Anyone bought a house then regretted it? What did you do next?

[Raspberriesandcream]

We have been living in our current home for over a year now and I'm still not entirely happy. To give you a bit of background, we were living in a 1-bed flat in zone 2 London, got pregnant and moved into a 3-bed house further out. When I was 7 months pregnant our seller pulled out, and it was a bit of a scramble to find our current home. We ended up buying in an area which wasn't my preferred choice, but seemed sensible at the time. Pros are that we have amazing neighbours, house is in a safe neighbourhood and we have more space. Cons are the area - I find it a little dull and our street is not the prettiest. House also needs work, but it's still quite liveable. We're also that little bit further from the tube, which at the time of buying seemed like a fair compromise, but is proving tricky now that our daughter is here.

DH is really happy here, and on paper, my cons hardly amount up to anything, BUT I don't like the area, even though I feel I ought to. Am I mad to be considering a move? Have you? Would you?

Can you now afford the area you'd like to move to? if you can, then go for it.

But if you bought the compromise because you can't afford what you really want and that hasn't changed........ then I'd say you'd have a hard time persuading your H.
I'd love to know the area! so nosey

PS, even though you get some of the money back if you spend it on the house, you don't get all of it back, so don't do any huge big expensive jobs on the house if it's not where you're going to stay for the foreseeable future.

I've read that you should look at how much the best house on your road would be likely to make if it sold today, (How to tell) and deduct from that figure what you paid for your house. Then, don't spend MORE than that difference on your extension/improvements. Not, if you hope to 'make it back' anyway.

Thanks Joan for the tip, very useful. Hhhmm, not sure if I should mention our area, as I wouldn't want to offend anyone....
We can afford the area I've got my eye on. DH discounted it during our house search, as he thought it was a little bit run down in parts, whereas I see it as an up and coming area. But not sure if it's worth it as we'd only want to live there for a max of 5 years. Best get the calculator out!

Could you rent out your house and rent one in your preferred area?

Yes, we moved from our one bed flat in SW18 further out into a 3 bed semi in a seemingly nice area - but I never settled, never liked it and we moved on fairly quickly.....life is too short to be unhappy. We have now been in our 'new' house for almost 8 years, and it was the best thing we could have done....although looking at what our old London flat sold for recently did make me cry!

Hi Raspberries

We are in a similar situation. Our 2 bed flat sold last year and we hurriedly bout our 3 bed semi in the sticks. It is actually a gorgeous house and we have probably spent about £8-9K doing it up so far, mostly cosmetic but a new bathroom.

Only problem is we thought we wanted to live in the sticks but unreality I don't love it. It would be great if we could pick the house up and move it to a different location!

Another problem is our wanky neighbours who are so fucking noisy, late night parties at the weekend, you get my drift. I am also 6 months pregnant and so moving is not really possible right now.

DH absolutely loves the house and location and doesnt get het up like I do, however we have agreed that we will pay as much of the mortgage off as possible and not do any more work around the house. We are going to review the situation in a couple of years, and fingers crossed move!

Yes me too!
Moved into what should have been dream home- preferred village, house size was bigger than I thought we would get however we have 2 nightmare neighbours on one side which have been causing problems since day 1- leaving notes on our visitors cars, sending the police round to say we'd parked illegally even when the police told them we weren't, screaming at us in the street. You would think I live in a rough area but it's not and the nightmare neighbours are actually 2 elderly ladies who seemed lovely at first.
We are now looking to move I'm expecting dd and the stress is getting to me. Shame as catchment for school is fab but on the upside we've spent apx 8k on it and its been valued at 45k higher which is something but to be honest I wished I'd never set eyes on it!

I think if you're talking in terms of only wanting to be in the preferred area for 5 yrs it's not worth moving again.

Do what you need to in the current house and work towards what would hve been the next move in 5yrs time.

But how sure are you that your preferred area really is better? You may find that if you were able to move there tomorrow it is no where near what you imagined.

Our awkward neighbour is an old fella - he is really nice, just has lived in his house for forty odd years and has very set ideas about how we should live next door to him. It's not always yoovs!

We also moved to the sticks (although not from London, but a city in the South) and I regretted it almost immediately although DH, being a country boy at heart would have happily stayed forever. Our issue was mainly the fact that whilst it was in a rural (and overall very attractive) location, the house itself was on an A road so could get noisy, plus the house regularly shook when large lorries went by breaking the 30 mph limit....

Trouble was we couldn't just sell it on without losing £££ as we bought it as a project (and it had previously failed to sell at auction) so our only real option was to do the work and hope we recouped our expenditure.

Took us three years, but sold last year and made a small profit.

Now living somewhere with countryside on the doorstep, but a naice village within walking distance and Waitrose five minutes drive so best of both worlds!

I would think carefully about what's I'll be best once DD is at school. What are schools and facilities for kids like? That had huge impact post age 4.

What are the issues? You mention being further from the tube, what's the impact. Are you on ML? I think you need to consider that if you have gone through significant life changes and would you now be happier in a new area with dc's?

What are the nurseries and schools like? I think this is a factor, also commute to work for you and distance to your support network.

When I moved to a quieter area I really struggled for some time however now I couldn't move back.

Thanks everyone for your replies, you've given me some food for thought. There's great comfort in knowing that I'm not alone in feeling this way, although I'm sorry to hear that some of you have experienced far testing times. Nuisance neighbours are the worst.

Panic mode - am curious to know how soon you made the move?

The rental option is a good suggestion, but I'm worried about being priced out from buying in the future. The London market is just absolute madness!

Why 5 years?

You need to think now about primary schools. It sounds ridiculous but you need to know when the deadline is for admission applications for your area and the catchment area for the school.

It will tell you whether you stand a chance of getting your child in. You might want to have a look at the Primary Education board on MN.

Ds1 was 16 months when we relocated for Dh's job and we had to consider primary schools because we wanted to get it right and not have to move again. He was 3 when we had to put his application in for the school.

I agree that I might seem miles off but the schools issue is huge in the London area (and other cities). Look at where you may get in and what you may want. You may change your views

I just made a similar move, from rough but up and coming London-ish area only 2.5miles away, but what feels very suburban, quiet area. The move was driven by a secondary school and an extra bedroom. I knew this before the move, that I much prefer the rough area, but I felt the sacrifice is worth it. Now I need to last for 3.5 years as a minimum and once the schools are sorted, I hope I can afford to move back. I totally understand where you're coming from OP.

Yes. We moved to whole new town in order to buy a bigger house. For many different reasons, we didn't really like it, so moved back to where we were living beforehand. I am so much happier here than I was in the other place and don't particularly miss that extra guest room.

I moved from a 2 bed flat in Zone 2 to a 3 bed house in Zone 3/4. Have been here 18 months, bought a project and I would say we're midway through. The area is quite grotty although has some beautiful parts fairly close by and some very good Primary schools. I'm hoping to be off within 3-5 years though. Do think through primary schools and where you'll be living by the time you have to submit your application. My daughter is already at school at a very good primary. Having to in-yrar transfer her to a new area means we'll just get whatever school has space down the line.

We bought a doer upper and between exchange and completion discovered I was expecting DC3. Two older DCs were already at school for which we paid school fees. We were thrilled to be having DC3 but the work in the house was based on assumptions that did not include having a baby in the house or a third lot of fees. We lived in it for two years during which we managed a lot less than we had planned and it just wasn't an easy house with a baby. We sold still as a doer upper and the people who bought it did a fantastic job and made a huge amount on it. I don't really have regrets though. We moved from a huge cottage with tons of unmanageable land to an ugly but still large and above all easy 1970s house with a big but easier garden. We lived in the 1970s house for ten years and last year moved to our forever house so all ended well. All were within the same postcode so no school issues arose.

Raspberriesandcream - we lasted about 18 months before deciding to call it quits - but it took 18 months to sell as three chains collapsed (2007....) so we were there for 3 years. We completed on our new place 6 days before school application deadlines - to say it was stressful was an understatement...especially as I was pg with #3 too...!

What do you like about your preferred area? Also, why could you only live there for 5 years? Is it because you’d outgrow whatever house you can afford closer in?
I’d go for it if I were you. 5 years is a reasonable chunk of your life and if you’d be happier then why not. Do think about buying a place that could last you more than 5 years if you decided to stay (i.e. is good for schools etc). In 5 years you might find you don’t need more space or whatever the issue is that makes you think it would just be temporary.

Schools is a valid point and swayed us (me) into choosing our sensible area. Didn't realise that applications had to be submitted from as early as 3 years though!

5 years - I want to leave London before DD starts school, am green with envy when I see the quality of life friends and family have up north (where I'm originally from). Am not keen on moving once DD is settled in school. But if school applications need to be submitted from the age of 3, maybe a move just isn't worth it, as the whole process is very stressful and can take a while...poor you panicmode, but at least it ended well.

Hhmm.....

Yes. Though I moved for schools and am stuck here (or within reach of here) for another 5 years. At that point, I will hotfoot to somewhere gritty, inner city and not so bloody 'nice'.

I do a bit. Stayed in zone 2 but mortgage stresses me out. I think the need for more space, property market and noise from neighbours rushed is into the wrong decision. Plus I've gone off the area (having already lived here for some time) We don't really have many options at the moment so staying put!