Which house?

[buyerconfusion]

Which house would you buy?

Bungalow = ugly, needs a LOT of tlc, new windows, new doors, possible damp, derelict driveway and garden . However massive in size, spacious and real potential to render the property with new windows/doors and make it look a lot less ugly. On a corner, tricky to get onto drive.

House B = Tucked away from the main road. Blocked pave driveway sweeping round. Period property 1930's detached. Beautiful original features (parquet, stained glass, high ceilings etc) enormous garden 0.3 of an acre with stunning trees, shrubs etc. All rooms need decorating but only one window needs replacing. Possible damp in one room (smell of) Bags of potential to feature in House Beautiful!

Here's the issue..

Bungalow - prime location. Opposite beautiful Georgian and thatched roofed properties. 5 min walk to school.

House - edging in with the council estate (backs onto it and it's also opposite) Back end of the garden was actually sold to the council to give the properties a bit of a garden.

Same price. Just under £400k.

House would be at least £1m if it were 0.5 a mile up the road into the next exclusive village! Bungalow is in prime location in this village.

What’s the comparative cost of refurbishment? Sounds like house A will need plenty spending on it, house B less so.

It also sounds as though you’re leaning towards A.

Can you afford to do the necessary work on house A?

House A the bungalow - needs new windows and doors immediately ....needs the garden and driveway doing (but could do ourselves) ...the rest is actually just paint etc. Kitchen is vile (original 1960s) but liveable with , as is the bathroom. I think I would need at least £30k spending.

House B - needs kitchen doing as a priority. The rest would be painting and decorating as normal. One window is blown but other than that the windows are only 10 yrs old and in excellent condition (as our the external doors)
could probably spend £10k an be happy.

I’d go bungalow but I like a project, and I don’t generally like 1930s houses. (Assume the bungalow is mid-century or similar.)

So a very subjective A from me.

It does sound like the bungalow’s in a better location.

Do you have budgetary headroom for the refurbs? At one level you’re not really comparing like for like because the bungalow needs major work but the house doesn’t, yet they’re the same price.

Good question. Probably not immediately no.

I probably am leaning towards B because of the beauty of the house and the original features - I can just see it making a truly beautiful home.

House A will always just be a bungalow - could be a 'wow' bung in a few years but will never have the features of B.

But the council estate.....Aghhh.

Bungalow is more of a project yes. It's 1960's.

It's overpriced but the vendor won't come down. Location is better though.

I'd go with location over style. I like to know I'd be able to sell up easily if I ever needed to!

Can you move bungalow's driveway to get better access?

I'd go a or wait to see if anything comes up.

You can change a house over time but can't change the location.

I wouldn't be buying anything over priced, especially with a lot of work to do, when the market isn't exactly thriving.
The last thing you want is negative equity and a half done project because you ran out of money.

It's hard to comment on the house without knowing the location, not all council estates are made equal

If you don't like the position of B, that is always going to be a problem. A sounds fixable. How big is the garden on A? Could you do a loft conversion on A in the fullness of time to make it more house like and less ugly.

Council estate in isolation and in principle wouldn’t bother me. Plenty of council estates are perfectly fine. It depends if there are specific issues locally with that estate — that is what I’d be looking to find out.

OTOH I also think you’d struggle to sell on a house that looks nothing like its neighbours — even if it’s more attractive architecturally — because the visual impact just jars. I passed on a house like this a few months ago because while the house itself was interesting and handsome to look at, it was sat next to 80 bland 1990s boxes and so it just looked out of place.

Thought experiment. Push comes to shove — you need to sell the house quickly. Both have been renovated/tidied up. Which one will sell fastest?

A sounds like a better investment, everyone will have the same reservations about B which will limit the resale value.

Have you asked why the house vendors are selling?

I think there’s probably more opportunity to add value to something in an excellent location. If the thing that puts most people off about that house is the style of it, you can make significant inroads into fixing that. You can’t pick up house B and plop it somewhere more desirable, so it will always have a lower ceiling price. That would make the decision for me, I think.

not all council estates are made equal

This. Is it a council estate or is it a bad area? There's some overlap between the categories but they're not the same thing.

I've lived on a road that was council on 1 side and private on the other, and you'd only know the difference by the architecture. I've lived next to an estate that had a few loud parties but is generally fine. And I've lived next to one that was an utter nightmare with constant break ins, police chases, flytipping into people's garden, stolen cars being crashed and set on fire ...

If the house is near an estate of the first type I wouldn't hesitate to buy it. If it's near the third type I wouldn't touch it at half the price.

B, any day of the week. But I find bungalows a bit claustrophobic (even big ones! I think it's all being on one floor), and love 30s houses and big gardens and have no issue with living near social housing.

Id go for the bungalow, they always say to buy the worst house on the best street. You can do the bungalow up to just how you like and it will be in a perfect location. Win Win. The house, you can do that up to just how you like but it will always be in an area you don't like. Win Lose.

You're wildly underestimating. We just paid over £20k for a bathroom refurb - mostly labour costs. Everything has gone up massively. We bought our place leaving £85k spare to do lots to work but it's been eaten up so fast in floors and carpets, painting and decorating, plantation shutters and one bathroom! No chance we can afford to do the (very outdated) kitchen.
I know they say location location location, but you have to live in it... at this point in time with labour and materials costs so high i'd take the house that you can live in comfortably

Not at all. I'm not talking plantation shutters for this house (which cost me £6k solely for my front house windows in this house!) and I'm well aware how much skirting boards and door architraves cost! Just renovated the one we are in.

I would never ever spend £20k doing up a bathroom. Horses for courses and all. My husband is in trades and we could do a luxurious bathroom for under £5k.

Your'e right though - the house is more liveable in right now. Could literally do nothing except change the one blown window. The rest is just not to my taste.

The bungalow needs money spending to make it liveable.

House has been in the same family since it was built in 1928.

Purely due to bereavement from what we can gather.

Ok so to throw a spanner in the works - just found out the 'rough' part is actually 2 streets behind the bungalow whereas the council type properties (not sure they still are, they just have that style) next to the house are considered no problem.

If it's intended to be a long term home (ie at least 10 years), I'd chose House A. Location is everything. House A needs a lot doing in next couple of years, but chances are House B will need most of those doing in the next ten years.

Just read your update. I know you want to make a quick decision, but if both properties are local, I'd walk around both areas around school pick up time (you may get a feel for some of the local occupants in terms of how they speak to their DC) and evenings if you can (to check for any trouble).

https://www.adt.co.uk/crime-in-my-area - this site might help you gauge the situation locally. You can compare it to your current area, the postcodes of both property and any surrounding ones.

That's a good sign then @buyerconfusion they must have been very happy there

Yes apparently they really don't want to see but the 'children' are all in their 50's, all with their own houses, one still living there but his needs means he needs a smaller house now.

They would like someone to buy it who would keep the old features etc rather than concrete over all of the gardens!