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Original poster

I am so very tempted by a house, please slap me very hard and tell me it's not worth it

101 replies

BranIsLonelyThisChristmas · 21/12/2011 13:04

It's this house.

Here's the back story. When we moved back to Ireland in summer 2010 the house in the link is in one of the areas I was hoping to live in, but there wasn't anything for sale that suited our needs. We chose not to rent for a while because I didn't want to have to move again within a year, and we accepted that we would almost certainly pay more for doing this as Dubin has a very rapidly plummeting property market. The house we have is fine, but is has lots and lots of compromises like the layout not quite suiting us and the garden being a little too small, location not quite what we wanted, also there are only two bathrooms for five bedrooms. Just niggly things, and I am aware that I am being totally annoying and princessey when so many families are in such dire straits at the moment.

So, anyway, here is this house. We could afford to buy it, but it would cost at least as much again to renovate and it would be trickier to raise the money for that as the Irish banks are simply not lending at the moment. We would have to live in the house we are currently in while the new house is being renovated and if we were to put this one on the market now it would probably have lost about 10-15% since we bought it last year. Anyway I'm very reluctant to move into rented while we're renovating and then move again.

One possibility would be to buy it but not start renovations for another 4 years, this would give us time to raise the money and would also suit us better to move there when DS goes to secondary school as it is close to where he will be going. I suppose the house is in such a bad state that it can't get significantly worse, but I still think that might be madness.

Lastly, DH has no time at all so I would be in charge of all the work and I'm not really sure that I'm the type to cope with so much stress. On the other hand we could get exactly the house that we want, plus we could put a little bungalow where the out buildings currently are. I don't think my father will live that much longer as he is very ill, and my mother will be left alone in a semi-rural location and it would be good if there was the option for her to be near us if needed. She doesn't live that far from this location, but just up a difficult access mountain road, so if she had to live in this location for a while it would be fine as lots of her friends are close by.

Right, do what you can to talk me out of it please.

OP posts:
MavisGrind · 21/12/2011 22:41

No slap here I'm afraid. If you can afford it (even a delayed afford) and it ticks all the boxes then I'd go for it. I've just completed on a house and started work, only had it a week but renovations are already throwing up problems I don't have budget for but you know what? in years time I'll have a lovely family home for myself and the dcs that we can live in for the next 20 yrs.

It looks fantastic. Buy it!

lisalisa · 21/12/2011 22:44

I think it looks very scarey particularly the first photo from outside. Wouldn'mt appeal to me

Chaotica · 22/12/2011 00:14

Holy shit - you've just made me feel relaxed about the house I'm renovating. That is some job. Looks like it could be a wonderful house though if you can afford to do it.

GrendelsMum · 22/12/2011 11:58

I can't see what the downside is?

You've got your current house owned outright, you can buy empty house outright, you can mortgage empty house for the £350,000 needed to do the works, you employ a project manager to run the whole thing from start to finish and don't have to live on site, when it's done, you sell your current house, pay off the new mortgage and you're in the new house and all is well.

Take the 15% hit on your current house, see if you can go part time at work to cut your levels of stress, and accept that's part of the costs.

Or rent out your current house and sell it later.

TBH, though, I didn't think the house looked that exciting for £900k plus a lot of stress plus 15% loss on your current house plus stamp duty and solicitors fees. I was expecting something much nicer. Am I right in thinking it's on rather a busy road? It reminds me of a friend's parents house, and the garden was always rather noisy.

VivaLeBeaver · 22/12/2011 12:16

How likely is it your current house would sell?

Cab you sell it and then live in a big caravan/mobile home in the garden of the new one while the work is done?

ninedragons · 22/12/2011 12:33

Man, I want to emigrate to where you are - that would get you a studio flat around my neck of the woods. And not even a nice one.

How feasible would it be to get one part of the house watertight, plumbed, wired and liveable? If you had a sealed apartment within the house, it might be feasible to do it up over several years, but if not, I think it would just be depressing to live in such a dilapidated place with no end in sight. I clicked on the link thinking yeah, I could live with 70s carpets for a few years, but that's basically a crack house Xmas Grin

I would be extremely nervous about the credit situation, especially with the euro going to shit. Almost everything that needs doing to that house is (a) expensive and (b) pressing.

Scoundrel · 22/12/2011 12:36

Buy it, it's fabulous!

Could you live in a large caravan in the garden for the duration of the renovation? That would cut your costs down considerably.

minciepie · 22/12/2011 16:30

If you do this, it will literally take over your life for the next 2 to 3 years.

You will spend those years making countless boring yet difficult decisions about taps, tiles, sockets, and dealing with the endless problems that will crop up that you hadn't expected. You will be stressed and knackered and will really have no time or energyy for anything else. You will argue with your DH about any of these endless decisions that you disagree over. You will go over budget, and worry about that.

Oh and that's all assuming you live elsewhere for that time. If you live onsite you will be living in a depressing, dirty, unfinished building site where nothing works properly - to add to all the above.

It really depends on whether you think the end result will be worth this pain. Maybe it would be. But please don't underestimate how difficult the next 2/3 years will be, if you do take this on.

Do you have small DCs? If so then frankly I'd rather spend the next 2/3 years of my life having fun with them, than on this.

Talked out of it yet?

ChippingInLovesChristmasLights · 22/12/2011 16:58

Bran - I can't believe it has been 18 months since you bought the other place! I'm not surprised it still doesn't feel like 'home' - you weren't keen on it from the start.

As for this place... are you out of your tiny mind?

It Is Not Worth It

You have not fallen in love with the house - thus it's not worth it.

If you would be prepared to wait 4 years to do it up and spend that much doing it up on top of the purchase price - then sit back and wait for a house to come up in that area. One that you love.

Original poster
BranIsLonelyThisChristmas · 22/12/2011 17:04

Can I just say, there is no way, at all, not even if hell froze over and pigs flew across the frozen brimstone, that I would live in a caravan on a building site. Or, indeed, a caravan anywhere. Or a proper house on a building site.

I need you to picture my DC. They are small and angelic looking, they make more noise than a 1000 person riot, they galumph around like a grizzly bear being chased by wasps, if there is anything even remotely life or limb threatening in the vacinity they will find it within seconds and play dangerously with it. Confined spaces and building sites, either separately or combined, do not mix well with my DC.

I will talk this over with Mum and DB. DH is surprisingly upbeat about it, but that's mostly to do with location. He wouldn't be taking any part in the build process or decisions.

OP posts:
coccyx · 22/12/2011 17:10

what makes you think the planners would allow a bungalow?
I think you would be made, and i love a project!

Whorulestheroost · 22/12/2011 18:41

It sounds very much like you could afford it and aren't shying away from the mammoth task of the renovation. Buy it i say before some nasty developer buys it and turns it into flats!

Scoundrel · 22/12/2011 18:43

Ok, ok! Scrub the caravan idea Xmas Grin

deardear · 22/12/2011 18:56

I would go for it. If you have the money you would maybe regret it later on in life. You shouldn't have any problem raising capital n your existing house if you owned that one as well. If it's I. Receivers hands it will come slot cheaper than that asking price I would think.

Don't forget to get Kevin Mcloud in to do a grand designs feature on it.

3inABIRDsnest · 22/12/2011 19:02

I think unless you are a builder or property developer you shouldn't touch it with a barge pole.

Floggingmolly · 22/12/2011 19:52

Go fr it, it's dirt cheap and has the potential to be fabulous.

Original poster
BranIsLonelyThisChristmas · 22/12/2011 21:42

Bless you for noticing ChippingIn, I have been needy and passively attention seeking with my name change and it has gone unnoticed in the recent outpouring of overt attention seeking and shocking in-law stories. Grin DH has taken the DC to his family in Malaysia for Christmas and I am torn between missing them and being relieved that I'm not going. I was hoping for a last minute extreme snowfall to close the airports so they couldn't go, but it was 13C here today so no chance of that. I am missing my London friends, but I would be missing them if I was still in London anyway as there was an exodus around the time that I left and they are now in Sydney, Brisbane, Christchurch (in NZ), Kent, up North, Singapore, Kuala Lumpur, St Helena and probably a few other places that I have forgotten. Grin

I have been up to my parents for dinner, and they were both very positive about it as a project. Both of them prefer where I am now as the crime rate is much lower, but tbh that's because it's a bit too boring for criminals to bother with really. Mum was impressed with the potential in the garden. So I texted a link to my brother to see what he thought, and he liked it too. He estimates about ?400,000 for a full restoration plus kitchen and decor, which is a fair bit less than I estimated. His architect and builders have done a magnificent job on his house and they are just finishing up now, within budget(ish). My Dad reckoned they would sell well below ?400,000 as it's a receiver's sale.

Coccyx - I think the planners would allow the outbuildings to be converted if it was on the same footprint, we would probably submit plans for a home office, but we would lay it out so that it could be converted to a granny annex if necessary.

WhoRules - I am certain that it won't be bought by a developer. There is a huge over supply of new apartments following the property crash. It's the most depressing thing to see so many buildings that are just skeletons, the structure has been built but the builders went under without getting anywhere close to finishing.

OP posts:
JarethTheGoblinKing · 22/12/2011 21:47

It looks like it's been squatted in before, so agree with posters that have said leaving it empty would not be a good idea.

I think it looks like a nightmare though.. and not worth the money. Would prob take twice the money you think it would to renovate/make safe and god knows what horrors are there yet to be uncovered.

hippoCritt · 22/12/2011 21:58

Please buy it then comeback and show us how it looks. Best of luckif you do go for it,what an amazing project it would be.

paulapantsdown · 22/12/2011 22:11

Jeez that place has money pit written all over it!
If you have done the sums though and you really love the house, then go for it.

The Irish property market is mental though isn't it? My cousin is a (very skint) estate agent in Carlow (sixty miles away), and developers there are selling McMansions for 75% off before the bank takes them.

My friends were thinking of moving back home this year and were going to buy this which actually has a spare house attached! . But hey, who wants to live in Rathvilly?

Original poster
BranIsLonelyThisChristmas · 22/12/2011 22:14

That's a very pretty house Paula. I don't think I've ever been to Co Carlow, perhaps it's lovely (said uncertainly).

OP posts:
minceorotherwise · 22/12/2011 22:16

Sorry haven't read entire thread, but god it's lovely. Can totally see why you would want it

redstormrising · 22/12/2011 22:18

Gorgeous. It would be a fabulous place. That staircase! How grand!

paulapantsdown · 22/12/2011 22:19

Carlow is indeed beautiful Bran. The auld homeplace of the parents and all that. But, there are no jobs and 40,000 houses to buy for about 20p!

ChippingInLovesChristmasLights · 24/12/2011 05:39

Bran - I seem to have missed all of your threads re the inlaws!? What a shame DH & the kids wont be home for Christmas :( How long are they away for? What are you doing? - You certainly have a list of places you could visit Grin I can't believe you haven't had lots of Brew's Thanks & Ignorant lot !! Well you can have all of that and a good DVD & chocolate - Merry Christmas!! x