Have you ever bought a house/flat, moved in, and instantly felt you'd made a mistake?

[fiveyearstime]

A thread about property buyers' remorse -- have you ever had that sinking feeling that you'd made a mistake in buying the house you bought? What happened next?

Yep but i think its more the area than the house. Moved out of London for more space and a garden. Live in a 1930s semi. Felt dreadfully upset leaving 1 bed damp basement flat in London (!!! not joking) and also felt quite panicky picking up keys and moving into a grown up house. I remember the first week really feeling quite lost, empty and lonely.

Over a year on I like the house. I don't love it. I don't love the area either. I would move back to my damp flat if circumstances were different. I think it's more about where the house is in relation to location than the actual house but that's just my experience so far...

Yes. House before this one. I adored my first house and cried as I drove from it to the new place which had been left in a state. Hated it from the off.

It took five years to do it up and sell it.

Fell in love the second I walked through the food of my current house as did DH. We will never buy a house we don't love ever again.

I think it's more about where the house is in relation to location than the actual house

I'd second that Threefour - the houses we regretted moving to were actually extremely lovely (well, apart from the one that was unmortgageable - but it was still very pretty, all stone & thatch despite being in a state of dereliction, lol!)....

Indeed, most sane people would think me crazy for dissing them with all their period features and charm. But no amount of character can compensate for being in a shit location!

yes, this one

moved in chilly November to old lady house-flock wallpaper, swirly carpets, no kitchen, pink bath, unusable slopey garden, artexed and glossed ceilings. V quiet suburban-y street (compared with our old one which was lairy a bit lively

really- REALLY- stressful move, where loads of our stuff got lost/broken

sat in piles of boxes (house was smaller than our old one, but our stuff wasn't-apart from the stuff the removal cunts men broke) for weeks, kids sleeping on floor of one room, us in dining room

oh, and MICE

my dad showed me some photos the other day that he'd taken a couple of weeks after we moved in. I remembered spending a lot of time grizzling and when I saw the pics it brought it all back

three years on I FUCKING LOVE IT

The house we are in now. I love the house, the location is good, not overlooked, but a bit quiet/suburban, but as it's about 14yo, it's started needing things replacing, expensive things... 2 bathrooms and a kitchen, the pool deck needs doing and we just had to replace the HVAC system (bye bye 13k). I'm almost thinking we should have bought brand new, no need to change anything then, but the locations weren't as good.

Another factor, we are in an oil town which has been booming, but will start to feel the squeeze soon which will mean unable to sell or rent out. We've only had it a year, and closing costs will eat up any profit we might make on it, or into our original investment. Bollocks.

Not quite but we have pulled out of two houses after getting a sinking feeling. First one we actually had the survey done but pulled out shortly after (nothing to do with results) and so glad we did. The second we would have pushed on but the vendor hadn't found anywhere so was waiting, and then our current time house came on the market so we jumped ship, and so glad because this house is perfect!

Yes, lives my first house. Agreed to buy second due to lack of options and it being the sensible choice.

Moved in and it was dingy and dark and messy and a bit dirty. Had to move all the furniture out again to have it replay weed and painted and ended up putting new floors down. We had to do loads of work to the side gable as water was coming in and the chimney was nearly crumbling. DH was never comfortable there and the whole time we were there was undercut with just being a bit fraught.

Then we discovered what we had done + the rising market meant the house was worth 27% more than we paid. Meant we were able to buy our dream house and it felt just like ours from the moment we moved in even though we knew we had to replaster two rooms and then we ended up changing the bedroom and stair carpets bit that's just coz we're fussy

We are all so muchore relaxed and love the house and location. But we could never have done it without the interim less ideal house.

Sorry for awful autocorrects. Must always proof read!

I had a wobble about our current house after our offer had been accepted, but before exchange of contracts. Mainly because I realised how much work it needed. Also because we went from looking around out of curiosity to having our offer accepted in 6 weeks (our old house wasn't even on the market when we had our first viewing). We went ahead anyway. It felt strange for the first couple of weeks after we'd moved in. Probably largely due to the fact that we moved two weeks after I sat major professional exams. I was generally tired and emotional at the time. It was also March and freezing cold, which didn't help.

I'd loved the previous house. It was the first house we bought and the only house our DC had ever known. We'd just got everything the way we wanted it.

Almost 2 years on and I love our current house. I don't think I could go back to our tiny terrace. We've barely started sorting this house out (still very granny chic - dark green carpets with matching skirting, brown floral curtains, textured wallpaper). However, it definitely feels like home. The neighbours are lovely. Given how much prices gave risen, we probably couldn't afford to buy it if it was on the market now. The extra space had made a huge difference - we went from a 3-bed terrace to a 6-bed semi. Plus we already knew the area (we moved about 350m).

Yes. Our last house. Hated it from the day we moved in. It was isolated, characterless and enormous. Endless cleaning, expensive to heat and half an hour from petrol or supermarket. Oh and surrounded by cows. We'd moved there from a commuter town outside London thinking we wanted the good life. We put it on the market after 9 months, sold (lost a lot of money), and gazed with happiness as the road train with our belongings made its way back to the town we had left. We are now renting, sacred of making another mistake...

Yes and No. I cried when I arrived at my current house ( a year ago) and discovered the boiler and half the lights didn't work and the whole place stank of animal urine. We also found animal droppings in one of the bedrooms.

A year on and I still wouldn't say I love the house but I do like the bits we have done up. I'm sure I'll like it once all the work is finished, but renovating a house while you're living in it is hard work.

Having said that, the market has changed so much even since we bought it, that I realise we would never be able to afford anything of this size in our current location if we were buying now.

Hi we have moved into a new house new build gorgeous inan area only 10 minutes from where we liived but left all family an friends up there everythin was simpler up there, we moved as we thought would be a better area for the kids and better high school we havent even had to house a week yet an ive cried every day i jst wish we hadnt bought here an bought a new build up where we where living ive never felt so depressed really struggling, trying to hide it from kids as want them to be happy but its hard when feeling so low

Yes. We came round to measure after exchange and the previous owners were packing and had moved a lot of furniture. It looked filthy, shabby and AWFUL and I hated it and thought what the hell have we done. I'd had to do quite a lot of persuading DP that it was the right house for us and suddenly realised i shouldnt have done that and that i should have listened to him. We both hated it but i had ti try to pretend that i didnt and that it would be lovely. After moving in, still hating it, we had all the carpets and flooring ripped out and lived with bare floorboards and a deck chair each before new sofas and carpets arrived. Once I started picking paint colours I began to like the idea of what it was GOING to be like. Tried to remember how much I liked the size of the rooms and height of the ceilings when we'd first viewed it. Now I love it and would never leave by choice and DP feels the same.

Yes I have big regrets about the house we bought in August. We had been renting previously and the housing market was getting out of control, after 2 years of looking we decided we needed to get on the housing ladder before it wasn't possible anymore so found an area we could afford that seemed a good compromise although far from our social network.
It is in a new 'city' but it's really more of a small town, most people with a small town mentality.
It is a townhouse built in 1860 and is very messily finished - everything is so clumpy, paint smeared all around the edges of the ceiling. The skirting boards are so cheap, the wooden floor they painted blue is hideous. The plaster work is a disaster and all needs redone.
The worst is the cracks appearing everywhere that upon closer inspection have been plastered over recently. No idea how the building report didn't show this up. We were promised the foundations were steel but it seems like there's a lot of movement everywhere.
The light switches and plug points look like they were bought cheaply from a hospital wholesaler.
Basically I hate all the finishings and fittings and I can't afford to change them at the moment.
Hoping that some twist of fate will see us having to relocate and able to sell without losing any money.
To add insult to injury, the front garden reeks of sewage at the faint sight of warm weather as it served as a flood plain for the nearby road when it's sewage pipes burst.
Working on moving, will definitely be to a younger house with nice flooring and plaster work.