Househunting Misery...

[Pandora II]

FI and I went househunting on Saturday...

The place we were looking is quite a lot further out of London and so cheaper than our own area.

We want to get a 3 bedroom flat or house, but that is looking very unlikely...

We looked at about 7 properties and the best of the bunch was a two bedroom flat in a victorian property. It needs to be completely gutted, and re-decorated. The kitchen is so small that the washing machine is in a cupboard in the sitting room and so we would have to move a wall in order to get a big enough kitchen.

The whole property was around 75 square ft.

The price... $750k and then we''d need to spend about another $150 - 200k on rennovating the place.

I just want to cry!

 

[Selkie]

Ugh, I'm sorry. Living in another insanely spendy housing market, I feel your pain.

 

[Pandora II]

Problem is we want to start a family asap after the wedding and our current house is way too small, so we HAVE to find somewhere.

The kid would be sharing with the hedgehogs and the pythons otherwise. Hmmm, actually I have a spare vivarium...

 

[LegacyGirl]

Date: 3/31/2008 1:26:13 PM
Author: Pandora II
Problem is we want to start a family asap after the wedding and our current house is way too small, so we HAVE to find somewhere.

The kid would be sharing with the hedgehogs and the pythons otherwise. Hmmm, actually I have a spare vivarium...

Stop stop I''m going to cry!!! You are too funny!! I wish you luck with your househunt. Trust me I know how hard it is, things went crazy expensive here and I''m priced out of really everything I want at the moment. I''m waiting for it to go back down now... hopefully it does.

 

[Mrs Mitchell]

I feel your pain, Pandora! I was househunting in Edinburgh a few years ago (not as bad as London but still an insanely expensive part of the UK, out of all proportion).

I gave up. For what I would have spent on a one bedroom ''studio'' flat, I got a nice 4 bed Victorian house in the country with a little bit of land. The flip side is that DH wastes a couple of hours every day commuting in each direction. I couldn''t bear it in the end and took a huge pay cut to get a job locally. Talk about a no - win situation!

On the other hand, my midwife recommends that babies sleep in their parent''s room for the first four to six months (

um, that was never in my plans!) so you might have just a little bit more breathing space than you think before your little one would be sharing with your pet collection!

I wish you luck with this process, I know just how hard and frustrating it can be.

Jen

 

[Tacori E-ring]

I am so sorry Pan! Hope you find the perfect place soon.

 

[Samantha Red]

That is just obscene! I live in a very beautiful village which is considered to be one of the premiere ones in Nottinghamshire and £750k would buy you a very beautiful 4 bed family home with an acre or so of land! Pandora I don''t know London very well, but we have good friends that live in Surbiton. They have a fantastic 4 bed mews house and they go for around £650k ish. It really is stunning and they have just had their first baby so no problems with it being a family home.

 

[Pandora II]

Ah, I was talking dollars not sterling.

If we had £750 we''d be laughing!

Sadly our budget is £350 - £400k max.

I''m a local councillor so have a lot of meetings that finish at midnight - 1am, and FI is in a similar situation so moving outside my constituency is not really an option...

 

[Sha]

Date: 3/31/2008 1:16:59 PM
Author:Pandora II
FI and I went househunting on Saturday...

The place we were looking is quite a lot further out of London and so cheaper than our own area.

We want to get a 3 bedroom flat or house, but that is looking very unlikely...

We looked at about 7 properties and the best of the bunch was a two bedroom flat in a victorian property. It needs to be completely gutted, and re-decorated. The kitchen is so small that the washing machine is in a cupboard in the sitting room and so we would have to move a wall in order to get a big enough kitchen.

The whole property was around 75 square ft.

The price... $750k and then we''d need to spend about another $150 - 200k on rennovating the place.

I just want to cry!

Ugh....that really sucks.

House hunting can be so difficult some times. I hope you find something better than what you''ve seen so far.

 

[zhuzhu]

<The whole property was around 75 square ft.<
Do you mean 1750 sf?
Still, 750k is outrageous!

 

[Keepingthefaith21]

I''ve felt your pain! SO and I spent month after month looking for our home. Just when I had resolved myself to the fact that we were never going to find an affordable home and would be stuck renting a townhouse forever, we found our house.

Don''t despair! You''ll find it!!!!

 

[MichelleCarmen]

I also feel your pain.

I'm about to put my house up for sale and the goal is to down size to a small, simple yard, with a cute 2-3 bd house that doesn't require maintainance, BUT, those little houses aren't much cheaper than what I'm selling my house bigger house for unless the homes are in little grouped up subdivisions. After number crunching, my husband and I have decided to rent for a few years. For 1/3 of the price we can rent and have no hassles of home ownership.

 

[Pandora II]

UPDATE:

We went hunting again yesterday in another area nearer to where we currently live.

We saw about 20 properties and found one we really like.

It''s in budget but too expensive for what it is and was also on the 4th floor which is not ideal (no lift). However, there are 140 properties in the development and they come onto the market quite often.

We''re not selling our current property but turning it into a rental property so we are chain-free and can pounce when the right one comes up.

I have been so excited since I saw this place. I told FI this morning that I wasn''t interested in seeing any more properties as I want to live THERE... seems he feels exactly the same way.

So, we just need to sit and wait - oh, and hope the market drops (which is pretty likely). Hooray!

 

[fisherofmengirly]

Oh that''s good news, Pandora!

Good luck! We''ll be hoping for you!!

 

[Mrs Mitchell]

Yay!!!!

Fingers crossed for you Pandora! I''m glad you found the right place - let us know how things progress!

Jen