FenTiger

Thanks Peter. Me thinks I would be better off getting a surveyor in to do a report. I did ask my sister in law's estate agent friend about this process but think something was lost in translation as he indicated he could do it. Rather it be someone else. Atleast we have relatives/friends who have some knowledge on the construction of houses.

PaulinEger

There seems to be a boom in house sales here in Bükkszék at the moment. So many houses are changing hands it's hard to keep up and a lot of properties new on the market don't hang around for long. Prices are also on the way up. Unfortunately, many of the houses are being bought by out-of-towners as holiday homes (we have a thermal spa in the village) and quite a few are being turned into guesthouses by locals. The downside to this is the real chance that Bükkszék will become a ghost town out of season. There used to be 2 pubs and 2 shops in the centre, there is now only 1 of each and both are for sale. We used to run one of the pubs and there wasn't enough business on a daily basis to make it viable.
The positive thing is that houses are still cheap, with plenty for sale for under 10million. What we have noticed is that OTP have signed up many of the vendors and the prices of those houses have gone up by a couple of million overnight. What was previously for sale privately for 10 million is suddenly up for 12.
Some friends of ours have been trying to sell their house here and buy another in the village for several months so we've been viewing potential houses with them and there's a massive difference in how people present their properties when selling them. No-one seems to prepare a house for an easy sale as they do in Britain...clean, tidy, decorated appropriately etc.

Peter_in_Hungary

You are right, an estate agent is not the person to do a survey. You need a structural engineer who will give a proper written report and have liability for his findings. You will need to specify what you want and the level of detail to be undertaken e.g. is the statement no cracks evident in the walls therefore foundations presumed to be OK sufficient or do you want the surveyor to dig down a to discover what the foundations actually are etc.

Unfortunately not many people have structural surveys done in Hungary so finding someone to d it may not be easy. As in the UK estate agents and mortgage providers do valuation surveys which fall short of a structural survey.

Peter_in_Hungary

Presumably because the OTP want their %age on sale and the owners want a price so what the OTP charge goes on top of what the owner wants so the price goes up (plus a bit)

wolfi

Peter and Paul said it better than I ever could!
The different types of construction we also find in the village around us - some things like asbestos would have been a no-go for me, others can be repaired. You just need money.
A simple example:
Our house and the former stables (now two garages and a workplace) are adobe so when we had to repair the roofs we followed the advice of the young builder and had his people construct rings of fortified (iron) concrete on the top.
On top of this we could build a second floor, smaller than the lower floor, and the new roof.

FenTiger

I have been sent photos of a house but annoyingly some are in portrait when landscape would give a much better picture of the room. I note the neighbours have quite a long building with no guttering on their side of the property from the photos. Would have thought it should have them otherwise the rain would come off the roof like a waterfall. It's also next to a bus stop. I'm not sure if I'd be happy bus passengers constantly looking at the house and garden whilst they are waiting for a bus. The timetable states one bus every hour. I would also be worried the bus passengers complaining they are scared of the dogs but I suppose they could always wait for bus away from entrance to the property. Haven't received the plot and house square metres yet although I could work out the house size from the plans.

FenTiger

Damn, there's a property on Ingatlan which I discounted due to it's layout and small size but have been reconsidering whether to view or not. Should have viewed it when we were in Hungary. We only need one bedroom with one room with a sofabed for visitors so it would be the perfect size. But my wife feels it's too isolated with neighbours only on one side nearer the road. Ah well, can't win them all. Will have to keep looking.

FenTiger

Have just missed out on another property same road as parents-in-law. Only information we have been told is the property has sold but it's still on Ingatlan. No 'Sold STC' or equivalent.

Back to square one.

FenTiger

My wife is returning from Hungary tonight. She viewed five properties. My favourite seems to be completely out of the picture. It's one of those half floor level houses. The interior is immaculate but the layout according to my wife is all wrong. Also very boring and no character! My wife's favourite is actually two houses and according to the current owners was one property (bungalow). Part, the slightly lower level, was sectioned off so the owner's mother could live independently. Unfortunately, there's no interior access between the two so you have to go outside and walk a few feet to get to the other's front door. I think re-configuring the layout and re-instating the original door way would be too much hassle.
Ah well, looks like we might have to continue looking. The alternative is for myself to fly out there and ask a local friend if he could accompany me so we could discuss the options. I might also ask if the current owners could tell us where the original door way used to be.
I'm feeling quite gutted because my favourite is on the same road as the parents-in-law and just down the road from the sister-in-law. We are also both known to neighbours who live next to the parents-in-law and along the same road so thought if we needed any help on something there'd be plenty of neighbours who could point us in the right direction.

scrubbedexpat142

Frustrating isn't it! Never mind, keep looking.

We have just had an offer on an apartment accepted, of course being here makes it so much easier. We assessed at least a hundred on the internet (since June), recced about 30 (location, exterior, etc), viewed 6 - & finally found what we wanted. Not too bad as we were being pretty picky.

Just got to sell ours now...

Good luck with your ongoing search!

FenTiger

My wife is bringing homes enlarged plans of both properties. It appears my wife's favourite property floor plan does not match the photos at one end of the house, i.e. there should be a garage with no doors but on the floor plan there's a normal size door and a window! Also for my favourite property there's a small house where the owner's mother lived. No mention of this on Ingatlan.

spouse of scouse

Hi FenTiger, just sticking my nose in here because I caught sight of your thread title and I love anything to do with property Given the work that your wife's favourite property would seem to need, is it worth looking also at your favourite again to see if the layout can be changed to better suit you both? Boring and no character can be fixed easily with furniture and decorating. Best of luck with coming up with something that suits you both

scrubbedexpat142

Knowing the "typical" Magyar female I suspect that remodelling is definitely on the cards!

FenTiger

;-) I could always live in my favourite house and my wife in the small house where the current owners mother lived!
Will discuss with wife tomorrow. I'm picking her up 11pm UK time.

spouse of scouse

I had to look up 'Magyar' I've only had a too brief 2 week visit to Hungary, and then only saw the two sides of Budapest, but that tiny taste made me want to see and experience more.

Referring back to another thread that discussed the difference between tourism and travelling, I was obviously a tourist. But we did do what we usually do, rented an apartment from a local and shopped for groceries etc, I don't see the point in going to another country and not at least making an effort to interact with local people. The apartment was next to a little cafe (I know that's not the right word) and we'd sit there for hours drinking carafes of red and talking with the owner (whose English was fantastic compared to my zero Hungarian). Quite often the men who were working on roads nearby would call in for a quick wine or beer, and then go back to work. I would so love to go back and spend some time travelling around.