Tell me your property story

[Briony32]

Me...
Bought (just me) 2 bed cottage in N.Oxfordshire in 2002 for £97k, sold for £140k in 2011. Did nothing to it except paint, give tlc and spruce garden.
Bought (husband) 2 bed cottage in nice village (good schools) in N.Surrey in 2007 for £237k, sold in 2011 for £250k (stuck at stamp duty level!). New carpets and flooring throughout, some new windows, new bathroom and kitchen. We didn't really get our money back on this one, but it was lovely (tho really tiny).
Bought (jointly) 4 bed modern house (less character) in less nice town (less good schools) in N. Surrey in 2011 for £387k. Wanted more space, but feel like we've forfeited too much now.

We're thinking of moving North now (both not from the South), although I know it's probably far too soon as we'll lose financially. We want a slower pace of life, less traffic and a bigger garden (our current house I think is a mistake buy unfortunately and we have to decide what to do. We went for space, but have forfeited the things in life that are really important to us (village life, character, wider pavements, green space) so have to decide whether to stick with it for a few years or move and lose money. I really feel lost here and quite unhappy (more me than husband), and was trying to be brave when we bought here (less maintenance etc) but it just doesn't feel right for the family and I can't stop dwelling on it. We would have to pay a LOT in stamp duty to move again, and we have no savings.

I think we've been quite lucky in the property 'game' so far (although people around us have done far better and sold houses for £100k more after 2 years of doing nothing). Just got to work out what to do next. We have to move this year if we want to be ready for starting school next September (2014)...very tall order I think.

I know I'm lucky really, perhaps you lot can give me a bit of perspective! What's your story?

I bought my first flat with my sister in 1991 for £52k..I then bought her out 5 years later for £77k.
I then sold that in 2001 for £150k.
I then met my husband and we decided we would like to work towards getting a place with land for my horses. So we bought a run down house for £250k, spent £20k on it then sold it a 2 years later for £335k.
Then bought an old cottage for £237, spent £15k on it and sold it exactly a year later for £310k.
Then bought big house for cheeky offer of £499,950 (on market at £630k for over two years and we knew they had found their dream house).. & 6 years later we split up. Had spent £25k on it and sold for £670k.
So Im now in a very nice 3 bed victorian semi (which was a wreck...cant resist it im afraid) and also have a place in Nice.
I worked my socks off during the renovation projects, doing most of the work myself, all whilst having a demanding full time job and three horses. Very hard work and cooking off a camping stove for 6 months and having no heating during a very cold winter are the lasting memories!

Am I the only one who finds these kinds of threads kind of tacky?

Yes, possibly. If you dont like it dont post. If you are looking for tacky threads there are loads more on mn.

No ItsYonliMe you are not the only one.

There will be a whole raft of people for who property rises, like the ones discussed in this thread, mean that homeownership is totally out of their reach.

Definitely tacky!

So are you saying that if some people can't afford something we shouldn't discuss it? That'd put the kybosh on all threads on holidays, clothes, cars, houses, food - in fact, essentially the whole of MN!

Come on Meddlin, the whole thing about making money on "property" is distasteful. This thread reminds me of those bloody awful dining parties full of boors discussing what their "property is worth".

And a thread about how much you spent on holidays through the years and what your clothes cost would be similarly in poor taste.

That's your point of view to which you are entitled.
Twenty years ago we were scrimping, taking in lodgers, driving old crappy cars whilst many of our friends rented and lived the high life. Some of us are now enjoying the benefits of those sacrifices.

Our story is, perhaps, quite unusual. I owned a couple of properties before I met my dh and lived in the last one together. We both wanted to buy 'our' first home together so purchased this house in 2007. We're now finding it too big and expensive so are currently looking to downsize to our 'forever' bungalow - the sale is s-l-o-w-l-y going through! We're in our late 40s with 2 teenage dc so our decision has surprised many of our friends but we're excited about the prospect of less rooms / upkeep / expense. Our dcs are happy to be returning to an area where many of their friends still live, too. The accommodation is big enough for the 4 of us now and will be ample when the dc fly the nest.

I don't think the thread is tacky. I started it as I wanted to gain perspectives from a variety of people about property ownership.

Some people have been lucky, some wise, some make it their full time occupation to climb the ladder, some are just starting out or staying in rented. I wanted to hear everyone's story because I'm interested and we can all learn something from each other.

It's all to easy to feel jealous about other people's success and wealth, but there is often a lot of hard graft to get where they are. Also depends on people's priorities I suppose.

Our next move might involve us investing less money in property, or gain space and a bigger garden by moving North. We would love to keep climbing the property ladder in prosperous Surrey but it's not always possible so I wanted to find out what other people have done.

I wanted to find out how people have been creative in achieving their property goals. I don't think that the people who have been really successful are just being boastful. The more information they give about how they have achieved what they have the better.

Would still like to hear stories from people out there if they are willing to share!

Bought a 2 bed flat in east london for 250k in 2003
Sold flat for around 385k in 2008
Bought what would become the marital home in south london in 2008 for 465k
Looking to move out of london in the next year or two.

I have seen much "tackier" threads. At least this one shows a fairly widespread acknowledgement that dates are important, and there is not the whining and footstamping that "I want house prices to rise!" that I once saw on a thread which, deservedly, turned into a bunfight, though with a rather less welcome invasion from the HPC forum, being patronising...

Sorry Briony I've just returned to this thread.

In answer to your question, the move to the Isle Of Wight was because of house prices we have managed to get a lot more for our money. Stupidly we paid no attention to schools, dd1 was 15 months at the time. She is now 10 and doing really well at the local primary. (Level 5 in all subjects yr5) But a number of secondary schools have just been reviewed and are in special measures :(

That said I don't regret the move for one minute dds have a lovely life, we've made fantastic friends and I'm optimistic the schools will improve

(W.Sussex) Bought 2 bed EOT in '95 for 71k, sold in '00 for 125k.

(Cheshire) Bought 3 bed semi in '00 for 113k, sold in 2005 for 195k.

(Canada) Bought 3 bed log cabin (+ 1 bed guest cabin) on 8 acres, in '05, for the equivalent of 162k GBP.

Property values haven't risen at all in our area in the last 7.5 yrs, but haven't dropped either and the exchange rate now means that it's worth about 218k GBP...which is irrelevant as I never want to move back!

Bought 1 bed flat in 95 for £35k. Had to sell 6 months later as I needed to move for work and sold for £33.5k. (Essex)
Bought 2 bed flat oooop north in 96 for £40k and sold for £40k 2 years later.
Returned to Essex and bought 2 bed house for £55k. Did some work, spent maybe £10-15k and sold in 2001 for £135k.
Bought a family house for about £190k, put in a new bathroom and did a bit of decorating but didn't spend much and sold for about £350k in 2008.
Bought another house, similar size but better school catchment for £450k. Have spent about £50k on it, maybe more, I'm in denial about what a money pit it's been. Had it valued last year at £560k when I had a wobble when I spotted a house with nice views I fancied. We decided no though and are staying put until we downsize!
Sometimes I wish (with the benefit of hindsight) that we'd been more ambitious in our purchases (i.e. spent more) or perhaps kept the original flat or the 2 bed house as buy to let properties but I am quite risk averse and I know the decisions we made were not going to make us millionaires but they also did not put us at risk financially which is important to me.
Good luck with your decision.

I have bought and sold 15 times inn12 years

bought 3 bed semi in 2009 for £123k. Sold last year for £123k. Even with putting in new kitchen and boiler, our repayments and what we spent were less than rent would have been, so while we didn't make any money, we were better off than renting for that time. Moved into rented as we relocated to Sweden. Just bought (last Friday) a 5 bed, 2 bath, 2 reception and office detached house in Sweden, for about £180k, but our repayments are less (we get a tax rebate on the interest here) Our house in twice the size of the flat we rented, and is costing us about £200/month less :)

Dh bought a 2 bed terrace for 60K in 1998, sold in 2004 for 175K.
Bought a 4 bed semi together in 2004 for 220K, paid off mortgage in 2010.
Have kept that one as a holiday let, bought 5 bed farm in 2011 for 300K.
Thinking of selling the 4 bed when prices go up a bit - it was valued at 335K in 2009.

I fucking hate self-righteous "we made sacrifices" talk.

Our generation (I'm 40) first bought 15-20 years ago, and far from making sacrifices we benefited from parents who had final salary pensions and could therefore help us with deposits with no thought to their own retirement planning.

We benefited from zero interest student loans and LEAS who paid our tuition fees in full. Now they're £30k before interest is added, and the interest is a commercial rate - historical reversions suggest 5 to 8%.

We benefited from low property costs relative to salary. Even in the centre of London, my first flat was only x5 my starting salary (no DH at the time).

We benefited from 100% mortgage rates. I was able to buy within a year of starting work with no deposit. Now you need 20%.

The starting salary in my industry has risen by £12k in the past 20 years period but the price of my first flat has risen by 300%.

People in their thirties didn't benefit from any of the lucky circumstances that we did, so all this talk of "sacrifices" is plain old-fashioned gobshite.

We've just been bloody lucky.

bushbabyblues

+1

Also, being critical of vapid threads like this one has nothing to do with jealousy. I am not a person who has been priced out of the market so I have nothing to be jealous about. However, I am not so stupid to think that my purchase of property at the bottom of the market was anything other than luck. It certainly had nothing to do with me being a hard worker or making sacrifices or other such bollocks.

I don't think anyone on this thread is bragging about their purchases, the title was tell me your property story, so posters did??

Apart from one pp who said they scrimped and saved when their friends were living the high life and were eventually able to buy a house, which is also true for us.

bushbabyblues after having followed your own thread it's a bit much you coming on here slagging off people isn't it? What's the difference between you talking about buying a million £ home and people on this thread talking about what they've bought??

If anything I find your thread tacky...oh poor me, SheBu is just too downmarket for me and I need to move somewhere 'naice' (fucking HATE that word).

pot. kettle. black.

and ffs - "so all this talk of "sacrifices" is plain old-fashioned gobshite"

That attitude there is what the problem is, and why so many 30-somethings won't be able to afford to buy. You're right, live the fucking high life, spend all your wage every month, you deserve it, you work hard.

then come onto threads like this and moan about how tacky it is.

And just so we're clear, I'm in my mid-30s, and scrimped and saved and only bought my first 2 bed house in an undesirable part of SW London 2.5 years ago.

There's my property story, tell me how fucky tacky that is.

Briony we are currently in the midst of moving up north to Yorkshire from Berkshire.

I would say if you feel miserable where you are and have a chance to change it then you should try! We have been lucky that we bought this house in a rising market, but equally we know if we stayed put for 5 more years we could stand to make a killing (if you believe the house market predictions for this area). However, for us that 5 years would cost us too much in happiness and well being for it to be worth whatever money we make.

We are looking at being close to mortgage free by moving up north to a slightly smaller house. That will mean that we can afford holidays, the DCs can take up whatever hobbies they wish etc etc and we can just get a bit of balance, rather than worrying what our house might be worth.

I would suggest you get some estate agents round and find out the facts about what your house might now be worth.

BTW my property story is that I met DH, who is far more savvy than I and who had already had 2 properties! That's how I got lucky!!!

Dh bought in high Wycombe for £72k in 1996 and sold for £125k in 2000. Then bought in n London for £310k in 2000 (newly developed loft). We sold in 2008 for £585k.

Bought a georgian ground floor/garden flat in new town Edinburgh for £700k in 2008, have spent approx £115k since then - have loads more to do and it is probably worth what we originally paid. I guess that is just the market now - but we have extended and absolutely love it so will probably be here forever.

My parents bought a house in Edinburgh in 1976 for £25k and sold in 2007 for £1.6 million . We will never see the like of that again (thank goodness really - I worry for my kids trying to buy...)

Thanks everyone.
Chunkamatic Snap! I'm getting an estate agent round on Wednesday (manic clearout and painting doors has begun!). DH got a possible job offer in York this week, well he's been told he can work either from York or London office...so perhaps this is what we've been waiting for. How is your move going? If we do move, we might move into rented whilst we are getting to know the area and to be in a good school catchment initially. Don't feel time is on my side for Sept 2014 though!
Bumbez Sounds like you made a smart move. Isle of Wight is beautiful. We went on holiday there last year and couldn't stop talking about how we could make the move there.

We bought first house in 1998 for £85 k . Sold 18 months later for £125k . Bought current house in 2000 for £150k. Have just put it on the market for £365k !!! Trying to buy a house for around£400 k .