Professor Property Advice

My wife and I have just had our offer accepted two weeks ago on a 19th centaury Grade II listed cottage in Goudhurst in Kent. It is 3 beds, 1 bath, 1 lounge, 1 small study, 1 kitchen. Totalling 1000 sq feet at the moment with 0.5 of an acre garden and a wooded area in a stunning setting and we paid £450,000 (Asking Price) for the property. It is one of three adjoining cottages. The one next door id very small the other at the end is somewhat larger. Our house has not been habited for a couple of years and the vendor purchased the property 1 year ago literally to the day and has not lived there. The garden was 5 ft high in grass, weeds etc. She has spent the last year clearing it out as it was in a poor state and not particularly liveable, there is now no kitchen, bathroom etc and she has spent the last year applying for listed planning permission to add a two storey extension totalling 920 sq feet, as she has wanted to make it into a family home it will now be 1,920 sq feet. The house would still be 3 bed( but one would be a master with dressing room) but it would have 1 bathroom, 1 shower room, 1 cloakroom, an entrance hall, a larger drawing room, sitting room, study, larger kitchen/diner. These permissions have now been granted. She unfortunately lost a parent recently which has forced her to sell. This where we came as the house came on the market and the agent sent us the details. The details did not have photos on the front just a beautiful artist impressions of what the house will look like once it is extended, drive way done etc. We fell in love with it and could really see the potential and viewed the property twice on a Sunday, the second time with the vendor and her husband who we both got on very well with, and we really bought into her dream. There was scaffolding outside the house as they were having the roof completely re-done. We were told that there was a lot of interest in it by the owner of the estate agents and that we would have to move qui

In short you are suffering from buyers remorse. You are very sensitive to what the surveyor is saying and to factors like the amount of profit you feel the owner is making (the latter is irrelevant). Get a grip; stop festering over it and decide what you want to do. Work out what it will cost to get it to the state you want and get opinions from Estate Agents as to where they see the value with the work done. Estate Agents will know what they might get for it in its finished state perhaps as well as a surveyor or in some cases better. If the figures don't add up then renegotiate the deal. You are right to feel embarrased so perhaps the sooner you get this resoved, the better!
 

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