Thinking of moving across the road - Am I mad?

PurplePrincess

Here's the deal:

My house: Valued approx 160K with a tracker mortgage of 160K. Its a 3 bed semi

House for sale, literally across the road, 3 bed but slightly bigger layout than mine, detached. 190K

I co-own 2 other properties combined value about 350K, no mortgage, with income of €1700 rent per month before tax. I have about 70K in savings.

The reason for moving is to get into a detached house, soundproofing is not great and noise from next door just gets on my nerves. I like the estate, its quiet and handy for work/shops etc.

Am I Mad? I would appreciate some perspective and opinion from anyone that has the time.

3DataModem

You are not mad. Sounds like a reasonable idea to me. Transaction costs are pretty low these days.

boobar

You're not mad, sounds to me like a good move and you won't have to pay too much extra for the benefits of getting a detached property.

MagicMarker

What about improving the insulation between your house and the house next door?

Spending 30k plus increased interest on the mortgage (i assume) because next door are a bit noisy sometimes does sound mad to me.

PurplePrincess

MagicMarker wrote: »

What about improving the insulation between your house and the house next door?

Spending 30k plus increased interest on the mortgage (i assume) because next door are a bit noisy sometimes does sound mad to me.

I have looked into this but what I've been told is there's no guaranteed solution, it's to do with different types of noise. I'm also getting vibration noise like if they slam their front door or when they play basketball off the back of their house.

I would lose my tracker but Ulster bank offer a similar product with a 10 year rate(not as good as current obviously). I'm going through figures with them tomorrow just to see what the difference would be.

Thanks for all the input, it's appreciated.

pwurple

I say go for it. Semi-ds. The internal walls are never sufficient. Who wants to hear the neighbours rows or worse, noisy sex. At least with apartments you get some thermal advantages, and with terraced they are often older with super thick walls. Semi is the worst of all walls in my experience. Detached is the best.

Wabbit Ears

If you can afford it, go for it. If you don't you will always regret it.

the_syco

PurplePrincess wrote: »

House for sale, literally across the road, 3 bed but slightly bigger layout than mine, detached. 190K

Check why they're moving. They could be moving into a better house, or escaping something. No point in jumping out of the saucepan, and into the fire!

boobar

Having lived in a terraced house, with terrible sound proofing, I can totally sympathise with you on the irritations that noisy neighbours can bring to your life.

I made the move to a detached house about 10 years ago, haven't regretted it one bit. Going to bed at night, total silence, it's great.

laugh

Any way of converting the existing mortgage to buy to let?

jennyhayes123

Could you use some of your €70k so that you don't have to get a higher mortgage?

HeidiHeidi

If it's literally across the road, will you be losing (or indeed gaining) a south- or west-facing garden?

From the noise point of view I'd say absolutely go for it - but make sure that you're not buying into something else (like a north facing back garden) that might drive you equally mad in five years' time.

PurplePrincess

laugh wrote: »

Any way of converting the existing mortgage to buy to let?

I'm an accidental landlord already and wouldn't be interested in adding more houses to the porfolio. Also wouldn't want to be living so near to my tenants

jennyhayes123 wrote: »

Could you use some of your €70k so that you don't have to get a higher mortgage?

The plan is to use the 70K for the difference.

HeidiHeidi wrote: »

If it's literally across the road, will you be losing (or indeed gaining) a south- or west-facing garden?

From the noise point of view I'd say absolutely go for it - but make sure that you're not buying into something else (like a north facing back garden) that might drive you equally mad in five years' time.

They're getting sun on the front during the day and back at the evening so a gain for definite.

MarkAnthony

Sounds like you'd lose the tracker which wouldn't be great financially.

Sunny Dayz

I say go for it if your budget and funds allow for it. A detached house is far more desirable than a semi-D both in terms of actually living in one and also for resale. In most housing estates, detached houses are at a premium. As you are already living in the area and are thinking of buying again in it, you obviously like the area, you know the neighbours and the area suits you so that is a lot of the prelim work done. Also you know what the build of the houses is like.
Do you know the people selling the house well enough to chat to? Might be an idea to ask them if you could have a look around and a chat before getting involved with an estate agent.