Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. Child-safe in minutes.

Meet the Other Phone.
Child-safe in minutes.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
Property/DIY

Join our Property forum for renovation, DIY, and house selling advice.

Original poster

Fed up of right move, fed up of house hunting - what are the alternatives?!

21 replies

ClarkL · 15/09/2016 10:58

My husband is in the process of selling his house, cash buyers, no chain, no mortgage should be completed in 4 weeks, we don't live in house as its only 1 bedroom and miles away from where we live. We have been renting our home for 2 years.
We actually really like the house we rent but the landlords don't want to sell for another 4 years. So we can either rent it all that time (another £28k!!) or buy elsewhere.
I just can't find anything my husband and I both like in budget. Everything he shows is a fixer upper, cheap but also not very big, so in my opinion we'll be buying again in a few years and I really don't want that.

How does anyone find their perfect house??

OP posts:
LugsTheDog · 15/09/2016 11:26

You don't need the perfect house, you need a "machine for living in" that is a good enough fit to your needs and preferences.

There are always compromises unless you are so incredibly rich that money has no meaning to you. The less you compromise on space, location, finish etc, the more you compromise on price. Get your head round the fact there will be some compromises, and between you, figure out which of them are easiest for BOTH of you to live with.

Alternatively look at something that you'd both never normally consider - new area, flat instead of house, something in a central location with a courtyard instead of a garden. It might inspire you into a new direction. But mainly, it's fine to make a "head" decision when house buying - it doesn't have to be a love affair :D

lotusbiscuit · 15/09/2016 11:28

Kirsty and Phil Grin

lotusbiscuit · 15/09/2016 11:29

Actually, some people on here love looking at property - tell us your budget and area, must haves and I bet we could come up with a few places!!

Lorelei76 · 15/09/2016 11:31

OP are you saying that if the house you live was for sale, it would be in your budget? in that case it can't be hard to find something similar?

is your area having a bit of a slump at the mo?

toooldtobeyoungandstupid · 15/09/2016 11:43

We're hopefully completing next month. FTBers, clueless and petrified of buying the wrong thing and being stuck with the wrong home. It's taken us well over a year. I feel your pain!

What we did in the end was compromise:

  • we upped our budget, by around 20% with the mindset that a better property would mean we saved on moving again.

This increase in price also took us out of the sweet spot, what I define as the most competitive price range, in our area. It also took us over the stamp duty threshold which I think is a big deterrent for competition.

  • Then we compromised on parking/garage and prioritised the house. It's what we had to do to get the location.

The house does need work, but it's not major and we can see that it'll add value. So is therefore it'll benefit us in the future.

It took us a LONG time to accept that we had to make hear compromises. Tbh I'm similar to your husband and wanted to keep costs down/kept going for the cheapies. The numbers on our mortgage certificate petrify me. Doing the sums and figuring out how much work actually costs did help me to overcome this.

Best of luck!

Lonecatwithkitten · 15/09/2016 11:50

Practicalities at the top of the list. Will the location, type of house and layout make your life easy if not you will move quickly.
I moved in July to a total 'head house' it was practical in location, layout and age. Two months later I totally love it as it makes my life so easy and I feel more relaxed.

LugsTheDog · 15/09/2016 12:04

Just another thought - we found compromise much easier when we had no expectation of staying forever. It's easy to forego a garden, or a utility room, or an extra bedroom for 5 years. Not so easy to resign yourself to never having one.

It sounds like you are working to very different budgets, which is a difficult starting point.

sparechange · 15/09/2016 12:13

Is your budget realistic for what you want?
It might be worth looking at things which are more than you can afford and less than you want to spend to get an idea if whether you are just being unrealistic about budget.
For me, it was a big wake up call to see my 'perfect' house but see that it was 15% more than I could afford! Helped me readjust my expectations...

Otherwise, you could get proactive.

The easier version would be to go some local agents, tell them you want to buy your current house but it isn't for sale, and do they know of anyone who might be thinking of selling something similar in the area. The agents can check back through who has recently had a valuation, or flyer local houses
The harder version would be to flyer them yourself, saying you are a local couple desperate to buy something in the area and can they phone you if they are thinking of selling.

You might just get lucky...

Original poster
ClarkL · 15/09/2016 12:38

Ok so here goes! Budget is £250. We could go higher but still want to play a little, so happy to look at marginally above.

Must haves:
Drive large enough for 3 cars
Large garden
3 bedrooms
Not on a main road

I would like something with a little bit of character.
Happy to redecorate, if however, it needs new kitchen Bathroom etc then budget of the house needs to be lowered accordingly.

Area, anywhere between Cleethorpes and Skegness, ideally a walk to the beach. OR within 5 miles of Louth or Horncastle (Lincolnshire)

I guess we like ours because we know the house, know what's needed to it (about £40k worth of work) and quite like the friends we've made in the village. Frankly if another came up nearby we'd consider it. There is one that's in budget but its a bungalow with an odd layout, ie bedrooms next to kitchen and lounge and all over the place. I don't mind a bungalow but it needs to be very separate living and sleeping area.

Does it sound like im being picky??

OP posts:
Original poster
ClarkL · 15/09/2016 12:41

Sorry just to add, my husband keeps looking at properties around the £150 mark....we could get a mortgage up to £300 (him not me) so im baffled as to why he keeps looking at them, none of them have the potential to be worked on enough to become the ideal house without big extensions that would eat up the garden

OP posts:
MackerelOfFact · 15/09/2016 12:55

If your budget is £250, maybe you could try looking at something like this? Grin

Original poster
ClarkL · 15/09/2016 12:59

Mackerel that in a field would suit me!!
so just for clarity, £250k
OR £249,750 for a field and I'll get the tent Mackerel has suggested :)

OP posts:
rallytog1 · 15/09/2016 14:49

We're in the same boat as you. We've sold our house (bought in 2007 but rented it out when we had to relocate for work) and we'd love to just buy the house we're renting but our landlords aren't keen, unless we pay top dollar (which this house is not worth). We could just stay here renting as we love the area and the neighbours, but equally we don't want to be off the property ladder for too long and we would like to give our dcs a more permanent roof over their heads.

The market here is pretty dead. Very little coming on and most houses have been on for months. So while it's theoretically a buyer's market, we are struggling to find anything that meets all our criteria and is in budget.

What has become clear is that if we want to buy, we need to find some compromises. We can get all the space we want in a slightly different area, or we could have a smaller house but be in the perfect location. The house we're planning on making an offer on wasn't even on our shortlist due to area and layout, but we viewed it out of politeness when the agent suggested it, and it immediately felt like home. It contains a lot of compromises, but they're all ones we could live with. What's really helped is repeatedly telling ourselves how lucky we would be to have a secure roof over our heads that meets most of our family's needs. No one needs a perfect home.

Original poster
ClarkL · 15/09/2016 16:45

Rallytog you are right, we don't need the perfect home. We did put an offer in on a house earlier this year before ours sold (it was cheap enough we didn't need to sell) but in hindsight it lacked all the things we need (driveway, large garden) so I'm glad the last house fell through.

I have now booked a viewing on two properties we've been umming and ahhing about, one in the village, bungalow with odd layout. The garden isnt as big as we like but the house next door is for sale and offered at 2 lots, one with 3 acres and without....so I guess if it sells without the land we could buy that to give us the land we want, although we dont need all 3 acres. I think 1 acre would be good.
The second property is above our price bracket but ticks every box....we can see then what's more important, budget or house...

OP posts:
takesnoprisoners · 15/09/2016 17:08

this ?

Original poster
ClarkL · 16/09/2016 07:36

Thank you Takesnoprisoners but I really want to be walking distance of the beach of staying in the area we are now, (Louth area) or Horncastle where husband works

OP posts:
Original poster
ClarkL · 16/09/2016 17:09

Thanks all, I dont want to sound ungrateful but i think looking at the links is making me more sad. I did find this though: www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-59682668.html this is the kinda of home (aka shell plus garden!) I fancy, perhaps with the price tag I can convince my husband to at least look

OP posts:
SquinkiesRule · 16/09/2016 21:37

I like that one ClarkL, huge garden with room for Chickens. Love it.

dontcallmelen · 16/09/2016 21:47

Clark love it, has the bare bones of being a really lovely home.

Original poster
ClarkL · 16/09/2016 22:05

Location is a bit of a shame but apparently I can't have it all!!! Husband had also agreed it's a possibility, will drive there tomorrow to check out the roads, we've ruled out a couple of villages on account of only getting out in the winter in a 4x4, husband works stupid and long hours so I don't want him on too many twisty single track roads. It's a start though, we can see what we like, don't like and hopefully pin down more what's important

OP posts:
New posts on this thread. Refresh page
Swipe left for the next trending thread