Scary survey has put us off my 'near-dream'house

[cupcakeandtea]

I'll try and make this as brief as possible.

DH and I put an offer in on a 3 bed 30s semi that needs 'some' modernising. we thought this would comprise of a new bathroom and kitchen and general decorating but survey has come back revealing it needs completely rewiring, a new boiler and guttering. Expected costs are at least £15k (with another £10k for kitchen and bathroom).

Initially we were tempted to withdraw from the purchase not only because of the cost but we've got a toddler and a baby on the way and I'm worried how we'll cope with the renovations but houses in our area just don't seem to be coming onto the market and I'm concerned if we let this one go, we could live to regret it.

Once it's been done up, it will be a superb house and has a stunning 120ft garden but the cost and amount of work needed doing is frankly a bit scary.

I should say that it is still affordable, even with the extra costs as we have a low mortgage and we have also had an offer on the house we currently live in.

If it's your dream house and you can afford the whole cost yourself then i'd still go for it. As you say once done up it would be great and if these types of houses don't really come up that often then you'd probably regret backing out.

Have you had proper costing for the rewiring etc. ? How about asking the current owners if they would pay half of the costs ? Worth a try.

Well, the problems are just the money and the hassle, you still love the house (and a 120ft garden sounds amazing!).

Re the money - can you reduce your offer? It would be reasonable imo to reduce it by the full £15k (or actually, I would reduce it by £20k to allow for extra costs/inconvenience and allow myself to be bargained up to reducing it by £15k).

Re the hassle - is there any way you can not move in straight away, and have the work done on completion? It would make it so much easier.

If you can afford it I would look on it as an opportunity. You can upgrade everything and have it just how you want. Once you are into rewiring, you are basically redoing the whole house because of redecorating everywhere but I think that's a good thing if you really want the house.

But I am a serial house doer upper and would love to do it again (my current house had to have new floors, ceilings, windows, doors, wiring, plumbing - well, at once point in the renovations the only thing still in place were the external bricks and even they had to be bracketed into place - it was one big empty shell from basement to top floor but it was worth it to get the place right).

Definitely adjust your offer to take into account these costs. I would also make sure you've got contingency funds - £15K sounds quite low for all that work (but obviously it depends where you are).

Would you have to live there while the renovation was happening? If you can possibly rent or stay somewhere else, even just for the rewiring, I would. I lived through a renovation like that and I never want to do it again, especially with small children. Rewiring makes an inordinate amount of dust, all the walls, floors and ceilings will be opened and it's just awful.

That said, it is like childbirth. The results are worth it. You end up with a house exactly as you want it. So if you know that this opportunity might not come up again, then go for it. Be prepared for a tough, messy few months then it will all be behind you.

I would try to negotiate the price down to reflect the bad survey. And then see if you can get access between exchange and completion to do some of the messiest work.

Sorry - I realise you haven't said if it's empty now - my second suggestion would only work if it is. We did this when we moved to our current house and it was great - the plumbing and bathroom were done between exchange and completion, and the kitchen in the first week.

check out what similar houses cost near by and ask estate agent, - it could be that the house price already reflects the cost of work to be done. So when work is done, house will sell for more. This is the sort of house a lot of people like, i.e. 15k of work = £25k + increase in house value.

Different surveyors give different results.

Ring around and get advice - builders will tell you how much mess and time it would take. I would see it as a great opportunity - you can get everything as you want - we have a wall light switch that switches on all the table lamp at one go. A lot of things can be wireless now, and sometimes you just need to chisel in the wiring and make good. Is there a safety issue with the wiring? So can you move in and do it in your own time.

You can now get outside boilers (which free up space in the kitchen) and they are tons more efficient and controllable. We are planning on getting a double immersion tank which we will connect to panels on roof (when we have the money) and provide free hot water.

There is so much new technology these days with efficiency and eco, that I think is a really good opportunity.

however, only you know how you are with mess in inconvenience, and having two DCs won't make it easy. However, perhaps if you work out how is will all be done, and in what stages - it won't seem so daunting.

That's not a scary survey :) TBH, I would expect those things on a house "in need of modernisation".

These are all things I would expect as normal when buying a 30s semi that hadn't been touched for a while. Think of the positives - you can have loads more plugs in the places you want!! A new boiler and pipework is an expensive outlay but it will save you a lot going forward as they are v efficient these days.
The guttering is a pain but has to be done.
I'd get an electrical survey done and find out what the electrician recommends in terms of danger - use this figure to negotiate with (we did this and he came up with £600 of work that needed to be done that made the house safe before we moved in)

I've done all of the above and the plumbing pipework and re-wiring were horrible at the time but you just have to remember it is for the safety and efficiency of your house for the future.
if it is your dream house you have to go for it - you can always put the bathrooms and kitchen off for a couple of years - but I'd do the rewiring and pipework first as otherwise there is no point in decorating as that will rip through everything.

Wasn't the house cheaper if advertised as in need of modernisation? I would expect to have to do windows as well in that case.

Great advice to get work done between exchange and completion. Can you stretch it from two to three weeks?

We offered £25k less than the asking price, which she accepted and we did try and get her to reduce it by more on Monday when the survey came through, which she refused to do.

When I say we can afford it, what I mean is that we can borrow enough to cover the costs but we don't want to overextend ourselves so finances would still be tight. It does need new windows but that is something we'd have to think about in the future.

Renting even a cheap flat around here would cost £1k a month which is money we just don't have so we might have to move in with my in laws for a bit.

I suppose what's putting me off is the fact it could become a real money pit!

I did this when I had very young kids and it was stressful. It really affected my sleep as it was on my mind. But, five years later, we made a lot of money on our house so financially it was worth it. But do be kind to yourselves and accept that it might be tricky for the 3 months it takes to get it all done.

None of this would put me off. Rewiring and new boiler can be a pain at the time but only will be a couple of weeks pain to get it done. Same for kitchen and bathroom.

TBH I had a new extension built during the end of my last pg and for the first 3 months of baby's life. (No kitchen for month - knocking down walls dust etc)It was fine and completely manageable.

I think the only thing that would put me off would be the price - I would think a further reduction would be acceptable to negotiate as there is more work than you first thought.

Really that's not a bad survey for a house in need of modernisation. We've done all those things you've mentioned to our (fairly large) house and they didn't cost that much. Re-wire £4k, boiler will be under £4k (presuming gas boiler), guttering about £1k (we did already have the necessary scaffolding up though). I would assume that the house was priced accordingly if advertised as needing modernisation and wouldn't expect to get much extra off for those problems you've found. You basically have to weigh up the final cost of the house (after fixing these problems) and what you think the final value will be once completed and see if the figures stack up, good luck!

We intend to live there for at least the next 10 years, possibly having extending to the loft and out during this time so value isn't that much of a pressing concern.

Really appreciate your comments. Good to put it into perspective!

Go for it. It might be hard while the work is being done but it'll be worth it.

We bought a similar house when dd was a toddler, dh worked abroad and I had a full time job. House needed a new bathroom, kitchen, boiler, back door, chimneys needing taking down and internal walls were knocked down. Me and dd lived in the house while all the work was done.

an old house always needs stuff doing it. that's to be expected and is in the price. You say the price has already negged down.

i would prefer to have the wiring and replastering done before moving in. It's dirty dusty work and involves taking the floors up

It's knocking on 100 years old so the survey shouldn't be too surprising. On the plus side, the build quality will be better than a modern home and you'll have more land because of modern laws about housing density. Take your time, do it properly and you'll make a profit when you sell. A 30s house with new wiring etc will be priced to reflect that the work has been done.

I think we've pretty much decided to continue with the purchase. Played around with the figures and its just about doable and having driven past the house yesterday, we realised just what a good position it's in compared to other houses we've seen.

One other question, being a bit of a novice at this, is there a way we can stay in our house for a bit longer while the work is done? I presume once the contracts are exchanged we have to move out in order for the new owners to move into our house?

You could delay completion on your sale but would have to finance both loans - can you afford it ? I don't think what you say needs doing need take long tbh. Bathroom and kitchen can wait surely ? We had a new boiler done in 2 days, guttering was less than a day. Do you have family or a travelodge where you could sleep /wash if it got too disruptive or you confine yourselves to specific rooms short term.

I don't know what your timescales would be for the work needed but 2 years ago I moved into a hotel with my DH and two boys then aged 3 and 6 for a period of 3 weeks.

We couldn't get our completion dates to match so just put all our stuff into storage. My Mum had died 2 weeks before all this so for me emotionally I was a mess but still it was the best decision we ever made. We are now in our forever house.

Cost wise, my youngest was at preschool so I was making 3 school runs a day so had very little choice in hotel and it was a 4 star so cost £2k.

However, we normally when travelling to see friends in London stay in Premier Inns or Travel Lodges which is incredibly cheap and you could negotiate a deal (we did on our stay)

The only thing about hotel living is having to use friends washing machines and tumble driers and food but we ate a lot of sort of picnic stuff in our room. Luckily I have some amazing friends who also fed us.