Which would you go for?

We’re now 5 weeks down the line from having our offer accepted (nice scalable house in perfect location) but the vendor still hasn’t even sent their docs to the solicitor. They’re just causing delay after delay. So I said this week that we’d start viewings elsewhere (as a backup). Bit of a shame because house is a blank canvas that we can thankfully afford to do up + location really is spot on. Re schooling we’d probably not have to move for 15+ yrs.

New house on the market this morning. 10% cheaper, improved throughout, similar amount of internal space but a huge garden and double garage. Unlikely to need any work done. Decent enough village. Re schooling, may only be suitable for 4-5 yrs max so we’d then have to move.

Penny for your thoughts pls …

Location

Location.

That’s what we did last year.
Worth it.

Huge garden and double garage is pushing me heavily to the second one but the first is the sensible choice.

Always location.

Location.

But then again, the new house has a double garage… Doe sit have power? A workbench?

Location every single time

schools can change in 5 years, parents should be a bigger influence?

Location, particularly with regard to riding. Settling in to the house we bought in Urmston, though not feeling too settled.

We moved from Braemar!

I’d normally agree with location, location, location. But I’m getting the hump with the agent and vendor. Yes I know, patience is not always my greatest virtue.

Garage has power, yes. Plus we’ll have a fair bit of cash to convert half of it into a gym and the other half into an office/studio. Plenty of parking already available.

Mikewsmith is spot on re schools – we have been in our house for 18 years – infant school was brilliant, now ok, juniors was awful, now good, secondary has been up and down. Changes of head and teachers has a massive effect. Unless there are other factors re location, a house that’s already done leaves extra spendo for a new bike. 😀

Depends. If it was choice between shit tip in idyllic village or palace in troubled urban sprawl then location choice would win for me but sounds like your choice is less clear cut.

The second property sounds like its in a decent enough spot with all the other benefits you mention on top. I’d be giving the second option serious thought.

Location every time.

Whatever time scale you set yourself for completion, double it. cos that’s how long it takes. I’ve no idea why, it just does. As certain as death and taxes. Hang in there, it’ll go through eventually.

schools can change in 5 years, parents should be a bigger influence?

I agree. While growing up, my mum used to say to me “Education begins at home”. As a parent, that’s where my focus/priority is.

The thing to bear in mind is that while the infant school is great, the primary and secondary ones are several miles away, pretty ropey and not in nice areas. I don’t care how much they improve, the areas are not where I want little monkey to be schooled (and that’s having known those areas for 30 yrs with nothing changing). Hence probably having to uproot.

Have you spoken to current vendor as to why they are dragging their heels? 5 weeks is a long time, you should be completing in 6.

I have been in a similar situation re location. Just agreed on a house that wasn’t my first preference due to location, schools, park and shops all within walking distance. Not the country house a few miles from town that I preferred.

To paraphrase; 5 weeks from accepting offer vendor has done nothing.

Having bought a house 2 years ago, had an offer accepted and found myself in a similar position.

One very frank discussion with the estate agent revealed that the vendor had accepted a previous offer from which the purchasers pulled out. I transpired the vendors had put their house on the market to establish if they could sell it, before even thinking about where this wished to move to. I cut my losses and moved on

Its entirely up to you; hang out if you think the house is absolutely perfect and worth the risk of finding yourself several weeks/months down looking for another property.

Nice house + perfect location = nicer.

Be patient, a few weeks / months of jumping through the sellers hoops will pay off in the long run, go look at your figures to remind yourself how much it actually costs to move again (stamp duty, solicitors etc).

But you’d be silly not to have a Plan B, Plan C, Plan D….

Its not as clear cut as just plain and simple ‘Location’ a lot of the time. We moved to a location that wasn’t our top choice, but was still acceptable for our circumstances, so that we could get a bigger house and garden for our money. And with Captain Hindsight at the helm, it was definitely the right thing to do.

The vendor is taking the piss – either they do something , or you should move on ..

Well, the vendor lives overseas so all comms go through the agent. House is vacant too. Keep receiving assurances that the vendor is 100% committed to selling but that won’t cut the mustard until I see action.

Whatever time scale you set yourself for completion, double it. cos that’s how long it takes

Don’t do this! It will then end up taking double that time. See Hofstadter’s_law

Ask for email address/phone number of vendor (Johnny foreigner now has the technology) and speak direct and see what they have to say. Estate agents lie continually.

Location.

Although we found a house with a double garage, AND workshop. The downside was the completely shrubberised garden and ninety’s decor. In our case that’s in an outer London borough, with a direct line into London 6 minutes walk from my door, and the M25 a mile away which for our jobs is perfect.

Do some research though, becuase, and have some patience because in my case despite talking to the vendor, visiting the house numeropus times throughout different times of the day:

a) Its taken use a year to (literally this week) remove the nineties wallpaper, due to work, kids and a new baby last October

b) 2 weeks after we moved in we realised across the street was a family(s) of romanian gipsies. Now, I’ve not issues and we never had any problems at all with them, but they do come with a reputation which was confirmed by the local shopkeepers. Anyway, they’ve moved out now so all’s well.

Despite how nice the house can/will be, when the kids leave school we will be looking to move outside the M25, taking our increasing profit margin (fingers crossed) with us.

Location, Location, Location.

You can change a house, but not where it is.

More’s the pity… Been trying to move for almost a year now.

Found the perfect location, good price, needing a bit of a tarting up… problem is the seller can’t find anywhere for themselves… and in the mean time I’ve sold my house three times 😯

It’s gone a bit quiet (summer hols) so may well pull mine for the time being and wait until my seller finally finds somewhere.

Glad we are happy where we are but a drag that life seems to be on hold ??

+1 to questioning the vendor. You might hear an answer you don’t want to hear, but at least you’ll know. 4 or 5 weeks doing nothing isn’t on the cards IMO.

Go with your gut instinct. Or, as a safer bet, do what your wife says.

Ask for email address/phone number of vendor

I’ll do that on Tue if nothing has been received by the solicitor.

Estate agents lie continually

IME the older/wiser/maturer agents have been very sound. It’s the younger ones that don’t seem to give a sh1t.

Location first and foremost but a big garden is always awesome as is a nice big garage.

a big garden is always awesome as is a nice big garage.

You’re not helping 😯

Buying a house that needs improvements and can be extended in a great location is alwasy going to pay off IME. You can add value and expect good capital growth.

In the past I have sweetened deals for the vendor to move things along…

In the past I have sweetened deals for the vendor to move things along…

What did you do? I’m not in the mood to sweeten them with anything TBH.

Gave them cash!

The thing to bear in mind is that while the infant school is great, the primary and secondary ones are several miles away, pretty ropey and not in nice areas. I don’t care how much they improve, the areas are not where I want little monkey to be schooled

If the school is good, why does it matter where it’s located?

dont buy based on schools alone.
its just a heart string puller from the estate agents, schools change.

If the school is good, why does it matter where it’s located?

House A means going to schools in a very nice area. We know it well and have friends there. House B (several miles from House A) means a very good infant school but then a choice of ropey primary/secondary ones several miles away in a rather chavvy location. Class thing or not, I’d prefer monkey going to the former.

its just a heart string puller from the estate agents, schools change.

It’s not the agent saying this. TBH he doesn’t even know the village particularly well. We, on the other hand do – and it ticks just about all the boxes location-wise.

djglover – Member

Gave them cash!

you are aware that unless that proved part of the final transaction it is tax fraud..!?

anyway back to the OP – Give them a final warning and stipulate a date to adhere to..

Based on that above Spacemonkey, got for plan A.

Schools really don’t change that much in decent areas. You can take a punt at hoping a chav school will improve

Does your kids really want to be upped and moved to new school without friends? Rather have the friends in the nice location first time around.

How you get a move on with the vendor, thats the problem.

We ended up waiting on two houses as the first was her parents family home when they died and she was reluctant to move, the other was just seeing if people would buy and then changed her mind. It’d be best to just find out either way. Get est agent to find out – it’s in their interestes as they won’t get paid if seller pulls out.

2nd house, nothing to do DIY wise and double garage would do it for me!

the other was just seeing if people would buy and then changed her mind

There are cases of people doing this on the morning of exchange! One involved the two parties agreeing to complete that same afternoon – so the buyer had sold up, got their belongings ready along with a removal firm, only to receive a call minutes before exchange saying the seller had pulled out as he just wanted too prove to his bank that he could raise funds for his business!

House A means going to schools in a very nice area. We know it well and have friends there. House B (several miles from House A) means a very good infant school but then a choice of ropey primary/secondary ones several miles away in a rather chavvy location. Class thing or not, I’d prefer monkey going to the former.

Yup, but you were saying that you wouldn’t send your kid to school in area B regardless of how much it improves.

That said, not having to ferry the little ‘un to school every day will be a huge bonus.