Lockdown Homebuyer's Remorse

[ThirtyTwoGoingUnder]

Just a thread out of interest really.

Was talking to a colleague at work this week who lived in her previous family home with her 3 children for 17 years and then decided to move in lockdown 2021. They kept getting outbid on every house they liked and ended up moving into a fixer upper they overpaid by 10k for. They're now selling the house over a year later and she said it was one of the biggest mistakes they made and they got swept up in the house buying frenzy and demand and they know they had overpaid for their house. We were both wondering if there were a lot of other buyers who bought at the time who felt the same way, especially now with the interest rates going up.

A house on our street during this time was priced at 399k and sold over this for 460k. It had limited parking and we've seen the owners moved in with 2 cars and now struggle to park them and wonder if they also feel the same regret.

Can anyone relate or know anyone who got swept up in the craziness and now regrets it?

Not quite but we nearly bought a house during the frenzy and I’m now very relieved we were outbid. Looking back, the location wasn’t right for us and they’ve now built houses across the road where there was woodland. I think was just bored of my surroundings after lockdown.

I know people who did this. We’ve just bought a house, and an identical house 2 doors up sold last autum for £70k more, very similar condition and exact same size.

My dd has the opposite feelings. They moved mid 2020, from a large city to the countryside. They think it’s the best decision they ever made and were lucky because they bought at a very reasonable price.

We bought ours during lockdown, we kept getting outbid on properties in our chosen area which was really only a few streets, so we widened our search a bit and now live at the other end of our town. It proved to be a great move, we are happy here with lovely neighbours and far more space than we could have got where we were originally looking - but still close enough to walk to the DC’s school etc. The house across the road which is identical to ours just sold for £300k more than we paid for ours in 2020 (we are in a london borough) so no we don’t have any regrets with our lockdown purchase!

I think there's a lot of regret, yes

Fomo and lockdown made people a bit crazy imo

I imagine quite a few took a 2 year fixed rate mortgage too :(

I bought in Jan 2021 - no choice as it was due to divorce. Houses are still selling for around 10-15% more than I paid.

A lot of houses are the time we’re going to max bids whereas I saw this one with a board up and had my offer accepted before it went online on rightmove so maybe I got lucky?

I know a couple of people who moved further out for more space in 2020 and 2021. Both have no regrets despite no longer working 100% from home.

We bought in Jan 2021 and are in the process of moving now. I don’t regret it as the value went up a lot and we enjoyed having the extra space during lockdowns but I will be glad to be back in the city centre.

Yes. But so so hard
to get family homes round here even now so at least we got one. Not my favourite one, but we got one. We love this area so I try and rememebr that.

We moved in lockdown, best decision we ever made, no regrets whatsoever

I don’t think you’ll get anyone on MN admitting this. Best decision ever, £500k profit, blah blah blah..

I know a few people who also moved during lockdown and they all seem happy and settled. What’s your experience? If you are one of the people who has regrets why not share your story rather than just making a snarky comment?

Moved in lockdown (Jan 21). Dream house.

Selling already due to divorce. Sold for 19% more than we paid.

Hoping my next house can be a different sort of dream house 🙈

I got outbid on five houses in spring 2022 which was peak frenzy, I finally bought in Oct 2022 so still high but it definitely was more reasonable and we got a much better place than any of the ones we lost. I think 2020/much of 2021 wasn’t too bad but some of those who bought at the real peak may find themselves in tricky situations if they need to sell soon/have high LTV.

I saw one house on for 300k be put up to 400k overnight, there was crazy stuff going on (I also live in one of the coastal areas people were going mad for). Some sellers are still really trying it on now but those places are just sitting on the market.

We moved in lockdown but had been looking before lockdown. We lost a number of houses to closed bids but managed to get one which was reasonably priced by offering asking immediately. A few houses in the street have recently gone on for 20-25% more than we paid.

Presumably though if your friend bought in the frenzy and overpaid by 10% they also probably achieved a good price for their previous house?

On the contrary, we've had several threads with people saying they have regrets from purchases under lockdown. Don't you read threads on this (Property) part of Mumsnet much?

We thought we were overpaying for ours (end of 2021), but our previous one sold for more than expected.
We had been looking ages because we had very specific wants in a very small area. Since then, I've seen one other house on the market that met our brief, sold 6 weeks ago, but ours seems like a better deal, so far.
I hope ours will hold its value because the structural issues havent been as bad as expected (yet) - not down to our skill, just dumb luck. And because we've rejigged layout relatively cheaply to make it way more in keeping with post-1970 family life, which means (what we paid + reno cost) × inflation doesnt make me weep in 20 years.

However that stamp duty we paid? Never getting that bback. Its home, not an investment, so IF stamp duty and moving costs were £60k, and we stay 20 years, then we're paying £3k per year PLUS mortgage interest. Thats probably ok with me.

We bought a new build during lockdown and couldn’t be happier with it. However, we only bought it because we had pulled out of a possible house purchase after the survey basically said it would cost upwards of £50k to put everything right. One of the delights was that the extension was hanging off and we hadn’t noticed! It was the best £750 we spent to be put off that house, plus our new build was £5k cheaper and detached rather than a semi.