Would you buy a house on a feeling?

[Tallkala]

We've been house hunting for absolutely ages.

I don't know whether we are just very fussy, but nothing ticks all the boxes. We want enough space decent sized bedrooms, big garden, nice road, good schools. Yet we are on a budget!

We've viewed a house and I've fallen in love with it, but it's missing a few things.

I love the road it's on, it has gorgeous views from big windows, it's light and airy, I'm happy with the local schools. The owner is an elderly lady and she's lived there since it was new. I can imagine myself living there, imagine myself waking up looking out of the big bay window. I can imagine what we'd do decorating wise no how it would look. It just gives me good vibes, it feels like a happy house.

However, it's missing a few important things. The garden is absolutely tiny, and we have two dc. It really is tiny, you couldn't ever put a decent shed or a swing and slide. You could just about fit a small table and chairs and a tiny paddling pool in Summer. There's not even any side access to the garden and the only access to it from the house is through the garage! This could potentially be fixed by tuning half of the garage into a utility. The third bedroom is also very small.

It's a corner plot and the neighbours all have huge gardens so I'd have massive garden envy.

My kids love being outside and although there are parks nearby. They spend hours in the garden on nice days.

Not many come up on that street. We don't know what to do.

It's fine. Get rid of borders and you'll have plenty of space.

I would only ever buy a house if I got 'the feeling'. The garden looks a fair size to me.

How small is the third bedroom? My teen DS whinges about his small room regularly. Not helped by the disparity between it and every other room in the house.

Posted too soon. The last time we bought a property we were looking for a two bed, two bath flat with a terrace or balcony. We viewed one that looked perfect online but was disappointing IRL. The estate agent showed me another flat in the same building - a one bath studio with no outdoor space and we offered the asking price on the spot. Although the studio did not tick all our boxes, as soon as we walked in it felt like home.

Many of us choose a house with our emotions, not necessarily a bad thing. You have to ask yourself which is calling you the loudest - your love for the house or your disappointment with the garden? How much will the small garden niggle you?Is it a niggle which won't go away? If so there will be other houses that you will love.

I've known an owner to buy a house because they were attracted to the lovely blossom on the trees in the front, or the way the sun shines through the dining room window - both a 'feeling' they had.

My DH chose a house because it had the garden he'd always wanted.

I've also had a prospective owner reject our house due to a 'feeling' which doesn't half feel insulting!
Always look at the financial side - will this house appreciate in value, will I get back more than I paid for it? Does it need a lot of work, will it be worthwhile?

In the end though, it's often down to a 'feeling'. Best of luck in the search.

It's not as small as I pictured OP.

Provided you don't have Great Danes it should be more than enough

The house i grew up in had a garden about that size. We had brilliant fun in it. No swings or trampolines in those days, you went to the park for play equipment. Hours of fun in a small paddling pool, blankets over the washing line to make tents, dolls tea parties, little gardening tools.

If your eldest needs to play football then he would best do that in the park anyway. Soon he will be off out on his own with his mates anyway. Lots of children grow up just fine in city flats with no garden. This one looks plenty fine.

The house I'm moving into Friday week ticked quite a few boxes and has also niggles. However, I loved it the minute I walked in. I could also imagine myself in there.

Good luck and I too think you should go with your instincts on this.

How small is the third bedroom? Which child gets It? How will that work in 5/10 years?

The garden looks ok to me. What would put me off would be the small third bedroom, especially when you have 2 dc.

I think you need to weigh up how important the garden is to you personally. We can all give our two penneth worth all day long but its you who has to live there.

I got that feeling for our new house before I even looked around, but I knew that it ticked all of our non negotiable boxes.

In a 30's semi better to divide the largest bedroom in two so they're an equal size for the kids, parents have second bedroom, third bedroom dressing room so it creates more space in divided master for playing/studying.

Blimey op seen a lot smaller than that. As said get rid of the borders and maybe the garage to lawn.

Location is all.

As a PP said - how big is the third bedroom? We currently live in a lovely house, quiet road, countryside, massive garden... but we have two double bedrooms and a ridiculously small box room that cannot fit even a single bed. Because of this we will need to either move or find money for an extension soon as DS won't be wanting to share with his sister for much longer.

The huge garden sold us this house, bug the disparity in bedroom sizes is what is forcing our hand now.

It's not that small. It looks smaller because of the borders. Personally, I'd AstroTurf the lot until the kids have grown out of using it as a football pitch...

If the house has a good feeling then I think it is possibly the one. I'd rather live on a nice street with a smaller garden then on a possible unpleasant street with a higher garden. My house is tiny with a huge garden in a beautiful village. Yes the house is super small but it's worth the sacrifice for such a beautiful chocolate box location.

Higher! Bigger!

I think that garden's fine. It's clear since you haven't found anything for so long that you're going to have to compromise on something - schools, house size, garden. So you just need to decide what the compromise will be.

Difficult. I was totally with you for the first half post. And I thought you were going to say there was only one bathroom, or no separate dining room or something, and I was going to tell you it wasn't an issue and you could work with it.

Garden is an absolute sticking point for me though. We really wanted a garden big enough for the children to play in properly until they were big enough to walk tot a park by themselves.

Having said that, it isn't that bad. It's a big enough space to sit outside and enjoy it. And I wouldn't worry about the garden access. We have a lovely big house with nearly half an acre of garden and the only access is through the garage (or a very, very tight squeeze down the side in a locked out emergency). Not an issue at all. Though we do have double doors out of the garage in case we need to get anything big through like building equipment.

I'm inclined to say that if you love it that much - and the location is good - then just go for it.

That is not a tiny garden, though might look it due to the size of the neighbours gardens.
The house we have just bought had pretty much everything we wanted in a house, but the garden is north west facing and my one thing was to not have a north facing garden. But the house spoke to us; we could picture ourselves living there and what work we would do to make it home. I guess having three double bedrooms helped so we didn't have the third tiny bedroom dilemma. If the small third bedroom is next to your other childs much bigger room, would it be possible to move the wall across between those rooms to make two more equal sized rooms? It was something we considered in a lot of the houses we viewed with the tiny box bedroom.

Just noticed I missed the fact that the only access to the garden from the house is through the garage. That's not great, but presumably can be changed pretty easily by turning a window into patio doors? And/or the utility room option.

If this is a corner plot and looking at the position of the garage, is the garden to the side of the property? If so, what happens directly behind it?

The garden is big enough to do all the regular stuff families do and a bigger garden would place the house outside your range. It sounds like there is potential to improve the house as you can afford to and add another bedroom ( loft or garage) so if you love it, I'd say yes.

Subject to survey, of course.

It looks like a decent sized garden to me!

I read your first post and was then really surprised to see the pic of the garden. I don't think it's too small at all.

I've only bought on feeling With the caveat that I won't view something unless it has my non negotiables. Last 2 houses have been right straight away and offered straight after viewing.
That garden looks fine for the ages of your dc.