Gutted my dream house is going to auction.

[JamesDelayneysTattoos]

Been on the market since Feb/March . Had one offer but we declined then the wife changed her mind although the chap wanted to increase offer.

Nothing since.

Found lovely house. Been on the market a year now ( not when we saw it ). Elderly couple, no rush to move.

EA told me yesterday that they've decided to put it and the house they built next door too into the next auction in August. I'm assuming they've decided to move closer to their grown children.

So gutted. House was ideal for us. 😟

This is what the front looks like. I've been looking at bushes this morning to put in between the front windows and the road somewhere.

We offered to buy the barn from Barn man a couple of years ago but he wouldn't give us a price, just said he's interested at the right price and to make him an offer. Dh won't make him an offer.

My friend wanted to buy our house and the barn earlier this year but negotiations came to a halt when barn man wouldn't commit to a price. Very frustrating.

The barn is as big as it's going to get, he can't extend any more.

As well as the large garden, we have a top garden that is secure. I'll add a picture.

This is all good, OP. It needs spelling out that you have a large secure garden for kids to play in, PLUS a whopper of a garden where your trampoline is. In an ideal world that would all be fenced, but it would cost a bomb.

Wonder if you'd be allowed to fence or hedge in line with the existing bushes along to the front left corner as you look at your house, and then down to the edge of your front steps?

I can see why you're frustrated regarding the barn, the neighbour isn't really playing ball is he?

Sorry, meant side steps.

All these changes won't address the (big) disadvantages that are making selling hard: price is what needs to give here. Or moving. Sadly.

Can you investigate change of use for the house with a view to sell it to a commercial buyer? We used to live near a house on a busy junction (house was v. old and both roads were extended out to meet it) and we saw it go on sale 2 or 3 times but no-one bought it.

In the end they converted it for commercial use and it sold for offices instead of residential use. Your house might have enough space for a small care home or guest house, for example, when the road would be less of an issue, particularly with you having extra garden.

I've emailed a couple of developers to see if they're interested but it's green belt so not sure if it's even possible to build on. It certainly wasn't 11 years ago when it was bought by developers and changed from a pub to a house. Hence the barn being separate, they converted the pub into what is now our house and sold off the barn. Bastards. 😂

What about webuyanyhouse type sites? You won't get market value but it might be enough for you to move?

So why not stay there op? Walking to the shops is really not a big deal (I've never been able to do that) and driving 50 miles a week (10 miles a day) is nothing!! It's a lovely house- why not just accept you have to drive to places and start enjoying it again?

I'd consider staying too,,,,why lose money on it, it is lovely.

As for security, for dogs and small kids it's better secure close to the house. We have a large garden and we fenced in round the back as we had a dog and no way we could have fenced the whole thing. It does mean if we ever come to sell any new owner knows they can just open the back door and let either kids or dogs out and not worry, as well as allowing dogs or kids to come and go as they please.

However I'd stay.....

To be fair no one else wants to move. I just think it would be nice to have more disposable income per month and for dd to be able to walk in to town to meet her friends.

Maybe I should get a bike 😂

Scratch that. Dh said last night that he does want to move.

I've had a guy in this week and my garden looks lovely again, he's just finishing the greenhouse clear out, the planter boxes and clearing weeds from the side.

I think you're going to have to really go through the numbers and work out what's the minimum you can financially afford to sell for and then speak to the ea about dropping the price. If you want your dream house then you might have to take a hit on the money side.

can you put in an offer on the condition it's removed from auction? normally contracts have to be exchanged to prevent it going to the hammer, otherwise it will still go to auction

So. We are putting ours into auction too. The guy is going to list ours way before theirs.

Having said that, a week after we went on the market we had an offer, we asked if they would up it but they hadn't sold their house at that point. The man was very keen but then after toing and froing for 3 weeks the lady said no to going higher.

Today I called EA and asked if she'd chase up that couple and ask if they've found anywhere yet. Turns out they haven't so wife is going to talk to husband and get back to us on Monday.

Oh fantastic! I am really invested in this now so hope you will keep us updated nosy

Ooh sounds very very positive!

We are putting ours into auction too.
Have you worked out all the permutations? What if you sell yours, but the house you like goes for too high a price, and you lose out?

Great news op.

I

Quite then you go into a rental until you find something else. But she'll have sold her house, so hey it's still a win.

quite we will go into rented and be in a strong position to proceed if another house comes along.

I think we've done everything we can. EA has said if he doesn't get decent responses to our house with guide price, i.e. People asking questions, downloading legal pack etc then we can pull out of the auction if we want.

We have quite specific needs with not a massive budget which is why this house would be ideal, not many 5 beds with plenty of living space come on the market in our price bracket. We'd still have to spend a lot of money making the house perfect but we can do that in our own time.

Downside is the house we want does need a lot of work but is big so might attract developers wanting to make flats etc whereas ours won't.

Now we wait and see. I'm a bit nervous I have to say.

Super. That is great

You've got a plan B and you will be in a very strong position if you are in rental and something else comes up