EddScott

Our house is a 3 bed semi and is worth about £140K. We have 75K left of the mortgage so after costs and what not we have about £60K equity.

The maximum mortgage we can obtain without going down the route of self assessment (which still happens I might add) is £130K giving us the ability to view houses up to £200K is some are looking for a quick sale perhaps. Other than the mortgage we have no other debts/loans so even if we have to drop to one car between us we can manage.

However there is a problem for us. We have a minimum requirement of 4 bedrooms and the property must be detached. It must have a garage and must be within town so our daughter can still call on friends - not out in the sticks with no one to play with.

The houses that fit this profile are from £230K to £250K. Now we are short 10s of thousands of pounds. So how do we go about getting to the house that we want?

We had thought about spending money on our current house - loft conversion, extension but other houses on the estate have had this work done and don't sell for any more. So apart from keeping the house just so theres not much point spending money on it.

Do we stay where we are and save, or keeping moving up slowly until we get to the place we want to? Wife has no inheritance due and most likely neither do I so its all up to us.

njkmrs

Its a Tricky one to be honest ,but still possible .

If I were you I would be looking at a property with" Do Up " potential .
This way you should be able to get more house for your money ,but it may need work on it .

This is my prefered option .If you are good at DIY then all the better, as you can save on the cost of work required .

Think of it as a long term project .

There are still bargains out there ,you just have to choose carefully and know what you are getting into .

Then in a few years you have the house you want ,in an area you want and that Has increased in value .
Good Luck .

hodgy0_2

also -- maybe a property that can be easily adapted so that initially part of it can be let out to a tenant

we bought a big house in london a few years ago -- turned the ground floor into a flat, the rent covered our mortgage

SunnySideUp

Always buy the WORST house in the BEST area - you can get cheaper and can add value.

If you cannot afford what you want you have two choices:-

1. Borrow more.

2. Sit tight and save.

jonc

3. Get a better paid job.

Fat Boy

4. Become an MP and declare it as a second home.

jonc

5. Squat in your MP's empty second home.

Jay m A

iTrader: (2)

6. Buy a 3 bed detached with extension / loft conv. potential. Mortgage so that theres 25% equity in new property which should leave you some spare. There are also motgages where you can (at a future date) borrow down to 10% to fund the extension / loft conv, increasing your property value getting the equity back.

jonc

7. Look forget the house and buy the Ferrari 430.

Jay m A

iTrader: (2)

8. LOL

stilover

Answered your own question there. To get what you want you may have to move to a 3 bed detached, or a 4 bed semi/terraced in before you can get the 4 bed detached.

stoneface

iTrader: (6)

One rung at a time.

[-(o)-]

iTrader: (1)

Know where you're coming from on this one - the average house price round our way is £401k, a four bed detached in town would be well over £600k. The average salary locally is £26k so do the maths.

Am starting to think we've just got to sit it out and wait for their current occupants to die...

austinwrx

why detached- yr paying a premium for usually a smaller house than a large semi.

my top tip though is buy a bungalow- and go upwards- the footprint of the house is huge and you can get a lot of bedrooms upstairs.

David Lock

[quote=EddScott;8876986]

...........However there is a problem for us. We have a minimum requirement of 4 bedrooms and the property must be detached. It must have a garage and must be within town so our daughter can still call on friends - not out in the sticks with no one to play with.

quote]

Why do you have to have 4 bedrooms? Unless it is for a bedroom then there may be other options like using a dining room or putting on a conservatory.

When our kids were small we lived in a rural type area and most of their pals were 10-15 miles away but you just get used to carting them around and have loads of sleepovers. We did make sure they were near the school bus run though!

And we much preferred living in a rural environment than next to to riff raff in a town with dog mess all over the pavements.

dl

EddScott

Out of town there are larger sized houses close to our budget but the out in the sticks bit puts me off. A work colleague would no more live in town than eat a McDonalds (He's a veggie) and insists on living in the most obscure little villages in the area (this is west wales so there are some very small hamlets dotted over the place - even a Bethlehem)

We don't really need 4 bedrooms but I want a room for my trains and a spare for visitors/another sprog. That sort of thing.


I like the idea but its getting the value back at the end. Our house can have a 20X11 loft conversion but I won't get much change from £15,000. Extending the kitchen/dining room would be another £15,000. Coming to sell time when other houses are £150,000 I can't see ours fetching £180,000.


How do your children cope living in a rural area? There is plenty of rural round here but I am concerned that my daughter would be bored. There aren't that many kids to play with where we are now and shes a bit young to be allowed to go too far to friends houses by herself.

Looked at a house today that was in town and ticked all the boxes. Even has a double garage which would be a bonus for me. Everything is spot on until you go upstairs to the bedrooms. The master bedroom is a reasonable size 13x10 but the other three were pokey as heck at 10x8. Now our small bedroom is too small as bedroom really but the other 2 rooms are a fair old size.

David Lock

Thanks Edd, Our kids coped the same as thousands of kids who don't live in main towns. I'm not talking about tiny hamlets but smallish villages with quite a bit going on. They did all the usual kids growing up things like Brownies, Cubs etc. As a last resort there is so much home stuff to do - PlayStation etc - but I tried to resist this. They are both grown up now so have cars to get around. Public Transport - don't make me laugh.......

I think a lot of it is an age thing as well. We lived in London, Battersea, for many years and it was fine at the time but then when family came along we both felt that it was time to get out. And never regretted it.

And I have watched some of their school pals who stayed in town. Some are fine but many of them were badly influenced by town life. You can see them in gangs any Friday night hanging around outside Tesco Express, half drunk and abusive.

Good job we are all different eh??

dl

Jay m A

iTrader: (2)

I meant do it once you've moved to a detached house you can afford at present, then add the extra room when you want. If you see yourself living at the new property for 5 years+ then the extra work will be worthwhile since you would have all the boxes ticked for minimum outlay.

But if you want to make a profit then you have to take into account the value of the property to start with. If a £30k loft extension with ensuite etc turns a £400k 3 bed into a £460k 4 bed then great, doesn't quite work with a 80k 3 bed though.

PaulC72

Nothing stopping you offering 200k for a 230 - 250k house you never know.

David Lock

I think there is a strong case to be made in saying there is so much more for a kid to do in the country, quite apart from the obvious benefits like fresh air etc etc.

Even something as basic as walking the dog. you don't get some jobsworth telling you it must be on a lead (just a farmer aiming his 12 bore at it if it goes near his sheep )

Playing in the woods with your mates - finding that special bough that makes a perfect place to start a tree climb. Picking fruit that isn't covered in dog's ****. Paddling down a cold stream. Building a huge snowman.

And the kids might as well enjoy it now as the grown-ups are rapidly destroying it In 50 years that stream will have gone or being guarded by a little Chinaman who wants to see your papers.

Isn't nostalgia an odd emotion

dl

SunnySideUp

Detached win every time .... no noise (just your own) - walk around your house completely - feeling of serenity.

Impossible if in an area of Bungalows, Planning just won't wear it ... could get away with it if there is a house either side though.

Fabioso

Having lived in a modern flat then a modern semi and now detached....I'd choose detached every single time regardless of size becos listening to some barking dog, couples at it or adults up and down the stairs, kids screaming would drive me nutty......now living in a detached I don't have any of those gripes I used to have. I know detached doesn't guarantee to be a noise free zone but the air, bricks and mortar help muffle anything that would have got on my **** previously.

For me its worth the premium and then some

EddScott

I've never lived in the countryside. My surroundings don't actually bother me that much. I've looked at some properties that look great then realise that the houses are so close together your garden is under someones bedroom window (wouldn't want to frighten anyone )

My feeling of a rural home is that you can't just pop down the shops. You got to drive a distance just to get a pint of milk. Having said that I like having cats around and I would imagine they'd have a better chance of living to term off busy roads etc.

I'm just looking round at the moment.

One thing though - our house needs some work. Only cosmetic stuff - a bit of painting and the carpets aren't very clever. Should I get that done first and then get a valuation or ask for the valuation and say to the valuer the house will be tidied into a saleable condition assuming we can get a price that means our equity + bigger mortgage will be worth the move.

Jamescsti

I would say for the price of paint and a inexpensive carpet it's definately worth doing, will help you sell no doubt and will probably have a good effect on the value. Just has to look nice.

+Doc+

Paint everything magnolia and get some neutral carpets.
Cheap and gives the buyer a blank canvas.

With regards to your housing problem I am in the same boat, if we wanted to upgrade the difference between our 3 bed extended semi and a 4 bed detached is a hell of a lot.
The question has to be asked, do we need the extra space and consequent bigger running costs?

jonc

Don't forget, if you have kids or plan to have kids, make sure you're in the catchment area of a good school.

EddScott

This is another issue. Is it worth the move moving from one 3 bed to another 3 bed on the basis that eventually you'll have the 4 bed detached we're after.

I even considered selling our house, splitting the 30K on two crappy properties of 100K each and renting them out. We rent for say 5+ years or until I feel the market is peaking again and get out and try to turn a profit.

Speaking to a client today he said its a mine field and theres nothing worth having. He had a large number of houses/flats all around the 20-30K in the late 90s and rented to DSS or the LNG guys (One of the oil refineries was converted to LNG) but the LNG work has dried up and its mostly automated so theres lots of To Let round here.

Only possible is in a town close by that has a power station going up shortly. The town is a complete dive so housing will be cheap.

Think I might just do nothing and buy myself a cheap UK wagon for practical thrills.

CrisPDuk

Forget about a room in the house for that, your other half will only start thinking up reasons to start keeping her stuff in there too

Why don't you start looking at 3 bed properties with a decent sized rear garden that has room for a purpose built shed, and you can go bigger than the average bedroom before you need planning permission. That's where mine will be going eventually

Plus as a bonus, wimmins generally don't like going to the effort of carrying their clutter outside, so you'll be safe from invasion too

EddScott

I have thought about having a shed in the garden. I could a fair sized shed out the back quite easily. Its certainly something to think about but a fair sized shed is still going to be a good few grand.

I had planned to just build in the loft anyway and just avoid walking on the weak bits