I hope it all goes smoothly from now on.

expat - that may be so although I do have friends in other countries that have bought fixer-uppers. I do see that there are a lot of advantages to new builds and I think we've realised that we are not the right people to have an old house.

I think it's possible to buy an option just now for £250. I am wondering whether it's worth doing that anyway.

Lots of food for thought anyway - thanks!

do it.

I had a flash of vision one day, hanging out my washing, I thought....

I'll be here, next year, hanging out my washing and thinking... shit, I should have moved to that 5 bedroom when I could.

I could see me, kicking myself.

I have no regrets.

New build all the way, we have always lived in fairly newly built properties. We bought a stepping stone house, 3 bed detached when we just had ds1 who wasn't even 2yrs old. It was to get him into an incredible primary school.

Although decent sized internally the garden was teeny and we then went on to have ds2. We gutted it, so we are good at DIY but I would rather just decorate than have to repair old plumbing

We moved this year to a 4 bed double garaged property with utility, much bigger garden and parking for 4 cars on the drive. It was the best decision we ever made.

The house is now big enough for DH to have a study (he sometimes works from home) and we are converting the double garage into a playroom but retaining a storage area at the back for gardening stuff etc.

We will be here for at least 10 years. This house is big enough to accommodate visitors and as the boys grow older, they can have their own space to play the wii without taking over the TV in the lounge.

I'd say imagine yourselves 5 years down the line, do you think your current house is big enough, what about the new one?

Thanks everyone again, just to update and say we have taken out an early bird option on a plot/house in phase 2 which means we will get first refusal when it's released for sale and 48 hours to make up our minds. The sales woman didn't have dates but made noises about staying in touch next summer (so letting them know our holiday dates etc) and realistically I think it would be completed in 2 years at the earliest.

This is a good solution I think because although we will outgrow this house, we haven't yet and I do love it here - want at least another 2 Christmasses here. It also means we can finish odd jobs, re-paint and think about everything that putting this house on the market will involve - NEXT year . We can have a good look at what else might come up in our budget locally.

It's cost us £250 but they don't cash the cheque and she implied that they won't if you say no - which I can't quite believe really but there you go. I think we are serious enough about this house to put that money in.

We bought a new build on part exchange just over a year ago.

It's great - tons of space compared to our old 3 bed semi (are we all clones?)

No agent's fees which would have been well in excess of 2k.

We are also crap at DIY and just ring someone up if there's a problem. Love it.

Just watch out for under-valuing by your mortgage provider. Ours was valued at 15k less than we'd offered and 30k less than the asking price. Ended well though as we got it for cheaper, but was a worrying few days of negotiations. However, that may not still be common in 2yrs time.