Viewing houses – how to pick em?

We’re looking for a house, and unless we’ve been very unlucky, it seems like there are a lot of rubbish houses around.

People seem to either start DIY and then get about 75% of the way through it before running out of steam. Or they complete the DIY but to a horrifically poor standard. I’m talking lumpy plaster in every room, uneven floors and skirting boards that don’t meet walls, not that the silicone round the bath could do with re-doing.

Are there any obvious red flags to avoid viewing absolute guff? It seems nigh on impossible to tell from the listings that not one surface in the whole place is level, or if the photos were taken 10 years ago when the kitchen was freshly fitted.

Try to look through the crap that people do – you can reflect it in the price and undo it later.nit’s the location and the “feel” of the house itself that matter.

Never bothered me; just adjust the offer price accordingly if it’s a contender. It may be trite and hackneyed, but it is all about location; interior/exterior can be changed.

Those sound like minor things that would be fixable. As long as the price reflects the work why not look at them? In fact I’d say look at as many as possible including ones that are too expensive or in the wrong location. It makes it much easier to spot the right house, know the right price and be able to get an offer in quickly.

Pick a very specific area and type of house you want, let the local agent know that you are really keen and ready to move. You will need your ducks in a row. You then get the calls when good houses come up as the agents want to get sales in quick with no fuss.

I chose the one I’m buying just now despite the crud interior.

The fact it had a full size fritzl suite basement and is in peebles swung it.

In the house I’m referring to, the smell of damp hit you in the face as you walked in, it needed re-plastering and decorating throughout, a new bathroom and kitchen – easily somewhere you could have sunk £10-20k into bringing up to standard.

Which would be fine if it was available for £30k below the going rate and mortgage companies were offering 110% LTV mortgages to fund your refurb work.

It was up at the same asking price as freshly re-fitted houses on the same estate, so it was just a waste of time I’m keen to avoid repeating…

So you want a house that needs £10k of work to be on at £30k below market rate? I think you might struggle to find that.

Good houses come and go quickly, bad ones hang around. Just wait.

if you’re in scotland you just look at the home report that can save a huge amount of hassle.

Good houses come and go quickly, bad ones hang around. Just wait

Go and look at good ones and bad ones so you can spot the goods ones straight away. They often sell in a few days so you need to confident and quick.

If a house needed £20k of internal work, I would want it to be something towards £30k cheaper than the equivalent house in ready to go state. £20k isn’t down the back of the sofa money, and you can’t just stick it on your mortgage, so you’ll be getting the work done in dribs and drabs over years. So you have years of living in a building site with some rooms still horrible for much of the time.

Basically, you need more money off than the value of the work that needs doing, otherwise you might as well buy a house that’s already sorted…

Location, size, aspect – the rest is all fixable really. We have bought houses for the site before and then basically rebuilt them !

So you have years of living in a building site

Once year and counting 😀

For balance, I bought my first house on day it went on market and thought “I don’t care what needs doing”

Slightly stupid in hindsight and it’s basically the bodge-job scenario you describe, but because it’s a size and location that’s way better than I should have a right to afford, that fact sees me though the days when I’m at breaking point.

Swings & roundabouts as they say. I’m learning a lot though for *shuddder* next time.

Wait… I have to do it again bear?

Yes, I believe this is the theory humans adopt. Buy shed, fix shed, add value, buy bigger shed, repeat, die. 🙂

I’ve done up two places, on our third right now.
Depends what you want. . My brothers missus for instance only wants a new build .everything brand new.
Some people see DIY disaster ,I see a stripped out building ,rewired,new plaster and lovely.
It takes time and money,I have more time these days,ha.
You have to have a budget for some of the major things you will need to do….
In no particular order Bathroom,kitchen,rewire,heating ,roof,windows ,flooring ,loft extension.
Which can you live with?
Cosmetics really don’t matter,that can be changed
.As for the damp,it can be fixed.
We’ve still got the kitchen to do and combined with living in it with a toddler, it has recently been hardwork.
🙁

We put an offer in on our current house the day after it went on the market, luckily we’ve been really happy here for the past 10 years.

We’ve just spent the afternoon looking at houses, it’s amazing how many look great on rightmove but once you’re there it’s a whole different ball game. Not bothered about minor reworks etc it just seems there’s a lot out there for stupid money which really isn’t much cop.

Don’t know about the OP’s region, but it’s crazy in South Liverpool. Our house has just gone on the market and attracted 8 viewings and two asking price offers on its first day… Buying a house can be fairly crap, but the good ones clearly stand out. 😀

Been here 13 years, most of ’em happy. This proves that humans must forget the pain of buying a house before they do it again.

If you hang on long enough, you’ll get one that has been on the market a while because the photographs were taken by someone completely clueless/coupled with the dark decor makes it look like a dungeon. I think that is essentially what happened with ours, the place is in good nick for 120 years old, has a lovely mature garden. By comparison, our last place was photographed by a professional, who essentially bumped up the exposure to make it look nice and airy, sold in 2 days.

I suspect a lot of people are so up to their neck in debt/paying an unaffordable mortgage that there’s not a lot left to do DIY… so a lot of places will be in poor shape
Right now with house prices going back up, even poor quality places which haven’t been properly done are going on the market at unreasonable prices.
I would wait until later this year if you can, the economic outlook’s likely to be looking a bit different and you’ll likely find it easier to negotiate prices down for places that need work…

@OP – what you describe is estate agents trying to flog you the crap they have. You need to be much clearer on your criteria (while at the same time accepting that your expectations and budget may never quite match up in the area you’re viewing in).

Oh, and calculating 20k renovation cost and expecting a 30k discount is potentially unrealistic in the area you’re looking. Oh and you’ll need to be bucking the general trend on house prices and sales.

Stick at it and, so long as you’re flexible and can see past the decor issues, you’ll find something you can make your own.

Buy mine, it’s lovely.

It was up at the same asking price as freshly re-fitted houses on the same estate, so it was just a waste of time I’m keen to avoid repeating…

Basically, you need more money off than the value of the work that needs doing, otherwise you might as well buy a house that’s already sorted…

sounds like you should look at the refurbished houses rather than those that need work

This^

Putting aside wether its over priced or not.

If you see a house which requires 20k of work which you can’t afford then it’s just a house you can’t afford, its irrelevant what it might be worth.

To get a house that is ready to move in to you will pay a premium, plus nothing is always to your own taste.

We got £60k off the asking price of ours as every room needed work.

We moved in last week
With 2 undrrs 5s its been hard work

And to get the house/location we wanted we’ve had to go for a place that’s in need of quite a bit of work

But we negotiated based on the cost of the work and what we can afford

Now I’mI’m off to IKEA before settling in to an afternoon of painting

Wweeve just spent 3 days cleaning though, hygiene standards where somewhat different for the previous owners

if you’re in scotland you just look at the home report that can save a huge amount of hassle.

It’s a start but not the whole story, mine picked up loads of ridiculous rubbish like squint cupboard doors (normal adjustable hinges) but not that the extension had no warrant or planning permission and was essentially peeling off the back wall (had the surveyor actually been doing his job it would have been quite obvious) amongst other defects.

Sure, bodges can hide under the floor only to be discovered later but relying on a minimum standard home report isn’t wise.

The operative being being can.

Its a reasonable first glance thing to check for 3s and assess wether its worth a visit Not the be all and all.

I used to work in a DIY store and witnessed what people would buy to bodge bits before selling a house. I’m actually doing things right before we sell ours.

When it comes to repairs on viewed properties my feeling is that if the obvious stuff has been bodged or done to a poor standard then you can assume that the less obvious might be crap too. Doesn’t mean that I wouldn’t be interested in the house but I’d want to inspect it thoroughly myself (not rely on the survey) before making a decision.

We are in the process of purchasing what can only be described as a shed in Wales, but the views from every window are epic and that’s what we are paying for.

But from my Home Report it is obvious that it told us nothing at all of any substance about the home we were buying. It could have honestly said anything for all the good it was.

I’m in this predicament now. My house sold in 10days as it was worth the money(I’d invested in keeping on top of maintenance). However some of the prices on the places we are looking at are barking. Examples are: not been decorated in 20 years, original kitchen and bathroom that are dropping to bits. Zoopla and right move are my life ATM.

[…]original kitchen and bathroom that are dropping to bits[…]

Many agents will advise against a seller updating, as the cost won’t be reflected in the price increase. It may, of course, mean the difference between a sale and no sale. I’d rather have £10k off the price than the vendor spending such.

Unfortunately, the vendors were not budging on price!!! Some stuff has been for sale for almost a year. One place, as well as the house being left to rack and ruin (years of tenants and no money spent) the lean to conservatory needed ripping down as pretty much every UPVC panel was shot. The seller (who lived abroad) was convinced it was the best house on the estate 😆 I do wonder what planet some folk are on!

Monkeychild.

When looking at RM, use Firefox browser with property-bee add on.

No need to thank me 🙂

Lol, do you know what. I had completely forgotten about that add on (chrome user) I used it when we bought our current place. Thanks for the reminder.

If the seller won’t budge, walk away… if in one visit you can tell they’ve not looked after the place, and they’re being unrealistic on price, what’s the chances of you getting a fair deal?…
With the impending electoral mess in the UK + retail sales unexpectedly down last month, Greece within a month or so of running out of cash and Chinese economy slowing up fast I personally don’t think now is a good time to be buying UK property – give it a few months and sellers are likely to be being less bullish… not least because once we’re through the election, whoever’s in power will have less of an incentive to put out as many ‘the economy’s ok, honest guv’, messages as the Tories have been over the last few weeks

I’d rather have £10k off the price than the vendor spending such.

Same here, if I’m going into a refurbished house I’d rather it be my choice than someone elses.

@OP: I know how you feel – there is so much rubbish on the market at the moment and the asking prices are astronomical. Anything decent, or decently priced, is snapped up immediately leaving the dregs left.

I agree with brooess above, this just can’t be sustainable, the real economy can’t support prices this out of whack with earnings, something’s got to give when ordinary people can’t afford ordinary houses. I’m expecting this months LR figures to be down on the month – saving myself a financial faceplant and steering clear until after the election.

I use the appraised addon for chrome – getappraised.net – gives me a rough valuation of listings from their last sold prices and saves me hours of research.

I also recommend property tracker, which is like PB – it doesn’t have as many users as PB but still does a pretty good job, and being for chrome, it saves having to flip back and forth with firefox.