Gutted new neighbour paid less for his house

[newyorkdonuts]

I know it’s too late now, but AIBU to feel a bit gutted?

I bought my house at the end of last year. I’m very happy here and have 0 regrets, but my new neighbour, who completed last month, paid 10k less for his house. To be fair it does look like his needs a new kitchen / bathroom and it also has a conservatory that looks very old (it’s open plan and connected to the living room) and like it needs knocking down. He has a garage though and I don’t. His house also has new windows / doors and mine will all need replacing at some point.

I’ve already spent around 8k (new boiler, rads, driveway repaired, plastering, painting, carpets and flooring). Luckily I managed to get things a bit cheaper as I know a few people in the trade. The previous owner also put a new bathroom suite in, although no extractor fan so I will need to get one installed at some point, and also new kitchen cabinets and drawers, so I guess I’ve saved money in that regard.

The neighbours house actually came on the market whilst I was in the process of buying mine but I dismissed it as I preferred mine. I know 10k isn’t a huge difference in the grand schemes of things but it’s still bugging me. Nothing I can do now, of course.

Anyone else experienced the same thing?

Don't worry it won't make any difference in 10 years time. They'll have all gone up and massively beaten inflation.

I know I overpaid for my house 7 years ago, but I wasn't in a good place mentally and I wanted the house and couldn't face bargaining. I've just sold it at a really good profit, so it's been swings and roundabouts. Some years before that, I accepted a knockdown price for my house, to get away from an awful ex, it's the name of the game.

Prices go up as well as down.Look at the last crash when they dropped considerably.
Going back over 30 years ago, on the previous crash to that, in the early 90’s we bought a property for £60 000 that were a year or two prior selling for
£100 000.
There is nothing to say that in 10 years time they will have all gone up considering the current financial climate.Indeed considering the likely inflation aspect will have dropped in real terms.

We totally overpaid for our house in 2007 as there were several people after it (Scottish market) and then shortly afterwards the market crashed so we were in negative equity.

Now the house has massively increased in value and we have a mortgage at 43% LTV.

If a friend or family member of yours managed to get a house for 10k less than a recently moved in neighbour, you'd be chuffed for them.

Stop being daft :)

Comparison is the thief of joy!!

Flip it around, you could have bought the other house and now be wishing you’d paid £10k more for your current house instead of facing ££££ to replace the kitchen and bathroom.

if it makes you feel better my neighbours paid almost £200K more than I paid for my identical house just a few years after I bought mine!

@IsEveryUserNameBloodyTaken

Depends where you are

I’m talking generally.
There might be the rare odd area but it is unlikely even in so called desirable areas.
General Inflation has risen massively in the last 5 years and houses haven’t even kept up with that so generally speaking compared to inflation they have dropped now, and will not as you say massively beat inflation,in the next 10 years, the reverse is true.

The next one will be even cheaper given how dire the market is.

My son paid 320
his neighbour paid 307
however my sons house is much nicer layout and has bifold doors all long the back of the house & he has a proper home office in garden

neighbor is actually knocking his house through to open plan and came in to look at my sons as he wants to to be similar with the bifold doors
he’s also adding a home office like my sons got

I reckon that will cost him close to maybe 30k maybe more as he is moving the kitchen to the front of the house so the layout will be the similar if not the same as my sons house

Happens. We paid 15k less than ours, for tthe same house. The market suddenly changed. They sold 2 years ago and sold for 60k more. Market has changed again and we would struggle to get what we paid!

You decided yourself your house is nicer ….

i recently paid £12k for a new bathroom so that is more than the difference

Do understand the annoyance (I feel I overpaid for my own house by 10k) BUT you chose it for a reason

The unplanned 8k spend you had would also annoy me but again I had similar when moved (replacing a boiler in
this case)

It may always annoy you a bit because you are human 😀 don’t let it spill enjoyment of your house

The house next door (Victorian terraces) is on the market for £150,000 less than our house is valued. It's dated decor, one less bedroom, no loft conversion, no extension, outside toilet and needs a new roof. Of course houses (even ones that look the same) are going to be priced differently.

I thought the same, that you were talking about identical houses.
It makes no sense to worry about what your neighbour paid for his house, otherwise.

So 2 completely different houses?

Would you have bought next door instead?

Next door to the one I just bought is for sale, was before ours hit the market... we discounted it, just simply weren't interested. They might be next door to each other but completely different houses with different vibes and needs.

That's what I was thinking. New kitchen & bathroom plus sorting out the conservatory, and he is going to spend the thick end of £30k, if not more.

Besides, you like your house more than his.

One of my neighbours paid £20k less a year after I bought my house.

Houses are exactly the same.

However, I've got off road parking for 2 cars, a dropped kerb, plus a much bigger garden front and back. I've got views of the countryside from my front windows whereas they've got half views with the rest being houses.

If I could go back I might try to negotiate a slightly lower price, (I offered £5k less than asking) but I definitely wouldn't swap the properties.

My sellers wanted as much as they could, neighbour's sellers wanted a quick sale.

I'm very happy with my home, and am confident that head to head I would sell it for more than my neighbour would hers.

Yabu op.

A new kitchen, bathroom and conservatory is in the region of £40k plus. They may also have similar costs as you re boiler maintenance and decorating.
A few months difference in house prices - with all the upgrades your already has - well worth ten grand!

So you can recognise that his house needs and new kitchen/bathroom and you begrudge him paying £10k less....have a word with yourself!

I get why you’re upset but there could be many factors you don’t know about - his survey could’ve shown issues with the roof / damp / various other issues. when we moved into ours we spent £30k+ in the first couple of years mainly doing repairs not upgrades! Damp, leaking roof, electrical rewiring… A new kitchen and bathroom could be £25k so that’s probably been taken into account.
your neighbour could’ve also underpriced or accepted a low offer for a quick sale.
it’s just one of those things. no point getting upset over it as nothing can be changed now.

I'd rather have to pay 10k more and not to have to lift with the dust of the bathroom being done up

£10k less? kitchen and bathroom needs replacement, they cost a lot more than that alone OP. enjoy your house and don’t worry about it.

vert petty thing to be jealous over. Are you normally like this?

Nobody in our street has paid more than £80k for their house… then the housing market changed when we bought and we paid £130k… the housing market changes and it is what it is