Bought the wrong house

[Hottubtimemachine]

About a year ago we viewed two houses, one £150k more than the other. I loved the more expensive one but it was out of our price range. Bought the cheaper one and loved it….until I’ve discovered the dearer one has just sold for £150k under asking! I’m now hating my house and all I can think of is how much I really wanted the more expensive one. I was able to rationalise it when I knew it was out of my price range but now I know it sold for the same price as the one I’m in I want to cry.
Now it had been on the market a while hence why I’m sure a lower offer was accepted but I’m kicking myself for not even trying to offer lower at the time. I feel it’s almost a reflection of our passiveness in life, we are not go getters. In fact instead of haggling we will often end up paying more!!
Help me to fall back in love with my house and get over my resentment at not getting the other house at a great price!

If they accepted £150k under asking in the current market it's probably because there was something really, really wrong with it. Focus on the fact that there was almost certainly subsidence, fire damage, dry rot, an extension built without regs and a neighbour with a passion for wind chimes. You're well out of it!

That's a good point. Houses have been selling quickly in most areas - anything that didn't probably had a good reason for it.

I agree, unless £150k was a really small percentage (like it was a £1.5m+ house) then that amount of a discount would make me think it had subsidence, damp, rats, squatters AND nightmare neighbours. What made you decide to buy your house rather than any other (ignoring the more expensive one) or just keeping looking?

I agree with PP, for an offer of 150k less to have been accepted, there was likely something significantly not right with it and it was in need of major repairs etc.

What's done is done OP. You need to let it go for your own sanity.

If you had offered 150k less a year ago, they wouldn't have accepted it.

We once offered right at the top of our budget and it was rejected. It eventually sold a year later for 75k less than our offer. On a less than 300k house, that was a lot to lose. Their loss.

You could contact the EA to ask about it … agree that something significant probably wrong

We offered £383k on a house up for £400k - the declined so we moved on. It sold 12 months later for £365k! It was overpriced to start.

What is £150k as a percentage of your house price?

I agree £150k under asking price indicates problems with the house unless well over £1.5 million and overpriced to start with.

We sold my late parents house for £115k under the original asking price due to new subsidence issues that occurred. The new owners wanted the view and were happy to proceed.

Sometimes owners take a punt on a house in need of modernisation at too high a price that will never be achieved and then have to reduce significantly when the market shows it is unachievable or they put it on with say Purple Bricks at an unrealistic price, but otherwise that type of price drop on a house usually signifies a problem.

I agree with PPs.

Houses here are overpriced & yet still snapped up in days. If a lovely house sold after a year on the market for £150k under asking it likely has serious problems.

did someone die in it?
I think yes

Your actual house is still great. And no way would they have accepted £150, 000 less at the time.

@ZingDramaQueenOfSheeba

did someone die in it? I think yes

🤣

Deffo something big wrong with it. All you can do now is resolve to be more go-getting in the future - that's what you can change, not the past.

I really feel for you, because I am the queen of regretting decisions, and it's a horrible feeling.

However... I truly do believe you would not have had an offer £150k below asking accepted last year, and if you can convince yourself of that, it will make things a lot easier. I know it's hard not to kick yourself, because having not offered less at the time you can never know for sure. But if you can internalise the fact that you most likely wouldn't have got it anyway, and so your position now is likely the same as it would've been then, it won't sting as much.

It's easy to underestimate how much of a difference time on the market can make to a vendor's perception of their home's value. When it first goes on, they're full of optimism about how much they can get for it, and have no reason at that point to believe that their optimism may be misplaced. Estate agents also do a good job of anchoring expectations high. It can take a while before the evidence (i.e. not selling) results in a change of mindset, and a willingness to accept lower.

You also can't know what other external factors could have intervened at any point between then and now (in case you're thinking you should've just waited...), and ended up with you having no house at all. So I think you absolutely made the right decision for you at the time. I know it's not going to feel better immediately, but the thing that's making this really hard is the uncertainty, which means you end up convincing yourself you would've got the best outcome if only you'd tried. I really think that's very unlikely, and you would've been in exactly the same position now if you'd tried to offer £150k less on the house last year.

frustratingly
Everything stated here is so true. Wise words.

Why did you view a house so far out of your price range in the first place?

Agree with everyone.

There's probably something substantially wrong with it, like needing a full rewiring or dry rot or newly discovered need for flood insurance or something, which would have driven it up over your price limit (and you would have had to deal with it).

Houses aren't lasting on the market for more than six weeks unless there's something undesirable about them. They're not even going for asking price unless there's something slightly problematic.

Almost a year and £150k under asking? Disaster.

Was it a sale on the open market? It could have went for a lower price because a family member bought it, or one spouse bought another out.

If that’s not the case, you have certainly dodged a bullet- it must have something horribly wrong with it.

Your house is yours, it’s the home you make it. Grass can often appear greener, until you get up close and see it’s all weeds!

In the current market it has to have been a 'fur coat, no knickers house' for that price reduction. There must have been something seriously wrong. Count your blessings and enjoy putting your own stamp on your new house.

150K is a huge deduction in price, I think you bought the right house tbh!

We got a house on at £575k for £400k.
Yes, we knew it needed work but we're currently at just over £100k spent and we still have essential work to do before we start cosmetics.
Unless you have a big contingency fund, don't regret it.
We love our house but it could easily have swung the other way. Moved in October, flooded on Christmas day , we've had a fun few years!!

You have to let it go OP. You brought a house you loved at a price you could afford. Something must have been amiss to drop the price by £150k. Just be happy where you are, you can’t turn the clock back.

I like to think in times like this that you have no clue as to what may have happened to you and your family if you'd bought that house. You may have got hit by a lorry crossing the road one Day 2 leaving the house. You will never know and helps to make the path chosen more acceptable to assume some terrible set of circs would have definitely befallen you and by choosing the house you have has helped you avoid doom.

It helps me anyway. I sold £2000 of Bitcoin in 2012. Would have been mega millionaire if I hadn't. Hey ho. Might have had a child fall off super yacht if I hadn't sold them.

Rurabliss that is genuinely the most helpful post I have ever read. I’m so sorry about your Bitcoin