Anyone else fed up of renovating?

[Maneandfeathers]

I’m thinking of putting ours back on the market. We’ve ran out of money and there’s no end in sight! It’s livable but not anywhere near the way we want it to be. It’s a large 1930s sem, rural with large gardens but it’s dropping to bits. Everything we wanted to do we can’t now because the cost of living and mortgage increase has meant we have nothing spare left after bills.

Antone else in this position, how did you fund it? Remortgaging isn’t an option as we were down valued due to condition (yep- that’s why I wanted the money!!!)
A loan is an option but an expensive one and not one we could consider for 3 more years as we already have a loan from when the boiler blew up on us and the ceiling leaked and fell in!

A new build seems to tempting right now.

Quarter acre not half!

We moved in to a tiny old house with plans to extend and add an oak frame, 2 years on we have sorted the basics but are still living in our tiny temporary house with no way forward, one shower, one bathroom etc all needing work.

Cost of living, rise in materials, DH reduction in salary has all contributed to not having much left to save for the "big" push. We need about £200k and with the economy at the moment we could borrow but I'm not willing to take the risk.

So I think we are going to sit it out suck it up and hope that in 5 years we can get our incomes above survival level and sell a few things and raise the money to get started.

Long-term renovator here. I absolutely hate it. The majority of our house is still out of bounds. We were dreadfully ripped off by the first project manager we employed and have struggled to do it ourselves since then, but it means working weekends and holidays that we really need to just relax and live!

We’ve casually mentioned to the local estate agent to get in touch if anyone comes in looking for a fixer-upper but the way the market is at the moment, it would be difficult to take the opportunity to sell as-is if it came up anyway.

So we truck on…

I'm planning to get some valuations this week and go from there. I suppose it depends on what we can get for it!

The cheapest new build was around £340k. So significantly more. But I recon mine needs another £50k spent at the very least and that’s doing most of it ourselves. Probably closer to £70k if I include the new roof.

The main thing worrying me is the neighbors. We don’t have any at the moment really. @Heucherarowan yours sounds similar location wise to us! I have 7ft hedges between us and next door and thick walls. We also have around 1/4 acre, although it’s very overgrown! Opposite we have nothing but farmers fields and a main road (which is one of those 60mph country lanes!) but we have loads of off road parking and a 4 car driveway.

Saying that, our kids can’t play out because of the road. DH thinks they will be better in an estate as they will have ‘friends?’ What’s it like in an estate, noisy and annoying or more of a community type feel? I’ve never lived in one so no clue!!

The new build was amazing, everything you could dream of, big open plan kitchen and diner, en suites, walk in wardrobe! Just everything mine can never ever be.

Yes, love a 4 car drive. Excellent future proofing!

Don't forget to factor in stamp duty, solicitors fees and conveyancing and removals to the move cost when you do your comparing. That could easily be 8-10k and would go a long way in improving the condition of what you have. Moving costs a lot!

I grew up on a new estate from 4-16 and then for 4 years again as an adult. Unless you are detached, you'll hear your neighbours. Maybe sneezing, going to the loo and other just living noise. If you get an antisocial one that likes a loud tune (or row), you'll have to hope you share the same music taste!

I can't comment on the community side. It massively depends on who else is there and what amenities there are to support the community, if the local children go to school with yours and if it's on commuter belts and people are more just using it as a cheap place to put their head and get to work.

Unless there's a lot of green space or a park close, the kids won't play out. The roads won't be safe enough due to cars.

I'm not you. Estates are popular with many people. But I'd struggle to go back unless I had to. Enjoying it is so dependent on many, many other people.

And check out the storage also. They tend to have built in wardrobes but nowhere sensible for shoes, coats, Hoover's and mops 🤔

I’d not assume your kids will have friends on the estate, they might, but they easily might not have, Christ they could be living across from the school bully, or all the kids could be younger and older.

id also struggle to move back to an estate and see my neighbours and be overlooked. I would do it if I had to, but it would not be something I’d wish,

im struggling to understand the finances though. You bought your house in 2020 for 210, it’s prob worth that now, maybe a little more, so say 225, you will pay 340 for the next one, plus a few grand more in fees and duty, so you will spend over a hundred grand more to get the next house, but you can’t afford a 50 k loan which would be much cheaper do up your current house?

@Sillystrumpet A 50k loan would be over 5 years though so the payment crazy amounts compared to a 35 year mortgage?

Ours was valued at £235k by the mortgage company so apparently we can’t remortgage as we don’t have enough equity. I have £180k on the mortgage so enough for a 10% deposit on the new build but it would need zero work.

The estate agent thought we could easily get £280k but if it was down valued by the mortgage company I think it would just get down valued again if we sold it? It’s in a strange position because nothing here has sold in 10 years, except this one. The closest neighbor is worth a million. Our attached sold for £280k recently and is 3 bed. I can’t understand how mine was valued so low, but it was! We underpaid for it because we purchased from family, not because of market value.

I'm in a 1939s semi. Replaced the front door last winter after freezing for 17years. It's made a lot of difference and was well worth the 1700 it cost. Take off the porch yoursleves and get a new door.

Sorry sold other than us or next door 😄 I mean in the village of about 30-40 houses. They only sold to move back south to family.

@Maneandfeathers agree that regardless of an estate agent valuation a buyers mortgage lender could possibly downgrade it also (I used to work in a bank and the baseline for mortgage lending was generated by a system, then you move up or down depending on condition etc.). It's not strictly objective (unlike a lot of agents valuations).

I'm in the same position re the loan vs mortgage repayment. But ultimately even if I sold here and broke even, I still couldn't buy anything better. Longer term, staying put will see a lot more equity in our home too.

You probably need to go through the process though as your mind is wondering 🤗 as the previous PPs said about the front door and others about flashing, both are low cost solutions that would improve your living greatly! Water ingress is miserable! A new front door also gives the house a good facelift. I paid about the same for mine plus side panels.

New houses are not by any means guaranteed to be any better. I'd be inclined to stick with it, but I'm not you. We bought end of 2019 and still have a lot to do with ours, but trades, though with long waiting lists, are not as bad here for waits as for you, and we've done the big stuff like the roof. We're waiting for the excellent chap who did our drains to come to quote for the patio, but he's running about 4 months behind due to the wet winter. Bathroom and shower room still not done, and bathroom is more than a bit awful- maybe we will get it done this autumn- if not, it has to be next summer, as we'll have to take all the stud walls out and they're between it and the loft. Shower room and drive next year (hopefully). As there is no shower in the bathroom, and the shower room has no heating, it's ruddy Baltic if you shower in the winter. But the rest of the house is manageable now. Once you get over the worst humps, it might be a bit less grim- if was for us.

Obviously I'm not you, but there's no way id sacrifice everything you have now (loads of space outside, quiet location, space from your neighbours house where the main stuff sounds like it's done) to live on a new build estate where everyone is on top of each other unless it's one of those detached executive homes that cost half a million quid.

The kids on the new build estate near me play out, but they're constantly dodging cars. No idea how ones not been hit yet. The neighborhood watch people are constantly complaining about the noise they make as well. Your kids are privileged to currently have a large safe garden they'll be able to play in once it's been strimmed. New builds have postage stamp gardens with rubbish soil. They're also quite poorly built and you can hear everything.

Id really think long and hard. Show homes are designed to show you the absolute best of living there. Of course it feels like the right choice because you have come home to your house needing work but new builds have their own challenges.

I have been in this exact position - my sister bought a new build and i viewed it with her and went home to my shabby, dark Victorian little house needing all this decoration and felt very hard done by.

Are you absolutely sure you can't do any additional borrowing on your mortgage? We did that to get our garden renovated. Moving house will cost you a fortune.