Smaller or bigger home? Which to choose!

[Louise0923]

We’ve seen two houses we like on the same estate. One is larger and the other smaller, they are the exact same layout, same number of bed rooms (4) and same bathrooms (3). The larger one is my preference, it has the wow factor kitchen and master bedroom. The smaller one is still nice but everything is just smaller! There’s a £35k difference in price, and a £200 a month mortgage difference.

The larger one is definitely top end of our budget, but doable, the smaller is more comfortable. My partner and I are in total disagreement on which to go for.

My argument is if we are paying stamp duty and solicitor fees anyway, why not stretch to another £200 a month, and hopefully, our pay will increase as we go (which it should do).

My partners argument is, we are starting a family and an extra £200 a month would be useful, especially when I go on maternity, and as our pay goes up, spend more on the children and experiences.

However, the large home is also in a nicer position, tucked into a cul-de-sac, with a larger garden and it would mean we don’t have to move again if we outgrew the smaller one.

My partners argument on this, is if we outgrow the smaller one we would probably need more bedrooms, so a larger 4 bed probably won’t be of much use anyway!

Anybody have any ideas around stretching the budget for dream house or keeping it sensible with what partner says is already a dream house (just slightly smaller ha!).

Buy the biggest house you can afford. In reality moving again is stressful and expensive and sometimes there is just nothing to move to! We are in what I thought was our starter home 16 years later because life gets in the way. How I wished we had pushed ourselves a tiny bit more all those years ago!!

This is exactly my thoughts! But he’s adamant both could be an ‘end home’ if that makes sense and we’d only need to move if we needed another bedroom.

Are you planning on having more than 3 children?

I would buy the bigger house and avoid paying stamp duty again.

I wouldn't buy a smaller house with a view to moving again if I could afford a larger house now.

The larger one. Kids, especially babies, tend to overfill houses with junk and utter crap and the house soon becomes too small. By the time you can declutter because the kids are older, your dh will get into secret hobbies that involve cluttering up the house with bikes, helmets and more bikes (or golf clubs).

You need "screaming" room.

My partners argument is, we are starting a family and an extra £200 a month would be useful,
By that logic you should be looking at a 2 bed terrace. You would save even more.

No, planning no more than 2 but I work from home and my parents live abroad so wanted a guest room for them. Our problem is, we don’t know how long we will stay in the area and he wants a house which will resell easier (which he thinks the smaller one will).

These are my thoughts but I suppose the smaller one isn’t small if that makes sense, they both have garages and four bedrooms.

Is the extra £200 per month affordable alongside nursery fees? You have said you should get pay increases🙂, is this guaranteed and what about mortgage rate rises? Have you factored these in. Of course the larger house would be better but only if its sustainable.

If £200 a month extra is tight how do you plan to pay for multiple children? Because unless you have free childcare, they cost a bomb in childcare or lost earnings.

Larger with larger garden. You'll use the big rooms and garden in so many ways as you have kids/visitors and your pay will go up to cover the £200. Move quickly too else someone else will grab it!

We bought the bigger house almost 15 years ago, we have just sold it and bought a much smaller version (same number of bedrooms, utility room etc just in miniature!).
One reason is cost, everything costs so much more in a bigger property, I mentioned recently on another thread that we have been quoted 2.5k just for average tiles for the bathroom, that is before you look at getting the toilet/bath/shower/flooring etc.
Another reason to go smaller that I didn't consider is the endless cleaning required, we have a huge long hallway that we probably spend less than 5 minutes a day in.....I have to clean it every day! I spend more time cleaning it than I do using it for its intended purpose. Same with the bathroom, cleaning the tiles is a job I 'book in' for an afternoon!
Lastly, this point may just apply to me but I have never been able to make this house feel as cosy as I would like. No amount of soft furnishings and blankets make up for the cavernous spaces and in winter it really depresses me! I love to hibernate as much as possible, especially over the Christmas period and I have never felt fully relaxed in this house because it will never be as cosy as I want it to be.
I don't think either you or your partner are wrong, especially as the 'smaller' house you described doesn't actually sound that small. I would say look properly at them both and try not to be sucked in by the wow factor, think as practically as you can about both of them.

How small is the smallest bedroom in each house?
It sound like you are aiming for a similar set up to us - one adult bedroom, 2 kids room, one room for grandparents to stay in, and somewhere to wfh.
Unless the smaller 4 bed is pretty big, I'd strongly suggest an affordable larger 4 bed will be much more comfortable.
The larger garden and quieter position (cul-de-sac) is likely to make the larger house an easier sell too.

@TootGoesTheOwl - why do you have to clean daily a hall you only use for 5 mins a day?

I found the opposite. A bigger house meant lighter use in each room, so they all stayed looking clean and tidy for longer.

We pushed ourselves with our last house move and I still regret it now.
It's not just the extra space, it's the extra heating, higher council tax etc.

I would say go for the smaller house, particularly with maternity leave on the horizon

The two smallest rooms in the smaller house will fit queen size beds and some storage furniture but the bigger houses two smallest rooms are both doubles and comfortable doubles if that makes sense!

I personally think the bigger one but I think my partner just sees it as a waste of space, but maybe (without being too stereotypical) he hasn’t quite considered how much stuff a child comes with and all the time I’ll be spending at home?

I think this is what my partner is concerned with although they are both the same council tax!

Did you regret getting the bigger one at the time? We have just hit our 30s if that helps, so we are looking for the family home!

It really isn’t tight but my partner works things out in a material way eg £200 is …a month! We also have very steady jobs with annual pay increases and bigger jumps when we take on different roles so I personally think it’s worth looking optimistically. And I know one of us could lose our jobs but £200 less a month won’t really help with that anyway!

Thank you! It would be fixed for 5 years and yes pay increases are guaranteed (although I suppose you can’t factor in job losses).

The cul-de-sac location would be the dealbreaker for me. Get the bigger house if you can afford it.

Go for the bigger one, the location alone would swing it for me. A cul de sac is great for kids playing out when they are a bit older, as is the extra garden space. Mine spend most of their time at home outside. And yeah even when the clutter of tinies disappears the teen clutter takes over and sleepovers and space is so welcome!

I would go for smaller, with maternity, babies, financial stress is definitely not welcome at that point 😅 200 a month extra would be useful and the savings on heating, bills ect.

I would rather having spare cash to have experiences, outings together then bigger rooms.

Once childcare days are out the way, you have higher wages, you would have built up a bit of equity so can move to a bigger dream home. :)

What are the downstairs layouts like? Does the bigger rooms upstairs give you an extra room downstairs?

(But we WFH, with two near close teens and have grandparents to stay, in a standard 2 double, one single bedroom semi and its fine.)

Can you afford the bigger mortgage while also paying the daily rate of nursery costs (potentially 2x).

No extra room, just a much roomier kitchen and front room, with extra garden. The houses duplicate each other, just one is a little smaller!

Very true and I suppose older children will need more space than younger in a way, so we could see this as a stepping stone? And if we needed more space in the future move then?