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House buying questions

25K views 303 replies 27 participants last post by  type3 
#1 ·
That's right, as if there wasn't enough going on in the world, we are attempting to move! Actually, we have been thinking about it for a long time, and now we've decided the area we want to move to, we have got on with prepping our house.

It went on the market last Thursday, first viewing was the next day, and they have offered us the asking price. They are sold, to a first time buyer, their finances check out as far as they can, so we're on :)

We have narrowed down our choice to two houses, both of which we are visiting next Monday, and I wanted to get some info in advance, as one of them is a bit of a departure for us.

House number 1 is on the edge of town, with views over fields. It's a 3 storey, 6 bedroom detached, with more than enough internal space for every eventuality, double garage, and a reasonable-ish size plot. It was built in 2005 in a development of 4 "executive homes" and although a "select" development, it's on an estate, albeit the edge of one. That's really the issue with it, other house close by, and not a lot of space around it.

House 2 is in a small village a few miles outside of town. Built 11 years ago on a plot of land bought from the owner's parents. It has much more land, a large drive and big double garage. The house itself is 4 bedroom, and is actually quite modest, but straightforward, with enough space (2000sq ft, compared to the 1500 we have now, and the 3000 of house 1)

The basic question of town or country is one that only we can answer, so I'm not really after opinions on that. What is in the mix however, are some details concerning house 2. Whereas house 1 has mains water, drainage, gas, etc, and conventional central heating, house 2 does not...

It does have mains electricity and water, but not drainage, so the first question is what it's like to live with a bio-digester system. Does it need regular emptying, or maintenance? Is there a limitation on what cleaning products can be used?

It was built to be fairly energy efficient, and has a ground source heat pump with underfloor heating throughout. From what I have read on this, it's a really good combination as the relative low temperature from the heat pump needs large area heat sources. My concern is whether it is an efficient way of heating water for washing, etc.?

It has a gas cooker, using LPG cylinders, although I'm not so worried about this as I presume it'll be easy to have a regular delivery.

Although house 2 is more expensive, we are leaning towards village life at the moment, assuming that the points above are not going to be a pain to live with.

What thinks the hive mind?
 
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#2 ·
My parents have some sort of on site drainage/sewage system. It's shared with the property next door. No issues in 20+ years of living there. It gets emptied about every eighteen months.

LPG in cylinders is (comparatively) ridiculously expensive. Changing to a gas tank brings the price of gas right down.

My parents have a special insurance for the water supply, less than a fiver a month. You're responsible for where it meets your boundary to the property. Theirs is about 600 metres and up a hill, so worth it. United Utilities wanted over £50k to replace the current feed.
 
#7 ·
My parents have some sort of on site drainage/sewage system. It's shared with the property next door. No issues in 20+ years of living there. It gets emptied about every eighteen months.

LPG in cylinders is (comparatively) ridiculously expensive. Changing to a gas tank brings the price of gas right down.

My parents have a special insurance for the water supply, less than a fiver a month. You're responsible for where it meets your boundary to the property. Theirs is about 600 metres and up a hill, so worth it. United Utilities wanted over £50k to replace the current feed.
Good shout re the water, there's a lot more pipe between the road and house than where I am now!

I have gas cylinders at my house to do the hob and the boiler. The boiler is ridiculously expensive to run, but the hob isn't. Just make sure you put a bit back as it's a lot of money in one go to replace the cylinders. Mine are the big tall ones. I have since had a pellet burner fitted which is doing a good job of heating the house, so I only use the boiler for hot water now.

The gas thing didn't put me off buying the house though as I knew it was the one for me when I saw the double garage with 2 post lift :D
I was assuming that the cylinders are expensive to buy initially, but then you are effectively only paying for the gas, but could be wrong. As far as I know it's only for the hob.

^^^^this wins for me.

I personally would categorize the downsides as small, compared to the gains.
Both houses have a similar size garage, although the town one has two doors rather than one. There's more driveway in the country though...

Living in in the sticks is not such a hardship and the benefits outweigh the disadvantages as far as I am concerned.

The rules of thumb are - gas for hob, not oven - certainly not boiler.

Heating preference in this order -

1, ground source
2, air source
3, gas,
4,oil.

Klargester type treatment plant uses a little electric, but not much and very rarely needs emptying.
You get a discount on water rates too.
Thanks, that's helpful. Gas is only for cooking, I would assume only for the hob rather than the oven, and I believe that the heating uses no gas at all.

Heating is deffo ground source - it was built, and is currently owned by, a plumber, so I am imagining anything pipe related will be top notch!
 
#3 ·
I have gas cylinders at my house to do the hob and the boiler. The boiler is ridiculously expensive to run, but the hob isn’t. Just make sure you put a bit back as it’s a lot of money in one go to replace the cylinders. Mine are the big tall ones. I have since had a pellet burner fitted which is doing a good job of heating the house, so I only use the boiler for hot water now.

The gas thing didn’t put me off buying the house though as I knew it was the one for me when I saw the double garage with 2 post lift :D
 
#5 ·
Living in in the sticks is not such a hardship and the benefits outweigh the disadvantages as far as I am concerned.

The rules of thumb are - gas for hob, not oven - certainly not boiler.

Heating preference in this order -

1, ground source
2, air source
3, gas,
4,oil.

Klargester type treatment plant uses a little electric, but not much and very rarely needs emptying.
You get a discount on water rates too.
 
#8 ·
Having looked at all the planning documents on-line, it is a Klargester system. I think they are one of the biggest in the UK for this type of stuff and have a base near where I live now.

Apparently, it filters the effluent and discharges "clean" water into the storm drains. Seems that the neighbour at the time was concerned about it as there are letters in the planning documents with his comments.
 
#9 ·
Last time I looked into it, on the LPG front:

A big cylinder (47kg) costs around £70-75 and holds about 90 litres of gas. Gas in bulk is around 30-35p a litre.

I think an above ground tank is free, but you'll need to sort your own concrete slab. Below ground installation, about £1000.

Don't paint your tank to look like Thomas the Tank. Don't box it in, or if you do leave about a metre around it. If you know you're due a delivery, pick up any dog/cat sh1t in garden, we don't like reeling in hoses covered in it and are likely to drive off without filling your tank. Oh, tea with milk, no sugar. Biscuits are welcome, but not essential. :D
 
#13 ·
Quick update - went to see the country house yesterday, along with another in town (but not the new estate one, this was a large 3 storey stone built end of terrace). The one in town was OK, but it was smaller inside than it looked, and due to it being a main house and a cottage in the garden joined together, it was a weird long layout downstairs, where you had to walk through rooms to get to other rooms. It was also quite shabby in places, and there looked to be a lot of making good. No garage, but a substantial garage sized building in the garden with electrics.

The house out in the country was as expected from the photos, not a huge plot, but substantial front and rear, with views to die for in all directions. Garage is amazing, with a room over it, stairs and all we'd need, plus a generous driveway. House itself is a fairly small 4 bed, although well laid out, and with a large en-suite to the master bedroom. The loft has been made into a useable but occasional room, with stairs. Downsides are that the bedrooms are quite small, and a low roof makes them feel smaller, plus the windows upstairs are in dormers and are also very small. I am guessing that this was a planning constraint, and in keeping with the cottage style, but it doesn't help to open up the rooms.

We did make an offer yesterday, lower than the asking price, and are waiting for a response. We know that there are some viewings today, one of whom is a cash buyer, so aren't too hopeful TBH. We can't go any higher really as we will need to leave some cash to add a necessary outdoor workroom.

I know with a constraint on budget, there's always going to be a compromise somwehere, but it's proving really hard to find what we want.
 
#15 ·
We've been looking for months, and at various times had thought that the "country house" was the one, but that position had been occupied by a number of options over the time.

It's only now that we have sold that we can really start viewing, and even then we are looking to move quite a way, so it's a 2+ hour journey to view anything. We are also finding that estate agent photos are great at making everything look huge!

We haven't heard anything yet about our offer, so I am expecting them to reject it, and as I'm sure you can detect from the previous post, we're not dead set on this one, so are happy-ish to let it go if someone offers more.
 
#19 ·
Offer has been rejected as predicted, but it seems that the 3 viewings today did not produce an acceptable offer either. Two, including the cash buyer, were looking to downsize and found it too big, and the other has "a lot to think about" before they make an offer.

If we up ours a little we could have it, but it's never that simple. If we had our hearts set on that location, we probably would go for it, but we have an idea now to look at a slightly different area, to try and find the one (or something that we could make into it) so we shall see what happens.
 
#20 ·
Viewed some more this weekend, one was a very old cottage right in the centre of a town, but with what looked to be a reasonably large plot. We could see from the pictures that the house was in need of some attention, and was a weird layout (en-suite bathroom with a balcony anyone?) with tiny bedrooms, but it was cheaper, and maybe there was scope for development. It was a definite no on that score - everything was smaller in reality, the garden was all at the front (back of the cottage IS the boundary wall) and on a steep slope, and it was a very damp and small space.

Next up was a bit of a wild card, right at the top of the budget, another rural one, with 2 acres of land. It was a lovely property, originally a gamekeeper's cottage that has been recently extended. Bit quirky, with 3 bedrooms upstairs and one down, 3 en-suites, but no family bathroom or separate downstairs toilet, a lovely bespoke kitchen with oil fired Rayburn doing heating, water and cooking, but with an electric oven and induction hob alongside, study, breakfast room and lounge. Garden is amazing, and there's a massive workshop, complete with authentic barn find car!

It's got decent Internet with a wireless line of sight setup, and as it is used as a repeater to other properties, it's free, apparently. Mains electric and water, septic tank for waste (owner has been there 30+ years and it's never needed emptying!) and an oil tank, that he said is pretty economical. There is a neighbour, but at a distance, and farms all around, plus it is 10 minutes from the nearest town. So far so good.

Big question is about the workshop - it's an old farm building with a curved corrugated asbestos roof, and I am not sure whether that is a problem or not. From what I have read, this use of asbestos is fairly safe, as it's encased in concrete and is a stable material in general. Obviously, it's a problem if there are breakages, and it just feels like a bit of an issue. If we did move there, we'd probably want to remove the workshop anyway, and replace with something in a different place to give more parking and turning options as the house and drive are right in the corner of the plot, making juggling multiple cars a bit of a bind.

Questions for those that know:
- Would the workshop be picked up on a survey as an issue, and would it be a requirement for it to be dealt with, or more an advisory?
- How much of a problem would it be really?

We're still struggling with the decision on whether to go full rural, and are finding the compromises so difficult...
Do we have an older property with character, or a newer one with a more logical layout (and usually bigger rooms)
Do we have space inside or outside?
Do we want to live in town or out of town?
Ideally, we'd be on the edge of town, with a big plot all around us, in a big house, able to turn one way and walk into open country, or turn the other and walk to the shops. Problem is, where those houses exist, we can't afford them!
 
#21 ·
I'm currently having an outbuilding converted into a studio for my son, it had the corrugated asbestos roof, it was there when I bought the property 10 years ago and it didn't cause an issue with regards to mortgage. The guys removed the roof last week and have replaced it with tiles over the weekend, they removed it carefully wearing masks, didn't make a fuss or cause any problems for me, I wouldn't worry about it.

Regarding your oil heating, again I have that at my house, I put it in 10 years ago when I bought the house and it's great, I have a large tank (2000ltrs) which I fill when oil's cheap (it's dirt cheap at the mo!) and it's really quite economical, I have an outdoor boiler too which is great. The house is mainly heated by the log burner but it's nice to have the heating and a combi boiler for hot water.

I have LPG for my hob, with an electric oven, again it's really economical and not any hassle really, I reckon I use a bottle (about £28) a year or so, I have two bottles here at any point so when it runs out I just switch bottles meaning I'm never left with no gas.

The rest of your questions, only you can work out really, living in the sticks isn't for everyone.
 
#22 ·
I'm currently having an outbuilding converted into a studio for my son, it had the corrugated asbestos roof, it was there when I bought the property 10 years ago and it didn't cause an issue with regards to mortgage. The guys removed the roof last week and have replaced it with tiles over the weekend, they removed it carefully wearing masks, didn't make a fuss or cause any problems for me, I wouldn't worry about it.

Regarding your oil heating, again I have that at my house, I put it in 10 years ago when I bought the house and it's great, I have a large tank (2000ltrs) which I fill when oil's cheap (it's dirt cheap at the mo!) and it's really quite economical, I have an outdoor boiler too which is great. The house is mainly heated by the log burner but it's nice to have the heating and a combi boiler for hot water.

I have LPG for my hob, with an electric oven, again it's really economical and not any hassle really, I reckon I use a bottle (about £28) a year or so, I have two bottles here at any point so when it runs out I just switch bottles meaning I'm never left with no gas.

The rest of your questions, only you can work out really, living in the sticks isn't for everyone.
Thanks for the info, that's useful. I have heard that oil is economical and the house also has a log burner in the middle of the kitchen, with a plentiful supply of wood on-site, so I don't think it will be cold. The newer parts also have underfloor electric heating, so it should be cosy.

Yes, we have to have a think about whether we want to be so rural, and that's what is exercising us at the moment.
 
#26 ·
Firstly, welcome to the current nightmare that is the buyers property market :lol:
We are looking to buy after the house we were almost ready to exchange on was pulled out from under us. We have good buyers for our house so we're not going to lose them, which means probably moving out to stay with parents until we find something else :(

We are finding it incredibly difficult to find something at a reasonable price, as everyone is still trying to get top dollar (we can't complain too much, we got top dollar for our place) and I'm loathed to pay over the odds if prices are going to start falling after the stamp duty holiday ends.

It does sound to me like you need to firstly make the decision about rural vs urban. Old, character properties are lovely, but they come with their own set of fun things that may not suit everyone. Wonky walls, low ceilings, smaller rooms, little storage and they need looking after. Our current property was built somewhere between 1800 and 1840 and although it's lovely, lots of character etc, it was severely neglected by the previous owners for 15 years and took us over 2 years to fix all their bad DIY and uncover and fix all sorts of issues. And it will always need looking after and maintaining to keep it looking as nice as it does now we're finished.

As much as I love old cottages, I now don't have the freedom of as much spare time to buy another one. A stupidly busy job means we're now looking for something more modern :rolleyes:
The house we were due to buy was a 1960's semi, which was dated but really well looked after. It had the storage and bigger rooms that we wanted so we are sticking with this sort of era now we are back searching. I would definitely struggle to live on a modern housing estate, it's just not for me.

I think if you are prepared to have a house that needs looking after, you're aware of the limitations on having modern creature comforts or the expense of retrospectively putting them in, rural old properties will always be desireable. In the first 'wave' of people buying when the market reopened, everyone wanted to be in the countryside and I don't see that changing soon. So in terms of resale if you ever needed to sell on, being in the countryside definitely has it's benefits.

More important than anything we are finding right now, is paying the right price for a property whatever it is. We set our walk-away price for the house that fell through, and agreed that we wouldn't pay a penny more. We will do the same on anything else we look at now and if it takes us months to find somewhere else, so be it.

Good luck, I hope you can make the best decision on your priorities and find a great new place. I'm just going to try my best not to swear at estate agents for the next month or so :lol:
 
#28 ·
Firstly, welcome to the current nightmare that is the buyers property market :lol:
We are looking to buy after the house we were almost ready to exchange on was pulled out from under us. We have good buyers for our house so we're not going to lose them, which means probably moving out to stay with parents until we find something else :(

We are finding it incredibly difficult to find something at a reasonable price, as everyone is still trying to get top dollar (we can't complain too much, we got top dollar for our place) and I'm loathed to pay over the odds if prices are going to start falling after the stamp duty holiday ends.

It does sound to me like you need to firstly make the decision about rural vs urban. Old, character properties are lovely, but they come with their own set of fun things that may not suit everyone. Wonky walls, low ceilings, smaller rooms, little storage and they need looking after. Our current property was built somewhere between 1800 and 1840 and although it's lovely, lots of character etc, it was severely neglected by the previous owners for 15 years and took us over 2 years to fix all their bad DIY and uncover and fix all sorts of issues. And it will always need looking after and maintaining to keep it looking as nice as it does now we're finished.

As much as I love old cottages, I now don't have the freedom of as much spare time to buy another one. A stupidly busy job means we're now looking for something more modern :rolleyes:
The house we were due to buy was a 1960's semi, which was dated but really well looked after. It had the storage and bigger rooms that we wanted so we are sticking with this sort of era now we are back searching. I would definitely struggle to live on a modern housing estate, it's just not for me.

I think if you are prepared to have a house that needs looking after, you're aware of the limitations on having modern creature comforts or the expense of retrospectively putting them in, rural old properties will always be desireable. In the first 'wave' of people buying when the market reopened, everyone wanted to be in the countryside and I don't see that changing soon. So in terms of resale if you ever needed to sell on, being in the countryside definitely has it's benefits.

More important than anything we are finding right now, is paying the right price for a property whatever it is. We set our walk-away price for the house that fell through, and agreed that we wouldn't pay a penny more. We will do the same on anything else we look at now and if it takes us months to find somewhere else, so be it.

Good luck, I hope you can make the best decision on your priorities and find a great new place. I'm just going to try my best not to swear at estate agents for the next month or so :lol:
Cheers Gemski, a very well written and useful post. We have made an offer on that property and are waiting on the response from the agent that will hopefully come today.

I totally get the comments about it being an older property, and there are of course some compromises about it compared to a newer house in a town. On the plus side, the owner has been there for 30 years and has fairly recently (2008ish) extended it to add a larger lounge, upstairs bedroom and downstairs bedroom. All the new bits appear to have been done to a high standard, and as he's a carpenter by trade, there are lots of lovely bespoke touches, including the whole kitchen. Although there may be more maintenance required, it should hopefully not need too much, and I am quite handy.

The land is an absolute bonus, and I am quite excited about having a very large outdoor workshop :D

We shall see...
 
#27 ·
Really good points ^^ As much as character etc is lovely, old houses need constant maintenance which is one thing if you're practical and have time, but another if you're busy and/or have no DIY skills. I can't even hang a picture, completely useless, so living in an older property is an absolute pain tbh, not least is it expensive paying for trades to do stuff but it's a pain trying to book people in etc. I think the older I get the more a modern house appeals tbh!
 
#41 ·
Congratulations, and good luck - keep us posted.
Even if it is all straight forward and without issues, I Look forward to hearing it is all buttoned up about April.

Doing a drive by on a potential place at the weekend... double garage and a workshop. Has a riding stable down the road for the other half's raw lasagne :p

It is however in Cornwall :vomit: and would triple my commute and add a toll bridge into the mix
:lol: @ "Raw Lasagne" :lol:

Good luck.:)

What does the collective think of buying a fire damaged wreck, purely for investment purposes? Any specific areas of concern regarding the bricks and mortar?

My lad is thinking of buying one. It would cost most of his savings. He's just starting in the building game, so he could sit on it and sell it later as it is or restore it when he's got the funds and skills.

My thoughts are, it's got to be a better investment than a bank. We're talking less than 15k all in.
Unbelievable.

I looked at a house last week in my village.
It is a little three bedroom place which has been derelict and abandoned for at least a decade. Has significant structural problems caused by severe settlement. The house is totally overgrown, a machete had to be used to get to the door (true thing) windows are all broken and the ivy has colonised the inside of the house even growing across the ceiling.
A small plot in the middle of an ex council estate.

Just under 200k

The reason I posted all that /\ is to show just how different our worlds are when it comes to property. Having said that, I don't feel I could offer anything useful.
 
#31 ·
Don't underestimate the size of the woodpile you will need each year! And good burning wood (oak, beech, chestnut etc) takes quite a while to properly season. Do you will need cover to dry our newly felled stuff.

Pallet wood, "pine" and birch = you will be astounded how fast you get through that stuff.

So plan on some significant log and chopped wood storage.

And fingers crossed for you.
 
#36 ·
Good luck.:)

What does the collective think of buying a fire damaged wreck, purely for investment purposes? Any specific areas of concern regarding the bricks and mortar?

My lad is thinking of buying one. It would cost most of his savings. He's just starting in the building game, so he could sit on it and sell it later as it is or restore it when he's got the funds and skills.

My thoughts are, it's got to be a better investment than a bank. We're talking less than 15k all in.
 
#44 · (Edited)
Mortgage was approved just after Christmas, so that's a pretty major tick in the box (apart from paying it of course), and it looks like we are on track with everything else. Actually starting to believe that it might just happen.

Electricians visiting tomorrow to retest and certify the electrics of our current house, because although they did it a couple of years ago when we had the kitchen done, we didn't get a certificate and they can't find it. Once that's done, we should be good to go.

Next job is sorting through 20+ years of "stuff", some of which was put into boxes when we left our respective childhood homes and just moved from loft to loft! Already filled one skip last year, suspect another will be required shortly. We won't have a loft to speak of at the new place, so we need to reduce substantially and what's left will have to be stored in the (rather generous) outbuilding.
 
#46 ·
Things are really starting to hot up now, our buyers have had all their searches done, and we have now got all our various completion certificates and other documents sorted. Our searches of the new property are all well under way and preliminary findings are coming in.

One odd thing that has been highlighted is this:

"Reference is made to a Conveyance dated 1 January 1965 which is extracted into the register and reserves a right for John Harford Bradneys and his successors in title at all reasonable times to enter onto the land with horses, dogs, guns, net to hunt, shoot, fish haw and fowl and for the purpose of fishing and carry away all hares, rabbits, partridges, pheasants birds and beasts"

Looking into it, it seems that a young officer (John's father) bought a local country house when he was just 22, and had a new house built on the land. He was the High Sheriff of Monmouthshire and has published a 4 volume history of the area, so was probably quite powerful. He had two sons, one of whom was killed in 1918 in France, and the other being John, who must have inherited the estate. As far as I can see John died in 1962, and had no heirs, so hopefully we are safe.

I would imagine that this is one of those quirky caveats that in reality means nothing, but will check with our solicitor to be on the safe side.

Another thing is that it's a radon affected area, but as I understand it most of the west of the UK is and it's not really an issue.
 
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