[Closed] Overbidding on house remorse!

Well, no advice to offer but it looks lovely...

It is lovely. No garden and only 2 bed would be an issue if you intend to have kids. Least it would for me. Are you going to have kids? And would you plan to live there forever?

£5k is not a lot to risk losing the house over if you like it that much. If I was the seller, I’d tell you to do one because you sound like you’d be trouble throughout the process. Stick with what you’ve offered or pull out.

I take it it wasn’t an auction then? Just a bit of a bidding war?

If so, you can say you’ve changed your mind. You can always go back and say you’ve changed your mind. They’ll just go to the next highest bidder.

If you are having a mortgage or survey done they check the price, state of property, any works needed or suggested and that might give you a) peace of mind or b) something to negotiate with.

As Elsa says "let it go" and wait until you get your survey 😉

James

Ahh, the fake bidding war purloined by the selling Agents routine eh..

Never mind, that ere Tory Shiaters have a plan for brexshite that didn’t look like you’ll loose your pants within the first year of ownership.

Just enjoy living and breathing and making a family innit.

Depends on your plans. A friend has just moved out of that area, similar house, as it wasn't big enough for a growing family. It's been nicely done but that does leave little scope for adding value as it's already at the top end. It is a nice area, though. Easy to get to the city centre and on the way up. It's already come up a bit but there is room for more. That would easily be another £100k+ in Bishopston or Southville. If it gets anything like there it would be a sound investment. I can't see Bristol prices dropping anytime soon.

As the others said, wait until survey and then use that as leverage. You have until the day of exchange of contracts to pull out. Also if you pull out at some point near exchange they may well drop considerably anyway...

We sold a similar house in Bristol, a couple of postcodes away, four years ago. It went on the market, we had an open day for viewings and then we had nine offers. All over the asking price. The one we accepted was £20k over asking, so what you’ve experienced is pretty typical for Bristol. In fact I think we paid £25k over asking for our current house.

So don’t sweat, but if it’s going to play on your mind too much it’s ok to pull out. Is better to do that sooner rather than later.

You presumably offered what you thought it was worth.  Do you not think it's worth that any more?  Retract your offer if so.

To be brutally honest, if you're spending £300K on a house (which could probably buy half of the row of terraces I live on) then do you really care about 10% either way?  It's the right house and worth it, or it isn't.

It's an auction with several other interested parties. The asking price is irrelevant and only really a starting point from the bidding to start. You offered the price needed to secure the sale, as long as you can afford it then it is what it is and I wouldn't dwell on ti too much.

Seeing what other houses in the area sold for is not necessarily a like for like comparison, this house might be much nicer than the others, so I wouldn't take too much notice of that. If you did you simply wouldn't have won't the bidding and would probably be kicking yourself for not bidding higher to win.

That's the wonderful house selling process we have in this country though. If you were in Scotland with sealed bids you have no idea how much you might have 'overbid', but I guess sometimes ignorance is bliss.

The house I more or less grew up in, in Elgin - my folks moved back from Inverness and bought that one. Eventually my dad admitted that he'd paid really quite a lot over the asking price / valuation for it.

On the flip side (this was in 1972) my mum only moved out a couple of years ago, and it's still in the family possession. So if you're thinking long term, it's really neither here nor there...

Advice given to us by Bristol estate agent was to bid as high as you feel happy with and make it an odd number not  rounded to 5k. Overall if you are going to be happy to here what is the cost of happiness. Don’t dick about on cost after the survey. Finding excuses to renegotiate is pretty tiresome and the seller is going to be pretty peeved about loosing one of the other bidders. This process lost our neighbours 10k

If your not trying to make money on it does it matter?

How much do you like looking at houses and dealing with agents, banks etc.? Not spending another few months of your life doing that is probably worth £5k

It looks like you don’t have to do anything to the house at the moment once you move in.

You feel remorse because it is a massive amount of money and reality is kicking in.

if the survey comes back all good and the bank agrees to loan you the cash you won’t be thinking about the money in 10 years time...

Advice?  Be thankful that house prices where you are looking are a relative pittance.

Didn't say it would be useful advice :-).

IIRC the lender’s survey will come back with a figure representing what they think it is worth.  If it’s less than your offer then I believe you need to recalculate how much you can borrow against that amount and make up the difference yourself in cash.  Ie if they value it at £295k then you will need to find the extra £10k yourself.

I misread the OP and thought it said 50k, and what the blinking heck was he playing at paying that much over!

5k, unless prices are really stagnant you could loose that just looking for another few weeks/months.

As an aside to the OP, there are a few of us STW types in the area. It is a great area to live, as you say up & coming. Are you Brizzle based already? If you are new to the area (& the purchase goes through OK) then possibly see you in the Dark Horse for a cheeky one! Email in profile if you want any further info on the area or people to ride with.

PS - house looks lovely!

The money is irrelevant ..if it's really where you want to live then just go for it ..what you are feeling is called "buyers remorse"  ..and most people feel it after making a large purchase ..you will get over it .

Enjoy the house & make it a home ..it looks fantastic ..

Everybody has paid more than anyone else was prepared to for their house thats how house buying works. In any other purchase (cars, bikes, milk) buyers are trying to push the price down and you're used to getting a buzz, of sorts, from paying less than you might have done for something. But pretty much every home owner paid the most they possibly could, and more than anyone else, to buy their home.

That really hit home how messed up the property market is.

This is what 300k gets you in stirling.

http://www.s1homes.com/Houses-for-sale/2017111017194903.shtml

Be thankful that house prices where you are looking are a relative pittance.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=U8Kum8OUTuk

I live nearby, you're about right on price.

With several big new employers in tech/media coming into Bristol and St George/Redfield being the kind of area that appeals to youngish professional families, plus channel 4 looking like they're inbound to Bristol, prices aren't going to slow down where you're buying.

You've done well here - it's an aggressive sellers market.

When you're in & settled, I'll show you the riding in the area 👍

It looks like it's been finished to very high standard as Dion Dublin might say. 😉

I'll wager the houses that have cost £260k needed £30-40K+ spent on them to look anything like the one you have offered on.

Get the survey done, hopefully the valuation matches your offer. You can always negotiate/pull out ,but If I were the vendor I'd follow Darcy's advice and go to the next highest bidder.

Good luck.

Don't forget to factor in your time and rent in the time between now and when the next one you like comes along.....

We paid a smidge over asking for it to be taken off the market asap. We were first viewers.

It equated to less than 6 months rent .

I don't regret it.

Stevemuzzy - isn't it more indicative of an imbalanced job market than the housing market per se? Be a heck of a commute from that lovely house to a job in Bristol.

Steve's house is also on an out of town housing estate so apples and oranges. What does £300k get you in the city centre?

Well firstly it looks like a lovely house, also it seems like there was lots of interest for it so if you look to sell soon you should get most/all/more of your money back. The main thing is whether you will be happy in this house?

As others say, if you live there for a good length of time (say +10yrs) you will probably look back fondly on "how little" you paid.

🙂 @ arvensis

....but it's really not meant as a boast, I would be 'considerably richer' if house prices were more sensible where I choose/need to live/work.

To be brutally honest, if you’re spending £300K on a house (which could probably buy half of the row of terraces I live on) then do you really care about 10% either way?

This really highlights the difference in house prices around the country.  £300K wouldn't get you anything, not even the smallest flat round here.  Again it's not a boast, it would be better for (pretty much) everyone if house prices were more sensible.  What part of the country is this (no need to be too specific, not planning to come round for tea or anything)?

Looks like a nice house. My sister used to own a house very similar to that on Winchester Rd in Brislington - looks almost the same in fact in terms of layout, although hers was 3-bed. It looks like that one probably was, but they've got rid of the 3rd bedroom at the top of the stairs to make a large bathroom & got rid of the small original bathroom to make one of the other bedrooms larger (bedroom 2 from the looks of it).

They ended up moving to Saltford because they needed a larger family home (2 growing boys) and from what she said, I don't think the schools in the area were getting particularly good ofsted reports.

They moved out at the end of 2013 and got just over £200k for their house, so that's a fair old hike in 5 years...!

It has a log burner. Surely that's worth 25k over asking to any STWer?!

£300K wouldn’t get you anything, not even the smallest flat round here.

So where's that? It'll get you a something in Oxford, the UK's most expensive city. Even that London has quite a few flats in that budget.

Slightly different scenario but when my Mom & Dad moved a few years back the house they wanted the Survey came back with a lower value than they'd offered (,they offered the asking price). They spoke to the vendor and agents and pointed out the issue, they managed to negotiate a price closer to the survey valuation that both parties were happy with.

O/P that looks like it's been done to a really high standard. Good luck with your purchase.

Slightly different scenario but when my Mom & Dad moved a few years back the house they wanted the Survey came back with a lower value than they’d offered

Good point. Happened to a friend of mine who was selling his flat a few years ago. Some bloke made a frankly stupid offer on the place. My mate was pleased as punch & happy to tell anyone who'd listen how much money he'd made in 18 months on his flat and what a wise investment choice it was.....until the bank refused to provide the buyer a mortgage based on the surveyor valuation. I think he ended up having to accept an offer of about £20k less, as basically the flat wasn't worth what it was being sold for.

Realistically, how much extra a month is that 5k gonna cost you a month? Get over it dude.

My 2ps worth. If you're having second thoughts about the suitability of the house, pull out, there will be another house along soon. If you're sure you're happy with the house and your concern is purely that you paid significantly over the odds... Dunno you're on your own there!

Is there anything for sale right now that works for you? If not why not dodge the problem, pull out and buy that. If there isn't something else, maybe that tells you something?

Best and final, is it a scam? On our house we went to best and final. I assumed it was an estate agents scam and blew my top and nearly pulled out of the sale. After I'd calmed down we asked one close friend and one acquaintance who were estate agents. Both insisted that Best and Final was sacrosanct and highly unlikely to be a try on from the Estate agent. (One of them said "I'm as dodgy as they come, but even I don't mess around with best and final.") Make of that what you will. I believed them and bid, but maybe estate agents are like magicians and keep their secrets.

I live about 3 streets away from you on Sherbourne street. We bought ours almost exactly a year ago for about £30k less, however it’s a project, one which we will spend about £15-£20k all in on, and that’s with me doing a lot of it myself. Also it’ll be another year until it’s finished. We’ve had it valued based on it being finished and it would be expected to sell for about £310k. Which suggest you shouldn’t be worrying in the slightest!

Bear in mind as well we have a butterfly roof so can’t extend up, so don’t have the option which you do have as well.

From those photo’s, it’s a very pretty house so enjoy it and don’t be disappointed. We live in an ‘up and coming’ area, I’ve had notes through the door from couples asking to buy direct, that’s how much it’s in demand around here. The house have a ceiling price, because they’re 2 bed terraces, but I think there is a way to go until then (I think about £350k when compared to southville etc). Bearing in mind our neighbor paid £220 for their house 3 years ago, they’ve likely made £80k on that on the house price.

More importantly, let me know if you're riding! A few guys our way that head up to Leigh Woods for some off-piste after work rides.

As above, you'll soon sink £5k - £10k into redecorating something that isn't upto scratch...more if you need bathrooms/kitchens.

If you'll move in and not do anything to it for 5 years you've got your money back!

Too open downstairs. £300k to sit in the same room as my washing machine, no thanks. Photos seem very careful not to show the stairs too, are they straight out of the dining room?

Not knocking it too much, it's a nicely done up house (though it needs a dose of colour to put some soul back in). I guess if it's only a two bedder you're less likely to have folk running up and down the stairs while others are having a country supper with friends form town, or Fortnite on full blast competing with 1400 spin speed and someone trying to revise for exams.

Obligatory, £300k [s]will buy my whole street[/s] and we could be neighbours comment:

https://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-65893687.html

If it cheers you up , grandmother in law sold up to go into care home, prefab and paddocks very near M1 and 25. Sealed bids, the winner wrote a long handwritten letter about how they loved the property wanted to raise their kids there, blah, blah and then overbid by about 200k.

To all those pointing out what £300k will buy in your part of the world, also bear in mind this is one of the cheap to middling parts of Bristol!

5K is irrelevant and a less than a 2%, the real question is if the house is really what you want and are you using the over paying reason to tell you that it isn't?

You have been looking for a while. You have found the house you want. The amount over the asking seems reasonable for your area, if not elsewhere. A few local stw'ers are ready to show you the trails and pubs. I'm not sure what you are hesitating about. Get on with it.

seems BS5 is a far more STW place than i imagined 😉

I live on the opposite side of the park. Echo the Dark Horse comments - 2nd best pub in bristol. Church Rd definitely getting better and better, been in the area 4 yrs and have noticed an obvious improvement. i don't think you'll have paid massively over the odds...

Does St Georges park still have the flowy skatepark? Worth every penny then 😀

Nice to hear St George is an up and coming area.

When I was a yoot, it was the sort of place you locked your car doors as you drove through it , hopefully without having to stop at the lights 😉

Zero sympathy or advice; i'd say cougar nails it though tbh.

Thanks everyone for all the advice! Very helpful. 🙂

I think you're right, there is nothing major to worry about. I also suspect it was slightly undervalued, in order to generate a lot of interest/bidding war.  Will be able to afford the mortgage notwithstanding the survey result, as we have a big deposit.

On the garden point - it's only a 3 minute walk to the best park in Bristol IMO, so that makes up for it!

Not decided on kids yet. But if we do have them, it won't be for 2-3 years (I'm 35, and other half is 28) and hopefully a loft conversion is possible, making it a big 3-bed then.

Lastly - I can't believe how many STW people live around the area! Cheers for the shout-outs, and would be keen for drinks at the Dark Horse and to check out the local riding.

Glad you're feeling happier about it!

Depending on how long you've been looking, there's a small slice of the purchase price you can put against not having to carry on bloody house hunting!

You paid a very good price for a lovely house in absolutely pristine order. You won't need to spend anything on it at all. By contrast you could have paid £200 or less for a shabby wreck like we did and spent £100,000 just getting it into a saleable liveable condition.

don't feel hard done by - you could pay double that for a nice condition 2 bed cottage near here, and its not anywhere particularly near jobs..

https://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-53274711.html

I think it sounds like you’ve made peace with yourself OP, but I’ll stick my oar in anyhow.

I think you’re fine, we recently sold a place a couple of roads along which was nice but not so brand spanking inside as that looks. Though it amazing how good the photographers can make a place appear. Anyhow, ours was similar, bigger garden but not such a whacking great extension. Put it up for 10k less than that one, got 15k less than you paid in the end. I think you’re pretty bob on to be honest.

St.George is mint, you’ll love it. If you do see it through tap up Ross of ShutupandRide, based in Dropouts cycle club. Top bloke for mtb tinkering

I too ended up with an open house style viewing that then went to best and final offers (all but one couple that viewed it offered at least the asking price). Ended up selling for over £250k for a 1 bed flat in the Cotham area of Bristol that I bought (100% my own money) when doing my PhD.

There was less than £10k between all bidders on the final offers with less than £5k between the top 2 so not a lot. they were the first people to get their initial offers in and seemed the most promising buyers in the best and final as well as being slightly higher than the next ones down so they got theirs accepted. As it turns out the completion did drag on a lot longer than I had hoped as they made a mistake on their mortgage application which did cause some tension as their solicitor was not communicating delays but all went through in the end.

Did I feel that they overpaid?

On one hand no, they got a very nice flat in a rising market (was worth £10-20k more by the time we completed) and they didnt outbid the next ones down by much at all really. Not enough of a difference for me to not give it to someone else if I felt they were in a better position but these buyers were lovely and really loved the flat and it just made the decision very easy.

On the other hand yes, but that is my feeling about the property market in general and I felt guilty that someone has to spend that kind of money to get a 1 bed flat these days. I am still living in a rented house and I am building a house as I don't want to go back into the housing market as a buyer again.

Update on this, following developments that have occurred since.

Unfortunately, despite already being in remorse for paying so much and almost pulling out as a result (but usefully thinking that all was relatively pristine), that was not to be the case.

We moved in December 2018, but soon discovered a mass of defects (both major and minor) that a) were not picked up on our homebuyers’ survey and b) we hadn’t noticed either / the sellers neglected to inform us of, but were quite clearly aware of.

Of course the homebuyers report is woefully full of caveats and generalised content.

E.g. Roof pisses in rain in numerous places, with longstanding wet rot in many batons and valley boards and requires a complete re-roof and additional flaunching/guttering work etc required + extension roof needs re-roof to remedy the various leaks there too. £7k for that. Sash windows are painted shut, save for one that has all weights and pullies broken, plenty of rot present and all rattle in the wind. So double glazing/draft proofing etc came to £5.2k. Rising damp in dining room that affects a large area, rotten sub floor throughout hallway and living room, consumer unit not earthed, no extractor fans in bathroom or kitchen, garden level 6” too high, amongst many, many other more minor issues.

Of course one has to expect some maintenance to be required, especially in an old property, but £20k worth of unexpected works has been an entirely unpleasant shock.

Expert report obtained by our solicitors (funded my legal expenses insurance) puts diminution of value at £20k, citing clear negligence / failure to meet duty of care by surveyor, although other side’s solicitors obtained an expert report, which essentially puts diminution of value at £1k, with an almost absolute denial of all points.

Currently considering the next steps, but ultimately, we have paid £325,000 (£305,000 purchase price + £20,000 of remedial works, some of which will need to wait until we save more funds) for a house that is worth £290,000 at a push. None of the remedial works are adding value, they are value-neutral essentially. This was only ever going to be a short (ish) term house, but we are effectively stuck now. Bitter lesson learned, but maybe the true lesson was to follow instinct and pull out of the purchase, or, rather than relying on a pitiful survey, full of caveats to cover the surveyor’s behind, it’s instead best to walk round with a number of builders before committing, to see what their view on problems/remedial works is. The mere thought of the sellers having received so much over asking price that they did not deserve and having avoided undertaking any of the remedial works they were well ware of, is galling.

Sorry for rant!

+1 for getting walk round with decent builder* rather than paying for building survey, but difficult to find someone you can trust and if surveyors eff up you should at least be able to claim 🙄
* or someone knowledgeable

My sympathies dvowles82. I got ****ed over big time on my house as well and the flat I moved out of before hand. Property and the buying process is a complete minefield TBH.

At least your house looks good, I feel like I've had my pants pulled down big time and my house still looks absolutely shite. 👌

Sorry to hear about the issues. Following this thread as we are renting in BS5, know the Dark Horse, Leigh Woods etc...would like to maybe buy around there sometime if it ever looks possible!

Welcome to owning an old house. 🤣

And you didn't really overpay tbh, up here offers over generally means at least 25% above that in a good area.

My sister's BIL paid 1.1M for a house that was OO 600k in Edinburgh.

And it needed absolutely gutted.

I don't think you did pay £325k for a house worth £290k because (as suggested above), you'll likely find all this kinda crap in any old house you buy. you may have overpaid a bit, but the costs would likely be there in any old gaff - just tell yourself its worth it for 'the features'. A new roof and double glazing will certainly add a little value to the place, if not as much as your spending. It'll also make it much easier to sell in future.

whenever I stupidly burn a large amount of cash (for example, buying a house in feb 2008, at pretty much the exact peak of the last housing boom), I console myself with the idea that, compared to my net earnings over my lifetine, its nearly always moot. Lets say your career average earnings are 30k, times a 45 year career, total you'll earn is £1.35m. Double that if you've got a partner. Even if you overspent by £25k, that's less than a percent of your lifetime worth 🙂

Those building surveys that mortgage providers insist up on should be the next "ppi" type shite to be investigated and refunded to many who stumped up for **** all.

I don’t think you did pay £325k for a house worth £290k because (as suggested above), you’ll likely find all this kinda crap in any old house you buy.

It's a point. Until recently this end of BS5 was a bit rundown. It was working class housing in a poor area for over 100 years, and most of the houses hadn't seen too much TLC. Most of my homeowning friends have bought here, and their woes include a chimney breast knocked out without support for the stack, a floor that was rotten and held up with car jacks, a front wall so damp it needed £10,000+ spending on it pretty much on day one... there might be a few pristine places coming on to the market but the vast majority will still need some work!

That said, hiding an actual leaking roof is an absolute shambles 🙁

Ours had a bottle of soap on the utility room sink when we looked araound but no plumbing there for the waste water, leaked down the walls from the fab glass extension, and almost burned the house down with faulty wiring which we had to replace in the bedroom lighting. The sealed-in cistern in the ultra-moderm new onsuite leaked water down the inside of the original brick wall into the kitchen and necessitated a new rebuild of the wall, dining room wall and instalation of new toilet, the other bathroom leaked out of the moderm shower and required going in throught the original 1887 lathe and plaster ceiling. that took a month of drying out with a dehumidifier and replastering a room.... I could go on.

I won't tell you our insurance premium, you would weep. And of course we live 100m from teh Thames, so most companies won't cover us anyway!

Victorian houses are great. The modern extensions are less great

With a very uncertain future for the UK economy, I reckon your money is safer in a house.

as others have pointed out you are kinda looking at the situation a bit skew wiff like...

Over the ownership lifetime of any house there will always be bills to pay and things to fix. Kitchens get old and dated, bathrooms go the same way - I am at that point now where both of mine need renewal, it is I grant you a massive pain in the butt to have to deal with such things early on.

The important thing to remember is you really have not lost any money, that sum only gets realised once you have sold the house and moved on and then it is usually circumstances that drive that decision rather than profit or loss (although I understand one is far more preferable than the other). Agents 'valuations' are their best guess at what the property is worth, the true value is what the market actually pays.

Clearly there was something that drew you to the property to start with and also motivated you to put a bid in, try not to lose sight of that when dealing with the darker points as there is nothing worse than not enjoying the house you live in.

Save up for the remedial works, look at any proceeds from the legal wrangle as 'bonus cash' rather than something to be relied upon and you will get through it in no time!

All sash windows in houses I lived in when growing up were pretty much exactly as you described, either painted shut or rattly, broken and propped open with books or an old ice cream tub - I assumed that was just how they worked.

My ‘mortgage required report’ was a work of fiction. I went to local pub and asked who knew a builder, bunged him 500 quid for a walk around and he saved me, seriously, 500k. I bought it but only with a massive list of stuff they couldn’t reasonably argue against.

I looked at a place up the road oo 1.25m, same builder, riding mate now, came with me and we estimated 600+ of work to do. Some guy paid 1.29 for it and I’ve now met him and he’s at least 500k in a hole to get it habitable. I hate houses.

You knocked 500k off a 1.3m house blimey that’s some negotiation.

Seriously though what needs doing to a house that’s gonna cost 500k?! Has it caught fire or fallen down?

If i was selling it and became aware of your unease id sack you off as troublemaker end of.
If you won the bidding war stand by your offer and pay the bill. Dont mess with other ppls lives.

The OP could instruct a RICS surveyor to value it and then he would know for sure what his house is worth. Would cost about £250 and them you would know for sure.

Those building surveys that mortgage providers insist up on should be the next “ppi” type shite to be investigated and refunded to many who stumped up for **** all.

I'd quite like the money back from mine. Thankfully nothing as bad as the OP but more than enough that I wouldn't have bought this house, even at the low rate I did

Sounds like something you could beat yourself up about for years to come, or make the most of it, adjust the plan slightly to enable you to ride out any sense of negative equity and enjoy living in Brizzle in the meantime.

Life is short, little is certain, money is temporary.

We bought our house in Southville (one of the earlier up-and-coming areas of Bristol) in 2010, for £310k. At the time, it felt like a huge amount and of course it came with Victorian running costs. As has been said, these inner urban formerly working class houses often haven't been well maintained.

If you like the house and the area, then forget the numbers once you've bought it. It's only worth a certain value on the day you sell it and, so long as your next house is more expensive, it arguably helps to have price falls (as the cash gap closes). It should only be a concern if you plan to cash out of property soon altogether.

Thanks all.

It's the deviousness on the part of the sellers that has really made it hard to swallow. E.g. We move in and there's a handwritten note that said ''when we were moving our stuff out the loft, we noticed some damp patches. You may want to look at that.'' - i.e. pleading ignorance, but when we went up there, it was pissing in rain in several areas, there was (old, water stained) cardboard laid to catch leaks, old gaffa tape at base of chimney breast, mastic on areas of the roof felt to try and stave off leaks.

And...the survey didn't comment on the front valleys where it's worst, as it was (deliberately) piled high full of stuff (placed there by the sellers to cover up the leaks and rot). So of course both the surveyor has a get out clause (not being able to move stored effects), and the sellers can plead ignorance.

It's the same theme for most of other defects, covered up with paint/furniture/caveats, lies. E.g. ''Ah, we don't bother using the dishwasher'' - we move in, and it simply doesn't work!

As above though, just one of those incredibly expensive, frustrating problems one has to learn and grow from: 1. Don't get a survey, 2. Walk around with builders and get their opinion, 3. Don't trust sellers - satisfy yourself with your own evidence.

The above said, the latter posts above are right - not the way to look at things, and just best to get on with enjoying living there and not worrying too much about the future.

Anyone that's bought a house in the last 10 years has probably over-paid, once the economy tanks post-Brexit, inflation rises and the house market collapses...

The standard survey exists to benefit the bank not the purchaser and cannot be relied on. The bank wants to check you aren't committing fraud by getting a mortgage to purchase a house that is vastly overvalued or buying a house that is about to fall down. They know all houses need money spent on them, so they don't care about it needing 30% of the purchase price to make it 'nice', which is why their terms and conditions exclude so much.

The bank surveyor for our house didn't even step foot inside the house, they just looked outside!

On the plus side, they only way you can ensure a trouble free experience is to buy a new house with a warranty, but this has it's own drawbacks. Good luck with your claim!

If it can be extended into the loft, and you plan to do this I wouldnt regret it. I did the same once, but not by as much.

If you are going to leave it as is, and it is not a long term home, have another think.

Anyone that’s bought a house in the last 10 years has probably over-paid, once the economy tanks post-Brexit, inflation rises and the house market collapses…

while that may come to fruition- you cant live in the bank with your money (which will also be tanking when inflation rises - along with rent rises because of all of the above)

I know where id rather be.

We are about to put my wife's house on the market, we've told the estate agent of all the known issues (basically everything bar the roof, walls and floors need replacing) but are reliant on the estate agent passing that information on 🤔

It's a bit gutting now, but in the scheme of things, if you're planning to make it a home, and it's as good as you say it is, then it won't matter too much.

It depends what you're prepared to take on. I got the tour around a 'doer-upper' in the Dales (owned by friends of my daughter) last night. The substantial amount of work needed didn't phase them at all, and it will be beyond stunning when it's done. Plus they now own this:

I was gobsmacked, my daughter said it had a small waterfall in the garden 🙂

Apparently it fills right up almost to the gate when the river is in spate.