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Original poster

What did you compromise on when buying a house and did you regret it?

79 replies

thegraduand · 15/06/2013 18:40

Clearly we cannot find the perfect house, but aren't clear in our minds what we should compromise on.

If we but a house in our perfect area it will be a lot smaller than what we want, it too small to fit all our junk things in, so we'd have to have an enormous clear out. We could move a bit further out, get a either a good house with smaller than perfect garden, or a great garden and smaller house, or we can move a lot further out and get the house and garden, but have a longer commute and rubbish traffic.

We are not tidy people and have too much rubbish, to I worry that with too small we would never get tidy.

Do we just hold on for longer and keep looking, but risk prices going up (and they are going up in this area)? We are confused.

OP posts:
deepfriedsage · 15/06/2013 18:47

Go for a smaller place with good storage, meaning built in cupboards, shed, garage.

chickensaladagain · 15/06/2013 18:47

Compromised on a garage as the house has a cellar for storage

I really wish I had a garage Hmm

Inclusionist · 15/06/2013 18:49

We currently live in a house with no storage having moved from a place with a garage and two built in cupboards the size of small rooms (which we did not own, came with DH's job).

IME I would not compromise on storage.

BirdyBedtime · 15/06/2013 18:52

Compromised on style of house. Would have ideally wanted an old house but ended up with a bog standard 60's estate to get the town we wanted. No regrets at all. We redesigned the interior and are currently extending. We're 15 mins walk from primary, 10 mins from secondary, have great neighbours and are very settled. Go with the area you want.

chartreuse · 15/06/2013 18:56

I would always prioritise location over size of house/garden. With good storage you can adapt to a smaller space. But being in the right location is worth lots of other compromises IMO.

We have just bought in a fantastic location. The house is not lovely now but with work and imagination it will be great. Similarly the garden is much smaller than I really wanted, but we will make it beautiful.

The location and amenities make these compromises worthwhile. Hopefully Grin

SofaKing · 15/06/2013 18:56

We compromised with area, had to move because in addition to that we had the neighbours from hell!

Our current house isn't perfect but I feel all the faults are fixable, whereas I could never be happy in the old house because no matter what we did it wasn't in the right area and never would be.

Turniphead1 · 15/06/2013 19:00

This reply has been withdrawn

This has been withdrawn by MNHQ at the poster's request.

Winceywoo · 15/06/2013 19:06

I would rather have the smallest, least appealing house in my desired area. Think location, location, location!!

mediawhore · 15/06/2013 19:10

A driveway/orp.

Great house. Good size. Great garden. Everything pretty much perfect. But parking Spain and wish I had a drive.

mediawhore · 15/06/2013 19:11

Ahem.

Parking is a pain. Wish I had a drive.

CPtart · 15/06/2013 19:11

We moved from a detached to a semi, ideally wanted another detached but compromised due to the rare semi rural location in the city. No regrets. We also lacked a garage but luckily had room to have one built.

RemusLupinsBiggestGroupie · 15/06/2013 19:13

We bought on the main road, next to our perfect area. Couldn't get a house in quite the perfect area and this was about £40000 less for a decent size. Do we regret it? Occasionally, but not enough to move as this mortgage is nearly paid (fingers crossed).

MrsJohnDeere · 15/06/2013 19:13

Semi rather than detached and yes we did.

Now house hunting and we will compromise on space if need be just to be detached.

blimeyohriley · 15/06/2013 19:15

We compromised on area. It's early days but I do miss my old town. Still, we got a big old house which would have been totally unaffordable for us in old (very desirable) town. Hopefully as time goes on we will settle more. Sorry, this post isn't very helpful!!

bluebluecow · 15/06/2013 19:18

I truly believe in gut instinct.I viewed so many houses but walked in this one and just i.e. it didn't tick many of our boxes but has a lovely view and felt like my home from day i.e. only problem is the neighbours on one sideSad

TheReverseStitch · 15/06/2013 19:23

Compromised on size, garage and parking to get the area we wanted, happy with the compromise because now in the recession we still have an easily serviceable mortgage rather than a bigger payment for a bigger house.

LondonBus · 15/06/2013 19:27

I compromised on the period/original features....I would love a Victorian property with garage and garden, but it would be to £££ so went for a '50s property instead.

Wednesbury · 15/06/2013 19:31

We compromised on location/area. DH doesn't regret it but I do and always have done. I tried to compromise on the 'sensible' choice but I have never settled here (been here 3.5 years) and now feel trapped as DS has a good school nearby where he is very happy. But I dislike the town we live in, it's run down, no centre to it and nothing particularly nice about it. It's not where I want to settle and bring up my family. We moved from a town I really liked in a beautiful area, where we had a very small house. We have a much bigger house here but I don't think we need the extra space. We need to clear stuff out, and the extra space is just more cleaning for me to do! The one thing I do like is the size of the garden, with two DCs aged 5 and 3 it is great to have a garden they can actually run in with space for trampoline, slide, swing, toys etc. It was something we decided we really wanted to have.

But it is true: put location first for sure!

Wiifitmama · 15/06/2013 19:32

Never compromise on location. We are in smaller than we would like to get as central as possible. For us, location is everything.

APipkinOfPepper · 15/06/2013 19:33

We compromised on location - we are in a lovely area, but we need to drive more & walk less. I feel it was worth it for the particular house (& garden) we got, but not necessarily for any other of a similar price in this area - the house we got was just right for our family!

invicta · 15/06/2013 19:44

On our previous house, we compromised on location, and grew to love where we lived.

For out present house, I knew as soon as I got the details that it was the one. Ironically, when we drove through the village, we rejected it initially as its nothing special to look at. However, its a great village to live in.

I think in your situation, I would go for the middle option. ie. not tiny house or big house, but good house in between.

Mandy21 · 15/06/2013 20:55

I think it depends on what stage of life you're at and how long you intend to be in the house.

Last 2 houses were about the houses and space - both bought before we had children, for the most part we were both working full time (no time inclination to socialise with neighbours, just wanted nice houses in good locations for work / entertaining with friends etc).

When we were looking for houses (when we bought this house) it was 100% about the location - aiming to be here for a v long time, now have 3 children, needed to be close to outstanding school, walking distance to local amenities, cul-de-sac, 'nice' neighbours etc etc so we've compromised on size of house, interior, price (right at the top of our budget). Don't regret it, occasionally pine for a bigger house when we have lots of family and its not really great for adult socialising (all separate rooms downstairs - would love a big kitchen diner). We love it here and I really feel like we've put down roots.

ouryve · 15/06/2013 21:04

Location - the plus is that it's lovely and quiet and friendly out here, but public transport is limited and expensive (almost £7 for a 5 mile each way journey and the journeys that are doable, even on 2 buses are at the whim of the bus companies as there is little or no subsidy) and Internet is slow and expensive.

Number of bedrooms. We settled on a 2 bedroom house because it wasn't actually much smaller in square footage than the 4 (tiny) bed one that fell through - both bedrooms are properly double bedrooms. We have the two boys now, though and they fight like cat and dog (both have ASD) and really need their own space.

We have the option to extend up, above the kitchen extension, to create another bedroom and an upstairs loo, but given the location thing it's not worth the hassle.

nohalfmeasures · 15/06/2013 21:08

Shared driveway which has occasionally had its issues, but it is far outweighed by location.
Also wanted on old house and this is modern. Much easier to heat and maintain so no regrets.

EdieBlizzard · 15/06/2013 21:16

We went further out of our desired area but got a great house and big garden.....7 years on I realised I had never felt 100% settled and actually still felt quite isolated - plus kids can't just 'pop to friends'. We are now taking the plunge and moving - great location, gorgeous period house but no storage....aaahhhh!

Location, location, location - every time for me!

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