scrubbedexpat142

Some of the photos amazed me! Rubble in a bath, dirty washing on the floor, etc. We were lucky, our agent arranged for some excellent photos.

wolfi

The same happened to us! Since we were also a bit naive there we had to look at more than a dozen objects . sometimes we drove away directly because of the neighborhood.
And also often the really bad stuff like no heating, ancient water and electricity you can see only when entering the object ...
So please be careful!
And don't forget to haggle - 10% should always be possible.

FenTiger

Wolfi - I'll try a little more, i.e. 15%, to see what happens. There's two properties which have not been sold for over a year.

jetsam1

I never want to go through the house search and purchase ever again!!

Peter_in_Hungary

They say it is just behind divorce in the stress level stakes. (yeah - got both tee shirts !!)

FenTiger

I know the feeling. I'm still in UK going through the selling motions ..... we will have to start looking once we arrive in Hungary but .... will we or won't we .... got the mother-in-law to think about because of her health.

FenTiger

I've got both them too plus a T-Shirt with 'Born in 1959 - The Year of Legends'.

hobgoblins

Lol ... another one here ... born in that special year of 1959 ... on the last day of ... got the divorce t.shirt as well ... !! No plans to ever ever buy another house ... ever ... !!

FenTiger

You should get the same T-shirt as I have! I've packed it away so will take a photo of it once I'm in Hungary.

Benny Kovacs

​​​​​Heating is not a problem, modern boilers are cheap, efficient, no more expensive to run than wood burners but a lot cleaner and easier to use.
Water pipes are easily replaced.
Houses can be rewired fairly painlessly.

Asbestos, however, can be a total nightmare even if it's 'only' in the roof tiles.

FenTiger

What percentage of houses have asbestos roof tiles?

Benny Kovacs

Where we are, about 40 minutes East of Debrecen I would say most of them, about 75%, some people have replaced theirs, some people have original clay tiles. They look like they are at the end of their lifespan but many people don't have money for a new roof, plus asbestos isn't a danger if it's undamaged and left untouched.

We replaced ours when we did the refurb so it wasn't as bad as it could have been. We also removed 2 chimneys at the same time so you can imagine the mess.

Benny Kovacs

Don't forget that asbestos was a wonder material before the dangers were recognised and it was used in many things even in floor tiles.
Always check before doing any work, also the walls were covered in lead paint, which is fine if you don't rub it down and breathe the dust in. Basically just paint over it and leave it.

FenTiger

When you did the refurbishment did you continue living in the house or stay somewhere else? Obviously, doing the refurb did you have to store your furniture somewhere else? Just wondered because doing a refurb or complete renovation is one option for a property, of which my wife is part owner, we may eventually buy outright. In it's current state it's too small. And due to an error by my father-in-law he made an error on the width for some steps up to the ground floor of their property. They were a little too narrow so there's no way we will be able to get an expensive sideboard we had bought in UK up those steps! Massive :-( as it's "us" to a 'T' if you know what I mean.

Sorry if the above sounds like gobbledegook .... I dunno what I'm talking about!

Benny Kovacs

We travelled to/from UK and stayed with the in-laws when we were there.
We completely gutted the place, reconfigured the layout, moved kitchen & bathroom to other side of house, new windows/doors, kitchen, bathroom, gas central heating, new wiring, new roof, new/fresh everything in fact. It was a lot of work to be honest.
We weren't in a hurry, we did most work ourselves but also had tradesmen in for utilities, labour in Hungary is so much cheaper than UK but it's also hard to find competent people who will do a decent job as most good trades people are either fully booked up for the next 12 months or working in Germany/UK for the higher wages.
Lots of things to think about it going down that route.