What house do we want?

TheDean

TheDean

TheDean

Soldato
Joined
3 Oct 2004
Posts
5,020
Location
North East
Current situation: House on market 14 weeks. 11 viewings; Zero offers. Have now reduced by 3% & will reduce by another 3% if no accepted offers in 6 weeks.

Question: What should I look out for when upsizing?

We are wanting to move to three or four bedroomed detached house with a view to adding value and living there for next 15yrs minimum. We would be more than happy to do fairly substantial work on a house to extend if the price was right and plot would allow.

What should we look out for when buying with a view to either extending or developing? Any golden rules which would be useful?

I now feel we paid at least £10k more than we should have for our current house, maybe even £15k too much. Whilst this won't effect the selection of houses we could buy next, it certainly makes you realise we want a bargain for our next house, and would be prepared to go into rented for a bit while we do all our research and with zero chain, I feel we would be more attractive buyers.

Question: If upsizing does a paper loss actually matter?

i.e - I 'lose' £15k on current house, but next house will be significantly bigger and more expensive and so could easily negotiate £15k off sale price, likely more as it is a buyers market....etc.

Would also be interested to here your views, moral and otherwise, on reducing your offer v v close to completion. I personally wouldn't do it as I think it is wrong, however, I was speaking to a couple of random people over the weekend and both said they did this. Whether it is actually true or not, I am not sure. But one took an extra £10k his offer the week of completion, and seller accepted it....crafty or plain wrong?
 
TheDean said:
i.e - I 'lose' £15k on current house, but next house will be significantly bigger and more expensive and so could easily negotiate £15k off sale price, likely more as it is a buyers market....etc.

Would also be interested to here your views, moral and otherwise, on reducing your offer v v close to completion. I personally wouldn't do it as I think it is wrong, however, I was speaking to a couple of random people over the weekend and both said they did this. Whether it is actually true or not, I am not sure. But one took an extra £10k his offer the week of completion, and seller accepted it....crafty or plain wrong?
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It plan wrong and I would refuse to accept it.

But it does depend on the market. I assume you live in the NE not sure what the market like around there. I know someone buying around me and ppl are offering 10k above the asking price on property needing work! So, put in a low offer and you get laughed at and flatly refused.
 
TheDean said:
Would also be interested to here your views, moral and otherwise, on reducing your offer v v close to completion. I personally wouldn't do it as I think it is wrong, however, I was speaking to a couple of random people over the weekend and both said they did this. Whether it is actually true or not, I am not sure. But one took an extra £10k his offer the week of completion, and seller accepted it....crafty or plain wrong?
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Unless we had a very pressing need to sell if someone pulled that stunt on us I'd tell them to jog on, especially if there had been other interested parties at the time we agreed the sale (who may have moved on themselves but would at least given an indication that we had priced our house competitively). One option would be to try and pass the reduction up the chain but would need to tread carefully in terms of how this was pitched (i.e. explaining the situation and outlining that we can't afford to complete as planned unless the price drops due to a reduction in incoming cash, but realise it may not be feasible and happy to simply delay the deal whilst finding an alternative buyer).

As for whether a 'paper loss' matters when upsizing the question is really about how much of the loss was due to general market trends, and how much was due to buying a lemon? In other words has your house devalued out of proportion with the houses you are now looking at?

We took a ~10% hit on our first house but it was bought in 2006 and sold in December 2008 so the majority of that 10% was down to the overall market collapsing and meant that the house we moved to was almost certainly cheaper than it otherwise would have been. I do think we overpaid for the old house even so though as most of the work we did was remedial (DPC, firewall etc) and in hindsight we should have demanded the vendors footed the whole bill rather than agreeing to halve it.
 
I suppose ultimately, we need to get rid of ours before we start looking properly at other properties, but again, I'd be keep on hearing, perhaps from a developers /builders perspective what they would look out for in a house.
 
Sometimes people have applied for planning permission for extensions and got it but not got around to building, so that is worth asking so the Estate Agent can check. It will save the hassle of having to apply yourself should you find the right property.

Perhaps see if there are other houses in the vicinity that have had extensions or development done, particularly neighbours as well as factoring them in regarding whether an extension would have any impact on their property, overlooking etc.

If you're going to be extending or doing a lot of redevelopment you could also look at repossessed houses or ones that need work doing rather than something that has recently had it done.

Do you want three or four bed to start or to develop into as that might open up options for smaller houses on larger plots giving you some options.
 
f00b4r said:
What area of Newcastle are you in The Dean?
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Currently Low Fell, but wat to move to Monkseaton, Whitley Bay, Tynemouth areas. Looking for 3or4 bedroomed detatched with garden and perhaps garage (or space to build one), good schools nearby (preferably outstanding) walking distance to a Metro, good community spirit
 
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