what would you do? (house related)

[catty]

So we have just sold our flat and are away to buy a house.
we have seen one that needs alot of work. It definately NEEDS . A new kitchen but the rest is livable but not nice (iim talking grandma carpets, very old fashioned bathroom and lino flooring in the bedrooms)
The thing is its 3 bedrooms, structurally perfect, has a large corner plot so back garden, large side garden and front garden.
It has a utility room which iv always wanted.

So basically we wanted to keep £10,000 aside to do it up as a kitchen would be pricey and then carpet etc
it is going to a closing date so if we wanted to get it we would need to put in alot of the 10k to win.

would you
a) get another house which is smaller with much smaller garden but it is modern and easy with no work

Or b)
Just put the money down even thouthough you wont have the money to do it up?

I love it but I love what it could be and without the 10k itl take years for us to save everything else iv seen is about 15 square metres smaller.

Decisions decisions!!

 

[liz1985]

Do you see this been your forever home or would you ne planning on moving again in the future? If its your forever home id go for it. You could neutralise it quite cheaply, just literally cream paint on every wall, cheap carpet throughout, then do it up room by room as you get the money. If its more of a gap stop for a few years then id wait and find something else.

 

[catty]

Originally it was just a home to do us until we could affors the 'dream home' but this one is big enough that if we couldnt move then it is big enough for all our needs.
the local schools are fine and I think it could be somewhere we could stay.
the other ones that are much nicer looking that dont need work are more expensive than this one but smaller one of the ones I seen didnt have a single storage cupboard in the entire house and it was originally a 2 bedroom which had been turned into a 3 so pretty small.

 

[lilyd]

I would buy it, we did a very similar thing. When we moved in we had the carpets professionally cleaned and stripped the walls and chucked a couple of coats of emulsion on them. It is amazing how you can transform a house with just a coat of paint.

I much prefer older houses. They tend to be more solidly built, things like having block internal walls rather than stud and they also often have bigger gardens. The other pro is that they usually have more storage and/or a loft. Most new builds these days have bedrooms in the loft so there is nowhere to store a suitcase!

 

[hayz_baby]

Are you able to borrow the money you need to do it up on your mortgage?
If not then i agree with pp, if you are going to be there a while then you can just chuck some paint on the walls and get a nice cheap carpet for the timr being and work on each room. No rush if the building is structually sound and you could add some real value.
Are you able to knock some money off the house

 

[LoveCakes]

We bought a similar house and 5 years on still are doing work. As a pp said paint and your own curtains makes a huge difference. Even ikea furnishings will help, for example rugs to hide the Lino.

It sounds like a great opportunity if you can put up with the decor

 

[Lauraxamy]

I live in a similar house. I moved in almost four years ago with the intention of doing it up bit by bit. I had a new kitchen and flooring put in before moving in then gradually I've had the living room re plastered, dining room re plastered, new dining room floor, new bathroom floor, new bath and it's still no where near ready and I'm fed up of having a house that just looks rubbish, it'd take a long time to get it complete - the third bedroom which is on a second floor needs completely re-doing (new plaster on the walls etc and insulating) the outside walls all need pointing and I need new windows and doors because they're crappy wooden ones, so I've given up and I'm considering moving in the very near future. I just don't have the time to spend on it with working full time and being a Mum. I definitely wouldn't move into another property like this, not unless I'd got a lot of time to spend on it.

 

[emyandpotato]

Personally I would go for the first one. I'd hate to pay for someone else's tastes and never make it my own home. Plus you get a bigger house! That's just me though, I'm super fussy and I'd always want to make a home my own no matter what.

 

[catty]

We definately cant get it for less and I might not even manage to grt it at all. There are 5 people interested, its on at £158,000 and I offered £163,500 which was rejected. I have another £10,000 I was holding back to do it up but if stand any chance of getting it its looking like il have to at least offer 168 which probably only leaves me enough for a cheap kitchen.

I just dont know none of the others compare to it but at the same time I dont have the money to make it nice and I pribably never will. Im not good at saving at all. Ideally I would take out a loan so I could do it all at once but I really want to do this debt free.

Im really swaying towards this one (of course I mught not even get it anyway as there are 5 others)

 

[Pearls18]

Only thing I would say is £10,000 is quite a conservative estimate I would say, my parents bought a bungalow last year that was structurally fine just cosmetic stuff and it's cost them a lot more than £10,000 so I would work out what the minimum is you'd be happy to have done for how long if you know what I mean. I would also bare in mind that while solidly built older houses can often come with unforeseen repair issues, I grew up in an old house and there was forever something needed to be done to the roof, heating system, damp, wiring etc. So I would have a contingency amount set aside but I guess it depends on the age and condition, I'm assuming you'd have all the surveys done. I'm personally opting for new over old because of my previous experience but saying that I have very fond memories of our massive house growing up with a choice of bedrooms and attic playroom, I just know the stress it caused my parents trying to do it up over 13 years before giving up, they regret it xx

 

[catty]

I dont actually think its that old a house tbh think it said 1960's but im guessing noone has ever redecorated since then.
Yeh we did think £10,000 would only really do the last kitchen and to rip out a really old fireplace and maybe enough for carpets so without that we would have enough for.... nothing!!
I think im going to have to keep looking but maybe slughtly further out then where we have been for one that has been decorated and modern then we have could put all our money down rather than keeping some aside.

I was expecting the buying to be way more fun than the selling but im finding this part way more stressfull!!!

 

[Pearls18]

Ah ok our house was Victorian (or just after) so you probably wouldn't have so many issues with a 60s house, we're in a 1930s house currently and it's very structurally sound just some damp issues, our last house was a 1960s semi detached and that was absolutely fine, just needed some updating cosmetically but a very solid house. I guess if you're happy to do a house up you would have to lower your actual house bugdet to allow for that or find a modern house in your budget. Hope you find something, I'm sure it's very stressful but once you get your house Im sure it'll start getting exciting x

 

[icklemonster]

I'm wondering how much you might be able to do with some help and hard graft from family if it's available - or how much OH could do?

I own a 3 bed property in the midlands which I rent out. The previous tenants left it in a total state, and I managed to renovate the whole thing for £3k. It's not done to the highest specs, but I bought individual kitchen units from B&Q for £1.2k and my step Dad and his bro kindly installed them over a weekend. I got the whole rest of the house carpeted for £800 with some cheap carpets. The rest went on paint, emulsions, tiles for bathroom etc. If you paint the doors and stick on new door handles it's amazing what a difference it makes. It took 4 of us 6 weekends in total to get it ready for rent again, and it looks nice and liveable and has been rented since. My Step Dad is a professional landlord so he just gave me all the instructions to make it look hugely different on a very tight budget. You could do the same with your dream home, then over time as you get more money, you could invest in each room prioritising it...

 

[loeylo]

We were in a similar situation 18 months ago. A three bed in an amazing area with a wraparound garden came on the market, but it needed loads done inside (damp proof, new kitchen, ideally new windows, ideally new bathroom and decoration throughout.

We went for it in the end. Before moving in we had all rooms damp proofed and then moved all our stuff into the huge back room (which was more up to date as it was an extension) and lived there whilst we did the rest. We got a new kitchen right away and financed it, which works out at £160 per month which is fine. We extended a loan we had for another two years which dealt with replastering, red looting throughout and new furniture where needed. We seperately financed a sofa on an interest free deal.

It worked out okay for us as our mortgage is small anyway, we only pay £400 per month for that, then £60 for sofa which is paid in 6 months now, £160 for kitchen for next 3.5 y and the loan is only £100 per month (originally a car loan so payments stay the same just an extra two years payment) - all in all we pay about £700 which is what we would be mortgage wise if we had went for a ready done up place of similar size in this area, but we have the place decorated as we like it and didn't need much deposit.

We found that getting three quotes for everything worked well for us. Also check reviews of tradespeople! And family are a great support for actually getting work done. That being said,18 months later we still have the same windows (they are double glazed but old, so we have added vents) and bathroom (new loo seat, new shower curtain and new flooring) and we have had to redecorate our bedroom again because of a condensation issue which is now resolved. It is hard work!

 

[RachA]

If it's somewhere that you see yourself living in for a long time then I'd go for it.

We bought a similar type of house just over 7 years ago. It was just barely liveable in. It was above the amount that we could afford so borrowed £25000 from parents just to get it. So we had zero money for doing it up.
We ripped out most of the carpets and OH sanded down the floor boards so it was clean. We scrubbed and painted the kitchen and we painted the lounge and 1 bedroom. The kitchen was dire but I lived with it because the cost of a new one was too much plus the kitchen was small and we wanted to extend-I finally got a decent kitchen after 6 years.
We've just been doing what we can when we can. I've tarted up the bathroom, dinning room and hall, stairs & landing myself but they still need doing properly.

I love the house though. I can't see us ever moving until we downsize once the children leave. The garden is really big and I would never if gone for something smaller and up together even though it's been hard work. We've just spent £40k in a downstairs extension that's taken us 6 years to save up for. We're now going to spend the next 3 or 4 years saving up for a new bathroom and possibly getting the tofu sorted and a loft room put in.
Having looked into it the cost of moving somewhere that would be bigger would be alot more than the cost of the work we've done/plan to do.

 

[Zakhar]

I’d probably go for the house with the space and potential, even if it means waiting a bit to do it up, because you can always improve it over time but you can’t get the corner plot and size back.

 

[jerfer]

If you love the house and its potential, putting most of the £10k down now could be worth it, especially since structurally it’s perfect and has space to grow.