Sod's law. Lovely house back on market 1 year later - but by now we've spent ££ on our own house. Thoughts?

[StationeryNerd]

Just did a lot of swearing. A year ago we went through the painful experience of losing out on our 'dream' house on a nearby street. Why? Our ftb buyers gazundered us. We lost the onward purchase, despite scrabbling around to find another FTB. But then we emotionally moved on. My husband and I took £10k out of our life savings to glow up our current house to fall back in love with it again. Which we have. So we've changed the kitchen and added a couple of other things.

Well no surprise - now the house next door to the one we wanted to buy is coming onto the market.

The agent called me personally this afternoon. Question - do we go and see it anyway even though we've now invested cash into our current place?

Pro compared with our current house:

• it's not near a main road (our current is near to a main road)
• it's near the woods, families say their kids go and play together
• it's a Play Street, so closed to cars every other weekend
• it's got a front garden, our current is straight onto street

Cons compared with our current house

• It's further from the nursery, and we wouldn't want to change. So longer nursery commute for 2 more years.
• It needs a touch of work, whereas ours now is modern and finished. Nothing major needs doing, but new kitchen and redecorating.
• It's a bit more expensive, but once nursery fees are finished in 2 years, is just about do-able.
• ... Can I hope with the emotional turmoil that is the UK house buying process all over again?!

what would you do?

What was it about the other house that made it your dream house? Was it all about location? Or was there something special about that particular house? In any case, I do think you should view the current one - it will either put the regrets to bed or you'll love it and feel it's worth the stress!

Go and look with open eyes. £10k feels like a lot, but it's not a lot to spend on a house generally, windows throughout can cost more.

Some agents told us that FTBs have this fantasy of a doer-upper.

Is that what they told you last year, before you did your house up, when they wanted your commission?

Estate agents will tell you what you want to hear to get money out of you. Let's see if they say you have no chance of selling this year 'because FTBs have this fantasy of doing a house up', eh?

Go and see it straight away.

I would go and have a look. The estate agent is unlikely to put it fully on the market if you make a reasonable offer (our experience of being outbid initially). So the 2nd time buying process should be smoother. 2 years of a longer nursery commute versus the children being able to safely play with their friends when older is no brainer to me

Go and see it, now. You'll never move on (one way or another!) if you don't.

If you love it, well the location is great, front garden a big yes, Play Street - never heard of them but sounds good. Plus you know lots of the pitfalls to watch out for doing somewhere up. The second time's the charm!

I'd ignore what the EA reckons, it's much easier to sell somewhere done up tastefully and looking new than it is for a buyer to find the extra money to do somewhere up, imho anyway.

Let us know what you think of the new place asap! :D

Where is each house in regards to school catchments?

not sure that makes a difference. I can't remember the house, it was the street/ location we were in it for.

The other advantage which you've now made me remember is the house is closer to a secondary school. That's waaay off for us but will become important one day. Current house would be 30 mins on a bus for DS, the other house is 15 mins on a bus to the same school.

Current house = between 2 really popular and liked primaries. Ofsted Good. 5 mins walk to each. But 35 mins on bus to a secondary school in 9 years time.
House that's for sale = 3 mins walk to a really popular primary school., also Ofsted Good. 10 mins walk to a meh primary, so we'd have to get in to first choice! Yet 15 mins on the bus to the secondary school in 9 years time.
Swings and roundabouts.

I don't want to move during primary school years as I think it'd be too disruptive, so we either move now or within the next 18 months; or we could move again before secondary school - but not in between

I would go and look and claw your 10k back in the sale x

The secondary school would make me want to go look at it and get my house valued.

10 years more at work is a huge consideration. I'd jump at the chance or retiring then (and would have no trouble filling my time). So it would need to be a lot better than my current house to make it worth that.

Retire at 55! I’d rather stick pins in my eyes. What would you do for all those years and more to the point why?!

I agree totally!

Off street parking? If you don’t have it and could have it, I would be working very, very hard to get it.

Well, it's a whole other thread, so I don't want to derail. But in short, I like my job, interesting, mostly decent folk etc., but honestly there's a million things I'd rather be doing for 8 hours a day. Hobbies, travel, read, spend time with people, go for a long walk, stare out of the window...
But we're all different, and I brought it up as it's a big change in the OPs plans.

@thedevilinablackdress I get that but take a sabbatical! Retiring at 55 seems very extreme and certainly not something I would want to do. I took a couple of years off when the DC were born but to do it at this age would not be for me

Without a doubt, go and view the house as soon as you can. I find it interesting that the EA has contacted you because I’d heard that they are really strict these days and won’t even allow viewings to people whose houses are not already sold or on the market.

I agree that your house being done up will be attractive to a lot of buyers. Yes, there are others who want a doer upper but many who would be happy with a new kitchen and good wiring etc who will still be able to do enough with painting and decorating to put their stamp on the place.

However, maybe you need to heed the warning upthread of a Play Street making your children unable to understand that they can’t play in all roads 😂😂.

Go look then decide if it’s worth the hassle, moving costs and stamp duty. Would you need a new mortgage? Consider new rates?

@StationeryNerd I've found in life that we mainly regret the things we don't do. No harm in looking. If you like it, put an offer in based on your own situation, and not what the estate agent tells you anything is worth (just use that as a guide). A house is only worth what someone is prepared to pay, as you found out last year when your buyer dropped their offer.

As for retiring at 55, you don't see many tombstones inscribed with "I wish I'd spent more time in the office"!

I would have to go and look my curiosity would get the better of me.

I’d definitely go and look then I’d know if I wanted to go for it or not. I wouldn’t worry about moving schools during the primary stage, I think children are more accepting at that age. Being closer to a high school is a big bonus - less travel time means more homework or leisure time. And I guess you could always take your lovely taps with you - I would! Go for it so you don’t have any ‘what if’ regrets.

OK we're going to look at it Friday. Updates to follow.

OK we did the off-market viewing. Just got back.

Both of us feeling up and down. It’s the most perfect street: pinching myself that a house came up here again as it’s probably the most desirable, cute, safe, family friendly cul-de-sac for miles around. It’s somewhere he could learn to ride his bike and play games in the street which we can’t do on our rat run right now. Families stay 20 years and all know each other.

But. The house is only worth it IMO if we can extend and renovate. At present, its downstairs is both slightly smaller than our current and its condition was a bit past its best (20 years and 2 teenage boys since they moved in). Plus there was a big steep drop to the back garden which the first house we ‘lost’ down the street didn’t have. My guess is it needs £200k of extension and renovation to make it worth switching. Not comparable to our house otherwise.

To fund £200k renovation we’d have to reduce our deposit from the sale. And so that would mean remortgaging. Are the monthly repayments worth it? I don’t know that they are. That said we’d have an incredible house afterwards so…

In conclusion. In haven’t slept on it yet however I’m leaning no. It felt just the wrong side of scary. On the other hand we eventually need to move for secondary within 8 years. So maybe we keep an open mind to something else over the next 8 years? With that option, my husband questions whether we’d realistically want to/be able to do another extension renovation when we’re in our mid to late 40s. My counter to that is we’d have paid off of more our current house by then.

Rough sums:
A) If we stay where we are (modernised, renovated 3 bed terrace on busy road but good primaries, however no close secondary school)
£2,000 repayment per months (when our current rate runs out in 2027)

B) If we move and renovate to extend downstairs (so modernised 3 bed on quiet road in fancier postcode, close to both kinds of schools)
£3,375 repayment per month

Or do we wait and do it somewhere else in a few years? Wait for something modernised to come up? Forget the whole thing? Would you share your experience?

Sorry for the ramble!