Multiple sales in the last 9 years - would this put you off?

[mummabubs]

Husband and I are keen on a house, it's definitely got some quirks (situated near the top of a mountain and on a main-ish road) and needs some TLC / an extension, so appreciate it's not for everyone but we like the mountain location (it's not rural) and don't mind the road as the house is set back from it. We know the area well as we live 10 mins away from it now, so feel like we have a sense of what it would be like to live there.

The only red flag going off in my head is that the house seems to have changed hands a lot - sold in 2011, 2013, 2018 and then listed again now. There's so many positives for us but I've got a voice in my head asking why people only seem to live there for a couple of years before moving on...
Would this in itself put you off if you had no way of ascertaining why previous people have moved? Or does anyone have experiences where they've known houses to sell a lot for "innocent" reasons? Thanks.

Haunted 😊

Is it a family sized house? Could it be people buying then growing out of it sooner than expected I.e no kids to 2 and realised all the shit kids come with?

Is there anything such as flooding etc that might impact, guessing not if it's top of a mountain? Or dodgy neighbours?

Id probably ask the sellers tbh and take a view from there, having tried to work out the above.

I'd definitely bring it up to the estate agent to see if they know why, especially the current seller's reasons.

There's a house by us that is sold every two years or so. We were interested in it but ended up passing when we looked back at the history. Just a gut feeling on in.

I'd definitely ask but not rule it out based on that alone.
I've had two houses where I've sold within 2-3 years the first time because it was our first home and the market suddenly went into overdrive and we could progress quicker than expected to a larger home. The second time this happened was because I moved into my forever home (large house over 4 floors) 6 months later I had an accident and became disabled I could no longer manage the stairs and over the next year I deteriorated meaning I had to sell and move to more suitable accommodation. Both different circumstances however shouldn't be negative reasons for a purchaser.

Being me I would probably worry about noisy/difficult neighbours if no-one seems to stay very long. It depends a bit on the area though. In my current road people tend to stay for decades. Our house is a bit of an outlier for the road as it has changed hands twice in the last 25 years, whereas our neighbours have been here for 40 years. There is far more churn in nearby roads with flats and smaller terraces as people tend to do up and trade up. Worth looking at the number of recent sales for the rest of the road to see if it's just normal for the area.

I would worry that it’s a neighbour problem. Most other reasons you can either overcome or might not apply to you anyway (outgrowing, relocating for work, divorce etc).

Just one thought - is the road very steep? Does it become impassable/awkward in the winter or severe weather? Does it always seem to sell in the summer months? I have to drive to work so living on a very steep hill would actually put me off for that reason. Our last house was on a hill & I ended up abandoning my car on a pub car park & walking home more than once .

It would put me off.

I could understand people wanting to move out of a particular house if it was a small place/starter home to move on to a bigger place to accommodate a growing family.

But for this to happen like clockwork every two years with so many owners would make me think there is something else going on...

It would definitely make me question why that was the case yes

Some really good food for thought, thanks everyone. It's quite large house (advertised as 5 bedrooms but only 2 of those are upstairs). The garage was extended and converted, but looks like it wasn't done very well as there appears to be external mould on the outside. This isn't an issue for us as we'd want to extend up anyway and given it's unlikely to have the right foundations for a second storey we'd likely have to start again and demolish / rebuild.

Interesting point about the steepness of the hill - the road is a B road and the main one into town so gets gritted, but I suppose if anyone was elderly or developed mobility issues then it wouldn't be ideal.

How close are the nearest neighbours? I’d definitely be asking more detailed questions about neighbour disputes.

I would be suscipious there's an issue - would suspect a neighbour issue if one close by unless anything noisy close by. Anyone you could ask - like the neighbour, village pub?

Maybe dispute over planning for extension?

The first thing to rule out would be neighbour issues. That said, one lot did stay 5 years and with only 2 beds upstairs you can imagine people thinking it would work with a family but actually moving once their second moved out of their room.

We had a house that changed hands a lot. It was lovely, nothing wrong with it at all but it was a 3 bed semi that passed between young, slightly "upwardly mobile" (ugh!) couples. Like the owners before and after us, we moved on for school catchment and a 4th bedroom. It was an attractive road with most of the other houses full of empty nesters, so very few others came up for sale. I'd like to retire back there.

We bought a house that had changed hands a lot prior. There were no issues at all and we have been here 10 years now. Our neighbours are lovely and told us all previous occupiers moved for personal reasons, job changes etc.

There are neighbours on either side, both of which have pretty much knocked down the bungalows there and built huge houses, so maybe building work would be the issue. On the plus it would mean that any disputes are unlikely to be extension related maybe? We will definitely ask about neighbourly disputes voa email as I know they have to declare this legally and that way at least we'd have something in writing. Ice might be a problem in winter I suppose as husband and I are both nhs workers and both drive to work. I think the biggest issue would actually be getting off the drive as it's steep but there is another space by the road so parking closer on bad weather might resolve that.

How long are you planning on staying? because whilst it wouldn’t put me off if you have plans to move in a couple of years then it may put people off when you go to sell as it will be yet another change of hands.

Actually I might do the opposite with asking about neighbour disputes. People will tell you more verbally than they will commit to in writing. You can follow up in writing later, but your only hope of finding out about any disagreement that hasn't got as serious as formal dispute is to ask verbally.

Good thinking about asking verbally. We hope to stay 10 years +, both have stable jobs.
I've checked zoopla and both the next door neighbours have been there 6 years + with sales in the 90s before that... Not sure if that reassures me or not 😂

I’ve stayed in a property for 2 years before. Fab house and neighbours but just moving up the ladder.

To me the location sounds like hard work for walking home especially with kids or carrying anything as it’s busy and steep. Not fun to have to drive for everything.

So, you literally couldn't make this up... Update:

Called estate agents this morning and they won't even let us view the house, let alone offer on it as our house isn't under offer already (their new approach to limit viewings during lockdown apparently) so I was pretty devastated, as assuming it's like the photos and video tour it really does look like it could be the house we've been looking for over the past 18 months. I was talking to my friend in work about how gutted I was that we won't even get a look in and I showed her the Rightmove link... It's her uncle's house. We were both gobsmacked. Turns out there's a very innocent reason for them moving and they've been very happy there. Friend has managed to arrange a viewing for us outside of the estate agency so at least now we can get to judge for ourselves whether to offer.

@JoJoSM2 Good point. My parent's home is on top of a large hill (similar steepness) and I had to walk up it every day from school, so as it didn't bother me too much I guess I'm not put off by it here either. There's also bus routes by the house if it felt too much to walk back from town!

That’s brilliant news! I hope the viewing goes well!

Thanks @JoJoSM2. We're excited but also aware that the estate agents have booked 7 viewings for tomorrow (we can't view until Thursday morning as the seller wasn't free today). I'm trying not to get my hopes up too much as we could be priced out of the race before we even get to view if offers come in, but all we can do is see. 😊🤞🏻