To ask if it’s better to buy the worst house in the best street or the best house in the worst street?

Always always location

Worst house on the best street every time — you can change most things about a house but not it’s location

I would say it depends on the reasons why the worst house on the best street is bad. If it needs a full internal renovation and looks like someone died in it, but is essentially an attractive house, then I'd say go for it. If it is a really ugly house or is something that would have been a stunning victorian town house if only someone hadn't rendered over all the beautiful external features, added an ugly porch and removed the bay window then I would say avoid. Those things will be very very expensive to rectify so you probably won't end up bothering. I've recently bought a house so have done a lot of looking at rightmove and the ones in the second category are the ones that hang around for aaggeees and keep getting reduced. A house like that would be very hard to sell on again.

Location, location, location!

I've literally just bought the "worst" house on the best street. (Maybe not worst but elderly last owner and a massive fixer upper, 80s kitchen, artex ceilings in bath and cloak etc) It is a massive chore especially with a 4 year old in tow and hardly any renovation budget as we used every penny we had to get through the door (although we have 50% equity so not too squeaky bum), but this is our forever home and we could never have bought a "done up" (or even just half decent) home in the area/street we are on now.

In 5-8 years we will have transformed it to be amazing I'm sure and it will be exactly to our tastes in a location that is probably a little out of our league. I feel really privileged to have scooped it.

So yes location, location, location, and as a PP said you can improve a house but you can't improve a street. Xx

Best location. Less likely to have dickish neighbours and more likely to have good school catchments

Location. And that doesn't necessarily have to be the best street. I bought a house in the worst street in a great area - my street doesn't have the big houses that can be found a couple of minutes' walk away, but we share the same local amenities including schools and that also makes a huge difference to our lives.

Go for the best location.

You can always improve the house but there I nothing you can do to make a dodgy area better...

The walk in house is already at the best price it can be. You can't add value.

The one that needs work will increase in value as you improve it but it will be a hassle.

I think better area, but also understand convience might be more important to some people. Depends on stage of life and other commitments you have.

Everyone has different levels of what they can do and what they are prepared to pay for. If this is a house you can see yourself in for a long time, I would say kitchens and bathrooms aren’t a deal breaker. I didn’t want anything that would need central heating installing, rewiring, structural, new boiler, new roof. I would also probably say no if it was an adapted wet room that needed converting to a bathroom.

Are you buying by yourself as that will make it harder to save for a new kitchen or bathroom. The advantage is with major renovations is you can get the house exactly as you want it. The disadvantage is you have to save and it takes years and years. The advantage of a recently renovated house is that everything is done. The disadvantage is that something might not quite be to your choosing, so you might not have picked those counter tops but they aren’t so bad you want to replace them. The other disadvantage is that you are trusting the other person has done these renovations properly, if you do you know you have and when they were done.

Location always.

Absolutely. You can improve the house but not the location.

Worst house in the best area. Trust me.

We used to live in a very shabby house in a brilliant area. A couple of years we got fed up with the shabbiness and bought a beautiful house in a not-so-good area and it's been miserable. We've had so many problems and we're looking at selling up already. I desperately wish I could pick up the house and move it to where we used to live.

It's not that straightforward as you might need a particular amount of space which you just can not afford in the best area, even in a doer upper. So it's a trade off. What is the minimum space you need and where can you afford that to be.

We bought the worst house on the best street, renovated as we lived in it and when we needed to move for family reasons it sold in 24 hours. Bought another ready done house where we didn’t have any work to do, it was lovely, that wasn’t the best street by any measure, but it was in a top performing state school catchment, so a few years later had to sell for work relocation and it too sold in hours, thanks to the catchment that secured the deal, so it can work both ways.

Like Karl Pilkington said, 'better to be in a cave looking at Petra, than in Petra looking at a cave'.

Worst house, best street.

It's so difficult to say. Like how bad is bad? Is it on the up? I've lived in genuinely bad and also moved to a farmhouse in a wasteland that needed doing up. Also bad. But now it's amazing.

What constitutes as bad? I'd be inclined to go for location, but what sort of bad do you mean?

My Uncle lives in one of the most deprived areas of Brum. Nothing he can do to his home will change the level of crime, antisocial behaviour, graffiti, smashed up/boarded up shops and homes he has to walk past when leaving the house.

Always buy the worst house on the best street.

Worst house best street.

You can improve the house, not the location.

Always, always location, for all the reasons mentioned. And it'll always be a better financial decision because it'll always be more desirable.

Having said that, it depends whether it's a solid house beneath the work that needs doing. You don't want a money pit either.

always the best street! We will spend years getting our house how we want it, but the location is perfect and house prices will always be at a premium here. Every day I’m grateful I live here!

We are about to move to one of the best houses in a less attractive area but that is in the sense of it being the best house space and garden and location wise but it needs loads of work. I would always want a renovation project though to make somewhere how I like it rather than someone else's taste so I would go for the house that needs work unless we are talking major stuff that is questionable if it can be resolved (looked at one place with unexplained blocked drainage and wasn't risking that). I would go with what location is best for you not necessarily what is most desirable but I wouldn't overspend on doing up something in a less desirable area which is something we will take into account - no point in us spending so much that we would never make it back if we sell

Location typically holds value better than the actual house.

There's a site value in good high demand areas even if the house falls down around it.