Massively overpaid on a property as a first time buyer and I’ve lost all motivation to make the house “mine”

[justaballofanxiety]

Apologies for the negative post…
I’m a first time buyer who bought last winter. The area I bought my house had seen a big increase in prices during covid. When I saw my house come on the market it was slightly lower than others nearby but still felt it was overpriced (230k was advertised). It was last sold in 190k in December 2021, and not much had changed with the property, although the area had become more popular so I put the price increase as down to that really.
At that point in time I was dealing with the craziness of interest rates skyrocketing so I rushed ahead after having viewed dozens of properties, and I felt the pressure to get on the ladder so went ahead. The lender valuation was fine and agreed with my offer despite me feeling like I overpaid.
Fast forward a few months and I’ve noticed so many old DIY jobs that were awfully botched and covered up by furniture/fixings, to the point that this feels more like a fixer-upper than what I paid for. I have no idea of how to start fixing things but labour these days costs so much.
I wanted to get the bathroom done up as that’s the worst part, but I don’t even know if it’s worth it if I’ve already overpaid. Don’t want to pour more money down the drain….
I’m on a 5 year fix, and trying to think of this as a home rather than just an investment, but I still would like to spend my money wisely.
Just looking for some advice and how to get out of this negative mindset that I keep returning to. Is it worth getting the bathroom redone? And is there a way I can get an accurate valuation of the house as I really don’t trust myself (or estate agents really)?

Oh OP. Try not to worry. Last year was absolutely insane for purchasing. Wasn’t a first time buyer but we were completely trapped and ended up paying 100k more than the sellers paid for it 2 years previous 😭 on a 400k property 😭😭😭 it looking nice was all surface level and we’ve had to pump about 30k into it so far… not got near the bathroom and the kitchen.

it’s good that the bank agreed with your offer. They base it on house prices in the area. Our bank valued ours at 65k lower than we paid. We knew we were getting ripped off but it was this or fall off the property ladder. Renting was not affordable.

I wouldn’t worry about a valuation now. The market is too volatile. Make it your home and think about it after a year or two. You never know when the market will pick up and improve. I always hated new properties after moving in. Would take me a year to start liking it and thought would involve changing things.

If you stay in it long term it doesn’t matter what you paid. If it’s short term you may have to factor in a loss or breaking even. Remember it’s relative. We sold our flat for 50k more than it was worth but paid 50k more than this one is worth.

You're on the property ladder. That’s a very hard thing to achieve these days. Enjoy it!

"and trying to think of this as a home rather than just an investment"

It very much is your home. Unless you are renting it out, a house is not an investment. Technically it's a liability. It doesn't give you a return and you have to pay to maintain it.

People in the UK seem to be conditioned to the whole "my house is my biggest asset" thing; it really isn't. It's a home, unless you are renting it out.

Large capital gains due to rises in the market are great, if they happen. But they don't always, and people are foolish to rely on them.

You presumably bought this house as you liked it and it's in your desired location etc etc.

Obviously you can only do what you can within your financial means, but yes, I think you need to separate the fact that you think you overpaid for it, from the fact that it is your home and you absolutely should do what you can to make it comfortable.

If you live in a house for 10, 15, 20 years, overpaying a bit for it really doesn't matter. And the rising interest rates you would have whatever house you were in.

Also think about the fact that you are no longer paying rent, which is dead money; that will offset how much you overpaid by somewhat.

Yes, very much agree with this.

It's painful to watch people ripping out perfectly good fixtures just because they "want a change" etc.

The damage to the planet is awful, and I really think they could be directing their energies to so many better causes.

I have just single-handedly painted my own three-bed flat, tiled the kitchen splashback, re sealed and regrouted bathrooms, replaced broken skirting, screwed knobs and broken bits back on and sanded down worksurfaces. All by myself, with a bit of YouTube. It hasn’t cost much and though it’s been hard work I feel massively accomplished.

I have stood in screwfix as workmen looked on and asked if I was tiling myself- the glee I felt when I said yes, they said it would be too hard, i reckon they just don’t want to be out of a job!

I think that there's always this big high when you buy a house , you expend a lot of emotional energy through the purchase and then that often leads to a bit of a low when you move in.

Find a cosy corner in the house and concentrating on making that a really nice corner to listen to some music, read a book, watch a TV or whatever you like to do. Just a few lights, cushions, flowers etc.

If they had DIY issues hidden behind furniture, you can do it too until you are ready to tackle them.

Like others said you saved on rent, you saved loads on interest. You made a good decision.
And like you said it's your home, not an investment.

Don't worry - you won't have overpaid by much (if at all) and in 5, 10 or 20 years a few grand will be nothing against the value of the house.

It is also perfectly normal to inherit previous owners' shoddy work, unless you buy a new build, in which case you inherit shoddy work direct from a team of builders who just want to get done and out ASAP.

Sort things out bit by bit and you will feel totally different in 2 years time.

bit harsh, lots of people watched their parents do DIY/helped them so by the time they had their own property they might have had quite a bit of experience/knowledge/help, others do have to start completely from scratch as adults and it can be quite overwhelming.

Also tbh from some of the botch jobs I've seen lots of have-a-go/ learn-DIY-from-Youtubers would have done themselves and the poor sods who inherited their efforts a favour by not bothering!

I completely agree my house literally needs everything done to it but I’m gonna pay for it first. Reduce my debt massively and then do the work. Because I’ve seen it done the other way round where a friend got herself into eight grand of credit card debt do in the essential bathroom and the essential downstairs toilet. Neither of those things were essential when she split up with her boyfriend, and the house was sold.

How long do you plan to live there? If it’s long term then I don’t think overpaying really matters.

We bought last year and in the current climate “overpaid” but we plan to be here 10-15 years so aren’t that fussed about the short term decrease in house prices. In the long terms prices generally go up.

Thanks to everyone sharing their experiences, glad that im not here alone! To answer a few questions, yes I did get a level 3 survey and there wasn’t anything deemed urgent enough to pull out or remedy immediately.
I’m on 5% as I fixed in December last year, but actually even 5% is looking alright now given how crazy it is with rates.
I also agree with the points about not being wasteful and ripping stuff out that is perfectly useable, so I will take my time and think about the bathroom reno.
I have managed to tackle some simple DIY stuff, but I think a whole bathroom is way out of my comfort zone. I guess part of me is just annoyed that I didn’t see all this earlier, I would have lowered my offer! But hey that’s life I guess.
thanks all for your suggestions and support!

I did similar with my first house, even down to the prices. It did sting a bit for a while but it taught me a lot and I didn't make the same mistake on the next house so think it's just an expensive but worthwhile lesson 🙂

I bought my favourite house at the top of the last market just before the crash and worried sick about it. But I loved that house and over time I had a new kitchen, bathroom, patio, drive and carpets. 15 happy years later I still made a really good profit.

I've now got another large mortgage and so much needs doing here. But this time around I've made the bedrooms lovely and the rest can wait. As long as your bathroom is serviceable it'll be ok for a bit.

As another poster said there seems to be such a rush to get everything done now and it's overwhelming. I remember my DPs first house and we didn't have stair carpet for years!

Let it be organic. You'll get there!

OP is paying 11.5k of rent a year, just to a bank rather than a landlord. Let s stop spreading the flawed thinking that renting is wasting money and buying is equivalent to a saving account.

Now whether she overpaid is debatable, 5 year horizon might cushion it a bit but doubt will experience a medium/long term house price growth like we did since the 90s, especially in relative term. As you said though, inflation will devalue the borrowed amount.

@Nextbigthing its not rent though is it, it’s paying off a loan so that you own the house. Two very different things. After renting for 25 years your landlord isn’t going to hand you the deeds and say you don’t need to keep paying your rent.

The first morning in our house I cried because I felt we’d made such a huge mistake. The previous owner had left it in such a bad state and had bodged a lot of stuff that he’d hidden with furniture or we didn’t pick up being first time buyers.

We had to start spending money on it straight away because he’d actually left it unsafe. It took us a few months to save enough to start making it ours but once we started making it ours that helped massively. We’re now 6 years later and we’re trying to sell it now and move onto our next house. I’m actually sad that we won’t be the ones to bring this house to its full potential. It becomes home along the way.

It’s not perfect. Far from it. We get tradespeople in and the cost of the project and the problems just go up and up. There’s always maintenance to be done. But it’s ours. It’s a piece of security for us that we won’t be evicted. If we want to knock a wall down, we can do it. If we want to paint the walls acid green, we can. It’s home. It so happens that it’s gone up in value quite a bit over those 6 years and if we hadn’t bought we probably wouldn’t be able to now.

Most people don’t know how to do this stuff. You Google it, ask your parents or older relatives. You watch YouTube. If you don’t think you can do it, you save and get a professional to do it. It takes time but as you do it you put your own stamp on it.

No the bank won’t give you the interest you paid over the years with what I was referring to with rent to the bank. In the case of OP, it’s 5% of around 200k to which she ll have to add maintenance and modernisation cost with a risk of negative equity by design. Not saying rent is good buying is bad, but annoyed to read financial illiteracy in every other post here.

Maybe spend some time watching you tubes of how to do the DIY things you'd like to do and gathering ideas on Pinterest boards. I think you'll feel better as you plan and make the place your own. You don't sound like you need to tamest down walls or such like so improving your home on a budget should be doable. (Speaking as someone who has no idea about DIY either).

This completely

@Nextbigthing are you expecting banks to lend money without charging interest? I’m not the one who is financially illiterate.

After buying you always wonder if you could have got it cheaper - but then you might have lost out to a better offer. If the bank thought it was ok and the survey didn’t show anything awful then it’s all cosmetics. And yes a new bathroom suite etc costs quite a bit but you’ll probably just have to do it but by bit - we did and after some 8 years it was just as we wanted it. Promptly got a (great!) job offer the other end of the country. We just about broke even getting our investment back plus a bit for general price rises but not a massive profit. So don’t do stuff just for resale, but if you’re likely selling again soon-ish don’t do anything too crazy!

Choose one nook or windowsill. Give it a clean, or a lick of paint, or put something you love on it. There, you've made that bit yours. Expand from there and start to make it yours. It's not perfect, but then which house is? Which of us is? That's not real life.

Do the bathroom, you can buy a new bathroom suite from DIY stores for under £500, pay a local plumber to install then ask the plumber if he knows any tilers then buy some tiles, I tiled my own bathroom by watching YouTube videos, broke loads, cut myself to death but I enjoyed it.
What I've learned to do by YouTube:
Painting.
Hanging wallpaper.
Tiling.
Laying laminate floor
Fixing a hole in the ceiling.
Changing ceiling light fittings.
Waterproofing a wooden front door.
Hung doors, filed the bottoms of to fit.
Filling cracks on walls.
Built a brick step.
Laid a wooden inside step.
Repointed a drain.
Built a fence.
Made a gate.
Gardening.
Layed stepping stones.
Go on, have a go, the sense of achievement is amazing

Can you tell us what's wrong with the bathroom? We might be able to give you some ideas.

I'm sorry this has happened. it's supposed to be your home and now feeling like a constant reminder of whether you made the right decision or not. BUT, it is your home and you can still make it feel like home :) I am wondering if you have taken photos and videos of what you think are botched jobs. I think there is a certain amount of transparency the vendor needs to give legally, and the agent is also legally obliged to tell you, even if you don't ask. In addition, you should check your surveyor report - did you get a full report? If you feel you've been misled, you can discuss this with a solicitor perhaps, and there is also the PRS who are an independent body that can assess whether you were wronged by the agent (it's a free service and your agent must be legally registered with a redress scheme). What happens is, you have to first make a formal complaint to the agent, and if they don't resolve it in the way you like, you can take it to the PRS with any evidence you have. They will assess and give you a "verdict" all for free, and if there was any wrong doing on their side, they can fine them and compensate you (or something like that). check their website: Property Redress Scheme. I would definitely take photos and videos and maybe even get a professional to take a lot at your areas of concerns and get their findings in writing and the cost they quote to fix those area (do this before you touch anything). Good luck.