Would you accept this council house?

[Ashkey234]

I'm currently renting a house for £360 per month from a housing association.
Not in the best location.
I bidded on a house (through council ) it's only 7 years old,much better location and massive garden ,£380 per month.
I went for viewing today and I was the only person who turned up.
Anyway if I get offered it,do I take it?
It's going to mean new carpets,decorating.
Luckily the council have just painted all ceilings and all walls white but I would want to put my own stamp on things.
What would you do?
It's great rent price and still leaves us with a lot of spare money in the month for other things.
Is it worth moving for better location ?
Its bigger too.
I'm in two minds

anne i'm going to have to refrain from posting on this thread or reading it much more because i think this is too close to me right now, however, the only point i wanted to make is that not all landlords are willing or have decided to buy a property, that's all.

in my case, the house itself is the problem - it has (always had) a weird layout from before my parents bought it before i was born. no one wants to buy a property where you have to go through the bedroom to get to the only bathroom is one of the main sticking points, not in an area where there are new build housing along the road with proper layouts, proper gardens that don't have a right of way access for a neighbour etc.

i'd be shot of the thing if i could, but rather than leave it empty any longer for more viewings to sell, we decided we needed to let it out so it's being used and we get some income to cover the legal costs involved in dealing with the estate. the whole thing has been on a new level of stress and hassle, and i wouldn't wish the legalities that come from dealing with a dead parent's estate from hundreds of miles away on anyone, it's been horrific and not helped by tenants that have paid their rent late whilst demanding unreasonable expenses to add to the stress (for example: demanding perfectly good tiles in the kitchen were replaced with carpeting because they found it too slippy for their children/it's "a risk"!).

anyway - i'll step away from this now, but please don't continue to lump all landlords into this general category of us all rubbing our hands with glee at the profits and wanting to inflict misery on others. i happen to agree that this country's housing situation is in crisis (i'm not exactly in a great place myself - i did think about trying to buy out siblings but can't even afford that) but it is hurtful to be lumped in with a general group who've caused the problem willingly!

I would definitely take this, you can carpet cheaply and replace as the years go on.
You will put your own stamp on it when your things are in there.
A couple of tins of paint to create s few feature walls would help c

This is off topic so sorry OP, we are landlords when DH is posted abroad. As it is our one and only house we are renting out and we live in the it between postings the alternative to renting it out is to leave it empty. No one would be helped by it standing empty while we are overseas. There are going to be a wide range of reasons why people have rental properties and provided they are reasonable landlords I do not see an issue. We rent houses while overseas so also experience being tenants. Our rent just about covers the morgage and no more so it is a big assumption that all lanlords have lots of profit. Housing is a mess and we were lucky enough to buy our first house before it went really crazy but pitting one group against another isn't going to help find workable solutions.