Renovating an old farmhouse and living on the Pennines
Discussion
deadtom said:
Apologies in advance for long rambling replies, I have marked this O/T and please skip past what follows to get back to the interesting stuff from Evoluzione
Our offer was for £335 k, and we were one of the top 3 bids apparently, so I would guess the winner was £350 or so, but of course we don't know for cer.
Gotcha. I didn't go and view in the end. There have been quite a few in that area this year in similar condition. May be worth talking to some of the local agents who handle such things. I'm wondering if "top of the market" has been flushing some stock out.skwdenyer said:
Ah that one. Loved it. The guide was comically low. If it follows the pattern of other places in that area this year, I’d be expecting a deal price £450-550k.
If we hadn’t already been proceeding with another place, I’d have been another one bidding on that Deepdale one!
I don't think it was quite that high, but yes certainly the estimate of 250 - 300 k was agreed by all to be quite low. If the pictures showed the worst of it then I think you are right, it would have been 450 or more even in that state, however the pictures actually show the best of it and the house is in worse condition than it looks in the photos; the roof has serious leaks in places (and water ingress has caused the partial collapse the ceilings below), there is no functional bathroom or kitchen and one of the interior walls has a fissure in it wide enough to get your hand inside!If we hadn’t already been proceeding with another place, I’d have been another one bidding on that Deepdale one!
Our offer was for £335 k, and we were one of the top 3 bids apparently, so I would guess the winner was £350 or so, but of course we don't know for cer.
This was guided at £180k and made IIRC very considerably over double that at auction: https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/85502367#/?...
If you really wanted a challenge, this was up for *ages* - no idea if it has actually been sold now, or just withdrawn: https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/86282042#/?... - I went a long way down the line of figuring out if it was viable to bring it back into habitable use, but ultimately concluded my life, sanity and marriage were more important!
In terms of madness, this was listed at OIEO £395k. The first buyer "won" at well over £650k before the vendors pulled-out over an attempting to beat the price down. I don't know what it went for the 2nd time around, but they were hoping for still north of £600k! https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/120855605#/...
deadtom said:
monkfish1 said:
Has it gone that mental up there as well?
Yes I think so, the vendor told us they had ~ 70 viewings on it, with more than one couple coming over from the USA to see it apparently!
skwdenyer said:
If you really wanted a challenge, this was up for *ages* - no idea if it has actually been sold now, or just withdrawn: https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/86282042#/?... - I went a long way down the line of figuring out if it was viable to bring it back into habitable use, but ultimately concluded my life, sanity and marriage were more important!
We actually went to view it, it was a complete rebuild with no guarantee you'd get permission to do so. Nearest power was 500yds away and you'd need to sink a borehole for water. Land was borderline grazing (sheep at best) and all the drystone walls needed repairing. Proper basket case but a lovely spot.
You don't need to apologise for your posts, it's natural conversation, the way things go. I'm glad it stimulates it, for the feedback and also to read about your potential projects. Also you have to remember I might not see or speak to anyone other than K for weeks on end if I don't leave our borders!
The whole point is to provide light entertainment, educate and promote discussion, bringing this thread back up from the depths does that and also presents it people who have perhaps not seen it before.
Orientation was quite important to us, but it's a mixed bag of pros and cons. We face due South, absolutely bang on to the degree on the side of a valley going East West of course. We see sunset/sunrise in Winter, but not in Midsummer as it goes too far round. We're open to the elements but the sun warms the house on a day like today which is very welcome.
A house further down from us faces the opposite way and gets no sun in Winter so it's cold and twice as miserable! But sheltered from much of the bad weather which usually comes from the South and West.
It's there on the left tucked into like a 90' angle of trees:
Then you have these at the highest point around:
There is no shelter there from anything!
The breeze they and we get keeps the mozzies down in Summer, where it's windless and the houses are in trees down below they're much worse. A former owner up there put a wind turbine up, it lasted a week in Winter before it was blown down. They're also battling with this driving rain problem.
Internal structural woodwork? Well we'll get round to that in more (pictorial) detail eventually. I haven't shown pics of the rather grubby damp stained interior yet as it's a bit embarrassing, I want a chapter with 'this is how it was', 'here is me ripping it out', this is what I did and this is what it looks like now.
I've started with an easy one at the back compared to the others.
You notice and learn things in stages of course. It became apparent after a while why houses round here were placed where they are and this was next to a spring.
More recently i've noticed many houses are surrounded by trees, often Sycamores which are not native to the UK. I'm guessing these were planted at a certain time to protect the houses from driving rain.
This is a bit premature so i'll maybe repeat it later when I tear into the ground floor rooms, that is a way off though.
We'd been in the house for a few months before I noticed the ceiling in the dining room was lower than that in the neighbouring kitchen, I'm pretty sure it's a false ceiling.
Also (and it's in the pics of the Deepdale house) the method of 1st floor construction was to put thin joists down, then support them underneath by exposed thick beams running at 90' to them.
So our kitchen ceiling was split into 3 bays (two exposed beams underneath), however now there is beam No.3 which doesn't match and is tight against the front wall of the house. I figured it was steel and a magnet confirmed this.
When I was pointing at the front there was a hole so deep I could see through and noted a concrete lintel over the top of a window internally.
Putting all of that together leads me to believe much of the woodwork in the front wall of the house rotted away years ago, joist ends and all. It's actually saved me a lot of work and in one other way it's a big bonus too. When you insulate a solid wall internally you're in danger of introducing damp, then rot into the joist ends (they're a thermal bridge). The Stormdry cream may well have prevented this, but now there is no risk of it at all, what isn't there can't rot!
I've read a few reasonably scholarly papers available online and also watched some similarly high end YT vids on the topic.
There is a similar structural issue in the roof, but that's for another day and for me to fix.
If you want me to relay any possible project houses I see then let me know. There are a few around that aren't on the market, but they are huge projects, often totally off grid, some not even accessible by car yet. One such house I investigated and pictured quite early on in the thread, it's in the middle here somewhere by that track so is accessible by car:
I doubt they are 'listed', but often in preservation areas.
If you look here there is an empty third farm (beyond the first two) hidden in the trees to the left of that long copse:
My neighbour for instance (whose house is pictured on the last page I think) has been rebuilding that for 10yrs now and is only just nearly ready for moving in soon, he has done it mainly all himself though.
The whole point is to provide light entertainment, educate and promote discussion, bringing this thread back up from the depths does that and also presents it people who have perhaps not seen it before.
Orientation was quite important to us, but it's a mixed bag of pros and cons. We face due South, absolutely bang on to the degree on the side of a valley going East West of course. We see sunset/sunrise in Winter, but not in Midsummer as it goes too far round. We're open to the elements but the sun warms the house on a day like today which is very welcome.
A house further down from us faces the opposite way and gets no sun in Winter so it's cold and twice as miserable! But sheltered from much of the bad weather which usually comes from the South and West.
It's there on the left tucked into like a 90' angle of trees:
Then you have these at the highest point around:
There is no shelter there from anything!
The breeze they and we get keeps the mozzies down in Summer, where it's windless and the houses are in trees down below they're much worse. A former owner up there put a wind turbine up, it lasted a week in Winter before it was blown down. They're also battling with this driving rain problem.
Internal structural woodwork? Well we'll get round to that in more (pictorial) detail eventually. I haven't shown pics of the rather grubby damp stained interior yet as it's a bit embarrassing, I want a chapter with 'this is how it was', 'here is me ripping it out', this is what I did and this is what it looks like now.
I've started with an easy one at the back compared to the others.
You notice and learn things in stages of course. It became apparent after a while why houses round here were placed where they are and this was next to a spring.
More recently i've noticed many houses are surrounded by trees, often Sycamores which are not native to the UK. I'm guessing these were planted at a certain time to protect the houses from driving rain.
This is a bit premature so i'll maybe repeat it later when I tear into the ground floor rooms, that is a way off though.
We'd been in the house for a few months before I noticed the ceiling in the dining room was lower than that in the neighbouring kitchen, I'm pretty sure it's a false ceiling.
Also (and it's in the pics of the Deepdale house) the method of 1st floor construction was to put thin joists down, then support them underneath by exposed thick beams running at 90' to them.
So our kitchen ceiling was split into 3 bays (two exposed beams underneath), however now there is beam No.3 which doesn't match and is tight against the front wall of the house. I figured it was steel and a magnet confirmed this.
When I was pointing at the front there was a hole so deep I could see through and noted a concrete lintel over the top of a window internally.
Putting all of that together leads me to believe much of the woodwork in the front wall of the house rotted away years ago, joist ends and all. It's actually saved me a lot of work and in one other way it's a big bonus too. When you insulate a solid wall internally you're in danger of introducing damp, then rot into the joist ends (they're a thermal bridge). The Stormdry cream may well have prevented this, but now there is no risk of it at all, what isn't there can't rot!
I've read a few reasonably scholarly papers available online and also watched some similarly high end YT vids on the topic.
There is a similar structural issue in the roof, but that's for another day and for me to fix.
If you want me to relay any possible project houses I see then let me know. There are a few around that aren't on the market, but they are huge projects, often totally off grid, some not even accessible by car yet. One such house I investigated and pictured quite early on in the thread, it's in the middle here somewhere by that track so is accessible by car:
I doubt they are 'listed', but often in preservation areas.
If you look here there is an empty third farm (beyond the first two) hidden in the trees to the left of that long copse:
My neighbour for instance (whose house is pictured on the last page I think) has been rebuilding that for 10yrs now and is only just nearly ready for moving in soon, he has done it mainly all himself though.
Edited by Evoluzione on Thursday 15th December 21:46
I have no idea.
I was told you can tell the powers that be your building is for agricultural use, this bypasses certain regulations.
I don't know much more than that and it would need to be verified and explained better by someone who knows what they're doing.
Someone else mentioned a loophole whereby you buy some land and put some stables on it, after that getting PP for a house to go with the stables is much easier. Again, that's only s/h info.
I was told you can tell the powers that be your building is for agricultural use, this bypasses certain regulations.
I don't know much more than that and it would need to be verified and explained better by someone who knows what they're doing.
Someone else mentioned a loophole whereby you buy some land and put some stables on it, after that getting PP for a house to go with the stables is much easier. Again, that's only s/h info.
Mark Benson said:
skwdenyer said:
If you really wanted a challenge, this was up for *ages* - no idea if it has actually been sold now, or just withdrawn: https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/86282042#/?... - I went a long way down the line of figuring out if it was viable to bring it back into habitable use, but ultimately concluded my life, sanity and marriage were more important!
We actually went to view it, it was a complete rebuild with no guarantee you'd get permission to do so. Nearest power was 500yds away and you'd need to sink a borehole for water. Land was borderline grazing (sheep at best) and all the drystone walls needed repairing. Proper basket case but a lovely spot.
A house slightly further down the valley (in better condition) was refused permission for re-use several times over the years, so the odds were low - the Park authorities just aren't keen on re-habitation.
But the views
skwdenyer said:
Yup, we viewed it too. And drew up plans and budgets for rebuilding and extending back into the hillside. The critical thing would have been getting an agreement with the landowner up the hill (big commercial grouse moor) to allow use of their access road - without that it was really a non-starter just due to access. The bell pits would have made grazing fun, and all the sporting rights had been sold off. My son fancied using those 50+ acres for racing quads around, which would have made us lots of friends I'm sure...
A house slightly further down the valley (in better condition) was refused permission for re-use several times over the years, so the odds were low - the Park authorities just aren't keen on re-habitation.
But the views
Cool to read about the property in Arkengarthdale. We had a week in Reeth in December 2020 - the lockdown gods were in a good mood and our home tier was the same as Reeth, so we got a holiday in. We had a cracking meal at the CB Inn one night and one of the walks we did went up on to Hurst Moor and back down the valley. At some point on a UK holiday I'll usually end up on Rightmove and I'm sure I remember seeing that ruin listed - would it have been on the market back in late 2020?A house slightly further down the valley (in better condition) was refused permission for re-use several times over the years, so the odds were low - the Park authorities just aren't keen on re-habitation.
But the views
Harpoon said:
Cool to read about the property in Arkengarthdale. We had a week in Reeth in December 2020 - the lockdown gods were in a good mood and our home tier was the same as Reeth, so we got a holiday in. We had a cracking meal at the CB Inn one night and one of the walks we did went up on to Hurst Moor and back down the valley. At some point on a UK holiday I'll usually end up on Rightmove and I'm sure I remember seeing that ruin listed - would it have been on the market back in late 2020?
It was first listed in November 2019.skwdenyer said:
. Currently trying to complete on an old watermill right now - less land, but the potential for hydro-electric power generation to keep the bills in check.
Off topic:-For anyone that has never been, a visit to Cragside is a must, if you are in the area, a magnificent house in stunning surroundings, apparently the first house in the world to be lit with hydro electricity. (National Trust)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cragside
Wacky Racer said:
skwdenyer said:
. Currently trying to complete on an old watermill right now - less land, but the potential for hydro-electric power generation to keep the bills in check.
Off topic:-For anyone that has never been, a visit to Cragside is a must, if you are in the area, a magnificent house in stunning surroundings, apparently the first house in the world to be lit with hydro electricity. (National Trust)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cragside
Evoluzione said:
~ stuff about orientation, internal woodwork and other items of interest ~
If you want me to relay any possible project houses I see then let me know. There are a few around that aren't on the market, but they are huge projects, often totally off grid, some not even accessible by car yet.
I think not worrying about orientation too much is a luxury we have due to not living anywhere properly remote, but I can imagine it suddenly becomes a lot more important when your house is situated like in your photos. The people that built these places weren't silly though and they would have known about the effects of the weather in exposed places, so why build there in the first place? Is it just because other considerations were higher priorities (access to water, roads etc)?If you want me to relay any possible project houses I see then let me know. There are a few around that aren't on the market, but they are huge projects, often totally off grid, some not even accessible by car yet.
Sounds like your house had some pretty serious rot issues, I'd certainly be interested to see the before and after. It might even help me get over the missed opportunity of the renovation project by reminding me that I have avoided an enormous amount of time, money and frustration that would undoubtedly have been involved...
That being said, that's nice of you, yes please do let me know if you know of something similar that comes up for sale.
The ones you reference sound like they might be a bit far gone though; I am a fairly practical person and keen to learn new skills, however I have very little actual experience of house construction and the place would need to at least be survivable in while fixing it, though we would be happy to sacrifice comfort, convenience, luxury and modernity for a bit.
Wacky Racer said:
Off topic:-
For anyone that has never been, a visit to Cragside is a must, if you are in the area, a magnificent house in stunning surroundings, apparently the first house in the world to be lit with hydro electricity. (National Trust)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cragside
Oh yes, good recommendation, we love Cragside. we went there a few years ago just because it was vaguely en route for our trip from Dorset up to the outer Hebrides, but it instantly became one of our favourite places. It's amazing and the genius of the inventions there is quite something.For anyone that has never been, a visit to Cragside is a must, if you are in the area, a magnificent house in stunning surroundings, apparently the first house in the world to be lit with hydro electricity. (National Trust)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cragside
deadtom said:
Apologies in advance for long rambling replies, I have marked this O/T and please skip past what follows to get back to the interesting stuff from Evoluzione
Our offer was for £335 k, and we were one of the top 3 bids apparently, so I would guess the winner was £350 or so, but of course we don't know for certain.
We gave some consideration to the orientation, but not to the point that it would be a serious consideration when looking. You are right of course, this place is east facing with a steep hillside behind so the house would be in shade from early evening in summer and probably from mid afternoon in winter, but sunrise would be very nice.
Prices are out of our range too really. We are not usual PH levels of income; we each earn around the national average (no kids though, and no plans for any which certainly helps) so if our offer of £335 had been accepted, we would then have had to commence a cutback of our already relatively meagre lifestyle to make the numbers work, though we are both certain it would be worth it in the end.
As we are neither of us native northerners, much as we love it so far we don't feel a particular allegiance to Yorkshire specifically. I think we'd be happy anywhere as long as it is a suitably dramatic landscape and suitably bucolic. Lancashire, Northumberland, Yorkshire, Cumbria; all good.
That is amazing that your place was 5 years on the market, was it massively optimistically priced to begin with?
back on topic... Have you had to do much removal and repair of interior woodwork due to water ingress, or once the roof and walls have been sorted has it all been saveable once dried out?
Good to see Benford being put to use on bin duty, that sort of thing is a great way to justify the man maths that is occasionally used when justifying buying old machinery
Does indeed seem prices for rural are still high. Some lovely looking projects there, but most of them seem to need everything but without the prices to reflect it!skwdenyer said:
Ah that one. Loved it. The guide was comically low. If it follows the pattern of other places in that area this year, I’d be expecting a deal price £450-550k.
If we hadn’t already been proceeding with another place, I’d have been another one bidding on that Deepdale one!
I don't think it was quite that high, but yes certainly the estimate of 250 - 300 k was agreed by all to be quite low. If the pictures showed the worst of it then I think you are right, it would have been 450 or more even in that state, however the pictures actually show the best of it and the house is in worse condition than it looks in the photos; the roof has serious leaks in places (and water ingress has caused the partial collapse the ceilings below), there is no functional bathroom or kitchen and one of the interior walls has a fissure in it wide enough to get your hand inside!If we hadn’t already been proceeding with another place, I’d have been another one bidding on that Deepdale one!
Our offer was for £335 k, and we were one of the top 3 bids apparently, so I would guess the winner was £350 or so, but of course we don't know for certain.
monkfish1 said:
Has it gone that mental up there as well?
Yes I think so, the vendor told us they had ~ 70 viewings on it, with more than one couple coming over from the USA to see it apparently!Evoluzione said:
Deadtom that place looks fantastic, not surprised you're sick to have missed it. I'd love to know how much something like that is worth, but wouldn't have liked being bound by listed building rules. It looks like a huge job, unlived in for a while too, but what a place when finished.
Do any of you consider which way round these properties face btw? It makes a big difference, especially when you're halfway down a hill.
N.Yorks was our No.1 destination, especially for me as a Yorkshireman and have spent a lot of days out there over the years. We feared it would have been difficult for her to get to Leeds from there as that is where she was based for work a few years ago. FF to now and she's mainly WFH.
The other thing we found was what you're finding too, it's very popular and prices were probably out of our range.
Would you consider the poor mans Yorkshire, Lancashire? It's very similar in many ways and you get more for your money. Look at Bowland for instance.
Unbelievably our place was on the market for 5yrs! It was a tough buy, but would love to know the story behind why no-one ever bought it. It went through several EAs and was even featured as 'Property of the week' by a newspaper when it first went on the market.
Doesn't it just? I feel very much stuck in a rut with life and work at the moment, and I felt like taking on a massive project like this would have dragged me out of it and given me purpose and something to show for it after all the stress and hard work it would have no doubt involved. Either way it would have been a real life changing move for us (hopefully for the better). I would guess once all fixed up you won't see much change out of 800 k for that place.Do any of you consider which way round these properties face btw? It makes a big difference, especially when you're halfway down a hill.
N.Yorks was our No.1 destination, especially for me as a Yorkshireman and have spent a lot of days out there over the years. We feared it would have been difficult for her to get to Leeds from there as that is where she was based for work a few years ago. FF to now and she's mainly WFH.
The other thing we found was what you're finding too, it's very popular and prices were probably out of our range.
Would you consider the poor mans Yorkshire, Lancashire? It's very similar in many ways and you get more for your money. Look at Bowland for instance.
Unbelievably our place was on the market for 5yrs! It was a tough buy, but would love to know the story behind why no-one ever bought it. It went through several EAs and was even featured as 'Property of the week' by a newspaper when it first went on the market.
We gave some consideration to the orientation, but not to the point that it would be a serious consideration when looking. You are right of course, this place is east facing with a steep hillside behind so the house would be in shade from early evening in summer and probably from mid afternoon in winter, but sunrise would be very nice.
Prices are out of our range too really. We are not usual PH levels of income; we each earn around the national average (no kids though, and no plans for any which certainly helps) so if our offer of £335 had been accepted, we would then have had to commence a cutback of our already relatively meagre lifestyle to make the numbers work, though we are both certain it would be worth it in the end.
As we are neither of us native northerners, much as we love it so far we don't feel a particular allegiance to Yorkshire specifically. I think we'd be happy anywhere as long as it is a suitably dramatic landscape and suitably bucolic. Lancashire, Northumberland, Yorkshire, Cumbria; all good.
That is amazing that your place was 5 years on the market, was it massively optimistically priced to begin with?
back on topic... Have you had to do much removal and repair of interior woodwork due to water ingress, or once the roof and walls have been sorted has it all been saveable once dried out?
Good to see Benford being put to use on bin duty, that sort of thing is a great way to justify the man maths that is occasionally used when justifying buying old machinery
Edited by deadtom on Thursday 15th December 11:20
Slightly selfishly, id prefer they stay there having also recently bought. Like you deatom, a bit of a lifestyle change. So far, so good.
Maybe i should start a thread also? Teaser pic. Im nearly up there with Evoluzione for altitude, but nothing quite as dramatic in the views department. Pleasent enough though. Excuse the state of the field. Future work!
Edited by monkfish1 on Tuesday 20th December 21:50
Edited by monkfish1 on Tuesday 20th December 21:51
deadtom said:
Evoluzione said:
~ stuff about orientation, internal woodwork and other items of interest ~
If you want me to relay any possible project houses I see then let me know. There are a few around that aren't on the market, but they are huge projects, often totally off grid, some not even accessible by car yet.
I think not worrying about orientation too much is a luxury we have due to not living anywhere properly remote, but I can imagine it suddenly becomes a lot more important when your house is situated like in your photos. The people that built these places weren't silly though and they would have known about the effects of the weather in exposed places, so why build there in the first place? Is it just because other considerations were higher priorities (access to water, roads etc)?If you want me to relay any possible project houses I see then let me know. There are a few around that aren't on the market, but they are huge projects, often totally off grid, some not even accessible by car yet.
Sounds like your house had some pretty serious rot issues, I'd certainly be interested to see the before and after. It might even help me get over the missed opportunity of the renovation project by reminding me that I have avoided an enormous amount of time, money and frustration that would undoubtedly have been involved...
That being said, that's good of you, yes please do let me know if you know of something similar that comes up for sale.
The ones you reference sound like they might be a bit far gone though; I am a fairly practical person and keen to learn new skills, however I have very little actual experience of house construction and the place would need to at least be survivable in while fixing it, though we would be happy to sacrifice comfort, convenience, luxury and modernity for a bit.
Previous to moving in we'd talked about living in a caravan like Mr CTO, but i'm trying to avoid that by doing a bit at a time. He'll be done and finished before us though.
Old buildings are complex, some are untouched, the faults and causes are apparent. Then ones like this take some working out because things have been added on, battles fought with the elements which then made things worse, for a long time too and by many different people. It's been an interesting journey so far unwrapping the past and there is still a lot I don't know.
What i'm alluding to is that modernising and trying to cure faults on this place in the past has caused more problems.
It was tarted up to sell, but for whatever reasons didn't and in the 5 intervening years the cracks which were papered over showed through. So instead of going up in value, £50k was wiped of it's (proposed) value.
The owner said to me he'd rather set fire to it than go any lower, so there the price was set and it was reasonable so I agreed. I could have tried to screw him over in the final throws, but that's not me and we just wanted it.
There is more than you know to the vendors backstory like the breakdown of a marriage, and more than I do too!
If you want me to look out for anything then you'll have to mention a spec and budget, by PM if you prefer. I don't get out and about much, but you never know, something might come up. I've just had a look on Rightmove and found something with 7 acres for £450k. The World and his wife have increasingly wanted what we have for years now. The more I needed and could afford this, the further it was being kicked away from me so I consider myself very lucky.
With my limited experience of finding houses I can't offer much in the way of useful advice really. Selling up and going looking 'Cash in hand' will fall in your favour. I think I mentioned it early in the thread, but using tools on sites like Rightmove help. That's how I found this place, by dragging the markers around the map on there to create my own 'catchment area' then this place came into view, but sadly they don't have a 'Old farmhouse with land needing renovation' option.
At least by considering Lancashire it's opened up more options for you, it seems a lot of people in our position end up in Scotland.
Edited by Evoluzione on Wednesday 21st December 16:41
Evoluzione said:
If you want me to look out for anything then you'll have to mention a spec and budget, by PM if you prefer. I don't get out and about much, but you never know, something might come up. I've just had a look on Rightmove and found something interesting, but it's up for auction. The World and his wife have increasingly wanted what we have for years now. The more I needed and could afford this, the further it was being kicked away from me so I consider myself very lucky.
With my limited experience of finding houses I can't offer much in the way of useful advice really. Selling up and going looking 'Cash in hand' will fall in your favour. I think I mentioned it early in the thread, but using tools on sites like Rightmove help. That's how I found this place, by dragging the markers around the map on there to create my own 'catchment area'. That's how this place came into view, but sadly they don't have a 'Old farmhouse with land needing renovation' option.
At least by considering Lancashire it's opened up more options for you, it seems a lot of people in our position end up in Scotland.
Very much this ^^^^With my limited experience of finding houses I can't offer much in the way of useful advice really. Selling up and going looking 'Cash in hand' will fall in your favour. I think I mentioned it early in the thread, but using tools on sites like Rightmove help. That's how I found this place, by dragging the markers around the map on there to create my own 'catchment area'. That's how this place came into view, but sadly they don't have a 'Old farmhouse with land needing renovation' option.
At least by considering Lancashire it's opened up more options for you, it seems a lot of people in our position end up in Scotland.
I certainly found that i had zero success with any offers whilst needing to sell a house to make it happen. For whatever reason, this rural type stuff seems to go to those without mortgages and houses to sell.
In the end, partly through luck, and rather a lot of effort, and a curtailed budget, we put ourselves in a position to buy without neding to sell our existing home.
As Evoluzione says, this WILL give you a massive advantage. Doing that of course may not be straight forward or possible.
monkfish1 said:
Evoluzione said:
If you want me to look out for anything then you'll have to mention a spec and budget, by PM if you prefer. I don't get out and about much, but you never know, something might come up. I've just had a look on Rightmove and found something interesting, but it's up for auction. The World and his wife have increasingly wanted what we have for years now. The more I needed and could afford this, the further it was being kicked away from me so I consider myself very lucky.
With my limited experience of finding houses I can't offer much in the way of useful advice really. Selling up and going looking 'Cash in hand' will fall in your favour. I think I mentioned it early in the thread, but using tools on sites like Rightmove help. That's how I found this place, by dragging the markers around the map on there to create my own 'catchment area'. That's how this place came into view, but sadly they don't have a 'Old farmhouse with land needing renovation' option.
At least by considering Lancashire it's opened up more options for you, it seems a lot of people in our position end up in Scotland.
Very much this ^^^^With my limited experience of finding houses I can't offer much in the way of useful advice really. Selling up and going looking 'Cash in hand' will fall in your favour. I think I mentioned it early in the thread, but using tools on sites like Rightmove help. That's how I found this place, by dragging the markers around the map on there to create my own 'catchment area'. That's how this place came into view, but sadly they don't have a 'Old farmhouse with land needing renovation' option.
At least by considering Lancashire it's opened up more options for you, it seems a lot of people in our position end up in Scotland.
I certainly found that i had zero success with any offers whilst needing to sell a house to make it happen. For whatever reason, this rural type stuff seems to go to those without mortgages and houses to sell.
In the end, partly through luck, and rather a lot of effort, and a curtailed budget, we put ourselves in a position to buy without needing to sell our existing home.
As Evoluzione says, this WILL give you a massive advantage. Doing that of course may not be straight forward or possible.
Look on FB marketplace in your chosen area, one down the road from us came up on there. That was oddball too, there are plenty around! It was a large unfinished house, scaffold still up. I think the couple had split up before finishing it.
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