FranP
Best wishes for the future.
My tips:
look for an inherited property or a new build.
Sell to a first time buyer, preferably still living at home
That's what I did - when I moved from my starter house in my home city to a bungalow in better area over in Wales.
I was basically hoping for an empty house - so I didn't get any knock-on effect of anything going wrong for the sellers...but impacting back onto me too.
So I bought a probate house in the event. I knew that would mean it would be old-fashioned and need gutting basically. Not sure whether I would have done the same if I'd known that houses are often at a lower standard here than I'm used to/way more old-fashioned (how on earth did a 1970s house have a 1950s fireplace in the sitting room was a puzzle to me) and there is a thing called the "Pembrokeshire Promise" here (ie many workmen promise and promise and promise - and keep letting you down).
Anyway - at long last it's "normal" (ie modern and well-maintained) - even though there was so much work to be done that I even had to get a Rayburn cooker in the kitchen and an oil storage tank in the garden removed before I could get started on the renovation proper.
