If a house has been sold twice fairly quickly?

[sunnidazey]

I'm interested in a family home, large, 1930s detached.
It was sold 2016. 2020 and now up for sale 2024. Other similar houses on the same road have handed hands typically once during the same period.

How do I ask the EA about this? The reasons the current owners are selling up seem legit, but I'm surprised how often the property has changed hands. Current owners have also spent a lot of money on the house, but not to sell as it's quite quirky so would be off-putting to most buyers so I think they were planning to stay longer.

Would you be suspicious?
Seems a nice house, nice area, nothing that's raising any red flags. Already built up so unlikely get a new housing estate thrown up next door.

I mean "changed hands"

Divorce or financially stretched most likely

The 2020 one may have been because of the stamp duty holiday, it made it much cheaper to move. Weirdly this was an area which boomed in covid - but they may have wanted to cash in on the boom?

I'd be worried there's a batcrap crazy neighbour lurking somewhere close

I wouldn’t be suspicious, break-ups, divorces, downsizing, deaths (need less rooms), births ( need more rooms, relocating due to job, inheriting money and being able to afford something better. Tons of reasons.

I've asked my agent to tell me the real reason the house is for sale as what is a problem for someone else might not be for me. It could be nothing that bothers you.

I don't think 4 years is anything to worry about. A year, for sure.

Have you asked the vendors and if so what do they say?

Maybe knock on some neighbours doors and ask about the area, that way you'll get an idea if they are sane or not

I don't think 4 years is particularly short though

Another one that thinks 4 years is no biggie

Check if there have been any disputes with neighbours, I'm not 100% sure on rules, but I think they have to disclose if there have been.

If there haven't, I wouldn't be overly suspicious. People move on a lot, and tbh, 4 years is actually a reasonably long time and could easily be explained by job loss, divorce, relocation, wanting a bigger place, wanting to downsize etc. I bought a property in 2022 that had last been sold in 2020, and I was a bit paranoid about that, but I've been here for 2 years now and no major problems have emerged (fingers crossed...)

What are your plans for 2028.

it wouldn't 'bother' me, but I would check it out as far as possible . Pay for the best surveys etc.

it could easily be WFH situations.Upsize, Downsize....

Haunted, definitely.

My guess would be that in 2020 in the property scramble they upgraded to a large house with the intention to do it up, and in the 4 years since they've hit the hard realities of a) renovation costs at least doubling, meaning your budget goes nowhere near as far as you hoped b) running costs for large houses going through the roof (energy bills, council tax etc all up c) just general maintenance on large houses is expensive and time consuming - sorting the garden, painting external woodwork etc etc. They've realised it's too much house for them and are looking for something cheaper/easier.

If they've discovered that they need extensive rewiring/replumbing/new heating system/new roof etc, any of those could be a £20k cost that they can't absorb.

Ask me how I know...

My house was like this when I was interested in it. I asked the agent and he was evasive. I only found out after I'd moved in that the most recent sale was due to a suicide ( which didn't bother me at all, but I guess Estate agents think it would put people off.)

Another vote for haunted 👻

Perhaps they cannot afford the utility bills and council tax. Make sure that you understand them before proceeding.

Check out my Tools for House Buyers thread for lots of things to check up on.

I don't think four years is that short, personally.

Ask the vendors what their story is.

Take a very close look at neighbours and ask extra questions about neighbour issues.

Have any other houses in the immediate vicinity also changed hands a lot?
That might help identify any crazy neighbour.

How do I ask the EA about this?

Why wouldn't you simply say "house is on its third sale in eight years, what's the back story?"

If they know the backstory they can tell you, if they don't they will say so. If the neighbours next door but one haven't changed hands its not likely to be a nightmare neighbour.

I live on a road where houses change hands typically once in a generation but I can think of one which has changed hands three times in ten years. First was executor sale, second was a divorce, third is due to a job relocation.

There’s been a murder

What did DH do this time?

On my close people tend to either leave after a year or stay decades. The houses where people have moved after a year have always sold really quickly.

To me it seems a - keep to raise a family type house - and it's detached and quite private so I don't think its neighbours.

I just can't imagine moving after 4 years. I wouldn't have recovered from the last move or unpacked half the moving boxes in that time, let alone to do it again!

My parents (who had a similar house to the one I'm looking at) bought theirs when I was about 4 and stayed there until they when into a nursing home.

My grandparents also only moved once in their married lives.

You bought as big a house with garden/garage & sheds as you could afford and filled it with all your crap, leaving it for the next generation to wade through & take everything to their homes and rinse and repeat. That's my family's model and I am destined for this fate it's in my DNA and anything else feels utterly wrong....

2-5 years in a house is standard for people who bought into the housing 'ladder' fallacy.

Most houses on our street sell like this and there about 13 houses, I have been here 12 years and our elderly neighbor nearly all her life... everyone else comes and goes in a few years. The do lots of building work and usually break even of make a loss, I don't get the logic but its common.