Paid more than our house is worth and I can't get over it....!

[Dahlia91]

So we bought our house last September moving out of a flat in a city with our then two year old son to a detached three bed in a nice village with good school catchments.
We looked at a few houses in town prior but we were priced out of everything in nice areas/good catchments and I was totally focussed on school catchments as we're in Scotland and you have to go to the catchment school 99% of the time.
When we looked at our house we had just seen a total wreck on for about the same the day before in town and so thought it would definitely go quickly and for a lot more than the home buyers valuation (which is usual here in town). We had also had an offer made on our behalf (without checking) for a different property by our solicitor so technically were set to buy that but I had terrible cold feet realising it really wasn't the house for us.
Basically we were rushed, had sold our flat and agreed an exchange date, relied on our solicitors advice about the price we offered on our house and didn't do our due diligence. I now see houses on this estate going for less for the same or only slightly more but with a massive extension and I just cannot shake the feeling of panic that we overpaid and will lose money when we eventually sell.
We didn't plan on selling for ten years but we also thought we'd be able to do certain things to the house which we have now found out we can't because of its quirky layout....which we thought was a selling feature when we viewed .......

I just need to hear if anyone has been in a similar situation and felt awful and what you did to get over it! I just cannot fixating on how much we overpaid and it makes me not want to do any of the decorating. Especially as extensions would be far more than we had expected (despite what I thought was enough research) and I'm not sure we'd make it back. I don't want to throw good money after bad so to speak.

The one that sold a year ago.

The market was different a year ago and they could have been committed to the sale and price for months before it actually sold.

Did it have the view?

People do pay more for an incredible view versus being overlooked.

Don’t panic op, lots of people will have done similar. The views sound lovely and when it’s decorated, you’ll feel more settled. Try and appreciate it and don’t compare with others as that’s always a slippery slope.

We were told we were overpaying when we bought our current house but we went ahead anyway as loved it and due to the market at the moment, we’ve sold 11 years later at a lot more than we paid for it which we never would have anticipated so you don’t know how things will work out. As long as you have a home and the family are healthy, everything else is a bonus

We’ve just bought a house and feel we overpaid for it. We did it because we love the village and we loved the house and we’ve been here a week and it feels so nice. We were in a crappy rental before and just having your own place is worth so much! Having a beautiful view is so worth having-you can alter so any things about your house but are stuck with the view. So it’s worth a lot.

It's been a crazy market. We have overpaid I'm sure - but we lost out on three other houses - and were determined to get this one. In hindsight we could have probably for it for 20k less but these are the times we are living in.

It doesn't sound like there's much wrong with the house - school, location, space etc. Give yourself time and start planning slowly.

Locally, plumbed garages add approx 5k in integregated garage 4 beds because utility rooms are only available in 3 beds or double garage houses; so people like to use the garage as a utility. Tbf we wouldn’t have known this had we not engaged the architect, as our plan was to waste valuable space in the extension for a utility cupboard lol.

The architect and surveyor also mentioned that as it’s a an excellent school catchment area & houses come up infrequently people are more forgiving around reduced outside space if they can get enough internal space. We haven’t gone crazy but we did knock through the awkward kitchen and unusuable diner to add 28m2: this leaves us with approx 60m2 in the garden (it’s wider than it is long which makes it seem smaller but it’s all useable).

@StatisticallyChallenged

Our solicitor (also in Scotland) said they wouldn't be able to act for us if we wanted to buy a property that was listed with them - they had a reciprocal arrangement with another firm who would deal with everything regarding our offer/purchase in the event that happened. So I'm surprised your solicitors was happy to do this tbh

The same firm can act as long as conflict of interest documentation is issued and the firm has more than one solicitor and both buyer and seller are existing clients.

I totally understand the feeling of regret eating you up.

However you made the best decision based on all info you had at the time. You didn’t know that there would be houses with extensions coming on for the same money. It would not have made sense for you to wait and hope that that would happen. So you made the right decision.

Plus there could be other things wrong with the newer houses on the market, or they might be selling for higher than the list price. Either way the price difference will probably be eaten up over a few years.

My advice would be to delete the Rightmove app and plan forward to what you will do with the house. And enjoy your view.

What was the HR valuation OP and what did you pay?

How much over the home report did you pay in %terms?

Honestly I think £15k in the grand scheme of things is probably neither here nor there. The market is crazy at the moment.

Sorry had missed that you'd paid 8% over home report. That doesn't sound like you've overpaid at all. Things around here are going for 20% +over. Of course it is area dependent but sounds like you're in a desirable area.

The thing is, I feel like everything is the market is being 'overpaid'for at the moment. We are trying to buy and sre finding ourselves out priced for properties we could have conformably bought a year ago. Even stretching to the very top of our budget we are struggling. It's frustrating to know that prices have been inflated so artificially but it's just the specific time we are in, and that is the deal I'm afraid. We are also intending to stay for 10+ years so we know that it will not make a huge difference as time goes on. 15k doesn't sound like a lot to me in the grand scheme of things to be honest... the houses we are looking at are 60k+ more expensive than this time last year.

8% over the home report is a bit of a bargain at the moment!

Honestly I think it's normal to have a bit of an 'oh shit' feeling when it's been a big life changing purpose. I've been in our house for 6.5 years and over the time I've hated the house, loved it, looked at others, been very glad of it, etc.

We were worried we'd overpaid as well, as we bought it at a closing date with 9 offers (Scotland as well) and we were the highest bid which always makes you a bit nervous, but 6.5 years later it's been valued at £125k more than we paid.

You've not been in the house that long. Settle in a bit longer and rethink your plans for work/extending etc. I think you need to really live somewhere and get a really good feel for it before embarking on work. A clever architect might have some smart ideas you haven't thought of? If you want a recommendation on the East Coast let me know.

I hope you can make a bit of peace and enjoy the house in time.

Purpose = purchase

Buyers remorse is a covert common thing.

However, in all markets, ‘Buyer Beware’ is so important. You commit to a hefty financial responsibility and you have to own it……and that includes any mistakes. It’s no good looking for others to blame or saying people hurried you or didn’t give you full info….the onus is on the you to go at the right timescales and gather the info. So you do need to take responsibility now for where you are….and ge the most out of it.

The property market is fickle. Prices rise and fall and you don’t always end up on the winning side. Part of being a mature buyer is understanding that too. Usually, as long as you stay in the medium term at least (5 years?) then the market will recover. However that’s not guaranteed and especially if you buy with high LTV and have a big mortgage then negative equity is a risk. Again, you need to weigh these risks when buying.

I wonder if you just don’t really like the house. Is it this that’s making you feel negative about it? You’ve paid what you’ve paid and there’s no altering it now, so deciding to enjoy the property seems best. Perhaps doing some DIY to make it more what you’d really love will help you fall in love with it.

I've been buying and selling houses for 35 years and the thing you have to understand is it's longevity.

Buy, move in, and providing your financial status remains fairly consistent, you just live. Don't worry about the markets around you, don't look at price fluctuations or get drawn into how much equity you have or if you are in negative equity. This will be totally irrelevant in a decade or so.

What you need to focus on is your family, your relationships, creating happy moments and enjoying life. It's really too short to consider anything else.

Our first home was purchased for £40,000 which was an eye watering amount in the mid 1980's. It was repayments of 2/3 of our income in those days. Property values plummeted back then but you have the remember that the property you will want to buy will be less too, so the gap between is smaller. It's actually easier to buy bigger in a falling market.

Things even out over decades. So try not to get drawn into the worry of the here and now. Providing you can make the repayments, nothing will change.

15k isn't a lot in the context of house buying. I wouldn't worry about it. I know someone who ended up selling their house for HALF the amount they paid for it due to the local area going downhill. You just can't predict what will happen in the future. It's all a gamble. No point in regretting it now.

@ArsendLupin your probably right about the % over home report, and we offered it as a way to stop it going to closing because we really wanted it, so we offered what we would have at closing to get it. I suppose it's just then realising why didn't we start with a low offer! But there you go lesson learnt. I think as we got our last flat for such a bargain it's the comparison that's worst. If you do have an architect recommendation that would be great?

@WombatChocolate I do get that, I think that's why I'm annoyed at myself, because I am taking responsibility and realising it's my fault for not thinking about what we need out of a house more. The rest is just the context as to why I perhaps wasn't thinking as well at the time

Thank you all for your messages, it had really helped. We are trying to decorate the living room this weekend - we've already almost done the bedrooms, so I haven't just been sitting and wallowing I promise! It is the lack of plan as we just aren't sure what to do that's providing the downer I think!

Honestly it's good to live in a property for a year or so to find out what does and doesn't work and what changes would be the most positive.

An office in the garden may be better than an extension, a large porch rather than utility extension etc

Are you comparing actual sold prices with what you paid or offers over prices?

There can be a HUGE difference between the two. We sold a property in the central belt recently for 10% over the offers over price and 5% over home report value.

The house was in a desirable suburb with good schools. If you can't afford a 5 bed stone built detached house our street represented the best of the modern stuff ( house size vs garden etc). Houses on the street generally only become available when people die, divorce or downsize. I'd known some of the neighbours for 30 years when we sold. Others in the area upsize into the street. It was not unusual to get notes through the door asking if you were thinking about selling.

I was never convinced about the home report value - the surveyor spent 15 minutes in the house and totally failed to grasp that not all the 4 bed houses on the street were the same size or that there was a huge variation in plot sizes.

Our house was the biggest style of four bed and had a really generous garden - we actually sold for the amount I'd guessed the house would go for.

There were three serious offers (all of whom knew the local area) and they all fell closely together - we didn't accept the highest offer as it would have put us in a chain. There were two other offers from non- locals which were out by miles.

There may be degree of this going on - your house is worth more because of the view or some other factor you haven't quite got to grips with yet.

@Dahlia91

I would recommend RKA architects. Near St Andrews but I think would cover eastern central belt.

rka.scot/

@RandomMess yes I think you're right, already after 9 months we know our original idea wouldn't have been good in reality. I also think starting to have more visitors over and see how the house works from that perspective will help us figure it out too!

@ArsendLupin thank you for that, really appreciate it

@MauveMavis that's really interesting. Totally agree home buyers reports don't seem very accurate atm particularly as they can't touch anything because of Covid - well they didn't when we had ours done anyway.

I know our house wasn't sold for 25 years before us and the neighbours either side have been there for 12 and 30 years respectively. On the street in general it doesn't seem houses come up too often but particularly we've been told the few like ours that have this quirky design, even less those that have the view so there probably are factors I'm not considering. The house around the corner that sold in nov 19 for example is on a corner but on the main road through the estate, it's not busy but it does mean people walk past a lot and can see into their garden quite easily.

Maybe focus on what you have detached three bed in a nice village with good school catchments lots of people would envy you like crazy for that.

Some days only the nice views (which we didn't buy this house for, as we didn't realise how much 'view' there was due to viewing on misty days) have been the only thing that kept me going on the worst days (we have a lot of work to do on the house and current national circumstances have been making it difficult and slow and expensive). Don't underestimate the positive value of a good view. You can change a lot of other things about a house, but not where it is. And it sounds like it's in the right place for schools etc., with the bonus of nice views too. That's a big deal all round. It's yours, try to forget what other people are paying for other houses. I just wouldn't look at prices if it bothers you- think of housebuying as something that happens to other people for a while. I'd be surprised if you looked at prices in a few years' time you weren't thinking how good a bargain you got.
Thing about doing your own extension rather than buying a bigger house is that it might cost more (though not always) but you do get to have what best suits your household.