When buying a house?

[gdaytoyou]

Buying a house with DH. We have young children.
What's more important, bigger house or bigger yard?

House.

House. How much of the year do you realistically spend in the garden vs in the house?

House

Garden is important but house more so.

To us it's always been garden and location....you can change the house but not where it is. We've eventually found our dream home...only a run down bungalow but it's on nearly 2 acres and is detached but only 5 minutes from town ☺

But saying that gardens and space aren't always everyone's dream.

Smaller house with large garden but space to extend or house.

Assuming planning permission is an option.

Bigger house as realistically you are going to be in the house more than you are in the garden.

It depends on the weather where you live and how much time you spend outside.

I’m guessing you are in North America - most posters here are in the UK so will answer thinking of the British climate and culture.

Well, what's the weather like where you are? By your use of the word 'yard' I'd assume you're not in the U.K.?
If you spend a great deal of time outdoors, including meals, then the bigger garden might be more useful.

We bought a garden with a house attached. In the UK as well. We spend a ton of time outdoors in all weathers and gardening is my hobby though. We've completely refurbed the house and plan an extension too. It's a long game but I reckoned that we'd never have a perfect looking house with 2 small kids anyway. I totally love where we live and would do it all over again.

For us: location, size of house, size of yard. Might consider size of house and yard together if thinking of extending.

We moved into our house with two young children. We've extended three times. The house now has three adult children. Room to extend should be a consideration.

The area is the most important aspect of buying a house. You can change the layout of a house and alter the garden but the area is the one part you cannot control.

After that I would say any area of garden is pretty important. It will be very useful if you have children or pets in the future. A large house is good but if it has little to no outdoor area then it would probably be difficult to sell it at a later date. There are not many people looking to buy a large house who don't have children or animals which would require a sufficient area of outdoor space.

We found a house that is perfect, location is perfect, 500m from back entrance to school, great area.
It has a yard, enough to potter and play, but not the huge yard I thought we'd have for our kids.
In saying that though, we aren't homebodies. We are forever out exploring, playing in the parks, down by the bay etc etc.

Do you mean it has a yard as in a small paved area (common for terraces, my gran had one) or as in a back garden but not huge?

Yard as in grass and a garden.

We went for garden, wish we'd gone for house. Couldn't be without the off road parking though.

Being that close to a school entrance would put me off....exactly why we moved from our last place... It was a nightmare.

I live right next to a school entrance and as it's the school my daughter goes to it's pretty awesome. I look out of my window and see other parents parked outside half an hour before I leave my house!

How can anyone say?

1. No details
2. We’re not you!

I might be prepared to sacrifice 1m of house for 5m of garden, but not vice versa - yet both are still garden over house.

Yard means hard standing of some sort, not grass, in every English region I’ve lived in!

For my family, house and location, including proximity to parks and paths. I could do with a small yard as long as there is nearby walking paths and fields!

House - small garden to sit in/hang washing is all you need - parks and public spaces can provide the rest.