7 Mistakes I made Buying a House
Today I’m going to talk about 7 mistakes I made when buying a house. I love my house and I’m happy to own it but I did make quite a few mistakes when buying it. So let me share them with you so that hopefully you can be smarter when buying your property.
Houses beat flats bias
My first mistake was falling for the houses beat flats bias. I grew up in a detached house, built by my grandparents in a quiet district of a small city. Flats were looked down upon by my whole family. I could say that it was because flats at that time meant miserable housing estates with thousands of residents. But in reality, living in a house was status signalling. Nobody even considered the benefits of an alternative.
My first property in London was a flat. One that today would easily make it onto the Never Too Small YouTube channel - it measured slightly over 30 square meters and taught me that I’m not a tiny house person.
When buying this house, my ex-partner who came from a completely different background, having grown up in a council flat in a slightly bigger city next door to mine, was desperate to have a garden. And so, when the search began, and suddenly A HOUSE, yes, with a garden, in our price range appeared on the market, we were keen to buy it.
Once we did, the garden ended up being an eye sore for as long as we lived together. Turns out having a house didn’t get either of us into gardening.
The houses versus flats battle is as pointless as any battle that assumes there is a one-fits-all solution. What helps is to think of a house as something on the periphery, not in the centre of your life. Unless you do want to make your house an all-consuming renovation project or simply don’t mind looking after buildings. Houses come with a much bigger amount of maintenance and equipment to rent or buy. They’re also much less environmentally friendly than flats. If they don’t cost more money, when you compare them to flats with high service charges and leases, they definitely cost more time. You have more control over your surrounding but you have also more TO control. It’s a double-edged sword and so when you are tempted by a house, check in with yourself if it will fit your lifestyle for at least another decade. You might discover that a flat will suit you better.
Property type research
My second mistake was not going on Reddit and MumsNet. In other words, I didn’t ask or even read answers to the ever-important question: what type of building is this house I want to buy? British housing stock is so varied! You can get a victorian, an edwardian, a georgian, a nineteen thirties, nineteen fifties, sixties and upward house, a new build and they will all be completely different. And they will all come with a set of benefits and disasters attached to them. It really helps to read stories of people who lived in a type of house you want to buy. Let’s take this one. It was built in the 80s and if I were to buy it now, a quick search for “80s house opinion” would return some positive results like these ones. Easy to clean and decorate. Essentials like roof intact and easy to knock walls through to change layout. Easier to heat… And some not so positive opinions like this one: zero character, thin walls so you’ll hear everything everywhere else. That last point is so true. I can hear my neighbours switch their lights on and off. It’s that bad. So my advise here is this: do your research and be as specific as possible. This is much easier with new builds where you can look for reviews of the property developer you’re planning to buy from. But even with not so new builds, you can ask the neighbours who live in a similar property next door.
And that brings us to my next mistake: only one viewing.
It took seven months to complete the purchase of this house. And I viewed it once, on a sunny summer afternoon. Do you know ANYTHING that doesn’t feel great on a sunny July afternoon? My ex-partner didn’t view it at all. Honestly, this deserves a minute of silence. Viewing a house for what, 15 minutes, maybe half an hour to decide on something I’d be paying for and living in for a few decades? I spent three months contemplating getting a floor lamp and it cost less than ONE month’s mortgage! For a comparison: a house is a mortgage times three hundred months!
What would I do now? I’d arrange another viewing. If you say that the price is right and the market is insane and that will only slow you down or guarantee you WON’T get the property, then I say: a property not worth living in is not a good purchase. Do the bare minimum - visit the street at different times of day. That quiet cul de sac your house is located on could become a real nightmare, given the right conditions. You want to know that sooner than later.
Another mistake I made when buying this house was not understanding how property boundaries and party walls work.
This is a big one. And if you think that you can trust professionals like surveyors or even your house deeds, well, think again. At one point we were considering an extension with my then partner and we hired a surveyor, a structure engineer, an architect and guess what, nobody had enough sense to check what boundaries this house had. Only years later, when I was repairing my garden wall, did I discover that my plans were different to the plans with the Land Registry.
You need to know your property boundaries to know which walls or fences you’re responsible for. And also to know your limitations, especially when you’d like to extend your house or place a garden house near a boundary. Because in most cases you will need your neighbour’s permission and, speaking from experience, that can be expensive and frustrating. Your best bet is to download title deeds from the Land Registry - when in the UK, of course. It will cost you less than a meal out and it will be money well spent. They will show you CORRECT boundaries, unaffected by years of resales and redrawings. And, if you have walls, where exactly these walls sit - along or bang in the middle of a boundary. There’s a great little booklet - The Party Wall Act explanatory booklet that is super helpful when you want to understand how party and boundary walls work. I fully recommend familiarising yourself with it when buying a house. It can save you many headaches and banknotes down the line.
Repair quotes
The next mistake I made is connected to the previous one. My garden wall repair was a very costly business. I suspected it wouldn’t be as cheap as the lender predicted, and lowered their house estimate by, but I didn’t get a quote to check it myself. A single quote, not even multiple ones, would have been enough to challenge the bank’s estimate and negotiate the house price down. And I didn’t do that. So learn from my mistake and if you spot a major repair, get a quote to see how much it will cost you to fix it. Don’t rely on banks or even surveyors. My hairdresser was telling me the other day how her surveyor failed to notice the house she was buying had a subsidence issue. A decade later she’s stuck with insurers, investigations and lopsided property she can’t sell. She did see the problem but she ignored it as the surveyor didn’t point it out. Don’t be like me or my hairdresser.
No checklist
The sixth mistake I made? I attended a house viewing without a checklist. When you view a property, you often rely on your gut feeling. And that’s absolutely fine. But it really does help to also have a checklist. Otherwise you might fall for a pig with a lipstick on. It’s much easier to decorate a place than to address its fundamental problems. And many sellers do exactly that.
If I were buying this house today, here’s what I’d put on my viewing checklist: insulation including loft and floors, age and state of: the boiler and heating system, electrics, doors and windows, state of all floors - do they make any noise? (mine do!), water pressure in all taps, state of the staircase, extension potential - for side, rear and loft, access to the garden.
All houses have renovation needs. But knowing what you’re getting yourself into will prepare you for addressing those needs. Basically you will be able to plan for the cost of renovations. Or work out which property you can’t afford. Make a checklist for your viewing. I’m definitely making one for my next house search.
My final mistake might not apply to you but I’m putting it out there because who knows, maybe we’re similar.
Environmental noise
I’m sensitive to noise. I’ve learnt to tolerate certain kinds of it but I still find it easy to wake up because foxes are having a screaming orgy outside at 2am. Unfortunately, another source of noise that I pretty much alway notice is airplane noise. And this is something most people don’t care about, but actually should care about as excessive airplane noise is linked to hypertension for example and negatively affects our health. But anyway…
When I moved to this area I had no idea that certain parts of South East London are plagued by aircraft noise. But they are. So if you’re in a similar club to mine and do mind environmental noise, check for flight paths, railway tracks and possibly even locations of schools. I didn’t. I checked crime statistics, flight paths seemed less important. And now when I sit in my garden, I can see the airlines branding on the planes flying above my head. All while wearing my beloved noise-cancelling headphones of course.
And that’s it guys. If you’re about to buy a house, or a flat, keep these in mind. And if you know somebody else who’s buying a property, please share this post with them. It’s so easy to miss these things! Let them learn from my mistakes.
