What was the first property you bought?

Captain

Captain

Captain

Soldato
Joined
1 Dec 2011
Posts
21,373
Location
SW3
So it's finally time i got a place on my own, though i'm having trouble deciding if i want a house/bungalow/apartment.

I'm not the gardening type so preferably a place without one.

All i really want to know is if you bought something other than a house and then regretted it?

I'm single atm so all bills, maintenance etc will be done by me, i feel i'll end up paying a mortgage on an apartment which could get me a house too.

It's going to be the biggest decision i have had to make in my life so far, so i want to get it right first time.

I have viewed a number of houses and apartments and still can't make a decision.

I know you lot can't tell me what to buy, but i'd like to know your opinions and personal experiences. :)
 
We're due to complete next month on our first buy and for us it's more of a business decision. We worked out what our dream house would be and worked backwards, and so our decision was purely based on that and how we can accelerate our move up the property ladder.

So ours is a two bed terraced house that needs modernising/renovating and that we should be able to add £40,000 (19%) onto the price of. Plan is to stay there for 2-3 years, or as soon as it's ready to be sold and move on. That also made viewing houses and the decision even easier - in fact we only viewed one house, this one, and our offer was accepted 3 days later (including the weekend).

Unless you're on a stonking salary I'm guessing what you could buy now isn't your dream place?
 
I don't have any idea what my dream place is if i'm honest, at the moment i'm concentrating more on actually getting onto the property ladder.

I suppose once i view the house and think 'wow, this is for me' that will make the decision easier.

I have a rough idea of what i'm going to turn the property into once i get it, the hardest part is finding that property!

House prices in this area range from £90k up to around £850k, so my first house i will aim for around the £180-£200k mark, give or take a few thousand.
 
Russinating said:
Whereabouts are you? Is the 180-200k actually based on the mortgage you could get?
Click to expand...

I'm in Redditch atm, but would be looking for a move to another area, Bromsgrove, Studley, Rubery, probably would go as far as Worcester or Evesham too.

That figure would be for the price of the house, i would need to lend around £165k.
 
Clov!s said:
It's going to be the biggest decision i have had to make in my life so far, so i want to get it right first time.
Click to expand...

You won't.

So stop worrying so much about it. But a house/flat/whatever that meets your needs and makes you happy. Eventually you'll sell it and buy somewhere different and you'll learn from the mistakes you made this time.
 
Clov!s said:
So it's finally time i got a place on my own, though i'm having trouble deciding if i want a house/bungalow/apartment flat.

I'm not the gardening type so preferably a place without one.

All i really want to know is if you bought something other than a house and then regretted it?

I'm single atm so all bills, maintenance etc will be done by me, i feel i'll end up paying a mortgage on an apartment flat which could get me a house too.
Click to expand...

Not being a gardening type myself, I bought an end of terrace (ex council house) over a flat because I at least have the option of having my own outdoor space rather than a crappy balcony / no outdoor space that a flat might offer. Also despite not being the gardening type, I've found myself enjoying cutting my wee patch of grass over the last couple summers up to the point where I've completely ripped out my grass / landscaping so i can make it a low maintanance garden to suit my needs. If i was in your position again I'd always opt for a house over a flat every time. Depending on where you buy it may be easier to sell a house over a flat further down the line.
 
3 bed terrace - always wanted a house over a flat but that could be because of the way I was brought up (and the market up until that point was typically showing houses to appreciate more than flats).

I think of flats/apartments being more the sort of places that young professionals with no kids would inhabit, typically in big cities so they can have everything on their doorstep. Aside from those who live in flats because they can't afford anything larger of course.
 
Freehold house is where it's at. Bungalow too if it's your sort of thing. But anything Freehold with a garden/outside space.
 
First place I bought was a coach house (new build) which is kind of like a cross between a house and a flat. The ground floor is open-fronted garages which is allocated parking for myself and two other properties on the development.

The upper floor is like the living space of a 2 bed flat.

It's freehold which satisfied my "don't buy any leasehold" business. I am detached so no direct neighbors around me, gas CH too, and I have 2 parking spots that are on my freehold.

The cost of the property was a little more than a good 2 bed flat at the time in my area. Considering with flats you often have to pay ~£100 a month in service charges I am avoiding that kind of monthly outlay.

Recently one of my neighbors sold their coach house, same model as mine, for a good profit (20k) so I will have done pretty well here for building equity :)
 
I've had numerous houses and an apartment. First was a terraced 2 bed but I've had all sorts since.

Apartment is crap, aside from no garden to enjoy the sunshine in the summer you have no shed and no loft so you need an extra room for storage and tools and I ended up having to get ply to put down to save ruining the carpet in there. And then there's stuff you just shouldn't do indoors as I found out when I started welding up a frame for a project I was working on.

I'd never live in an apartment again.
 
Rented an apartment and hated it, then rented a house which gave me an idea of what I did not want when I purchased... Then I bought my house last year with my GF. It is by no means our "forever" house although it is lovely, 1930s semi detached house with a massive garden, it simply just does not have the internal space for when we have kids in a few years time. We bought it for £235k and with about 25-40k worth of work we are hoping it will be worth around the £300k mark (It needed double glazing, garage rebuilt and drive doing)

One thing to remember about an apartment is you potentially have a neighbour above you, below you and either side of you. That is a lot of noise and hassle if something goes wrong and simply was not for me. I would always buy the best house I could afford in the area I wanted to be in....Or a fixer upper if I believed I had the time+Skill to sort it (My DIY abilities are awful but I am getting there)
 
buying my first house at the moment just to get me on the ladder

a 1930's 3 bed semi with big garden driveway and garage

its an ex-council so not everyones cup of tea but a solid first time house.

rented a house, flat, town house up until now.
 
Everyone wants their own front door i.e. freehold house.

I've never bought a flat but have lived in one and yes one thing is noise in a flat, not only have you multiple neighbours but you also have a communal stairwell that usually has a door that slams or people banging down the stairs plus just living with other people is pretty irritating they can't do the simplest things like, be quiet or take their bins to the dustbin or not leave junk outside their door or have children or decide to laminate their floor and walk around all night with high heels on dropping wine bottles.

I can't think of one redeeming feature of living in a block of flats.
 
Probably the only redeeming feature is for city folk it allows them to be right in the city centre and being high up would put them further from the road.
 
First place I brought was a ground floor maisonette with a small front garden. It was a nice place but ultimatly the garden was useless (couldn't sit out in it) and having a bedroom on the ground floor ment you couldn't sleep with the window wide open in the summer. Lesson learnt, bedrooms on the ground floor aren't nice (this includes bungalows for me to)

When I was single again in my 30's I brought a first floor maisonette occupying first and second floor. Small square of grass. Ideal for a spell of single years, two bedroom, windows wide open in the summer. Only restrictions were keeping the sounds down late at night, downside was that the place was very poor energy wise but living on my own it didn't matter, plus a communal garage area thats quite frankly a wreck of people who care and people who don't

I'd not like to have a place with communal anything, always a pain unless you have top management (which you will be paying through the nose for)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom