Which one would you choose?

[propertydecisions]

property 1.
Empty no onward chain, been on market for 4 years.
Offered 160k for it accepted on offering 10 weeks ago, but obviously not taken it of the market (neither would I)
Good Decorative order, needs new bathroom and ensuite. kitchen is nice.
Not my ideal layout stairs in living room.
we would be looking to extend.

Just tried to lower the offer, and apparently someone not in a chain wants to view it Monday.

www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-25142426.html

or

Property 2.
On for nearly 2.
Lady lives in who wants a bungalow - so does half the town according to my MIL. so we are unsure how quickly she could move and how realistic she is about the price.
Less favourable decorative order and needs new kitchen.
Beautiful garden.
Nice traditional layout with hallyway.
Better upstairs than 1.

www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-35357129.html

We have an offer from a first time buyer on ours. Just seeing if we can up it by a couple of thousand. And we should be in a position to seriously make a move.

Thanks, I hope this makes sense ,just off on School Run.
Regular but a name changer.

That's a toughie. I would probably go for number 2 as it look like it has a larger garden. You can change most interior stuff, but you can't increase your garden size (usually).

Incidentally, we nearly bought a house in Braithwell, but ended up North of Sheffield instead.

2 - better garden and stairs in the living room could be very irritating in a family home.

I would be a bit suspicious about a sudden viewing on property 1 after such a long time on the market. I suspect the sellers are holding out for the best price and are being a bit underhand.

By the time you have worked on property 1, you will easily have spent the asking price of property 2, which I suspect you like better, despite the kitchen. A kitchen is liveable with, though, even if it's not ideal; a layout you don't like is far more difficult to rectify.

I actually prefer the first one, even before allowing for the fact that it's "ready to go", and the fact it's cheaper, so, presuming the 2 roads are in same area and just as good for you from that pov, then Number 1, without a doubt.

The stairs in living room would make house number one a no from me. When OH and I watch TV in the evenings we can shut the door so the sound doesn't keep DD awake.

Bunbaker - it's a small world! We love Braithwell but its a but more pricey and my DS's will have more freedom if we stay in Maltby. Good bus routes and be able to walk to the pool/ gym and to the Academy when they are older, rather than me being a taxi service.

Both properties are on the same cul de sac and both back onto the school playing fields.

My heart says number 2.
The decorative order doesn't worry me at all because we want to decorate anyway. And she has had all the bedrooms painted recently so they are nice and fresh. So it would be a case of moving in and doing up as we went. And I don't mind choosing a new kitchen.

Both properties are a lot nicer than they look in the flesh than on the photos.

We are leaving behind a beautiful semi but want a detached.

I agree with that thought BunBaker, but, looking at the photo, it doesn't really look 'open plan', so I would assume you could put a door to close them off. It might of course be the way the photo's been taken and I'm completely wrong as I often am, as there's no floor plan.

I'd also go for the first one, given your situ with first time buyers coming to your place and the fact you can move easily to number 1 (assuming you don't love number 2 and like number 1 IYWKIM). I also think it looks really nice and even without your blurb would have chosen it in preference to number2 as I love the fact the back garden opens onto such a wonderful looking open space and the second property's garden looks very overlooked from other houses.

We are thinking of constructing a hallway, and having the front room as a playroom/ snug.
I'm a Childminder at present.

And then extending off the dining room and having a large family living room that opens onto the garden, with a log burner.

We Accepted a higher offer from our buyer.
The viewer with no chain might have one to sell after all. Funny that when I mentioned we were interested in another property!

I also like the first one better, and I'm not sure its garden really is smaller - tho' maybe it just feels more spacious because it isn't overlooked as much and there's more lawn - obviously you'll know better from actually viewing!

If your offer on it was accepted 10 weeks ago, what has delayed progress since then?

The gardens are very similar in size.
As the photo on the first one is deceptive. Plus there is 3 ft of hedge before the boundary in some places.

I am now very much set on number 1 and number 2 second if we can't have 1.

The delay has been selling our home.
The vendor didn't really accept it, as there have been at least 4 other viewings booked since.

Got it down a little bit. But got to wait until Monday and hope the viewers on Monday don't like it.

A friend has stairs in her sitting room and the noise from tv etc in evening travels straight up the stairs and disturbs the kids. Also, when she started to get plans for extension, architect said building regs would be complicated because the stairs don't go from hallway - something to do with fire safety?

This property is the same style but with stairs on the right rather than left as in property number 1.

We would put a single storey extension off the gable end wall (with entrance off the dining room)

www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-39355435.html?premiumA=true

It would be easy enough to enclose the stairs if you wanted to, I reckon. :)

I hated the first when I saw the kitchen tiles as they remind me of a public toilet (sorry!) when I saw them in a house local to me. However, they can be changed and it looks like you've got a great bit of land at the back for children to play on.

Which one has the bigger and more private garden? That would affect my choice. Also, the second one is without a bath isn't it?

Yes I'm not keen on the tiles. But they'd be easy to replace.

No bath in the second as its a wet room. Doesn't bother me as the other property needs a new bathroom suite (doesn't really its liveable but I want to change it) so we could put one in no. 2.

Both properties have a similar amount of land, but property 1 due to its layout has more scope for an extension on the side.

The properties are actually only 2 houses apart but in a weird cul de sac layout.

I think they are both overlooked by 2 houses on the back but have a massive school playing field behind. Which is the only reason we are even considering them. (As we currently live in a large bay windowed ex council house, with a large garden & conservatory).

The photographs on no. 1 are quite bad and don't do the house justice.
And the owners have painted throughout and freshened it up.

The proportions of the rooms downstairs in 1 are better, with the only issue for me being stairs in the living room. Which I think we'd overcome with a change of furniture - a sofa and armchair/ cuddled chair set under the window with back to stairs - giving a walk way and allowing for a desk under the stairs.

With 2 the living room is long and thin, with double (although narrow) doors in the middle, and I think it'd be hard to arrange the furniture whilst making use of the patio doors.

But I think 2 is better situated and has a larger drive way. But some of the garage has been taken into a utility room.
Both of them have shared front gardens but the house sharing no.2's garden is set further back, giving a better frontage.

Ahhhh!

So which one are you going to, and why?

property two looks bigger from the outside, but overall I like property one. good price for it too.

We are going for number 1. Waiting until tomorrow to see if we can instruct our solicitor.

Because we've talked about it and would go for 1 if they both had no chain.

The fact it's no chain and we have a FTB is brilliant.

We can make the garden nice.

There are lots of other detached in the town, but the houses on other newer estate are slightly dearer and even though they tend to have a more traditional layout they seem all crammed in and the gardens are overlooked and v small.