how much would you compromise for location?

[ThatVikRinA22]

i am yearning to go back to my home town, and to add a little bit of insult to injury my best friend has moved there, i am pleased for her, and her house is absolutely the cutest thing ever with the most wonderful garden, but it came at a cost (financially!) its absolutely beautiful but was expensive and isnt half the size of the house they had here.....

her moving spurred me into looking at house prices, and to my absolute dismay, i could probably afford a shoe box in the most awful parts...

we have never had any money left to us from parents and will never have, our budget is miniscule for the area....

would you compromise for the area? would you, for instance, go from a semi detached back into a terrace for the right area?

i want to go home so badly, if the job opportunity comes up i would move back tomorrow, but i am so disappointed to see what we could realistically afford.....there is always the possibility that when DS leaves for uni we could downsize and go from a 3 bed to a 2 bed....
but i know what i want and i fear im not going to get it on our budget.
im feeling a bit deflated.

No I wouldn't compromise that much.

Are there any nearby possibilities that are more affordable so that you could visit your old town more often? If not, can you analyse what it is about the place that really appeals and see if there are other less pricy places that could offer you similar things?

You could try listing the pros and cons and thinking through things logcally, but that may not be much help if it's more of a heart than a head issue.

In the process of doing just this, hoping won't regret it!
But it isn't just location, it's a whole lifestyle thing...

Nooka's suggestion is good. We would have to compromise on garden size and primary school catchments to move back to the town I really want to live in; so we are trying to buy in a village just outside the town which has a great primary school and we can get a big garden. It's only 8 minutes on the train into town so I think it represents the best of both worlds.

For us, location is key. We are in central London which means having a 2 bed flat with no garden, when we could have a 5 bed detached if we moved out to zone 3/4. But we're close to family and friends, can travel anywhere without a car and access all the cultural events we want. I would not have compromised though if DD's education had suffered, but she is statemented so school catchments don't matter.

If you have a good support network in your home town, that's priceless imo. I had surgery a few months ago and couldn't manage with DD at home for two weeks, so she was able to stay with gps without any disruption to her school routine. I know I can always count on someone local to collect DD if something unexpected comes up, gps help out with overnights regularly, and she has contact with all her extended family.

Like birdcage I'd compromise a lot. Or at least, to put it this way, I wouldn't move away from my desired location to get property benefits. Like my own front door, a garden, some cupboards, that sort of thing. So yes, I absolutely would move into a terrace to live where I wanted.

There must be others who feel the same - or else why would property value depend on "Location, Location and Location?"

Interesting. I have been thinking about this recently too. I would go and actually have a look at a few properties you could afford and see how you feel walking round with the prospect of living there. It can be quite sobering. I love my bit of London but lived centrally before DCs; I have been wondering recently whether as the DCs get older we could compromise in order to move back into central London. But I think everyone has certain things they can't let go of. I don't care about garden size or parking, and I'm not sure we really need all the bathrooms and reception space we have in this house, but I do really care about DCs having own rooms, my own front door, a kitchen you can eat in and 'period features'.

To quite a large extent yes.

For me, my family's life is based on the location - the friends we have locally, commuting distance to work, activities / nurseries / great schools for the children, restaurants / cafes/ library / park all within walking distance. Good transport links.

The house is a secondary concern - having said that, it needs to be big enough / have the attributes (or the potential to have the attributes) that you want.

We live in a location that gives us absolutely everything we would want - love it, we're very happy here. Have sacrificed the size of the house (its small for a family of 5 although it has potential to extend) and it was more expensive that other areas. But we were prepared to compromise to get the location as its somewhere we knew we'd be happy and we're here for the next 20 years or so.

well i am getting slightly obsessed....i have spent the day trawling right move and my house isnt on the market yet....

theoretically we could take out a much much bigger mortgage, but the repayments would be so high

my friend just got the perfect house for them, maybe i will just have to have some faith that the right thing will be there when i need it.

Bear in mind that if the repayments would be high now, at emergency low interest rates, they may be very painful when rates head back to a more 'normal' 6-7%

yes i know that and that is why i wouldnt do it....
at the moment i pay almost £700 a month
if i buy at £150000 payments would be £860, and i really do think thats quite high enough despite the bank saying they would lend us £207000.....
its hard because £207000 would get us what we want in a decent location.....£150000 wouldnt really but id be back where i want to be and since my friend moved i am feeling so lonely and hankering to come "home"....

i realise thats probably peanuts compared to most of the country!

I think your questions words it right by asking "How much...".

I doubt there are many people who would live in anything for the perfect location (couple + 3 kids in a two bed, 700 sqft flat for example), but similarly I doubt many would choose to select a gorgeous house in a very rough neigbourhood, with failing schools, no friends nearby and no work.

We started off in a flat (large - 1100sq ft) with our first child, but I would do a lot to avoid a flat once talking toddler age (especially if no private garden).

We have seen some perfect (for us) houses that are a little remote from facilities, or a little far from family/friends, or a bit too inconvenient for work...but at the same time we wouldn't consider a very small or newbuild house/garden which was perfect in terms of location, because those things matter to us as well.

So we like Victorian/Edwardian/Farmhouse/Non-pokey cottage type places, but would consider attractive 1930s for a better location; we'd like ~0.5 to an acre of garden, but would take ~150ft for the right location; we'd like 5 beds but would take 4, we'd like 3 receptions but would be ok with 2...etc etc..

I guess everyone has a similar set of potential compromises they'd make?

Do it.

We did, and no regrets. for 9 years we lived in a lovely large detached house in a quiet cul de sac in an estate..... No soul, no character... Not the best school, or area, including the people! But, we had loads of value for our money. 9 bloody years we pined for where we are now.

Then, last year, we fell out with a friend who was a neighbour (that's another story!) but.... It gave us the push we needed. (Thanks, you evil witch from hell!)

A year on, we are living the dream! Semi detached house, smaller garden, no off road parking (which is never a problem on our road) ... Yes, we had to borrow a bit more money... But, my GOD it was sooooooooo worth it.

We moved our daughter into one of the best schools in town, we live in one of the best areas in town... We walk everywhere.... Know the most amazing people. I just bloody love it!!,!,!,!,!

Do it OP. dont waste anymore precious time. X

doubt many would choose to select a gorgeous house in a very rough neigbourhood, with failing schools, no friends nearby

Um... We did precisely that (although we made some very good friends here)... And now we are selling said gorgeous house and hoping to buy in an area we actually want to live in.

Ha. I get tempted sometimes by similar - see a stunning house and get carried out by the house part... But similarly I don't want to get carried away by location and live in a dive/shoebox of a house. Guess most fall inbetween.

I've just posted something similar on another thread, but I think it partly depends what way you think your finances are going in the future (eg are you likely to suddenly be better off cos of kids out of nursery, earning more, whatever).

If they looked rosy I'd be tempted by something smaller in the area I loved, because that way I could build my life there (just like Vickles describes) and then perhaps move later to something larger or more chi chi.

I think at root I'm a 'nice area' girl. Having lived in London for years, I feel well versed in how to get rid of clutter and live in a smaller place, because it is worth it for how much you enjoy life once you leave your house. But what are you like? If you stay in all the time and are really house proud and super keen on living the period residence dream you might feel differently....

I live in London, so compromise is the name of the game...
I think the decision you make often depends on your individual needs. I recently had to make a choice between a lovely house in an area that was going to pose some challenges for me in terms of getting to work, etc and a worse house in my ideal location. I ended up going for location, because my personal circumstances are such that being close to work, my dd's school, facilities, etc is really important. I think I made the right decision. I love where I live although sometimes I could cry when I think how much I paid for a tiny house...

this is my dilemna too. smaller house, bigger mortgage but lovely hometown village and better school/lifestyle/community, safer for the kids. our pros definately out weigh the cons but its so hard to downsize and pay more for it!

We'll have to move in the next few years - for work so have a big pull factor.

We are currently in a semi- detached but the areas isn't nice - nice primary but awful secondary. So we will have to go down in size quiet a bit as whole are costs more and it wouldn't phase us to go into a terrace as we are more concerned about catchments and having 3 bed rooms, as can't do with less with 3 DC, and transport for commutes and price.

Make a list of basic must haves, would likes and see how many you can get for a price you want to pay in the house then do the same for the area. Then do a lot of looking and thinking how things would work.

I left London precisely because I NEEDED more space - I could afford a small one bed in a nice reasonably central area, but being 40 I just find this cramped living so depressing! If you are a shopper at all (for anything) then forget it. I think age really matters! in my 20s I had a lot less stuff and was out a lot so had a tidy one bed, but in your 30s- 40s it's the opposite (even with no dc). So I compromised halfway and went for a large period two bed with garage in Bristol (very good area with amenities on doorstep) which is not London (sigh) but honestly it's not miles away in terms of comfort/architecture/shops/cafes, though I do travel to London once a week by train (around 2 hrs) - you get used to it. I would still move to London if I'm richer one day or pool resources with a partner, but I'm fussy about areas there so it has to be a real surge of money. I woulfn't go too remote though for the sake of a larger flat/house, even though I DO like a big house!

interesting. i guess ill need to give a bit more thought to this when the time comes to do it, at the moment if i did i would have over an hours driving to work, so im going to wait until i get an opportunity to transfer with work.

its just an awful feeling, i feel left behind now my friend has gone and its renewed the hankering i had to go home again anyway.....

im desperate to go home.

4 years ago we moved from a detached 4 bedroom house to a terraced 4 bedroom with smaller garden.

I have not regetted it once I love where we are I adore that the children have the sort of life we do in this area and yes it has come at some loss but it was worth every moment (and I did get a bigger kitchen)

I would absolutely do it for the right location.

The house we've ended up with hasn't really been touched since 1985, but the location is great. So a lot more work than I wanted really, but do know that it will eventually be as nice as some of the others we looked at. Just hope we're here for a few years after it's finally finished.

well, ive spent another hour or so on right move.....spotted a few that would interest me and are within budget or there abouts.........i suppose ive got a bit of an idea and the hope is alive that we could move.....its just work. i need a transfer and DH works where we live now, and has done for the last 22 years.....it would totally depend on where i ended up work wise if i transfer....and depend on if he could find work i suppose or commute to where we are now.
it all feels so difficult and yet i want to move so badly.