Which house would you choose from these three?

[Flamingoose]

(Rental, not buying. If we were buying it would be different.)

Maybe I should ask which should WE go for? We're a family of 5: 2 adults, 3 kids aged between 9 - 15. DH and I both work a couple of days a week at home.

House 1: Stunning house in great location but absolutely tiny.
4 bedrooms, kitchen, dining room, sitting room, bathroom all on one level. That's it. No study, no second living space, no laundry room, nothing. It's like a little doll's house. But beautiful and right where we need to be.

House 2: Nice house, good size, I like it and we'd be comfortable. It's not a horrible location either - near some nice parks, shops, beach. But it's not where we need to be. Would make DH's commute quite long. Teenagers would probably need a lift to school (at the moment they bus or walk). Miles from friends. My 5 minute walk to work would become a 20 minute drive.

House 3: Bit of a shitty house but big enough and where we need to be. Crappy old kitchen. 20 yr old bathrooms.

(Or, I suppose, House 4: A nice house, big enough, in our location, but over budget).

House 1 and re-use dining room as study. Make largest kids bedroom a second TV room by putting gaming equipment / tv etc in there. Could you look into office space nearby - quite reasonable nowadays?

Or house 4

Anyway definite not house 2

That's the same for house 1 though. Cope with the smaller house for a short/long time and move if you can.

I wouldn't choose the shitty house. Suggests a landlord that doesn't give a fuck about you or the house. Kitchen and bathroom being shit is bad enough, what if they don't care about boiler maintenance either? That's potentially lethal... No way would I take that chance.

Then house 3. As awful as it is, a lack of space and poor location will make life very hard. The house itself being horrid may have unexpected advantages, such as not worrying about it very much! I'm not saying trash it by any means, but you could relax in it in a way you can't if a house is immaculate.

Is there a difference in rent that would swing it? Ie go for the cheaper one and save for a deposit to buy?

House 3 as long as it's just cosmetics and not damp or falling apart-level shitty. Size and location is much more practical, although agree that house 1 doesn't sound that tiny and does have two reception rooms. But still, I'd go House 3 for rental.

I'm trying to image how small a 4 bed house with a dining room and living room can be

If the kitchen and bathroom are just a bit old in house 3 I'd go for house 3. You can brighten up old rooms. But if they are grotty or seem dirty/damp then house 1. We have recently had a similar decision and went for house 3 but even though the bathrooms/kitchen were old it was generally in good condition, and we decided space would make us happy than a shiny bathroom.

You're all right. House 2 is a stupid idea. Would be a pain in the arse and expensive to be forever driving the kids backwards and forwards. House 2 is off the table. Also the agent for that one was really rude and I don't want to be dealing with her every time anything breaks.

I know a 4-bed doesn't sound small, but it's an old worker's cottage - the rooms are tiny. There's not a bit of 'extra' space to keep hockey sticks and football boots and diving gear and, oh god we have a ping-pong table 😅and DH has a load of tools and what about camping gear? And the cat's litter box? Where does the printer live? I think there's a shed for storage - I need to check again. Couldn't get rid of the dining room - where would we all eat?! We all sit down for dinner together most evenings, sports practice allowing. I really love the tiny house but I think I'm talking myself out of it.

So - revisit the budget, or make the shitty house work.

House 3.

House 1. House 3 if you were buying but why would you want to live there if you couldn't do the work to add value?

House 3 for me. Hopefully once you've moved in, it'll feel like home.

House 3 , definitely if house 4 is not an option, with these ages and working from home space is VERY important. Could you do some cosmetic changes, just a bit to make it clean?
I think mentally shitty rental is okeish, it’s not yours so no forever feelings.

House 3. Not the right time to be going over budget for House 4 and the other two aren't workable, no matter how cute.

Housse 1 with a caravan in the garden that the eldest child can have as their own space (and a wifi extender).

None I'd keep looking.

3 you can change it to your taste/home

Okay. New information.

House 1: Not as small as I first thought. We can make it work - though absolutely nowhere to put an office or even a desk in a hallway. Old, not modernised and very hard to heat. High ceilings. Likely a bit damp in winter. Landlord absolutely skint and refusing to spend a penny on the house, even refusing to get the garage door fixed (it doesn't open). Current tenants moving out because they're fed up with living in a cold, old house that needs fixing up. But it's very pretty and in a lovely area, closer to the kids school and on such a pretty street.

House 2 - off the table

House 3 - It's ugly. The kitchen is small and cheap and broken and depressing. No dining room and we'd need to get a smaller dining table to fit in the horrid kitchen. Also the layout is weird - kitchen and sitting room upstairs and scruffy old patio behind the downstairs bedrooms, but there is a little office off one of the bedrooms PLUS a 5th bedroom as an extra space behind the garage.

Also it has lovely views.

At this point I think 'keep looking' is the right answer.

1,2&4 seem no goes. 3 seems to have enough space? Could you have the dining table in the upstairs living room (useful for homework etc), use one of the downstairs bedrooms as a second living room/TV room with access to the patio - make it nice (with your ping pong table etc) - have the bedroom with the small room off for yourself & partner, and give the oldest teen the room behind the garage?

You can do so much with paint, cheap rugs, plants and lampshades from ikea.

Keep looking, having kitchen and living room upstairs is very annoying.

I think house 1. Your kids only have a few years left at home and then they’ll be off at university, at which point you could convert a bedroom or two into an office or library. You don’t want to have to downsize in 10 years once they all leave!

The one I definitely wouldn’t compromise on is location. A remote location would affect your quality of life far more than any of the other factors, imo.

Ah sorry I didn’t read carefully before posting and didn’t realize it was a rental! Also hadn’t seen the new info re house 1 being cold and damp.

Honestly, I’d keep looking. Location and size/practicality have carried the heaviest weight whenever we have been house hunting. I think the ability to heat it cheaply is important these days, so house 1 would be offputting for me. Attractiveness is not so important with a rental as it’s not like you will be stuck with it for life.

House 1.

Is putting some stuff in storage while renting this place an option? Try and optimize the space you have.

Nice kitchen and bathrooms and stunning house make up up for the lack of space in my eyes. Everyone gets their own bedroom so it’s really not that bad.

Maybe house 4 then. How over budget are we taking here?

Just read the new info on house 1. Was imagining something from ‘Escape to the Country’ previously but this place is full of red flags. If you already know the landlord is skint then thank your lucky stars you’ve found out now and avoid.

4 or keep looking.

House 3.

After your update. Be a fantastic tenant and after a while ask the landlord about a new kitchen.

House 1, old house, smallish rooms, damp, hard to heat and a skint landlord who refuses to spend money on the house. I would not rent this house because it full of red flags. Then if the landlord is like this would he have got the boiler serviced? If you had a problem or needed something fixed I think he would be slow to do this.

I would go with house 3 and see if you could re configure the rooms. Get the landlord to see he could replace the doors on the kitchen units. It cheaper than buying a new kitchen and if it works it will give the place a lift. If the carpets are not great see if you can hire a rug doctor - it's a commercial carpet cleaner that you maybe to hire from the like of B&Q. One of my friends hired one and she said it bought her carpet up like new. You might be able to hire something similar from a local hire place. Just be warned they are heavy.