Feel so Awful about my house

[ChristmasBerriesBez]

Hello Mumsnetters, I'm hoping someone is out there....awake and on here early.
I'm reaching out really - I feel so awful about this thing. We bought a house which i had fallen in love with and my logic was clouded so we offered way, way too much.

Now it's come that I feel sick every time I think of the house. I feel sick as I know that it will never sell at anything close to what we paid. Although we got it under asking, it's asking was ridiculously inflated and I'm talking we paid I think maybe £60,000 more than it's worth.
A lot of what we paid was out savings. so literally money no longer in the bank.

There have been comments about what we paid from people who live nearby and I could just melt into the ground.

It has very little resale potential - it's layout is majorly unusual and those who have looked at it's floor plan hate it and say they wouldn't consider it.
It had been listed for over a year, it had just had an offer fall through, and I know they were desperate to sell. North facing garden too!

I got it for 6 percent less than asking price, but now i've done my research (too late!) I can see that it's worth about 10-15 percent less.
Other houses in the area measure up much better.

I've gone from loving it to having bad dreams about it, I feel sick in my stomach all the time and I don't know how to live there without thinking every day '£60K wasted that I'll never see again'
We really need that money. It was top end of budget.

I don't want to decorate or work on it because it only makes me panic that it's more money wasted on it that I'll never see again.
I feel breathless when I think that this is it now...we're stuck in this house with no option to sell in future as it will only lose value as time goes on.
Dont know why I'm posting this really, I think to vent, or to reach out, or to ask how others might handle this. Thanks MNs
xoxoxo

How long do you expect to be living there? Do you actually like living in the house, or could it become bearable. Depending on the value you might recoup your £60k though inflation only. Also, if you have a mortgage the lender would have carried out a valuation. What was that at?

Do you have a mortgage? Wouldn’t the bank have had to assess its value in order to approve the mortgage?

If you bought it, then someone else would too, it’s unlikely in the long term you’ll lose money, particularly if you’re making improvements. Quirky houses can take longer to sell but they do eventually.

People that comment in the neighbourhood are nosey and tactless and probably not the best people to take life directions from.

Would put share the link? You might get some good ideas on renovations.

We’ll you could just relist it if you hate it that much. Property still a bit insane.

But in reality, you need a house, the location works, if you are there a few years it’ll all catch up. Houses are worth what someone will pay. And inflation would have eaten into your savings. Make it yours. It’s very common to have a panicky what have I done moment when buying. Also….people who have lived there a while are always going to be shocked by what people pay for things.

A north facing garden usually means a south facing house with lots of warm sunshine flooding in.

If you love the house and aren't planning to sell anytime soon then forget what you paid. Live and love the house. Slowly decorate and make it your own.

Feeling exactly the same but just keep reminding myself we like the house, will not be planning a move for 20 years and it's a home, not an investment. Plus, we looked at plenty of properties so have half a clue on local prices (it's the location in our case which is causing me to think we overpaid).

What made you start feeling like this? When did the feeling start? Presumably you felt fine up to completion day and beyond?

How do you know you won't get the money back? You are not relying on zoopla valuations are you?

You loved the house to buy it.

I have in the past bought houses with unusual layouts or rooms that others might not have liked but I did.

If it's other peoples comments that have turned you off the house then you need to ignore them and remember why YOU liked it.

Stop worrying about its resale value unless you plan on reselling in the next 5 years because remember you will pay off the mortgage and typically house prices haven't dived other than temporary fluctuations since I bought my first house over 20 years ago (heard people say the market will crash all the time but they are usually the ones wanting it to buy a house).

Start decorating the house and make it your home.

Have you actually moved in yet?

Look, if you love the house it’s fine. Forget about the ‘market value’ and think what it’s worth to you. It’s your home.

I love my home and wouldn’t budge if someone offered me far more than it’s worth.

I’ve also never understood why south facing gardens are desirable

The costs are sunk now. I get it but you’re beating yourself up for something over which you now have no control. We spent far too much on extending our house and it hasn’t gone up in relation to other houses in the area so it’s much more difficult to move than it should be. It does piss me off. But I have to live with my past decisions. You can only do better when you know more. In 20 years time, this extra money really won’t mean that much to you. Give yourself a hug and some love. Then show some love to your house and make it your home. The layout isn’t necessary unsurmountable and may be able to be changed.

Do you think that your next move will be a step up, a step down or in a box? Unless you plan to move up the ladder in the near future I would just enjoy it, though you could put the floor plan on here if you want advice and are up for some renovations. I was a bit concerned about our house, it is somewhat niche, but the downsides are not a downside for us, though might be for potential buyers. Unless people nearby bought their house at the same time as you did, and their house is the same as yours it isn't really possible to compare absolute cost and you having paid that will probably have increased the value of their houses too. I think most people have some regrets after buying, but unless those regrets are due to the neighbours or the location I would just try to enjoy the house.

Can you tell us what you fell in love with about the house?
For the perfect location etc it could well be worth the extra money. We paid probably £40k too much for our house but it gets the DC in to the right school. If we were in a location other than this they would never have got in to the school we like and we would then have had to pay private tuition fees so tbh that £40k was certainly not wasted.

Hopefully you will recapture the love for your new place once you have redecorated and put your own stamp on it.

I agree about location

We wouldn’t have paid half what we paid for our house if it had been 2 miles up the road.

Housing policy is never going to change. You may have overpaid a little - though probably nowhere near as much as you think, but it will make up the value eventually. We have a house with an unusual/ constrained layout and we reconfigured it - we have been able to put a huge amount of added value on it because we have taken a hard home and made it easy to live in. You don't need an architect either, just a decent architectural technician and you may be surprised at your options .

I prefer north facing as in the heat of the summer you have the shade and ability to enjoy the space more.

OP I do get it, you’re where I was 18m ago - we moved just before covid kicked in to a massive old house which was probably overpriced. By a month in we realised that it needed a new roof, the kitchen was dilapidated and the bathroom leaked in. Everyone told us we were mad to move.

However, new roof, new kitchen and decorating - plus ample use of the garden this year has changed how we feel about it.

Mortgage here still terrifies me but I couldn’t be without the space we have now - especially through all the lockdowns.

There’s a saying ‘comparison is the thief of joy.’
If you can afford your home, if you loved it when you bought it, if you have a roof over your head and if you don’t need to sell it soon then the price is not a problem.
Stop looking at other homes for the time being and start looking at your own in a more positive way.

I speak as someone who bought a home which was definitely overpriced once we found all of the very well hidden problems.
We lived there 20 years and got back triple what we paid for it.

When you had the surveyor check the house for faults etc, they will have also given you a valuation. What was the surveyors valuation of the property?

If you bought it to sell, then it is a lesson learnt.
If you bought it to live in it for years to come, then it doesn't matter.

We overpaid on the surveyor's valuation on our house by 10k and have since paid about £100k making it habitable.
I love my house, more so now that after 5 years it is finished and is a home.
I never give a thought to how much we paid for it or how much it is worth now.

I wouldn’t have a south facing garden as too hot for me and also if it is a long garden there will be sun. Is there anything that can be done to the floorplan to change it so it flows better? You could post in here and see if people can suggest anything. Other local people often think the prices paid are ridiculous as remember what they paid, I’ve seen sarky comments on our local FB page.

You fell in love with it , others will too when the time comes in the future for you to sell. Until then enjoy it.

I bought a house with a weird layout. After living in it a year we were able to understand what changes to layout would improve the flow of the house and which wouldn't work. People were very divided on what they thought of the place, and it did freak me out. 3 years on and I'm delighted with it, it's quirky but it works for our family, and I wouldn't change it for the world!

Thanks everyone. Re the surveyors valuation - I had a buildings survey and they didn’t give a valuation as part of it.
I just know I was too keen. I honestly don’t know how to get over the panic of losing all that money.
Keep thinking of what it could’ve gone on instead and it’s so painful.

What I liked about the house - it has a large open plan kitchen and living space, wide hallways that feel like rooms in themselves, a nice feel about it. It’s hard to put my finger on really but everyone else seems to think it’s awkward. One of the bedrooms is absolutely tiny and I’m too hesitant to even check if a single bed can go in there. It seems so obvious to me now, I don’t know where my head was at when I viewed and offered.

Well, you have the choice to live in it and relish the things you lived about it, finding solutions over time to the things you don't love, it you can just decide to feel this way and be miserable. You need to make the best of it and love your home.

Yes we overpaid for our house, and uncovered so much more than we thought that had to be put right taken it above the value of the house in doing it up…. And the garden is too small.

But we’ve remodelled it to work for us, added some value, we bought it to live in not as an investment. And in 10 years if we sell, that’s kind of the cost of living in a house