To ask you which house you would buy

[Throughtheday]

Two houses, similar listing price (although who knows what will happen with offers). One is 2 beds, main road, location we want but less community because of busy road. Has been recently renoed but not to my taste and looks a bit cheaply done.
The other one is 3 beds, perfect location, but is really run down, dated, might even need some minorish structural stuff. In the short and probably medium term I won’t have money to do anything except paint and maybe redo the bathroom OR fix the floor issues. But it would be my preferred option if money was no object.
Which would you offer on and why? In other words, how do I decide what is more important, not having the stress of it potentially being a dump for years, but perfect location (esp for my children), or being a bit small but not in a dire state even if not to my taste?

House B but I’ve always bought wrecks.

B

Though it depends on how bad the structural work needed is and how long it would be before you could do the work. I wouldn’t mind living with dates kitchen and bathroom for a few years but structural work is a different matter as it tends to get worse with time and can often cause more issues, so you end up with a growing list of works that you can’t afford to fix.

House 2 100%

If house 1 has recently been renovated on the cheap it could host a huge amount of issues that have been covered up. Friend moved into a newly renovated rental,within 6 months the damp and mould was more than evident but on moving in, it looked beautiful

It’s really stressful and time consuming doing home renovations. Depends if you’re into it and can see the long term end game and not mind spending no time with your kids / having no money etc!

House 2. We have always bought the worst house in the best location and it's really worked for us. Bit of discomfort in the beginning but you end up with something much nicer.

C. In my opinion you haven't found the right house yet.

The second one for sure.spend the money on fixing it structurally first and you will be amazed how small projects will improve it over the years.

3 bed wreck.

@dudsville

C. In my opinion you haven't found the right house yet.

Good point, I agree.

Failing that though, house 2. Any chance we could see it?

I agree with others - the second one. There's nothing worse than living in a place you don't like.

Can you try to knock the price down a bit so that repairs can be done?

Team doer upper - fortune favours the brave. Good luck and go for it!

Depends what needs doing on house 2.

Another vote for house 3 tbh, but it depends what you mean by minor structural. It's just taken us 7 months under scaffolding to get our roof leak fixed due to covid delays/available materials/isolating roofers.

I’m a sucker for a wreck of a house, we’re in ours currently. My dearly departed Surveyor father in law is spinning in his grave I have no doubt.

It has everything wrong with it. But I love a fixer upper.

House 2 (provided the survey comes back decent). We bought a bit of a run down property (had been rented and not at all looked after by seriously destructive tenants). We saw so many houses that were newly renovated and looked disgusting - we'd have spent just as much changing them as fixing our place up.

House 2 for many reasons.

But get a proper survey and take a builder around so you know exactly what you're up for!!

House 2, the 3 bed

House 1. I can't be bothered with fixing houses and I don't know how to fix houses.

I couldn't live near a main road, so it would have to be the doer-upper for me.

Neither. Both sounds crap.

Keep looking.

I’d go with house 2, you’ve already said you don’t like the finish on house 1. If they’ve skimped on the things you can see it would really worry me about the things you can’t. Also you’ll only end up redoing house 1 so you’re better off with the bigger house and better location go for house 2, if you’re going to have to do work whichever you choose

House 2 if the structural work was minor. Get a full survey done.
Why - not in main road, it's the area you want, will increase in value.
Never buy on main road.

Ok, thanks for all your thoughts! Glad to hear the majority is in favour of my preferred option. The fixer upper also has an attic that is definitely fixable so could get more space in the future too, and presumably add more value. I would like to take a builder round but the homeowner is being a bit funny about the idea! I think the area means she isn’t worried about it selling in any condition. I think builder or not I need a second viewing just thinking about what it actually needs.

A pp said neither sound ideal, and this is true, but houses in the area come up very infrequently (although far more often on the main road section, which isn’t terrible as main roads go but I would still prefer a quieter street).

I think I really needed convincing so I’m not tempted to offer on the smaller one if I don’t get the better one! Based on previous local experience the one in rough shape could go way over asking while the other one is more likely to be close to asking.

House 2 could be my dream house if fixed up, have to keep my fingers crossed for the survey. It didn’t help that one bedroom and one bathroom are basically cat rooms so perhaps it will seem less intimidating as a project when empty!