To ask what your priorities in buying a house would be?

[Bells3032]

If you were buying what would be your non negotiable.... And how far from a station/high street would you be willing to live?

This is an issue as we ideally want to move for work but have got very used to the following:

Easy access and driveway
Detached
All bedrooms being doubles
Decent sized landing area - sounds daft but it's spacious enough to air drying clothes, have a lamp table, extra storage
Good sized level garden
View - we are on a hill so overlook town and countryside valley but aren't overlooked ourselves
Cul de sac - little passing traffic, v quiet at night
Walking distance to local shops, cinema, small supermarket
Walking distance to open countryside
Few miles to some fab beaches
Plus lovely neighbours

We are sort of looking about at the moment to see what we could afford but it's hard as we are comparing it to our house now and if we decide to sell and move, a new house has to be able to match or exceed what we have now - and it's actually hard to find! Only reason we are looking to move is we need more space/more bedrooms but also considering extending instead. Our must haves though are;

1. Private driveway or shared but with a visible divider - I will not go back to allocated parking ever!

1. Good size garden, not huge but also not tiny!

1. If on an estate (we tend to prefer new builds), it needs to be spaced out nicely - I hate the estates that are all crammed in closely so everyone is on top of each other and there is no parking.

1. Needs to be close to work and amenities but also not in a busy location

1. Needs to be close to some woodlands or countryside for walks

1. Room sizes need to be good, we are looking at three beds (currently have a two) and loads have a non existent third bedroom that really shouldn't even be called a "bedroom" or are basically the size of our two bed house but divided up differently so all the rooms are smaller to get in an extra bedroom!!

1. Don't want anything massively overlooked - don't mind the odd one or two neighbours overlooking as I don't expect total privacy - but have recently seen some houses that have a ridiculous amount of houses overlooking the garden - to the point I would feel watched all the time!

1. Ideally a detached but would go for a semi if needed

1. Not open plan, I really don't like the idea of having the kitchen and living room as one big room and I don't like having the stairs in the living room!

10. Needs an entrance hall, not just front door straight into living room.....

11. Decent schools nearby

12. Good public transport

13. Good internet and phone signal

14. Needs to look nice from the outside and not be close to the road - needs a bit of a garden at the front

Detached, garden, off street parking, rural.

A light bright kitchen, and larger rooms.

I’m not bothered about proximity to a high street but ds 12, will be soon, so having a village bus service or a high street within safe cycling distance, maybe 5 miles, is important.

I'm a single parent and have just bought my first home. I don't earn a lot so I couldn't really afford to be too picky and needed to be realistic about what I could get for the money. My max budget was £100k so for that I wanted -

2 decent sized double bedrooms (it's just DS and I).
A small low maintenance garden
Not too far from school, work and the shops as I don't drive. I live in a large town and work locally. Work and the high street are a 10 minute walk from the house and the school is a 30 minute walk.
A quiet street.
Not too much work to do in the house.

I got everything I wanted.

Surely location has got to be the most important factor?

My DB is trying to sell a really lovely house; 3 large double bedrooms, one en suite plus two other bathrooms & cloakroom downstairs; large kitchen, utility, sitting room & dining room; wood burner, nice sized garden, garage & car port & parking,, not over looked, new windows, good condition, walking distance to shops, beautiful views, good schools ... under £250k but because of location it's been on the market over a year .
I'd love to live in his house ... but sadly couldn't work from there. Maybe with more people WFH there might be more opportunities for him to sell it.

Parking and not on a main road, I’ve had a house with no parking and on a main road and I’d not be keen to do it again.

Downstairs loo also, having broken an ankle i now know just how important that is.

I’m not fussed if I need to drive a few mins to a train station or high st.

If I could, I’d also avoid being overlooked and surrounded by neighbours in close proximity.

But the parking and the main road would be the deal breakers for me.

South facing garden.
Downstairs toilet.
3 good sized bedrooms, don't want one box room.
Would love two reception rooms

Stations etc not applicable here.

Rural
Detached with wrap-around garden (south-facing)
Garage (for car)
Separate dining-room (cannot stand open-plan living)
Fast broadband

Location is the main thing. It needs to be in catchment for excellent schools and not too far from work. I also don't want to be on a main road. Preferably a cul-de-sac in a nice family friendly area, as we are now.
The house itself needs a bedroom each and a spare and a decent garden.

My partner’s list was ;
Detached
Double garage
Couldn’t have a sloping driveway 🙄
No shared access or weird layouts that will cause hassle
Quiet road
Near good schools
Easy commute to work

My list was basically a roof over my head! Although when we eventually move I would like enough room to have a studio in the garden so I could restart my business.

When we bought our house we wanted-

Four bedrooms or 3 large bedrooms
Off street parking- would never buy a house without this
At least two toilets
We have a large garden, but the maintenance is a pain, so I would rather have a small/ average sized garden
Definitely separate dining room
I like annexes( so I looked for a house with an annexe)
Detached/ semi detached or large end of terrace.
older house- more structurally sound
Good schools

No en-suites- really don’t like them

@Raella50

The number of people on this thread who will only buy detached houses - that can’t be representative? There aren’t many detached houses where I live, I can’t imagine even considering it. It’s all about location here and everyone I know priorities location first.

I'm fascinated by that too! I guess the underlying assumption is rural living? Its also struck me how much people hate being over-looked in their gardens, whereas I never give it a thought, probably because I've lived almost my whole life in very urban high density areas so thats just my 'normal'. Likewise I don't mind background noise (kids playing, cars, whatever) because I've never lived anywhere without it

Affordable. I live in fear of being unable to make mortgage repayments. The first house we bought was well within our means. Another priority was a room into which we could put a lodger if we fell on hard times, and in an area which would be practical for lodgers (on main bus route).

As it turned out, we never did fall on hard times but had a lodger anyway - after our child was born she slept with DP and me and the lodger stayed on in the second bedroom. This meant we could pay off the mortgage very quickly.

Seem to be very few city dwellers here!

I'm in London and our list was:
near one of three stations for 15 min train journey to work
Not right on an A road or next to a pub or similar noisy place
Park nearby
4 bedrooms
Toilet on each floor
Budget. Willing to do a fair bit of building work.
Some character.

Ended up in the less posh end of town but the park has excellent playground and gardens within a couple minutes walk. Also have 2 supermarkets under 5 min walk which is wonderful. All the building work was less wonderful but we still love the house.

We finally moved in January after 2 years and an enormous amount of viewings

It took that long because we knew the next house would probably be our ‘forever’ house, or at least the house for the next 20 years and we wanted to tick all of our requirements. I thought they were fussy/ extensive but after reading through this, maybe we weren’t being too fussy after all.

We wanted:

Rural Village location
The village had to have a nice pub
Detached
4 bedrooms
An open plan kitchen/ diner. Big enough to have our dining room table and a nice sofa / woodburner in.
Woodburner or open fire in the living room
At least 1/2 acre of garden
A driveway that could fit at least 4/ 5 cars on
Within walking distance to village pub
Double garage or outbuildings.
No more than a 30 minute drive to our nearest city.

What we learnt eventually, after 2 years (!) was that we COULD find houses that ticked the boxes....but not within our budget. Therefore we had to up the budget quite considerably. I had been telling DH this for probably 6 months prior but he was insistent we’d find something. We really couldn’t....until we reluctantly upped the budget.

Don’t regret it for a second though. Been here nearly 6 months now and it’s the best move we ever made.

@SomewhereEast it has definitely got something to do with what you’re used to. I grew up in the middle of nowhere with no neighbours for miles. You could walk to the washing line in your pants if what you needed was drying on the line My husband grew up with low fences between gardens and I can’t relax in their garden, I feel like I’m on show just sitting having a cuppa! I’m sure I’d feel differently if it was what I knew.

It very much is. If I ever stay in properly rural places I'm very aware of how quiet it is all the time! I do like the idea of not having to get dressed to put the washing out though

Affordable. I live in fear of being unable to make mortgage repayments.

Yes!!!!! With our modest house we have weathered redundancy, illness, 2 x maternity leave and part time working.

We just downsized for a modest mortgage and it’s the worst thing we’ve ever done!

Can’t wait until the 6 months is up so we can sell it on and move away

We just downsized for a modest mortgage and it’s the worst thing we’ve ever done!
Why did you choice to downsize initially?
Whats changed now that youre moving again? Is your situation different?

We chose to downsize because we wanted a small mortgage & a house more appropriate to our family. We both work full time & DC is usually at school.

We bought a cute little semi down the road. Mortgage is £600 a month - rental for similar is £800pcm.

We made the decision to move in February. Then coronavirus happened and suddenly we needed room to work from home & homeschool. Not only that - the neighbours are so close the noise is really bothering us.

Work from home is now becoming permanent (for DH at least. It’s long term for me) to save renting an office which saves jobs.

At the end of May (after we moved!) I suffered a minor stroke / TIA.

And now we’re all getting claustrophobic, irritable, anxious & there’s no room for any mobility aids, desks or anything!

And the neighbours are still noisy fuckwits I am craving space

Does seem like almost everyone wants to simultaneously be in a detached house in a rural or not busy area, and have work and amenities close to them. That really does smack of trying to have your cake and eat it too!

4 bed, downstairs loo, kitchen diner and safe non over looked garden.
Would like a garage but would settle for a big shed and would love a quiet road walking distance from village but will be priced out of that option.

Any info from OP on their circumstances?