Do you like this house?

[YummyFoodie]

What's your opinion? I'm starting to have second thoughts, so I could really use some feedback. How much would you pay for it?

www.zoopla.co.uk/for-sale/details/50941389

PS OP ho many houses have you looked at? Have you sold your own home yet?

how not ho!

Definitely a new kitchen won't cost £20k, even a mice one. Depends whether you want a whole package or are prepared to buy it yourself and pay for installation. Also unlikely to need a full rewrite.

Lovely house. However, too much work is needed. Definitely 80k +
Kitchen needs an overhaul

Lots of potential. You may have parquet under the carpets which I presume are coming out anyway.

You need a good survey esp re roof before exchange.
Does it have central heating? Looking at the heater in the hall I had presumed electric so there's a potential expense.
I don't know the area but why all the yellow lines? At least you have off road parking for several cars.
If the area is good and you like the house then go for it. If there's been another offer then the price must be about right.

A good Worcester boiler, fitting and sourcing the rads yourself can cost 3 to 4 K not 10k

I was talking in combination with a full replumb and a brand new CH system. A boiler by itself fitted shouldn’t cost £4K, unless you’re converting from combi to system or vice-a-versa

Also unlikely to need a full rewrite.

That depends if it’s been dealt with since original installation. I have photos from my builders somewhere of the circuit board that was removed from my house- it was the original board from when the house was built. 4 circuits for the whole house and no MCBs or RCDs. We found out from the neighbours later that the kitchen had caught fire 4 time in the last year from the electrics.

If someone else has done the electrics before you, then yeah probably doesn’t need a rewire because wiring tends to be good for 50 years or so but the heat can cause the insulation to decay sooner. However we were in the situation the house hadn’t been rewired since first installed back in the 30s. It needed doing.

You need at least £40k to do a middle range refurb on that house.

We've spent £30k in the North on our 1960's house. For indicative costs doing partial rewire (£2k), new drive (2k), new bathroom (£6k as included building work to move walls around), plastering and new radiators in almost every room £1k per room), half the windows done £300-400 per window), new front door (£850) new patio doors (£900), and a bit of rejig (mostly non structural) of layout downstairs (£1k), new internal doors (£150 each to buy and fit), new flooring throughout £300-500 per room including fitting). We've done some decorating (£120 per room when painting fresh plaster) and clearing rubbish to tip/in skip (£200 each time) etc. ourselves.

We haven't done the front windows, rendering, garden or kitchen

Almost forgot, new loft ladder and insulation was £1k)

Parquet floors downstairs sold for £512k in August 2018.

You might have them hidden under the carpet...

@Glitteryfrog - that's a good point! I'll check. But I assume there won't be a new roof hidden under the carpet!

I used to obsess over 4 bed detached new builds, but after watching all the DIY programmes on at the moment (Sarah Beney and the BBc2 one) I've really got my eye on something just like this, I think we'll struggle with a detached on our budget but these look like slid houses on good sized plots. I love that this one has a downstairs toilet which many of them don't (in my area at least).

@Yummy I think £500+ is too much for this house. We were looking in this area last year (really anywhere between Kingston and Purley) with a similar budget, and we found more modernised houses for less than £500k. We ended up buying a house that needed a bit of work and it's been far more stressful and expensive than we expected. We looked at loads of houses around Sutton and I'd say this house is worth more like 450-475.

Also, unless you really want to be in Sutton, I think there are nicer areas nearly. Woodmansterne is especially lovely, also Carshalton Beeches, Banstead (though slow train), Kenley, Purley (very good trains!) and Worcester Park.

I don't think the house is overpriced. Yes, you can get a tired semi in a similar location for 450k but this house is substantially bigger than other 3 bed semis. The footprint and room sizes are about 20-25% bigger.

Having said that, if it doesn't feel right, perhaps you shouldn't pursue it.

Bigger houses cost more to do up than smaller houses... there will always be a ceiling for a 3 bed house in any area... 20% bigger wont mean worth 20% more

It’s a good, well proportioned house if you have the money to do it up properly - £80k I would say. Some of the prices quoted above are really massively under estimating in this neck of the woods.

@Chewbecca, it's crazy how much prices of 3 bed houses in Sutton /Carshalton vary. I've looked at last year's sales and the lowest prices were in high 300k range, the highest were around 600k (some of those people massively overpaid for smallish high spec houses though). A couple of weeks ago there was a fab detached 3-bed house on the same road as 'my' house for £550k, which made me wonder. It got snapped up very quickly!

What's actually wrong with the kitchen and bathroom? Is it structural or just you don't like them? It looks from the pics like it's a doer upper while living there rather than needs a refurb to move in so maybe that's a factor. The price is shocking to me when similar houses sell for about £120k here but you will know if that's reasonable for the area.

@DrCoconut £120k?! Where do you live? I may seriously consider moving.

I wouldn’t pay more than 100k for this, but i do live in Yorkshire 😂

The post industrial wasteland of the north 😂

Ffs on the 100 k shit going round.🤣🤣🤣

Much of what's wrong there is simply cosmetic. Sure it needs a new kitchen etc but these can be done in time as and when. And the electrics and boiler could well be fine, that's what surveys are for.

Thank you all for your thoughts

Where I am in Yorkshire that house would still be over 300k...

So much depends on what you are happy with and in what timescale. From the photos it seems like the boiler is fairly new, but is in a rubbish position, and some of the pipework is a bit odd (pipes going through the bottom of the stair??) Obviously can't tell everything from the photos, but the electrical sockets are fairly high on the walls, so might not be all that old (doesn't mean they were done right still!)

So, what do you want to get out of the house? New loft extension? Back extension, knocking the dining and kitchen together? Just redecoration and new kitchen/bathroom? You don't have to do everything at once but you don't want to end up undoing work in the future.

Very nice house. Lots of potential. You probably have paid a bit too much for it, but if you plan on staying there a long time & making improvements does it really matter? It seems that you don't realise how much of a fixer upper it is & what that will cost, which is more of a concern. Do you know reliable tradesmen in the area who won't rip you off? The only way you'd get this project in at 20-30k is if you or your DH are very handy & can do all the work yourselves! (I have lived through many of these transformations with my ex.) Personally, I'd choose a house that needs little to no work as its a nightmare to live through, particularly with DC.