Which house to go for?

[Househunts]

2 houses and DP and I can't decide which house to go for.

House 1

• 3 bed semi - 1 double and 1 single, 1 borderline single/double
• in nicer town, but one of the less nice parts of town
• 45 min walk to centre of town
• very close to a lovely walking route
• greener area
• Nice garden with decking

House 2

• 5 bed semi - all bedrooms are a good size
• in a less nice town, but it isn't bad
• 15 min walk to centre of town
• on an estate

Help!

Probably the first one unless you really need 5 bedrooms. If they’re a similar price then the difference in size would suggest there’s quite a difference in the areas.
I’d also factor in parking, commute to work, school catchments if any of those are relevant.

Five bed with easier walking access to town would do it for me, unless it was in a really rough part of town

Does House 2 have a nice garden?

Do you/will you work from home? How many kids? Are schools a factor?

You have not given enough information re: your requirements.

They always say location location location and that is true to an extent, but there is also balance.

For example, the house we live in now is quite a big detached, 4 bed house with a lovely garden in a quiet area, but the sacrifices to an extent included the location. It's perfectly nice, but it doesn't have the buzz of our number 1 area. We could have bought a house there, but we would have had to sacrifice a lot of space, inside and out. If the area felt unsafe or generally just not nice though, then no amount of space would have been enough.

Sometimes a happy medium where you compromise a little on both is the best option. It was for us.

In your position, option 2 probably makes the most sense, providing the town was still reasonably nice and well equipped. Given option 1 isn't even that close to the nicer town, I think this would make the most sense.

Which feels more like home though? As soon as I walked through the door here, I felt at home, even though I'd previously discounted it, based on the area.

Just to answer a few questions (apologies for missing this info!)

• Mainly working from home, but for when we do go in, both houses are a similar commute to our offices
• We don't have children at the moment but planning to have 2 kids in 3-5 years time.
• House 2 has a decent garden that has some south facing areas. It doesn't have a decked area or a summer house like House 1 does, although House 1's garden is north east facing.
• Both houses have off street parking.

House 2 (5 beds) is about £50k more.

Can house 1 be extended in future if you decide in more children ?

If it's your forever home you done need to worry about selling so go with the one that will likely be more practical

South facing gardens are a winner

Hmmm not keen on estates as grew up on one so personally I would avoid if I could but that's my personal opinion

How often are you walking to the centre of town ? House 2 seems good for that but does house 1 have shops nearby?

Are either by parks ? Which one has close schools or 'better schools' ?

How far are either from places where children could do activities? Are you going to spend a lot of time ferrying the children around for hours in the week ?

I'd go for house 2. You'll need a dedicated space if wfh often and if you're planning on having two children you'll be thankful of bigger bedrooms and more space, assuming the garden in 2 is larger? You can do it up yourself over time if that's what you want and I'd go for South facing everytime. We moved from a similar sounding 3 bed to a detached 4 bed due to size with two children.

Only thing that'd sway me from house 2 would be if house 1 had a decent garden and could be extended side and back, double story. And if it were in a decidedly nicer area with better schools.

I'm not sure what you mean by estate, we live on a new build estate (so I've heard it called) and the kids all play together and there's parks and lots of open space, much easier to give them independence or for them to be close to friends growing up. If it were more like Chatsworth estate I'd understand your reluctance though.

House two all the way - work from home space, south facing garden which you can do up to suit.

Future proofing for children etc

House 1 is in a less nice part of nice town
House 2 is in an OK town

By estate, I mean House 2 is in quite an enclosed area - I'm not sure whether it is an estate but it feels like it.

OP, do you feel able to say which the two towns are?

I’d take building an extension on the smaller house out of the equation the £50k difference won’t buy you a lot of space
which one does your gut say ?

House one sounds a bit small for two kids.

I think my gut is saying the 5 bedroom, as we will be spending a lot of time at home. I'm nervous about schools, but that's at least 8 years off yet (by the time I have a child and it gets to 5!). I'm not sure whether schooling is something I need to give serious thought to at this stage.

The 3 bedroom house does have a summer house though which could be used as a study

House 2 - enough rooms for kids and space to work from home, south facing garden, shorter walk to town.

what about schools?

house 1 might have a summerhouse but one of the bedrooms is small.

house 2 will have spare bedrooms which can be used as studies. Or you can add a garden office later. I had one constructed at the beginning of covid and it cost 6k including electrics.

I know you don't have children yet and school ratings can change but I would be looking to see if any are in Outstanding catchment area or at least good. Nothing would make me move to less than a good school area no matter how nice the house. House 2 sounds more spacious and a South facing garden is far better. Don't worry about summer house or how garden is as you can get it done up later.

House 1- nearest primary school is "Good". Nearest secondary is outstanding but it is 1 mile away!
House 2 - nearest primary is Good, nearest secondary is 1 mile away (it is in another town) and is rated Good

If you might have two kids and if you both work at home, I think you're going to need the extra bedrooms.

DD and I live in a 3 bedroom house (although it's a small 3 bed rather than a big house). My work takes up one of the larger rooms permanently so we occupy every room in the house between us even though there's only 2 of us.

It is more important than ever that you have a dedicated 'office' given you permanently work at home if you have children because you need a room you can shut the door on and the children understand that you're therefore working.(Also we have just reached playdate age which makes it even more useful having a separate office that you can keep the kids out of so that your work stuff doesn't get played with.)

'Good' schools are perfectly ok generally..

House 2, otherwise you will end up moving again in the not too distant future and it is an expensive business.

House 1 sounds fine for now but realistically you'll need more space than this in 5 years time.
Much better house 2 now than another move so quickly.

If you really can't commit to house 2 maybe its a sign neither are right and you need to hold off til you can get something with a bit more space in the area of house 1.