Can I have your thoughts on this house...

[Newbie1999]

www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-69901776.html

I’d change the kitchen cupboards and potentially install different doors out to garden... I really like it, DH thinks garden too small (family of 4).

It's lovely. Garden is fine - how much time do you actually spend out there? Kids grow up and don't want to be in the garden anyway. I can't comment on the price, it would be very overpriced here but I'm assuming house prices are a lot higher in Crawley

I’m really not a fan of the layout - I really dislike open plan.

Probably great with young kids, not so much when you have older dc and don’t all want to essentially be in one big, flowing room together all the time.

Pound hill is definitely one of the nicest areas in Crawley, along with Maidenbower, Worth and Old Ifield and is heavily middle class (the other areas are mainly full of (ex)council housing which doesn’t look particularly appealing). If you lived in poundhill your choice of secondary schools would be Hazelwick or Oriel, both of which are good schools which produce good results. The infant/junior schools in these neighbourhoods are good aswell. Many children in this area will travel to the sixth form college in Horsham which is high achieving. Crawley in itself has lots going for it, there are lots of shops, restaurants, green spaces, a leisure park and very good transport links. There are some not very nice neighbourhoods which for the most part are pretty easy to avoid however the town centre can look unappealing at times, however in recent years the same sort of stuff is beginning to be seen in the neighbouring (nicer) towns. Lots of money is being invested in the town centre at the moment too. Crawley doesn’t pretend to be something that it is not and is not helped by the 60/70s concrete building that fill the town centre. The house is nice though, just thought I would share my knowledge of the town.

Pound hill is a lovely area, great to bring young kids up. There’s so much green space nearby. Beautiful lake round the corner and Victorian gardens. The garden needs a lot of work but it isn’t too small and I’d agree about the colour of the kitchen cupboards.

Bedrooms are pretty small. Teens will outgrow them. Especially if sharing.

I hate open plan downstairs.

It's not for me.

I love it and the red kitchen! Then I'm a colour girl. That's cosmetic. Your never going to like everything someone else does. House is lovely.

The garden will need some work. Landscape gardener in to do it maybe? Perhaps that can be negotiated as another discount on the price you settle with, with the owners, if you decided to buy it

Doesn't show all the bedrooms so hard to make a decision. Not sure the open plan nature is great as the kids get older.

The house is up to your individual tastes and what ever cosmetic work you want to do. My advice with the garden and speaking from experience is to get rid of the gravel.kids throw it, scrape it into piles, hide it in toys to get ripped out in the house later etc. The patio area is great for ride on toys, chalks, etc but I would put down some lawn where the gravel is. The size of it is fine esp if you have parks etc within walking distance where kids can ride scooters, bikes etc

Kitchen is vile. Don't really like the downstairs layout. Garden ok for older kids I suppose.

I Love the Kitchen. It has character. I can't be doing with white /cream colour schemes. Too cold for me. I love colour and warmth in my home. The garden is nice but not ideal for playing in.

Reigate,Redhill, Lingfield, Surrey, much more expensive houses, and council tax. I lived and worked in Redhill, and Earlswood, people used to say to me "Do you live in Redhill or Raget", I would say Redhill, their noses would curl, and they would go "Ewww". Crawley ironically, was one of the original "New Towns", and was populated by a great deal of people coming out of London, (including my DH) so thats interesting that people are so snobby about it. There are some pretty awful parts of London, (I had to move there with no 1 H) I hated it, still do I was born rural, find it dirty,noisy,busy,crowded. The only way to buy a house, you get inside, get the "feel" in 30 seconds

We’ve moved a lot over the past 20 years and know how effective camera work on right move can sell a property. We moved just before Chrustmas so very used to checking Right move. I’m not sure if this is priced correctly as I don’t know that area, but I have noticed a few things. The mirror in the hallway. Unusual? Why is it there? What is it covering up? Radiators are old. One is rusting in one of the photos ( I think it’s one of the bedrooms from memory) the kitchen/family room appears huge, but in reality there’s a lot in there and appears bigger than you think due to the wide angle camera they used. I know it’s cosmetic, but fixtures and fittings don’t look great, curtain rails, lighting and leads in living room. One is sprouting out from side of fireplace, I assume it’s the tv but normally they’re concealed. The garden fences look like they need replacing soon. Yes, garden looks like it needs a lot of work. It looks very over grown with trees and ‘ignored’. The bathroom seems very small upstairs and in reality might be an issue as your family grows. We had an en-suite that just had a shower once...if it’s properly ventilated that’s great, it if it’s just a cupboard in effect ( which ours was) it’s a pain as they get very damp. I wonder how old the shower is. It seems a long way to go in the night if you need to use the loo from the main bedroom? Also, the utility room....is it plumbed and why is it not nearer the kitchen? Why have they also not photographed all the bedrooms? This is suspicious. As they are the children’s bedrooms they might not be good enough. I would immediately think they’d been trashed. Sorry Op, I’d look elsewhere, you will have a lot of work in your hands with this property.

Also..there is a door right next to the stairs that doesn’t lead to anything? I checked the plan too. That is odd. Perhaps I’ve missed something but there seems to be the stairs behind it. If you like this property and press ahead, I’d recommend a very thorough survey.

Also, the utility room....is it plumbed and why is it not nearer the kitchen?

Because they've built it into the integrated garage rather than reconfiguring the entire downstairs.

Also..there is a door right next to the stairs that doesn’t lead to anything?

Eh? Surely it's just a cupboard under the stairs, they're pretty common!

The house is fine, you can change it to your tastes, and returf the garden. There is really lovely park close by and as pp mentioned schools are good. Pound Hill is excellent for commuting, train service is much better than Horsham or East Grinstead. The M23 is 5 mins away, the coast is 30mins, and not much more to the centre of London. Haywards Heath is nice but you get much more for your money having a Crawley address. The surrounding areas are significantly wealthier so Crawley is frequently looked upon as the poor neighbour. I suspect most of the negativity is from those that have never been further than the town centre.

The garden faces north; the house on the left (west) is set back somewhat so you wouldn't get much western sun in it either. My guess is that they concreted it because they couldn't get anything much to grow.

Massive waste of money and the earth's resources to change the kitchen and doors.

Garden would be way too small for me, also the Garage conversion has robbed it of useful storage space (although having the utility makes up for some of it.

None of the bedrooms has very much space.

This looks like it prior to the "improvements"

I like the kitchen! Best bit. I wouldn't move to Crawley now though.

Are people living in mansions or something with acres of land?
I just can’t understand why people think that the garden is small. Looks like a reasonable size to me and I have a large garden.
The house is ok. I don’t really like the open plan downstairs tbh, but that is just my own taste.
It just seems that you may have to spend a lot of money on fixing it up. The cupboards in the bedroom redoing and the kitchen units are not really attractive. Also, I would be concerned that there aren’t any photos of the other bedrooms.
I don’t know much about the area, so I cannot comment. However, I will say that you can get a nicer house if you are willing to go slightly further out.

Just feel a bit sorry for people living in Crawley. Imagine reading all this negativity about the town that you live in.

I think the back garden looks a reasonable size for the property - both gardens front and back could do with some improvements to add character

@areyoubeingserviced

Just feel a bit sorry for people living in Crawley. Imagine reading all this negativity about the town that you live in.

Indeed!! I live 5 mins from this house, crawlwy has its bad and good points as does every single place on earth!! This area is lovely but I imagine the people trashing crawley aren't using their own info to firm the opinion but listen to others saying what they think. Id love to move to a quieter town later in life as this one is bustling with activity (which is perfect for us as a family for now) but for what we have now, another town with a better reputation but still with its problems we'd have to downsize A LOT!!

New door, new kitchen, new wardrobes and the wall knocked out of the living room for me. But would I buy it? Yes.

Gardens big if you rip up stone and add turf

Don't feel sorry for us, if living in an area with good local schools really lots of facilities and things to do, easy access to the coast and central London plus friendly people isn't what people are after then Crawley isn't for them.