Just moved in. Massive regret. How soon can we sell up?

[Pearmain]

Ignoring the fact we’ve spent all our savings on stamp duty and fees and it’s going take a long time to save plus selling in a falling market and equity being at risk - how soon are you actually allowed to sell after buying?

I’ve cried the first night in every house I’ve bought. They have all been great houses I’ve been very happy in. It just the stress of the move and the anxiety about a massive decision. Come back and update is in 3 months!

Don't rush into anything. I moved from a 2nd floor rented flat into my own wee house & spent the first 2 nights at my Mums. I would have gone back to my flat in a heartbeat. I couldn't imagine liking it here.

Thankfully I didn't do anything drastic & within no time I realised it WAS the right move & now I cant imagine living anywhere else

Moving in is always horrible. You’ve gone from a house with everything done and organised to somewhere that never has enough coat hooks or book shelves or storage, the loo does that weird thing you can’t believe the previous owners lived with, why is the light switch doing that and you’d never have chosen those tiles. All you see is work and it feels like going to bed in someone else’s house; it even smells different.

Have to say though I knew our last house was a mistake on day one and that feeling didn’t change, but it did drive us to renovate at warp speed and we sold 2.5 years later for a profit (even after all the work we did) and we’re now in a much better house, a dream house – and on day one here I still felt terrible!

I was exactly like you, OP, and for the same reasons. I was literally grief stricken. I’m slightly worried you may have bought our old house, it’s just changed hands again!

What I will say is that despite my utter despair when we moved in, we ended up staying 30 years in it. We couldn’t make many of the changes we’d anticipated so we learned to work around the house as it was. We started appreciating what it had to offer, which was space, and an amazing garden. We didn’t love our immediate location but we made the most of the surrounding area. Our kids have fond memories of growing up there even though they spent a lot of their time being decorated around.

Do what you can to make it beautiful and comfortable, and then when the time is right you’ll be ready to sell, if you still want to.

This is so true! Especially with COL. I think lots of people are taking holiday at home. Definitely amplifying the noise.

You're kidding. We have a thread like this about once a week on Mumsnet.

I've been in mine almost two years and still hate it.

Location and lack of noise is so important - I'd rather a crappy house in a great location than vice versa. Hopefully yours isn't in a bad area.

My friend was looking to buy after a divorce, and scoped out the areas at several times of day- he's lucky in that he bought a quiet place

Some looked quiet in the day, but had booming music and loud shouty parties in the evenings.

Same here .

As soon as we got the keys and opened the front door I knew it was a mistake , been looking since that first day here . It just doesn't feel like home , never will either .

Moving house is very stressful, up there is the top 3 along with bereavement and divorce. So it’s understandable to be stressed, tired and latch onto things you dislike.
Try getting one room the way you want, I always start with my bedroom, so you can relax and think this is beautiful.

I feel like this.
Been in our house nearly a year. Still don't love it.
Expecting to lose all the equity we have when houses drop in price, which is very tough to stomach but trying to be pragmatic.

The doubts I had are still there in lots of things.

But the things I love are there too and on good days they outweigh the doubts which are what I hold onto and keep reminding myself when the doubts overwhelm me. Some of them have faded over time, but others are still there.

"It's something and it's ours" is a big mantra and it helps. It is ours.

We're planning to move in 5 years and aggressively saving for that move already so we've got an overpayment /housing improvements if we can't move/ house move expenses if we can move fund.

I hope you grow to love it. Maybe give it 6 months to a year and if not then start the proces.house buying/selling is a long process and starting the ball rolling isn't a definite commitment.

One way or another you have to give it some time. More often than not, people come around to the place they move to, either with time or after they've done work/made it their own/got to know the neighbourhood better.

Obviously, a couple of PPs sadly haven't been able to feel any better but I think that is the exception rather than the rule.

Please don't go to 'house flippers' to buy it, they will offer rock bottom and then pull it even lower at the last minute.

If you still can't warm to it at least stay long enough to get some of your investment back but I hope you can find a way past your feeling.

I felt like this when I moved house, and I still have pangs for my old flat. I think it's probably because it was the first place that was mine and that I could design and make my own. It took a couple of years before this place started to feel like home, doing some decorating to put our stamp on it helped.

@Pearmain completely understand - I felt like this at points but take a pause. You have a safe home and you’re on the market - this is HUGE achievement. We’ve been in here 3 yrs and I only just feel at home - I changed aesthetics and bifolds etc and it’s so much better. Try and focus on the good things for now - medium term if you hate it then don’t have any guilt on moving. We’ve done a similar thing renting (far too close to a pub etc) and it was worth the pain. A house is just a part of life not end of world. Stay positive.

We moved 18 months ago, I still hate the house and the town, and the whole area. I hope it works out better for you.

We put our last house on the market after 6 weeks. I knew it was a mistake after 3 days and I set to work painting to make it lovely for the Rightmove photos.

We were very open and honest about why it wasn't the right house for us. Our buyer didn't mind and her mortgage provider didn't seem fussed (Lloyds) - the Estate Agent said it was quite normal and nobody involved were bothered at all.

We were worried about our buyers mortgage provider having issues but there were none.

The conveyancing took a while but we were out 5 months after we moved in and we moved into something much more suitable. We ported our own mortgage and bought somewhere of a similar value.

The decorating and gardening I did increased the value of the house ever so slightly and the profit paid for fees (buyer, valuation and bank were all happy too)

Good luck!

You're homesick. You miss your familiar home where everything worked (or the things that didn't you just no longer noticed!), you knew the neighbour's (even if you hated them all!)... We were absolutely desperate to leave our last house and so excited to get the keys to our current one. When we moved in I hated it and refused to sleep upstairs for 2 weeks because it was so grubby! I wondered if we could rent it out and rent elsewhere. 2 years on and I absolutely love it and there's nowhere I would rather live. Give it time. Xx

I've had moving/what I have done regrets twice.
The first time it lasted about 6 months but that was mainly due to cosmetic reasons & I grew to love the house & we lived there for 12 years.

The second time well it hasn't gone away & it's been 6 years. Probably didn't help as we moved to a different part of the country to where we had lived previously for years.
Plus due to various reasons I didn't want to move but reluctantly agreed for a peaceful life as it as it was the then DH's idea.
As soon as my divorce is finalised & the financial stuff is sorted, I'm moving straight back to where I lived previously!

Not if you live near a primary school; nobody playing the first line of 'Go and tell Aunt Nancy' on a recorder for six whole weeks...
Stick it out OP - buyer's remorse is definitely a real thing.

This is what I’m dreading… we are moving in the next few weeks. I’m already steeling myself to hate it. We are moving from a house that needs nothing doing, to a house that needs lots cosmetically doing. The rooms are smaller, but we gain a third bedroom, driveway, garden and cul-de-sac location in family-land. And we’re moving away from where we currently live and love so much, because we can’t afford the next step up here. The village we’re moving to is highly desirable and only 10 minutes away in the car. But I’m worried I’m really going to feel ‘away’ from everyone and everything. Trying to remember the positives…

Our last house was beautiful, not perfect, but the most beautiful and largest house we will ever own. This house was a necessary move but over a year later and I think a lot about moving again. I remind myself frequently why we bought this house

Legally you can market as soon as you like. Ideally, I'd say wait 5 years. Realistically give it 2 years

I had buyer’s remorse when I bought my first flat. I’d paid more than I’d wanted to pay too. It took decorating with help from my stepdad and brother and and saving up to buy furniture before it finally felt like “home” which was a good year at least.

I ended up selling and moving to where I’m now which is a small but not pretty workers cottage. It was a probate sale, hadn’t been decorated for years and I was upset at first as there was so much work to do even though I’d factored in cost for this (brother and stepdad helped with some but not all the work) plus had to rent the spare room out to pay mortgage. But by finding the right furniture and homely touches it now feels like home and been here a few years!

For what it's worth, I slept in the lounge rather than in the bedrooms for the first three weeks in my house, two decades ago. (Never told anyone this!)

It just felt so alien, like WTF am I doing here? I curled up on the sofa with a blanket rather than sleep in a strange bedroom.

Now I've been here a long time, it is hard to remember anywhere else. Is it my dream home/neighbourhood? Nope. But it works and feels like my home base.

We moved into a bungalow and I really miss having an upstairs .