What do you think of this house?

[Cravingseaside]

www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-79863890.html?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=socialo&utm_campaign=sharing&utm_content=buying

Thinking of viewing this house, it is about 10 miles from where we are now. I know the town, I have a friend there and visir sometimes.
So the house itself, what are your initial thoughts? It clearly needs work- how much though? I find the layout quite strange, we won't be able to afford to alter layout really if it is too expensive. The kitchen has that long bit on the end? Plus the WC downstairs looks tiny. The garden and space round it look lovely.

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Could you put a wall to the left of the front door, blocking access to the kitchen that way, and making that space into a porch area (coat hooks, shoe stand etc?).
I'd probably swap the living and dining room, make an open place kitchen-diner if that wall isn't load bearing, and have a smaller snug living room.

It certainly has a lot of potential but it does need money spending on it at some point.

I'd probably want to knock through kitchen to living room as pp has said. The weird long bit you could wall/screen off as a utility area perhaps?

I think the garden and area look stunning, and it's shocking how cheap property outside of London is!

I agree with pp, past of least resistance in terms of the layout, I'd knock the wall between the living room and kitchen down to make it into an open plan kitchen diner (or at least open up the doorway as much as possible, if you can't knock down the whole wall), and make the dining room a snug living room.

What is the selling price for houses that are 'done up' in that area? If the money you spend plus the cost of the property add up to more than that then you'd have to be looking to stay long term for it to be a good move financially. If you're unsure how much the renovation costs are get a builder to give you an estimate of the work.

I'd take down the wall between what is now the lounge and kitchen, and have it as a large kitchen/diner. There would be extra space to extend the downstairs loo. The current dining room would be the lounge.

I had relatives in Otley. It's lovely. I love market day there. Good luck with the move.

Nice house, nice location but needs a job lot of £ spent on it unless you are going to live 'as is'.

I'd budget for a full re-wire, potentially re-plumb and boiler and new kitchen/bathroom.

Skimming, flooring and painting throughout. Maybe new doors and skirting etc.

If you are doing that then you might as well do the layout and put in nice doors to the garden and make the most of that situation.

Add removing polystyrene ceiling tiles and plasterboarding and skimming to the list of works. It looks spacious and in a beautiful area - what about flood risk?

Could be a really lovely house, it’s quite spacious up stairs & beautiful garden, I would knock kitchen into the adjoining room which would make a really good family space & chop at bit off the long bit on the kitchen making a utility room, possibly with a downstairs shower room/loo if you could combine that in with the loo/plumbing that is already in situ.

WildWinter - This property isn't shockingly ''cheap'' at all.. it easily needs £50k spending on it, which at the current asking price makes it a quarter of a million pounds total spend.

That's a huge amount more than any other nearby comparable property has ever sold for and would easily be at least 10x average local single wage.

**jemihap exactly, the asking price is actually nearly the top of our budget so we cannot afford to do loads of work on it. I think we are going to have to pass. Again. #sigh

If you shop around and buy your own fittings and pay for labour you could do the main bits for 15k plus kitchen.

There are many ways to make money go further and still do house up to a decent standard, rewire, boiler, plastering and new bathroom. Then you do your own painting and decorating. Painting is easy especially on new plaster.

Don't write it off op if you can afford the house.

It may not need a rewire or boiler, etc.

A cracking house with loads of potential. If it's livable now I would go for it and do up bit by bit. Great way to get a lovely house.

helpmum2003 - Apart from it being massively overpriced.

It's a lovely house, nice big rooms and great location. Probably does need a lot of work, but you'd need to check out what needs doing immediately and what can be put off. I personally wouldn't feel the need to knock anything through.

Put in a low offer and see what happens. It's lovely and although needs work would be a great family home. The bit in the kitchen at the end is ideal for washer, dryer, dirty shoes etc.

We bought a v similar house in similar condition. We have spent £40k to date doing the windows and doors, rewire, plumbing, plastering, a basic new kitchen and bathroom, decorating and flooring throughout. We managed to get it £40k less than the asking price and remortgaged after a couple of years to allow us to do more work. It’s been bloody hard living through the work with a young family so if you have any other route into property ownership - help to buy etc I’d recommend that. The biggest mistake we made was thinking £10k would make it habitable and then we could do one room at a time as we could afford it. The rewire and plumbing works trashed the walls, floors and meant everywhere needed to be replastered and redecorated straightaway. We have ended up paying twice for finishes that were rushed initially which have had to be revisited. It’s been really difficult finding decent reliable trades too.

In light of what Twilightsparkle said, maybe make a very low offer?

I would knock down that kitchen/living room wall too, and make the strange kitchen bit into a huge downstairs storage area or massive coat closet/mudroom.

They are probably not going to get offers anywhere near the asking price given the photos, so don't feel you are being CFers.

A word of warning- our house cost 4 times the cost we thought it would take to renovate. Also trustworthy builders are hard to come by and it takes twice as long as you think it's going to do the work.