Which house to buy- head or heart? House or location?

[rabbitparsley]

DH and I are really struggling to pick between 2 houses. We really want to get it right as wanting a long term house to raise our 2 children in, would ideally not want to move again until they leave home. We are have a second viewing on both booked in for this week which will hopefully help settle it but just not sure. Feel like house A is the sensible option but house B is the one where I got a feeling that it just felt like home. House B is also quite a bit cheaper. Not sure what to do and we need to make a decision fast as we have accepted an offer on ours a couple of weeks ago and really need to move. Which would you choose?

House A:
4 bed detached.
Corner plot which means has front, side and back garden but back garden is fairly small. In total there is plenty of garden and space but just laid out differently as it is all around the house rather than just at back IYSWIM.
Offstreet parking- drive and garage.
In a small naice village with 1 pub, shop, cafe, post office, great primary school but 20 mins walk from small town with more amenities. House is 5 mins walk from train station so great for commuting to bigger city where DH works. Village is quite quiet with not too much going on but well located to getting to other areas by bus or rail.
Would need a fair bit of work (mainly decorative but also knocking a wall down and new kitchen & bathroom). Totally liveable in as it is but to make it what we want it is more of a project than house B. I do think we could add value though. As it is at the moment not as wow as house B and while we could make it nice it wouldn't have the same high ceilings etc.

House b:
5 bed semi (1 bedroom on 2nd floor which we would use as guest room)
Gorgeous high ceilings, period features etc which I have fallen in love with but would be more expensive to heat etc.
No offroad parking (originally one of our must-haves) but could potentially pave front garden. Smaller plot than House A but back garden bigger.
Not as well-regarded an area- schools not as good (still a choice of good ofsted rated but other area is outstanding) there are some quite rough parts of town though this is in the nice bit. The sort of place where if you say you live there people might raise eyebrows but it is getting better and this part of it is lovely. And a bigger town with more going on than village where House A is.
15 mins walk to station so still fine but not as handy as house A.
Would need less work (just decorative and new kitchen at some point but nothing urgent)
£70k cheaper than house A- mainly due to area and semi rather than detached.

A

How do you feel about major renovations, OP? Pick which one most closely suits -

a) excited. I love knocking down walls, living with plaster dust for months, and getting to know the builders’ loo habits - it’s all so worth it!

b) I’m not keen but I’ll tolerate it for a year or two if it means that I end up getting my dream house (I’ll even take the fact that it costs 50% more than expected on the chin).

c) erm hell no I want to be able to have our morning routine in which I try to feed the children in a state of dishevelment without a bunch of builders turning up every bloody morning. No fancy added value living space is worth this pain!

Oh sorry or d) we are so rich that we wouldn’t even imagine living on site during the build, do you think I’m a peasant?!

A
Detached, good parking and nice area

Parking will be a major issue, especially if you are a 2 (+) car house.

A. Parking. Location, easy to public transport especially with young kids and for teenagers.

No, my first thought when I saw our place was: it's awful, I'm never living here. But here we are! I like it now. I like that we have a parking space. It's a pain when we have guests because there is no other parking nearby, it would be awful if we were in that situation. We've public transport 5 mins away to the town 20 mins away. That is invaluable, especially with young DC and a DH who needs the car for work.

Could you really overlook the parking? Try it out. Park a couple of streets away from where you live now every day for two weeks. Including the weekly shop.... really?

B as your heart tells you it's right.
Also if you have children small town is better than village as they get older, both houses are okay for trains, B has a better garden. Are you happy to live with big projects in house A? I don't get the big issue about off road parking. I've never lived anywhere with this and no problem parking near the house. Where I live a house with a drive is incredibly expensive.

www.compare-school-performance.service.gov.uk/find-a-school-in-england

How significant is the difference between the schools in areas A and B in terms of performance? Have you checked out your potential secondary catchments? Time flies so good to make sure the house is future-proof.

Defiantly house A , sounds lovely. I wouldn't want a long term house with no off street parking

Defo A .

I don’t go with “ feelings “ at all, I try to evaluate it according to the criteria . I’ve learned that so much of the “ feeling “ of a house is due to things that you are not buying ( like the furniture and styling ) or things that are relatively easy and cheap to fix, like decor.

A new kitchen and bathroom will be a lot of work, messy and expensive, but nothing like 70k. And you will be able to do it exactly how you want it, which is very important.

With young kids I’d go for a large Kitchen with a dining /living area and access to the garden and a separate utility room, if at all possible. That’s hard to do in in many Period semis without losing almost all of The back garden.

Definitely A. I still remember the sheer joy of being able to park right outside after years of parking streets away from my flat and having to schlep in the rain with all my shopping, grim.

@Indecisivelurcher

You haven't said what age the kids are, but have said you want this to be a long term house. So I'd probably go B in some respects, because it sounds as though the kids could have more to do when they're teenagers, without you needing to taxi them around? Tough call...

Definitely this! When you're children are at secondary school, if they aren't already, they'll avoid a long journey to school and have more independence outside of school. House A will have you taxi-ing them everywhere until they learn to drive themselves.

House B. I was just thinking today about how both times we’ve bought houses I have felt a ‘click’ like it was the right one for us. Also have lived happily without off road parking. It was a pain with babies but once they could all walk it was fine. Check out nearby streets at different times for parking availability. Also, online shopping! No one I know does a big supermarket shop and carries it in from the car anymore (apart from in covid when there were restrictions on slots).

A.
B doesn't sound very nice to me. Semi, not so good schools etc

B for me because I love period homes, but how safe is the area for the children? School catchment etc to consider:

A.

Give yourself an easy a life as possible with your family and then when they leave home do whatever you like.

A.....detached and off street parking is priceless

I went for my house B, no off road parking but £70k cheaper with lovely period features.

I REGRET EVERYTHING

What I wouldn't pay for my own parking space.

House A all the way.

A. When you have kids if detatched is an option then take it! Not just because of the noise you might make but because of the potential for loud neighbours which is the worse thing ever!

Location is key. Maybe reason B is cheaper too. Go for A.

A

A

A because of parking but keep looking . I’ve only loved properties I felt that way immediately about. But struggling to park is a pain and makes you hate your neighbours if they’re wanky about parking.

If others in street have paved front garden that means B would work though- cost about 10k. But check no amenities /lamp posts in the way!