Are we being stupid? Selling and moving after 6 months

[nespressowoo]

Hello all,

Really need some perspective. Moved out of our lovely new build house before Christmas, reason we sold was it was leasehold and by a busy road. Moved in with family until we got the keys to our current place.

Our current house is a 1930s 3 bedroom semi. It needed loads doing, stuff which we hadn't realised. In 6 months we have put on an orangery, new high-spec kitchen, knocked out walls, completely redecorated and carpeted it. Getting shutters soon too.

We just can't settle. One minute we're ok, next we're unhappy. Despite all the work we've done we still can't seem to be happy. We have had our house valued and we would make back what we have spent. It's by a good school, in a nice area. Fairly quite. Garden is small. Still needs more doing but wouldn't get that back in house value / equity.

I just don't feel we fit in, it's very overlooked. It's a semi so we hear a lot of noise from next door. I don't know if we'd have enough room when we have no2. It doesn't feel like 'home', I know 6 months is a relatively short period of time.

We have seen another new build back near where we used to live, about 3 miles so nowhere near a busy road. It's surrounded by green fields, detached, bigger garden. Developer is offering lots of incentives. It's peaceful. It's nearer my family. It has a good school. We love new builds so I'm not worried about that side of things.

Would we be mad to move again?

Sorry for the long post... any help much appreciated.

So we moved into our house in June 2018 and moved into our latest house may 2019

We couldn't settle. Garden too small. Garden overlooked. Neighbours snobby

You could always port your mortgage to avoid early repayment fees like we did

As a buyer I would be suspicious of someone moving so quickly after buying. So might take a bit of time to sell.

We could port our mortgage, thankfully.

I would say to potential buyers about wanting to be closer to my family, which is the truth.

My head is spinning.

We sold in 24 hours of being online.

We move din June 2018 and sold Feb 2019. Moved to our new house may 2019.

Hope that helps. The buyer did ask why we were moving and we said we wanted to be closer to family now we had a child which was the truth too. We now live 2 doors down from my parents haha

if the new place is a newbuild are you sure there is not or likely to be planning permission to build up more around it? New PM promising to relax planning laws further if he stays around. If land is protected though I'd go for it if you can sell OK.

Don't think you're mad but I would also be suspicious about buying. Also orangery.

@huggybear why the orangery? It is a solid roof one if that helps. I didn't think people would be suspicious of that.

Thanks everyone, I appreciate it.

Did similar. Moved July ‘15 and then June ‘16. First house seemed like a good option, but niggles grew. Been at second house every since and no intention of ever moving again. Yes, we lost a bit of money on the first one, but have no regrets whatsoever.

You could say you bought to renovate and then move on to be nearer to family

They wouldn't know.. They know you've done the renovations so nothing to be suspicious of really. If someone likes a house they'll get a survey done and buy it

(Also, we P/Ex’d our house to the builders of the new one, so time on the market and sale price was irrelevant. Never had to explain to anyone why we were moving so soon!)

I had to Google what an orangery was tbh. I've always just called that a conservatory.

Moving again so soon is not “mad”. But you need a plan in case the next house doesn’t feel right either.

I would definitely do it- we did very similar and ported the mortgage across :)

An orangery? Whoa! Very posh! Do you have to have those potted 🍊 trees in it?

I think we are struggling with the fact we had a four bed detached house with a garage and utility room, downstairs loo and en-suite. Big garden. But this all came at a price with being near a busy road and leasehold.

We have moved to a three bedroom semi with one loo, small garden and no utility and not much storage space. It will still need more stuff doing to it if we were to stay.

The 'orangery' is just a mini-extension to be honest, we use it as a playroom, it leads out on to the garden.

The new place is farmland but you're right there is no definite thing in place to say it wouldn't be built on. It is a fairly small development, just 50 houses.

If you can cope with fees & any loss and you both want to, then why not? It’s your life, do what makes you (both) happy, screw what anyone else thinks!

Just be as sure as you can be that the new house is what you really want, don’t jump out of the fry pan into the fire!!

@Singlenotsingle 😂 no. We were told it's an orangery, we just wanted an extra room being put on but didn't want to go whole length of house as would've lost too much garden.

@LumiereLennie we asked about part-ex, unfortunately the house we are interested in isn't 30% more than ours. We part-exchanged our first house to the last one we were in. It was a fab process.

@WBWIFE this is true. People develop all the time don't they.

OP, only you will know if this would be a good move for you or if you are one of those people who are never quite satisfied with what they have. Two lots of legal fees in 12 months will add up to quite a bit.

I don't think you'll be happy in the new place either, but that's just my opinion. You didn't want to be near to your family before and both places have good schools. How long were you in your previous house before you moved to your current one?

One loo? I would have moved yesterday. Life's too short and an orangery is nice but not nice enough to only live with one loo as a family imo.

Why did you buy the house in the first place?

@ChicCroissant we were there 3 years. Moved as the busy slip-road disturbed our DS. Didn't have him when we moved in and wasn't until he was here we started worrying. The slip-road was never quiet. The traffic noise was unreal and only got worse the longer we were there.

I didn't think I'd miss being closer to my family, but turns out I do.

NC for this .The open space would worry me a bit.
We own the field behind our house and intend to leave it as agricultural land- suitable for horses or sheep.
However, we have had a lot of approaches from developers to buy it. One in particular, we have asked to stop approaching us. ( Nothing to do with the fact they only write to DH and not both of us! ) I can see that one day, when it gets too much to care for or we want to move, we might sell for housing.
Having said that, we lived on an estate backing onto open farm land.At one point, the farmer sold extra garden to the owners of the houses backing onto his land, and there was a rumour that he was seeking planning permission for more houses. Nothing has happened but 25 years later, there are constant press comments that it has been earmarked for a park and ride.
But from what you have said, it would not be unreasonable to move.

Move! I spent 5 years in a house I wasn't settled in, we've moved fairly recently and I'm so happy and relaxed, I wonder why in earth I put up with the old house for so long, just move. Really.

Don’t know the price point but you’ll have to pay stamp duty, moving costs, etc. But if you aren’t happy then move. But consider all the things about your houses that have made you move - even if the sell price covers the cost of moving you are wasting money each time.
Investigate the possibility of building on those fields - is it part of the town’s development plans? Green Belt - protected in any way?