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House Buying Advice
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Author:  DavPaz [ Thu Jul 21, 2016 9:20 ]
Post subject:  Re: House Buying Advice

Mimi wrote:
Pretty difficult to find houses with no gable end unless you want a mid terrace, though.


This is truth.

Watch for trees too close to gable ends, too.

Author:  devilman [ Thu Jul 21, 2016 9:30 ]
Post subject:  Re: House Buying Advice

DavPaz wrote:
Mimi wrote:
Pretty difficult to find houses with no gable end unless you want a mid terrace, though.


This is truth.

Watch for trees too close to gable ends, too.


Ah, the memories...

Attachment:
tree.jpg

Author:  sdg [ Wed Jan 06, 2021 12:39 ]
Post subject:  Re: House Buying Advice

I hope no one minds me reusing an old thread.

Lockdown was announced the evening before I was going to phone the estate agent to organise a second viewing on a property I've been mulling over for a couple of weeks :facepalm: Activities related to the sale and purchase of homes is still allowed but we were shown around by the agent at the first viewing and told the reason it's an agent and not the sellers was because the sellers are shielding. I phoned the agent yesterday anyway to ask if we could have a second viewing and they said the sellers had asked once lockdown and shielding was reintroduced that only buyers ready to proceed immediately (i.e. with their home sold) be accepted for viewings but they might feel differently about us since it's a second viewing. Regardless of if we get a second viewing or not, I might have a dilemma.
Do I put an offer in if we like it, conditional on our property being sold and then list our property during lockdown?
Or do I put in a note of interest and list our property?
Or put in a note of interest and take no further action?
Or not do anything until lockdown is over?

Are notes of interest a thing in England? I know that the whole house buying process is a bit more stressful down there.

I don't want the sellers to feel uncomfortable or anxious if they are in the shielding category so I'm not going to push for a viewing if they're reluctant so I'll see what they say. I asked if they'd found somewhere yet because they hadn't when we had our first viewing and the agent said they're still looking so I would hope that means they're not in a rush since surely they can't be doing much house hunting if they're shielding and not carrying out viewings? Apparently they want to move to Aberdeen as well which is a couple of hours away so that makes it even more unlikely they find a property to buy during lockdown, unless they base it on a video tour which I know was happening back in March lockdown.

Author:  Zardoz [ Wed Jan 06, 2021 12:51 ]
Post subject:  Re: House Buying Advice

You're in a better position for buying a house in Scotland than in England (cant get Gazzumped up there... I think).

We took a gamble on a house we liked by putting in an offer before we'd had a solid sale on our accepted. Luckily it all worked out for us.

Author:  sdg [ Wed Jan 06, 2021 13:02 ]
Post subject:  Re: House Buying Advice

Zardoz wrote:
You're in a better position for buying a house in Scotland than in England (cant get Gazzumped up there... I think).

We took a gamble on a house we liked by putting in an offer before we'd had a solid sale on our accepted. Luckily it all worked out for us.

Yes once an offer has been accepted here, it's very rare for the sale to fall through and if it does, it's usually on the buyers end (such as not being able to sort out a mortgage). Our house is a desirable property in this area so I've no doubts it will sell quickly, but I'm not sure how wise it is to list it at the start of a lockdown of indefinite duration. Can't believe I might have to leave my full fibre to the property broadband behind :'( Anyone have any idea when new builds started laying fibre to the property as standard? The house we're looking at is about fifteen years old.

Author:  TheVision [ Wed Jan 06, 2021 13:38 ]
Post subject:  Re: House Buying Advice

A friend of mine moved into a new house about two or three years ago. They bought it off the plans so it was brand spanking new.

It didn't and still doesn't have fibre to the property.

Author:  sdg [ Wed Jan 06, 2021 14:52 ]
Post subject:  Re: House Buying Advice

TheVision wrote:
A friend of mine moved into a new house about two or three years ago. They bought it off the plans so it was brand spanking new.

It didn't and still doesn't have fibre to the property.

Our house was built in 2016 and we got FTTP this summer but the fibre lines were laid when the house was built, the hold up was getting fibre to the cabinet.

Author:  BikNorton [ Wed Jan 06, 2021 17:37 ]
Post subject:  Re: House Buying Advice

My house was built in 1750 and only got FTTP in October!

Author:  sdg [ Thu Jan 07, 2021 12:51 ]
Post subject:  Re: House Buying Advice

Sellers have come back to say they're not comfortable doing a viewing unless the buyer is in a position to make an offer. I understand them not wanting viewers in if they're shielding but I'm frustrated that they're making an exception for buyers who've sold already since they present the same risk and the sellers haven't found a property to move to yet. It would make more sense if they just suspended viewings until it was safer :shrug:

Anyway, I'm not too upset and have decided just to wait and not do anything for now. I really don't want to list my house at the start of lockdown, that just seems foolish. I'll wait and see if anything new comes to the market which I doubt will happen until things start going back to normal and then we need to decide if we take the risk and list our house without knowing if anything suitable for us is going to crop up.

The thing I'm most disappointed about is the house that kick started this all. It was absolutely perfect and we'd have bought it in a heartbeat but we hadn't been seriously considering moving at that point and by the time we'd got our house valued, got a mortgage agreement in principle and spoken to the estate agent to explore listing our house, that house had sold in less than a week :'( If we don't preemptively list our house then that could happen again but we've been looking at every house in our area that's been listed in the last three years and there's only been two or three we'd seriously consider ?:|

Author:  Sir Taxalot [ Fri Jan 08, 2021 0:36 ]
Post subject:  Re: House Buying Advice

It took us ages to move, partially because we got ahead of ourselves a few times (ie we saw something we liked before we'd got our finances lined up) and also because it was tricky to find somewhere that we both liked, and was a clear improvement on the previous place, and was affordable.

Eventually something worked out and I was able to 'retcon' it as us biding our time for the right place rather than us being disorganised and/or indecisive.

I suppose what I was going to try to say was something cheesy like 'there will be other houses that come along' but perhaps it's more a case of a sympathetic 'yeah we had a lot of back and forth too, missed out on a few good-uns... it happens'

Author:  sdg [ Fri Jan 08, 2021 11:43 ]
Post subject:  Re: House Buying Advice

That’s how I’m trying to frame it. If it’s house sells before we can view it again then we just wait and see what else comes up and hope that there’s another wee flurry of properties coming to the market after lockdown and coming into summer. We’ll still need to decide if we list anyway and hope something comes up. And it will be harder for me to compromise on the garden in the summer - ours is south facing and a total sun trap.

Author:  Zardoz [ Fri Jan 08, 2021 11:55 ]
Post subject:  Re: House Buying Advice

Now Christmas is out of the way people generally start thinking about Holidays, Home Improvement and Moving House so you should see a spike in new listings. Well, that's when there's not a Pandemic usually but I'll bet you'll still see an increase.

Author:  krazywookie [ Fri Jan 08, 2021 12:22 ]
Post subject:  Re: House Buying Advice

My house moving industry friend says he's never been busier and he's doing lots of Scotland-England and vice versa.

Author:  Zardoz [ Fri Jan 08, 2021 12:24 ]
Post subject:  Re: House Buying Advice

Can he move my house to Scotland please.

Author:  krazywookie [ Fri Jan 08, 2021 12:25 ]
Post subject:  Re: House Buying Advice

Just buy my one

Author:  Zardoz [ Fri Jan 08, 2021 12:34 ]
Post subject:  Re: House Buying Advice

Just swap with sdg.

Mods, you can close this thread now.

Author:  sdg [ Fri Jan 08, 2021 12:50 ]
Post subject:  Re: House Buying Advice

Part of my problem is I’m being really fussy but I love my current house much :'(

We live in a wee fishing village so there are lots of lovely little houses on narrow streets that are entirely impractical and unsuitable for us and we don’t want to move outside walking/staggering distance to my in laws so even the next town or village over is too far - I’d rather stay here and wait until something came up here.

I’ll report back when I find something. Being able to drop houses into this area would be perfect, just found a great five bed outside Dundee!

Author:  Zardoz [ Fri Jan 08, 2021 12:56 ]
Post subject:  Re: House Buying Advice

If you like your current house could you just do work on it like an extension or loft conversion instead?

Author:  Goddess Jasmine [ Fri Jan 08, 2021 13:43 ]
Post subject:  Re: House Buying Advice

Sorry if I'm missing something, but if you think your house would sell quickly, could you not list it and then be in the position that the sellers want you to be in quite quickly?

Author:  sdg [ Fri Jan 08, 2021 14:05 ]
Post subject:  Re: House Buying Advice

Zardoz wrote:
If you like your current house could you just do work on it like an extension or loft conversion instead?

I’ve looked at options for extensions and loft conversions but by the time we’d got the footprint we wanted we’d have spent as much as moving and we’d have lost too much of the garden, and that’s assuming a loft conversion solved the bedroom and home office situation.

Goddess Jasmine wrote:
Sorry if I'm missing something, but if you think your house would sell quickly, could you not list it and then be in the position that the sellers want you to be in quite quickly?


I don’t really want to list it at the start of lockdown in case it moves slower than it would otherwise. I’m happy to wait and if miss out on this house then so be it - they’ve still not bought anywhere so I don’t want to be rushing things through and then have to wait months anyway. It took me a few weeks to warm to the idea of the house that available right now so I’m happy to sit back and see what happens then list when lockdown is over.

Author:  Goddess Jasmine [ Fri Jan 08, 2021 15:09 ]
Post subject:  Re: House Buying Advice

Fair enough. Sounds like you've made your decision then. :)

Author:  sdg [ Fri Jan 08, 2021 15:34 ]
Post subject:  Re: House Buying Advice

I don’t know if I have or not :'(

Should I wait to see if the right property comes up, like the one we missed? At the top end of our budget but in walk in condition with all the bedrooms, home office, and large social space we want plus a fabulous garden and separate studio space.

Or, do we buy something like the one we’ve seen that has a great upstairs with four bedrooms and a home office and a big living room but not the big kitchen we’d want so we’d be planning to extend at some point and it’s a north facing garden that’s not much bigger than what we have now. It does have a garden room though which could potentially be a studio space.

Author:  Zardoz [ Fri Jan 08, 2021 16:37 ]
Post subject:  Re: House Buying Advice

Sounds like the garden is a biggie, understandably so with the two little ones. The first one sounds great. Don't think the second one is the right fit as although you could do work to make it your own you can't shift the garden and ideally you don't want to be making it smaller by having to extend on it. You'll know when its the right one.

Author:  Goddess Jasmine [ Fri Jan 08, 2021 16:48 ]
Post subject:  Re: House Buying Advice

Zardoz wrote:
Sounds like the garden is a biggie, understandably so with the two little ones. The first one sounds great. Don't think the second one is the right fit as although you could do work to make it your own you can't shift the garden and ideally you don't want to be making it smaller by having to extend on it. You'll know when its the right one.

:this:

Author:  sdg [ Fri Jan 08, 2021 16:53 ]
Post subject:  Re: House Buying Advice

I think you’re probably right.

Author:  Zardoz [ Fri Jan 08, 2021 17:11 ]
Post subject:  Re: House Buying Advice

Like in the Apple thread? :P

Author:  sdg [ Fri Jan 08, 2021 22:22 ]
Post subject:  Re: House Buying Advice

:DD
I got her a graphics tablet by the way. She loves it!

Author:  Zardoz [ Fri Jan 08, 2021 22:51 ]
Post subject:  Re: House Buying Advice

Giphy "thumbs up":
https://media1.giphy.com/media/S1Ap7GTcjToZy/giphy-loop.mp4

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