3 or 4 bedroom home

[purplewool]

Hi
I am a first time buyer looking to buy a 3-4 bedroom detached home through help to buy. I really like a house which is a 3 bed 1260sq feet. As per my research, I feel it is priced as a 4 bed property as the master bedroom has a dressing room which can easily be converted into a 4th bedroom. Unfortunately, help to buy would not allow me to make modifications to the property till their loan is paid off. Although I dont need a 4th bedroom my concern is that it wont fetch the right price as a 3 bed when/if I sell on in future. So my options are:

1. pay the htb loan via re-mortgaging at the end of the 5 year period and convert to 4 bed.

2. Look elsewhere

3. keep the house as 3 bed and sell as 3 bed when/if needed.

any advice would be very welcome. Thanks

So you offer less money

Thanks Green Tulips, unfortunately I dont have that option as the developer's prices are fixed.

Hmmm can you pressure the developer for a sale discount, upgrades etc.

It is worth asking!

Thanks Random mess, i have already been offered floorings etc but they wont budge on price.

Just be careful that if you feel its priced as a 4 bed, but is actually a 3 bed, theres a chance that a mortgage valuation company would value it as a 3 bed (not a 4 bed) and you wouldn't get the mortgage that you need. If you subsequently have to pull out, you may lose survey fees / reservation fee / legal costs. Only a possibility but something to bear in mind.

Issue you you may have if it’s part of a larger estate (I assume) there will be a few houses of this design with walk-in wardrobes. When you come to sell, people will see you’ve converted the walk in wardrobe. Either through planning or knowledge of the estate. In turn that 4th bedroom isn’t going to command a full extra bedroom cost. As you’ve taken something away to add in the bedroom.

My house has a master bedroom 6m x 5m with a 4m x 1.5m walk-in wardrobe. I could easily use the wardrobe as a corridor and turn this into 2 bedrooms. I doubt it would add any value as I’ve lost that one wow room of my house and have 2 small rooms, or one standard double and a single to go along with the other standard double rooms.

If I had 2 wow large bedrooms it may add a lot of value but in my case no.

In fact someone down the road did just this On their slightly smaller house and used the master (smaller than mine) as 2 kids rooms. They sold their house for less than the next door. They obviously did this modification for the praticaltites of it not for adding value. But it just goes to show it’s not as simple as adding rooms equals percentage value increase.

It’s a bit like my house has the ground floor space of a 4 bedroom so if put in a 9m x 5m attic room with full sized Ensuite I’d get a good return. But if I split this into 2 for 5 bedrooms it would add nothing more as my garden size and bathroom space doesn’t equal a 5 bedroom house.

Also just read your square footage. According to google the average square footage of a uk 3 bed house is 1200-1300.
A 4 bedroom is in the region of 1600. So I’d doubt you’d get a 4 bedroom price for potential purchase once converted sorry

I've heard that these Help to Buy offers are always overpriced anyway. Have you compared it with other 3/4 beds in the area.

Yes I think they are overpriced- very overpriced. I have a relation that’s done htb and I can’t beleive the price of his house. Doesn’t help he’s bad nothing but trouble with it since he
Moved in. Although that’s off topic somewhat.

Thanks all. All your observations are quite accurate. these new builds are pigeon holes compared to older houses. if you are looking for space (most people are I suppose) the new builds can never compete in price with earlier houses. They do offer a degree of newness/modern feel so maybe that compensates for the lack of space to a degree. If I alter the dressing to get a new bedroom it will definitely loose its uniqueness. I will be upfront about the modification to any potential buyers but how the loss of uniqueness compares to an additional room, I am not too sure. quite confused atm as I do really like the house.

The issue with new houses is that people buying want new - not second hand 5 years down the line. They are also stuck to some degree in your choices of fixtures.

Difficult to sell