Selling after only 2 years?

[pinksaint]

Just after a bit of advice really. We bought our house June 2020 and whilst the house is ideal for us and has everything we need we have absolutely awful neighbours a few doors down who have 3 dogs who yap absolutely non stop all day and it's slowly destroying my mental health and making me absolutely hate my home. DP works away so doesn't get the full brunt of what it's like to live next to these arseholes. It's a shame because our next doors neighbours and everyone else in the street is lovely. I've tried speaking to them they were very aggressive and shouty.

I have to work from home now as we have a baby on the way who is due in October and that is my workplace guidance. It's hell. I feel trapped. I've mentioned to my partner about moving, initially he said we just can't afford it at the moment which is absolutely correct as I'm going to be off work until mid next year and then comes nursery fees etc. He then said we can start looking into next year (we would of been here 2 years by then at least) but obviously that's very little time to have built up much equity and although I'm confident we've made money on the house already (identical properties in the same area now selling for at least 10k more and that's without the work we have done in ours to improve it) I'm concerned this still wouldn't be enough for us to even break even after buying and selling costs.

I'm sorry for length of this I didn't intend for it to be so long. I'm just wanting advice from others who have moved house around 2 years after buying and how did that go? We could potentially move and then have the same problem. It's just making me so bloody miserable.

So sorry to hear how upset you are, we had a similar problem years ago and chose to move suck up the lost money for a happier home life.
When you find a suitable house ask ea to ask sellers about barking dogs in the area or visit at various times.
Good luck

If you like your home, surely
It is worth going down the reporting to environmental health route before looking to move?

Agree with PP

You don't HAVE to make money when you sell a house, its perfectly OK to break even or even have a small loss - it's a small price to pay for your peace and happiness in my opinion.

Sorry if this sounds stupid but even if we were to break even, would that not affect us negatively still given that house prices in my area have risen so as an example we'd have to have a higher mortgage on a property which was the same size? Hope that makes sense. We were FTB so not very clued up on both the buying and selling process! But even so I don't feel like I can stay here long term. I'd certainly visit the area multiple times next time to try my best to avoid this happening again.

My concern with going down the reporting route is that they own their house as well and they aren't the type of people from what I know who would make the effort to change anything given I've already tried speaking to them, so if that was the case I'd still want to move but then I'd have to declare the complaint which would put buyers off.

If house prices have gone up then you'll sell yours for more and buy a house at the same price level so you wouldn't lose out. You could try an online EA to save money. If you're unhappy now I'm sorry but I can only imagine it being worse when you have a baby. Surely your sanity is worth the couple of grand on conveyancing and selling costs? I'd double check what counts as a neighbourly dispute in terms of noise complaints as then don't you have to declare them if asked? I really don't know the details but worth finding out about it in case it makes your house harder to sell.

Some things are worth more than money, but you are right to be sensible about the financial aspect.

Put it down in numbers, figure out what you could sell for, how much you'd look to buy for, what mortgage you have / could get, and all the associated costs of moving (you'll need to pay agent fees, sols for both buying and selling, moving costs, stamp duty as a non-FTB etc).

I personally found this much easier once I could see in black and white what the actual financial costs were - it might not be as bad as you think.

I never want to live anywhere near barking dogs again EVER. It's enough to drive anyone demented.

(and yes - the yappy ones are the worst)

I don't know much about this, but would a white noise machine help in the interim?

I sold our last house at a loss which isnt ideal but by the time we left after 17 months my mental health was broken. It had been 9 months now and my anxiety is still really bad.

If you can make a little or break even it is a win. Even sometimes a loss is a win. I would sell it now.

Your local environmental officer could have a word with them. It will be on your council website. In the meantime keep a diary and take a recording.

The problem is you could move to a house with worse noise, or you could find a house with no noise then new neighbours move in later on who are noisy. Moving away might not solve things. I would work on your own mental health and find ways of coping with your current situation. Then if that doesn't help think about moving.

Barking dogs would drive me mad.

If you can't resolve the problem, move for the sake of your health. This is more important than potentially losing a few £. If you do lose some money, accept it, don't dwell - most people will have some good and some bad financial outcomes during their lives. Maybe you'll make a bundle on your next house (or win the lottery, get an unexpected promotion, etc.).

If you can, start making overpayments on your mortgage (most allow 10%), even just little ones.

Have a look at the money saving expert overpayment calculator to see the impact it can have.

And as long as you can afford it, don't worry about what others think about the financial side.

The thing to bear in mind is that people might be a bit suspicious about why you are moving so soon (although baby on the way is a good reason) and you have to declare neighbour disputes when selling a property.

Also practice what you will say to would be buyers if they ask how long you have lived there and why you are moving, since your OH works away from home that would probably be the best thing .