Max out budget for 'forever' home? WWYD?

[Sleepybunny]

I've fallen in love with an old property. It's a real fixer upper but in a good area. We offered after viewing as it really is the forever house. Our offer has been rejected though as there's been quite a lot of interest, so it's going to a closing date/sealed bids.

I'm devastated to be honest as I don't think we can offer the amount to win. However we're going to throw a bid in. He who dares wins right!?
Question is, do we throw everything we've got at it (would still be under valuation but as its damp etc....)
If we win we would be saving each month and doing things bit by bit. We can do a lot our selfs, but new kitchens and bathrooms will still cost ££££.

I wouldn't. Too much hassle, too much work, too much worry and too much money.

Totally agree with mollie, I dislike the whole 'forever home' concept. Anyhoo. We missed out on my favourite 2 houses and now know the people who bought them. We bought one £60k cheaper. I think we could have handled the extra mortgage payments OR found the money they've spent on new boiler, windows, roof repairs etc, but I think covering both would have been a struggle.

How secure your jobs are, how easy to find work, how much financial headroom you have now, and your future income raises make a huge difference to whether you can comfortably afford it and enjoy it, or end up endlessly working to pay for mundane things like boilers and having it as an albatross round your neck.

Thanks for all your responses. We're early-mid thirties with two young children. We've done a renovation before, it was tough, really tough at times as we did so much ourselves and I was pregnant through a lrge part of it with a toddler.
This house doesn't require as much work. It's not massive either, a good sized family home with a bit extra space you wouldn't get with a new build. Heating system is new and in good condition. It's electrical and minor damp that's the issue. Nothing we haven't seen before and know how to rectify.
We could live in it as is for a while, it's not completely uninhabitable. But Inget what people are saying about or houses being money pits and life is for living. Too true.
I see this house as the forever house as there's room for the kids to grow into adults and I hope we won't move again until we were ready to retire and downsize possibly.
In terms of affordability, we're basing our calculations on a single salary. I'll start a new job early next year, so should have a whole other income. The mortgage would managable with room to save and have holidays on DHs salary alone, however we'd probably fore go any holidays to push to complete the house. I'd expect it to take a year or two to finish to a comfortable standard of we did most of it ourselves.

It all seems doable, but the lure of something cheaper with less work is always on my mind. The dust and upheaval of renovating is still fresh in my mind too.

On one salary etc and reading your latest post, I would. We bought our "forever" house 6 years ago and we are now (mid extension) within sight of the end of the tunnel. I was on maternity leave when we bought it and even with both salaries we were absolutely max'ed out. We knew it would be years until we could afford to do it up (until we finished paying nursery fees) and there were times when I was embarrassed about it - think wood chip, peach bathroom suite, floral carpet - but I am so glad we bit the bullet.

TBH it sounds like a no brainer from your second post - very different to your first.

If you can DIY round pregnancy and toddler you're way more capable than we are - we did very very little to our houses between the day our eldest was born and our youngest turning 5!

Eurgh,I have lived in a house while renovating it. Would never do it again! We did buy a plot and build though. You get a lot more for your money doing that. Any plots near you?

I fancied a plot, but the ones near me are so expensive. I don't know how I'd pay for the building work and temporary accommodation.

We got a special self builders mortgage that released the money in stages. Worked well