Already made an offer. But seen a better house. What to do?!

[threefeethighandrising]

We've had an offer accepted on a house we've been looking at.

It's not our dream home but ticks lots of boxes, especially that it's near an excellent school. We've been looking a while and it's the first one we've seen which we could fit in, which we could actually afford. I needs work, which we'd carry out over a number of years as we have neither the time nor the money to do it now.

But today, a new house just came on the market. It's lovely! I would be so excited to move there! It suits us perfectly and has a large garden (the one we've offered on has a small garden) and a semi-rural location in an area we love. We could just move in. It's got a very odd layout downstairs, and I'm hoping that'll put other buyers off! (Clutching at straws, me?!!)

It's over-budget (£169K, we can offer £152K) but considering the market is very slow/flat round here, today's news about house prices falling) and that we're cash buyers, I think we may have a chance, however slim.

Going to view it this afternoon.

If we do really love it, what do we do? Can we make an offer on it even though we've already offered somewhere else? How would we find out if they'd accept a low offer without scuppering the first place?

WWYD?

You don't have to worry about karma. Because, you know, it's not actually a real thing. What goes around, does not in fact, come around.

You have to make the best decision for you. And you can't buy a house just out of politeness.

Quiet cul-de-sac sounds perfect for playing out & making friends!!! Really don't get all the excitement of outstanding schools, things change so quickly. House 2 sounds way better on paper to me BUT I do think you are unlikely to get it as presumably it sounds a lot better to other people too! Good luck, hope it all works out!

OP, go with your gut feeling and good luck. We were in the same boat a few years ago; DH was too embarrassed to see house 2, so we ploughed on with house 1 and ended up pulling out at the last minute. It cost us a lot of money! (His fault not mine)
You do need to be careful though, as you don't want to end up with neither of them!

Thanks Pfft :)

There are things wrong with house 2 which I hope will put people off.

Firstly the layout downstairs is really weird. You enter the downstairs rooms through the kitchen, then through dining room, then to lounge. Odd!

Secondly the kitchen is ridiculous, it's a non-kitchen! It has a stand-alone cooker, one double unit with a sink and an empty space for a washing machine. That's it! No prep area, no cupboards, nothing! I think that'll put a lot of people off.

The obvious thing to do is extend into the dining room but it's a big job (supporting wall).

Whichever house we go for we're going to have to live with a really rubbish kitchen for a while, so it doesn't make much difference to us - that's why I didn't dwell on it!

So it may work in our favour I think!

"You do need to be careful though, as you don't want to end up with neither of them!" yes, this is my worry!

House 2 is undoubtably the better house.

But trying to base the decision on location / lifestyle I think.

It's hard when we don't know that village well. Hadn't considered it at all till this came up yesterday!

You need to link both houses so MN house experts can throw their twopenneth in

And am intrigued that you can tell it's a Tory voting area. With that description of the kitchen I reckon your 152k is worth a punt.

I agree with being careful not to miss out on both as in my experience estate agents do talk with each other.

When we sold our last house our buyers were a couple who wanted to move before a certain date as she was pregnant and they wanted to be settled before baby arrived. We accepted the offer and said we would move in with family as we hadn't seen a suitable house.

In the meantime a house came on the market that we liked with a different agent and we put in an offer which was accepted. Shortly afterwards we got a phone call from our estate agents desperate to ensure that we weren't going to insist on waiting until we could move into said house before we completed the sale of our own house - they had obviously got wind of our offer from the other estate agents (it's only a smallish town). Although they were "our" estate agents they want the easiest, quickest sale - be under no illusions that they have your best interests at heart!

"And am intrigued that you can tell it's a Tory voting area."

Just an educated guess

Actually when we looked for the flat we're in now, it was the general election. It's a great time to house-hunt, everyone was displaying their politics in big signs on their front lawns. Drove straight through the UKIP places without a second glance!

Olympicnmix I'm too paranoid to post here! I've PMed you the links

Thanks for the links, am off to browse!

My area I would have thought would be very Labour given local industry but no it's ardent blue. To my horror there is a BNP candidate two streets away grr

Threefeet - Are you thinking you will be in the house for a long time? Will you be able to afford to move up the property ladder in years to come?

At the very least 3 years. More likely 4-7.

Yes we will be able to afford to move up the property ladder in years to come, especially when I go back to work (currently studying / being a mum!)

House no 2 certainly has curb appeal, it's lovely. The kitchen is crying out either to be knocked through to the dining room (1.5k to put in a supporting beam on a load bearing wall and make good) or extend. I can't make out from the pictures but have other neighbours done that or is it possible to extend through to the outside building? Garden too is a real asset. Couldn't see any room sizes - have you counted up how much sq footage you get per house?

The other house, you are right, lacks curb appeal, the grey pebbledash and concretey front garden detracts. Certainly simply painting it like the neighbours have done & replacing the ugly pvc front door would help. Am sure internally you could make each house look as nice. The lack of a decent sized garden though is a shame.

It's about what lifestyle you are buying into I suppose - one in the suburbs with all its amenties or a more buccolic one. What about distance to work?

Thanks Olympicnmix I appreciate it! We're swaying from one to another so a neutral opinion is great!

You get more space overall with the ugly one, although two of the bedrooms are bigger in the pretty one.

No real difference for DP to work. Longer for me for the town one, as it's not near the station, and the village one is right next to the station - however they only stop once an hour at the village (2 or 3 times an hour in town) so much of a muchness!

The neighbours of the ugly one have extended - out and up.

None of the neighbours of the pretty one has.

One thing that's holding me back from the village is that we really don't know the area very well at all. I'd like to research it and maybe try to meet a couple of neighbours to get a feel for the place. We don't really have that luxury, time's against us.

Also I don't drive (yet! It's on the to do list!!) and so would be more dependent on DP for shopping etc at the village.

The garden's so nice though!

I think at the moment we're leaning to the one in town, but prioritising making the side and front bits of garden useable. I think.

If you don't drive then house no1 is by far the better choice. Whilst a bucolic existence is lovely it is only lovely if you can get to places. You also have to factor petrol/more miles/quicker depreciation on cars if living the rural dream.

Given the size of the garden, you could only really extend to the side (maybe?) and up with house no 1, but adding curb appeal and renovating it would always add value. The garden might become more play-friendly for the children if you added one of those play-towers (extending upwards again!).

We did this.

I dont regret it because we are in our forever home and I love it.

The first house we offered on was nice but we were only going to buy it because the local school was Outstanding (OFSTED). The people who we offered to first were a bit pissed off and took the house off the market for a while- however I am aware that they put it back on again a few months later and sold it for more than we had offered.

Go for it.

And can I see your links?? I love property porn!!

You could stop the deliberating and contact the agent of house 2 and see if they would accept an offer of 152k. If it's rejected, as is likely, then you can proceed with house no 1 with a clear heart/head.

Olympicnmix thanks for your advice, good food for thought :)

Good point, it could well be worth contacting the agent and asking if the vendors are open to offers. If they're not then all this is academic!

With house 1 we're thinking of getting rid of the crappy sunroom and extending the kitchen to the line of where it was, also using the bit of patio next to it (yes, making a small garden even smaller!) This would make a decent sized kitchen. Also either combining the sitting room and dining room, or the dining room and kitchen. This would make a much nicer layout downstairs.

Extending into the roof is an option. DP says the beams are the right kind of beams - whatever that means! And others have done it locally.

PMed you tiredemma :)