The value of doing your own due dil!

[Andthenanothercupoftea]

Just a bit of fun that shows the value of a bit of Google detective work.

Was looking at this house last night, slightly out of our price range, but the more I looked, the more issues I found - so which of these would be your "walk away" point, rather than your " offer less money and live with it" point?

House: www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/89519842#/

Issues:

• layout - clear from the floor plan that the kitchen is tiny and the only bathroom would be a schlep in the middle of the night.

• it last sold in August 2020 - bit strange, but maybe a divorce or other life event?

• the sold price last time was £300k. They have increased the price by £65k in less than a year. This suggests that it's likely to be very overpriced (although it's beautiful, other 3 bed end terrace houses wouldn't fetch this much). I can't see anything to indicate this much value being added (although they might have spent this much with their timber dog shed)

• the time before that it sold in December 2019 - that seems quite quick too - haunted house? Awful neighbours?

• out of area estate agent - always makes me a bit curious

• a planning objection - the owners objected to the lot next door changing their wall/gate and widening their dropped curb. Their objection letter suggests they're concerned this is a precursor to building work. The objection went in a couple of months before they went on the market and planning was granted shortly after they went on.

• parking - clear from the photos it's on street, but the planning objections I read all clearly talked about parking being a nightmare and having to do laps of the village to find a space. Not ideal.

If I just went with the listing, there's a real risk I could've ended up maxing our my borrowing on an overpriced house, being unable to park and living next to a building site very soon.

Although that being said I might view it with my eyes wide open, grill the estate agent and end up falling in love...(come back in 12 months time when I'm complaining about a block of flats being built next to my house and asking for suggestions of a new layout...!)

It looks lovely, but I'd be turning the back bedroom into a bathroom pretty sharp-ish, and also would be interested in the plans for the car park (?) next door.

Are you nearby already - can you skulk around and see what it's like or if there are any immediate problems with raves going on next door, etc?

Floor plan would be my walk away point- downstairs bathroom not really practical with little kids, old people, guests (who wants to poo next to the kitchen?!)... which to me personally would make the house a no-go.

I know this is fairly common with older terraces - the bathroom was often an add on as the toilet would originally have been outside. Perhaps if the house was just a couple/family with older kids it would be less of an issue.

Bus stop immediately outside would put me off too.

I wouldn't look at a terrace though, having grown up in one, I need a drive and separation from my neighbours. The house is nice enough, although I'm not a fan of galley kitchens.

I think we all do this to some extent however when I moved here within days the neighbours began an extension that affected my view that neither my solicitors nor I had picked up. There was planning permission granted but there had been an error in uploading it on the council system so it didn't show in the searches.

Our house had also been sold on quickly, within 6 months iirc, before the previous owner bought it. However they were able to explain that the previous owner had bought the 3 bed intending to extend to 4 bed when their dream 4 bed came on the market further up the road so they just bought that instead.

Right by a bus stop, which I don't like - buses idling outside while trying to have a lie-in, but I don't do well with noise. The side access path is a bit odd as well.

My walking away point would be the road and bus stop. Buses hiss as they stop and start and it will annoy you a lot.

Not really about that house but beware the photo shopping estate agents do especially to crop out lampposts and bus stops.

There was a place round the corner from me, I knew they had issues parking off road because of the location of a particular lamppost. When it came up for sale they'd clearly photoshopped the lamppost out. Now of course buyer beware and all that, viewers would notice it but it was the blatant erasering of the problem which did not sit well with me.

We had interested parties like you for our house and we dismissed your offer and went with one of the 5 others.

Do all the due dil you like...

Layout is typical for these houses and wouldn't bother me.

Bus stop, price, potential development next door, and rapid turnover would make me look elsewhere.

I don't really understand your point op - doesn't everyone do a bit of their own DD before purchase? You'd be pretty naive not to.

If you have a look on Zoopla it was previously listed for £230,000 in June 2019.

www.zoopla.co.uk/property-history/1/eastern-terrace/east-street/bodicote/banbury/ox15-4dl/51760423/

So the asking price has gone up £135,000 or 59% in less than two years.

The Zoopla link also has photos from the 2019 listing where it was a perfectly nice but very ordinary home.

They have clearly spent a ton of money doing up the house to their own tastes and are looking to recoup that money.

They also appear to have ripped out a whole load of nice plants from the garden and built a home office at the bottom of the garden.

So, they've spent a shedload (quite literally - with their garden shed) of money and are looking to recoup it.

@mamajules32

We had interested parties like you for our house and we dismissed your offer and went with one of the 5 others.

Do all the due dil you like...

What do you mean “like you”? What do you think OP is like?

I'm always surprised when buyers don't look at this stuff before they view.

We look at the estate agent pics and video. Google street view, apple street view and google earth (all usually taken at different times and can pick up on garden changes, parking etc). Check the sun app to see when the garden gets sun. Look at planning permission and building work sign off for the street/surrounding areas. Check for any tree preservation orders. Check any Parrish newsletters for mention of issues if it's a village location etc
We've had people view our house and then say they don't like the location/it's near a school/ the garden is too small. All easily seen from google. Annoying that I've wasted my time cleaning the house for them

Pretty common layout for an awful lot of people, how on earth do they cope

Parking would be the issue for me more than anything, but then I wouldn't be looking for anything without its own driveway - all easy to find from a quick Google.

I just assumed people did a bit of prior due diligence anyway... but clearly not.

they have also done something very odd with the garden, there is a fence about 3 foot away from the house separating it from the rest of the garden

Yes I always look up planning history for the street, Google earth the neighbourhood, streetview all the way to shops and train station, check out the town development plan...you can find out quite a bit on the web!

Thanks for the replies! Thought it was quite interesting that so much information is freely available, but lots of people (on here, other forums and in real life) seem to not do their own looking and immediately jump to the seller hiding something or blaming their solicitor.

As for @mamajules32 who had 5 offers, can't quite see what I did to warrant that response...!? Surely it's good that your buyers/potential buyers do due dil so you don't get time wasters! Also I would hope you'd be willing to truthfully answer any queries from your buyers!!

And comments on the layout @readytosell, that wouldn't have been a deal-breaker for me at all. I live in a house with an odd layout now, but I know it might annoy others so I added it to the list!

And I agree @nickymanchester that someone is looking to recoup their money, perhaps selling earlier than planned.

That estate agents try to paint a house in the best possible light and people should do their own due diligence is common sense though.
I don't think that warrants linking to someone's house they're trying to tell just to say how shit it is.

Interesting how people see different things too, i have a bus stop right outside my house, absolutely love it my kids use the bus all the time, means apparently they never have to take a coat out and only time we've ever had a bus idling out there was when it broke down and I took the driver a cup of tea while he waited for the maintenance people.
Delivery drivers love it too because I always just say "the house by the bus stop"