Did you 'love' your house the minute you walked in?

[cupcake78]

House hunting and can't find anything I 'love' but one or two I could live in. We have a budget and I don't think I will find anything I love within the budget as I've been spoilt growing up.

Did you wait for the love to happen or will I be waiting forever?

No, the ones I loved were out of budget. But I love that it's my house and I can do what I like with it!

( and now I love it!)

I saw our new house on rightmove as I was wanting an extra bedroom, i knew we could afford it, so convinced DH to sell old house and move. House sold within a week. We then looked at a few houses and each one we looked at had something I didn't like. The one I originally saw on rm has a funny layout and on first looking I wasn't sure. But it was the best of the lot and we put an offer in as I was desperate for the extra bedroom. We viewed it again and it grew on me. By the time we moved in, I had fallen in love with it and I can't imagine living anywhere else now. We are really happy here now, after only a month. Love can take time to blossom, but when it does its perfect!

I hadn't really thought seriously about moving - although I was dimly aware that dcs and I were outgrowing the house we were in - then one day I walked past an estate agents window and did one of those comedy double takes when I saw the particulars of this house. I came to view it with my bf, and loved it even more.
When we walked into the kitchen she turned to me and said "oh dumpy, you've got to buy it, it's just cuddling you, I can feel it!" She's not normally one for such soppiness, but that was how I felt too.

We've been here for five years now, and I can't see us ever leaving. This house looks after us, it's cosy, and comforting and we all feel so safe when we shut our front door on the world.

Yes I did. I went along as it had just come on the market at a good price and I'd just sold. I didn't expect to like it as it wasn't my usual type of property.

As soon as I walked into the hallway and I looked around I loved it. It was all dated but so homely and cosy. It just seemed to wrap itself around me....

I love everything about this place, and think so everyday when I get up and each time I come home. I've liked places a lot before, enough to buy them.....this one I love.

After 6 months of searching and 82 viewings I was happy to look at anything even vaguely possible. DH decided to look at places over our budget and of course we both fell in love with the first place we saw! We decided to put in a daft offer well under budget and it was accepted. I love love love my house!

No, DH loved it. I didn't want to buy it but it grew on me. We'd had an offer accepted on the house I loved but then our sale fell through and so we had to pull out, by the time we were able buy again 'my' house was off the market.

Albert, this house was similar offer-wise. I said to DH that we'd only buy it if we could get it for a good price. So I made a crazy offer (25% less than asking price!!) never expecting it be accepted, more fool me, it was and so I kept my promise and here we are, nearly 8yrs later!

Don't get me wrong, it was somewhat overpriced at its original asking price, but we were very, very cheeky.

We weren't looking to buy anywhere but I stumbled on this one by accident when being nosey on rightmove. We decided to view and instantly loved the place (and the potential, huge garden and great location). We made full asking price offer straight away and as chain had only recently fell through had a speedy purchase and were in within month. We've already started the work and love living here

I didn't like it on paper - in fact a friend emailed me the details (we were both house hunting) and I immediately dismissed it.
Months later we were in a situation where we needed to find somewhere quickly so we started viewing the properties that had ended up on the reject list, made an appointment and I loved it. It's not very photogenic, but in reality is lovely.
It needed work doing (something I didn't want) but it just felt right.

Realistically, comparing it to other things we were viewing on the local market at the time, we probably got about 12-15% off the true market value at the time.

jerry there's a similar house in my area and I'd buy it tomorrow. Unfortunately we're not planning a move yet, maybe in 12-18mo, but will only move for THE house (perfect location, right space/potential for it, right feel etc). I am v picky. We've moved a lot and so I know what I want and what I don't, we've learned from our mistakes! Luckily our budget will buy us the things we want but the things we want are rare (for instance, I have a teeny search area and am fussy within that too), so even with a 'can do' budget, the house may not actually exist/be available when we're looking to buy. It's a bugger.

We're you in rented when you bought your new place? Our budget is not 'can do' enough to have this place on the market and buy the right house too, unfortunately, and there's no way on this earth I'd risk a bridging loan so our ducks need to line up. H wouldn't entertain temp rented to be in the go position for the 'right house'. I can't say as I blame him, it would be a pita (pets) and disruptive for the family.

So for thread hijack!

Were not we're. Ipad autocorrect makes me look like an illiterate spanner yet again

Yes , I loved my house the second I walked in.. Have lived here for 15 years and we are moving in August ..( new build ) I love my new house too but will be very sad to leave here .. It's been a great house ..

No, a bit of a rush of exhiliration as it ticked the boxes in terms of location/size/price when we had had our eye out for ages.

It's on an estate of houses between 10 & 15 years old which wouldn't be my ideal choice but we are lucky in that we have an open aspect & a more private feel than the majority of houses here. It's on the motorway side of town & walkable distance to the dc's good schools as well as dh's work even though it doesn't have "the feeling".

And SORRY for thread hijack

I had that feeling with out first flat, it was like it had been waiting for us. Sadly we had to leave it behind to have a family and have had two more homes since then including this house. With both of them it wasn't "love", it was was good enough, with some great bits. (In both cases a lovely sunny garden was a big selling point.)

I prefer this house to our last one and it has some amazing qualities, and I like its "vibe". But instead of being a wonderful loving, caring vibe like our first flat, it is a kind of calm, uninvolved atmosphere, as if it expects us to come and go. I will miss it if and when we do move but I'd like to feel that love again.

Not really, it is perfectly nice, good area blah blah blah but unless you are incredibly lucky you will always have to compromise on something.

To be honest I am not as 'into' houses as I used to be, I used to read every home magazine going, spend ages research home decor etc etc but I now look back and I think I was rather obsessed. A house to me is just 'four walls' - what is inside makes it a home - your family/pets/hobbies/lifestyle etc. My DM is slightly obsessive about her house, going over and over every single detail of every wall and floor covering - that can get rather tedious. .

My house in the UK? Yes. All 3 houses that I've bought in the UK, actually (not at the same time!)
I saw a couple that I could live in and a few that were under the "cold day in hell" bracket, but the houses I ended up with were all "yes, this is the right one".

The one I live in now, not so much. But I wasn't involved in buying it, it was an investment property that DH had bought before we met, friend of his mum's was selling up and moving away and he told her that he thought it was a good buy and got it. I do like it though - it has a lot of the features I would look for, but it rather lacks wall space, and the walls it does still have are made of cardboard, apparently, so not great for putting up shelves or cabinets. It's an oldish house though - c.1920 (old for Australia) - and still has an open fire, which I have always had in my homes.

I've never had the "perfect" house though, not with all the things I'd want (2 loos, off-road parking, spare room for guests, gas, functional open fire) so I've always had to compromise somewhere.
Of the 4 homes I've lived in since leaving the parental home, 2 have had only 1 loo (including current one but I hope that's going to change soon!), 3 have had off-road parking, 3 have had spare room for guests, 3 have had gas, and all have had the open fire. Not bad really!

Usetobe - yes we were in rented. We rent the first house we bought out and rented something bigger with view to saving deposit for next house we bought. It was on the day the ll came to do an inspection and renew contract (which he luckily didnt bring with him and was going to email across) that he peed me off by insinuating that there were a few issues but wasn't man enough to actually tell me what despite asking him to his face (turns out there were no such issues as not a penny was deducted from deposit) but this spurred me into looking on right move for other rentals and I stumbled across place we now have. We managed to get the money for deposit together (and stamp duty etc) after falling in love with place. We also didn't pay full asking price either as seller refused and offered to take less if we agreed to complete as fast as possible to avoid chain collapsing which we were able to do.

Sounds almost like fate