I stupidly looked at Rightmove...

[OfUselessBooks]

We had our offer accepted 2 months ago on a house. We are moving due to me being made redundant, and I'm a little sad over it, but there are a more good than bad things (the best are moving near grandparents and being able to pay off our mortgage).

The new house is quite small and the garden is too. We were very limited with our budget due to not having a job at the moment and being unable to get a mortgage. The plan is to get back on our feet, get a mortgage again in a couple of years and find somewhere bigger. There were so few houses on the market, and still are, so we had to settle for a sensible choice, even if it wasn't the house of our dreams.

I have studiously a avoided right move for the last 2 months, apart from checking other houses we had looked at and discounted, out of curiosity. I accidentally clicked on something today and of course you can guess what happened next. Beautiful house, huge garden, extended downstairs and in budget. It has sold in the last 2 months so there is no dilemma and we wouldnt withdraw at this late stage anyway.

I'm so gutted now. I've been finding the whole situation so difficult anyway and I have complicated feelings about moving away from where our children are growing up. We could have had our dream house with space for them to run around. I feel like such an idiot! I'd looked at the street and I knew that this street would be where we'd be aiming for in a couple of years, but I checked and sometimes only one house is sold each year, so we couldn't gamble as our savings were going down each month and if we rented they would go down even quicker. I so wish we had taken the risk and waited. Hindsight is a wonderful thing!

Stop looking - you know that now.

Presumably there was something about the bigger house that made it a similar price, that may not be obvious from the ad. Maybe the previous owners smoked and owned 5 dogs so it stinks to high heaven and will need total refurb to clear it up as its sunk into the floorboards and plaster. Maybe it has nightmare neighbours with a garden full of broken down cars and music blaring 20 hours a day.

Thank you for replying, I know that now. I've since realised it is actually for sale, not sold. Not that it makes a difference, but it makes me feel worse! It's on for a bit more than ours (225 as opposed to 195). The 195 was the very top of our budget, but a family member had offered to lend us up to 30k, with no repayment until we had jobs. DH wasnt keen on this at all.

I wish I could be more like my husband and not be bothered, he is perfectly happy! All that self control wasted! Oh well. Maybe in a few years we will be in our dream house and it will have all worked out for the best. Let this serve as a warning to anyone who reads this and is tempted to keep looking after they've found somewhere!

You’re going to be mortgage free, that’s just an incredible achievement, For what it’s worth I’m totally in awe over here! Try to focus on that, and plan what you’ll do with the new house good luck!

You are better off without the additional £30k debt. Borrowing from family is not usually a very good idea.

Thanks. I know that's amazing for us and I need to focus on the many positives (I don't mean to sound ungrateful, but if I could go back in time 6 months to having a good job and hefty mortgage I would do it in a heartbeat). I suppose this just highlights the complete lack of any control I have over things at the moment. I have a few ideas for the new house, but reluctant to spend too much as we would probably think about moving in a couple of years anyway and we don't have the money at the moment as we are both out of work. I'm sure once we're in I will perk up a bit, it's just a strange and unsettling situation.

I hear ya!

Checking on Rightmove/Zoopla can be asking for trouble some times. In that sense I’m in a similar position hence snooping around for kind words too.

Everything happens for a reason. Think of the extra money you can spend for more quality time with your family. You outright own your house, that’s a damn good feeling to have.

I spent months trying to find somewhere decent to rent and in the end I did find somewhere nice but during the months I was searching, there was literally nothing around and settled for the best out of the bad bunch. As soon as I moved, I started getting more and more emails of available properties which were cheaper than I am paying with more benefits hence why I decided to block these emails as it will play with my mind. I can't leave the property now as I've signed a contract until next year. What I'm trying to say is, this is always going to happen whether renting, buying or selling unfortunately. You are lucky to be mortgage free and will always have that money aside once you settle and decide to sell and move again in the future when a better place comes up, whereas renting is basically paying someone else's mortgage.

Well done for being mortgage free. You own a home, many rent and don't have the chance even of a small home.

Your husband has the right attitude. Big houses with big mortgages and big cleaning etc.

Concentrate on the positives.

You are mortgage free, OP, in a time of a great uncertainty. Be like your husband and count your blessings. Do you really want to borrow £30,000 of a family member when you are being made redundant. They might not want it back in a hurry right now but their own circumstances could change suddenly.

Thank you for the kind words. I've had a hard time just lately and have a tendency to dwell on the negative. Although I'm jobless we're in a good position and things can only get better from here. Sorry to hear what happened to you @bluecheese2412 - it completely plays with your mind, far better off not knowing I think. Xx

Who knows what would have happened if we'd waited. We got a good price for ours and maybe would have lost our buyers if we'd dithered. I will never look at Right Move again until we decide to move next time - lesson learnt. I think the loan would have been ok but you never know what will happen (as this year has shown us). We missed out on a hiuse last time (although only slightly better than ours). My friend bought it and has spent a small fortune on it.