Question for Homeowners/buyers

[LIZS]

When you bought your house, how many properties did you view ? What made your choice The One ?

We're actively looking atm and seem to be viewing a wider range of properties than I'd expected. It makes the ultimate decision really hard as, of course, they all have boxes they tick and downsides. On the other hand I want to make sure we get the "best" for our money.

We saw loads, lots of different styles/types initially and then sort of got a sense for what we wanted and were quite strict about only looking at that type.

We chose our house because of its location (great village, nice quiet street), size of rooms (high ceilings) and probably partly because of the view from the bedroom window onto the garden and lovely oak tree.

We only saw the house we bought - we weren't really planning to move, just saw a for sale board outside and fell in love with it. I only seems to be able to make emotional decisions about property rather than practical ones - this house is going to take a lifetime of maintenance and that's when the renovations are done!

We looked at new show homes but the house we've just moved in to was the only one we viewed otherwise.
It had been on the Market for a year, reduced by £50k and was alot bigger than what we had so it ticked all the boxes.

When we bought our house, i was looking for the size of the rooms and direction(facing sun)street, neighbours. and garden space. Lots of people seem to look they got in the house carpet, curtains, etc. But when you bought it you will have empty house. I imagin my home in there, where im looking. We looked only couple houses, i looked from outside and street first and then make appointment.
Once we saw this beautiful house with lovely garden with big trees on state agent website and booked appointment,when we went to see it, it was right at the crossroad. Big no, to avoid disappointment always check the location first, so it will save you time.
agree with yellowfeathers, new houses seem to getting smaller in size and also garden.

Dh saw 2 or 3, I saw just this one.

I hwas happy to go ahead without even seeing it because Dh took the digital camcorder with him when he view it.
I knew this was the right house.

We block booked a whole day of viewings. I saw three, dh saw four (one while I was feeding ds), we cancelled one as my friend who lived locally warned me about the location.

I kind of regret buying this house, as the house itself is a pain in the bum, bloody awkward to live in. But the location is fantastic. Wish I could knock it down and rebuild in same spot, but it's a mid-terrace so not remotely possible. Think we will stay and extend/remodel. We just have to get off our behinds and DO stuff with the house.

We only looked at one type because we had a very specific area where we wanted to live and this area only has one type of house. This was actually only the 4th house we saw, just knew it was right for us it had the space we needed and it had the layout we wanted (living room/diner in one).

the house that we bought and is in now was our 2nd house viewing... Before we viewed this house Dp said "You will fall in love with this house" and he was right i fell in love with it as soon i got thru the front door as its got a happy feeling to the house

You need to decide what is the most important thing you couldn't manage without - area, size, style etc. & cut it down a bit otherwise you'll drive yourself nutty!!! Good luck, hope you find a good one.

Message withdrawn

First time round must have seen dozens (2 bed terraces) but knew as soon as we walked in that the one we bought was what we wanted. Second time round we looked at fewer houses (because there were fewer on the market of the size we wanted at a price we could afford), saw one we liked but sellers were not in a position to move, saw another we liked and sellers pulled out at the last minute, saw this one and it felt right (and there was no chain above!) The things that were "downsides" are still there (small garden, no off-street parking) but can't see us moving for a long time (unless we won the lottery!) I think unless you are very wealthy you will nearly always have to compromise on something.