To think this house is too remote to be feasible

[HungryHouseHunter]

Name change. Posting in AIBU for traffic. We are considering putting an offer on this house. It's exactly the style we want with more land than we wanted but I'm worried it's too far from Winchester where we started looking. To get the train station I'll need to drive, to get to the shops I'll need to drive! Does anyone do this ? Do you end up resenting the inconvenience? For example I couldn't just pop out for a big shop, I think I would need to drive to Winchester and pay for parking etc. Would need to pay for parking at train station when using it (at least twice a week). Do these things just get more and more annoying. Currently live somewhere where car isn't even really needed.

Also value for money?

https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/145236887

Depends on your age and that of any children. Little children will be driven to school, teens will hate you.
We lived in a large country house with no shops. We moved last year to a modern development with shops in the village we spent twenty years in the sticks
I don't think I do it again.

Farm fields but yes , I guess they could be sold and developed

Have you actually visited the area @HungryHouseHunter ?

It's not really rural isolation - you would be very close to Winch, Chandler's Ford, Eastleigh, and Southampton - there isn't really a lot of space between them.

@HungryHouseHunter I live in a similarly remote location. Have done for 10 years. Here are my thoughts:

1. how is it heated? Oil? Consider the costs.
2. check that you can actually get that broadband speed at the house, not nearby. My house had 1.9mbps when I first moved here. That is no Netflix,
3. bus routes? When a parent is ill, how will the kids get about?
4. Security. I didn’t sleep for the first 3 years until we got our massive dog - and that was with alarms.
5. is it definitely freehold? Lots of barns are leasehold.
6. can you actually get a supermarket delivery? Check on the supermarket websites.
7. Check your council’s local plan - especially for waste and traveller sites.
8. check the cost of insuring it.

Hope that helps!

Yes. I completely see its not isolated in a wilderness sense, it's just working out if I want to make every journey by car (unless going on proper walks etc). Also its a car to the train. Adds to a weekly (but not daily ) commute.

The things that would concern me are proximity to the motorway, poor energy rating and lack of landscaping/trees around the house.

V helpful. Much appreciated

The house is a bit further along the road than the other collection of houses but this house is really not remote at all. The neighbours all seem to have swimming pools.

Looks like the house is opposite some grain silos, be prepared for late night activity during harvest and lots of dust.

If you are accustomed to walking to all amenities and a short drive feels like it will be an "outing" then I'm not sure this is the house for you. For those of us who don't live in cities a short drive is normal.

It adds about ten minutes if you travel from Shawford station, which has free parking.

It’s like half a mile off the M3, it’s the opposite of remote! Anywhere you live you need to drive to a supermarket if doing a big shop.

Oh, and one other thing - the cost of a tractor to mow the lawn (no gardener will bring one to you) and consider where you would dispose of the grass. That’d about 4 to 5 green wheelie bins in grass cuttings alone.

The parking will break you 😁

YABU - everyone knows on a parking thread there MUST be a diagram

I don’t think it’s that nice to be honest. I love barn conversions. I’d want it finished to a high standard for the price.

Oh god. Had not even considered that!

@HungryHouseHunter the reason I mentioned about freehold is that we got all the way into conveyancing only to find the EA had misadvertised it.

What a ghastly little shack. Is it ex council?

I wonder why the listing does not show the other 4 bedrooms or bathrooms? At that price I would expect comprehensive details and images.

I appreciate you pointing out those grain silos.

We have a fast tractor and it takes DH 3 and a half hours to do a similar sized plot.

@HungryHouseHunter I live a few miles from there, and work in Winchester - you need to consider that anywhere that doesn't need a commute to the train station will put you living next the main line to Waterloo - it runs very near to some of the most expensive houses in the city. Trains are very regular and very loud. The PP who said million pound town houses are a London thing has never been to Winchester (why I don't live there!)!

It's a lovely city, good schools, great transport links, but unless you are very central (less space, and very close to neighbours), you'll need to drive most places.

Hahahaha! Rural?!?
You are about 3 mins drive from a corner shop (Nisa) in Otterbourne, 7 mins from Sainsbury's at Badger Farm (with Starbucks) and the same distance to hiltingbury and chandlers ford which is lovely and villagey with a good range of amenities or Romsey.

Parking in Winchester is expensive but you can also get a bus from the main road into Winchester or Southampton and there is perfectly adequate parking and ride. You are ten mins drive to Southampton airport and train direct to London (in an hour and 10 mins).

So not really rural until you turn off the main road (by the m3).

I'd be more worried about spending half my life ferrying my children tò school, activities, see friends - including when they're teenagers.

Or she could be selling it.

I'd very very worried about new build encroachment on my views of random fields, given your promiximity to some quite popular towns and the M3.

We're selling a nice bungalow in the country on half an acre to move back into town. The travel is a pain and the garden is too big for me to keep under control.