I know we are making a good move to what could be a home for life, feels safe around there, have a friend in the road who says our neighbours are nice, but as we're coming up to exchange I know I'm really going to miss my present home and all that's good here. I know not everyone would go for it, but it's ours, cosy and we have such good neighbours (one lot we will keep in touch with, in fact, talking about staying in same place in a year or two together), but ...
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RaphaellaTheSpanishWaterDog ·
11/02/2016 15:57
halphgracie 
I get where you're coming from - it's so hard to know if you've made the right decision sometimes, isn't it? I'm always trying to compare head over heart choices and still end up confused over which is which/which is right!
When we moved from the house that we both really miss we became mortgage free (great!) but moved to an area we didn't know and hadn't researched properly (bad!). As it was a cheaper area we thought we were getting a good deal - the house was less than half the size of the one we sold but still felt like a lot of property for the money - but actually we paid way too much. It needed loads of work which didn't faze us as we'd done several hands-on DIY projects (including turning the house we were selling back to a family home after a PO had divided it into 4 flats) and we thought that even if we were to sell up we couldn't lose money. Wrong! Having spent 40k+ on some of the work (structurally it was ok, but needed rewire, kitchen, two bathrooms, redecoration inside & out, garden landscaping) we sold three years later for 60k less than our outlay on house + work.
As we'd 'lost' so much money and needed to move closer to elderly family in a more expensive area we had little choice but to buy an unmortgageable thatched wreck in a rural location. The downside - apart from the fact it needed around 200k spent on it - was that it fronted onto an A road. Luckily an inheritance and some savings enabled us to get it back to habitable condition. As we can DIY we only spent 100k and did everything including a huge extension. The location still wasn't right though. The house shook if an hgv drove by at speed. Having done the work to a high standard intending to stay forever, we realised we couldn't live with the noise/vibrations and sold up, making a small profit that barely compensated for 3 years of back-breaking building work.
You'd think we'd know better by now, but we bought another slightly less of a wreck fixer upper in yet another new to us location. Six months later we both began to regret our decision to sell the last house. One year on we feel no better.
Heart tells us to sell up and cut our losses before throwing (more) good money after bad. Head tells us to do the work and maybe claw some money back.........or is it the other way round?
PettsWoodParadise ·
11/02/2016 16:26
Before we bought our current house I staked out an area about three miles away from where I knew really well, but I didn't know this other area so well. Once we had the offer put in, I drank in the local pub, sat in the car at all different times of the day. We ended up pulling out of the deal when we discovered that it was a shortcut from the pub to the local bus stop and at turning out time was a popular place for people to pee up against the garden wall. 
. When we decided the idea of moving to a different area just wasn't us and we stayed local, I still staked out the neighbours and knocked on their doors and introduced myself as the person who had put an offer in on the house next door. I bet they were far more worried than I was. 
.
TheElementsSong ·
17/05/2016 18:15
Thanks Palomb. It's funny timing, I saw this thread had been bumped and was just coming back to update. It's been a couple of months and I still hate the house, in fact I think I hate it more 
. Have had a number of very difficult conversations with DH about it, but we are basically stuck here.
We've just had a chap come to quote for a couple of renovation projects which should help make the house less rubbish, but actually I can't quite work up the enthusiasm and feel resentful of having to spend the money. Sigh sorry to be all doom and gloom.
RudyMentary ·
18/05/2016 09:40
This reply has been deleted
Message withdrawn at poster's request.
TheElementsSong ·
26/05/2016 11:17
A house just opposite us has just come on the market, naturally I couldn't not have a look on Rightmove. And it is perfect in every way - the layout is just how I would have done it, kitchen and bathroom are well-designed (obviously can't tell whether the workmanship is OK from the photos), the decor is exactly to my taste, many of the original features have been preserved, and the garden is larger, not as badly overlooked and needs no work.
The asking price is only a little higher than for our horrible house and well within our budget. In fact, the difference is almost exactly how much we have already spent on remedial maintenance works (to the outside of the house, making no difference to our standard of living inside).
I literally feel sick 
. Yes, literally. I've tried not to pine for my old house, tried not to dwell on what a huge mistake we made buying this house, and now I have to look at that For Sale sign every day .
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TreadSoftlyOnMyDreams ·
26/05/2016 15:41
So get in first and get it taken off the market STC Then there's nothing to compare it to?
You should go and see it, you may well find lots of flaws buried under the perfect photos and if nothing else it will give you some nice ideas. I've viewed plenty of houses where the money has clearly been spent on decoration and nice furniture rather than badly needed rewiring and new windows !
It may well also go for well over the asking price which will give you a good idea of what yours will be worth as and when you find the funds to do it up.
Disclaimer, I have previously bought the house across the street
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