Our dream house has just come on the market and we are in the process of arranging a viewing next week. If we buy it, it will be our forever home which should work for the teen DC’s remaining school years, give sufficient space & flexibility for them to live with us in their 20s if they needed to and be somewhere we could live into our dotage. The combination of the purchase price and stamp duty means we’ll be stretching ourselves but in a way we can afford but what we can’t afford are any surprises. Or getting
it wrong and wanting to move again in a few years time.
Back when I rented my first house after leaving Uni, I failed to notice it didn’t have central heating. That was a chilly winter! Then there was the house opposite a pedestrian crossing and the bleep, bleep, bleep every time someone crossed the road. My first property was a good purchase but that was more by luck than any skill on our part. And then where we live now is fine but there are aspects of it that we didn’t pick up on (for example that the trees in a neighbouring garden would do something so surprising as growing or that another neighbour might chop down their hedge). We just walked in and, having been looking for six months, liked the location & space and so went for it. I’d say it was a head over heart decision as it’s a ugly house in a good location but, unlike various friends I’ve spoken to in the intervening years or various threads I’ve read on here, we didn’t have a list of long negotiables.
So, what should I have on that list? And what should I look out for?