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

[thegraduand]

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.

Bought a flat instead of a house. Only been here 5 years and already spent £10k on a lease extension, insurance is through the roof because we can't choose cover, service charges are high. I think a more expensive house would have been cheaper but now we can't afford to move

We only viewed the house we live in to rule it out, it looked awful from the estate agents photos and it wasn't in the village we wanted.
We couldn't buy in the village we wanted because we wanted a period property and there are only a small number which are all ££££
We were about to buy a house on the edge of the city, a Victorian terrace with on street parking and a small garden backing onto a canal. It had been owned by a joiner and his wife so had amazing built in storage and 4 bedrooms.
Instead we visited this place, walked in through the door and looked at the vaulted ceiling and said wow. We went home and put in an offer. It isn't our dream home, the bedrooms are too small,the garden is tiny and the extension with it's beautiful vaulted ceiling is freezing in winter but it is a very quirky house because of it's history and it is chock full of period features.

We compromised on loads, I was being a bit of a house snob when we first started looking - then reality set in. I think me and DH were both looking for different things in a house. My advise would be keep on looking until you get 'that feeling'. Then you know any compromise will be the right ones.
I think we looked at about 50 houses and the only one we both got 'that feeling' about us the one we are in and don't regret it at all.
Our main compromises were size of garden & lack of of road parking, also catchment area which isn't ideal but no way could we have afforded where I wanted so not much we could do about that one. We have lots of open space very close by and are in a very central location which makes the compromises well worth it.

I had a wish list of a 4bed, master en suite, big kitchen, that you could walk "around" the ground floor, a study, a bigger hallway than we had and a conservatory.

Found a house with everything bar the conservatory.

Could put one in but cba now and would rather save the money towards retiring in Greece

'Character' and size to get the perfect brief stagger of a commute (i.e. location).

Never regretted for a second, though I didn't have children in that house. However, we have similar issues with the house we currently live in, which wasn't my choice; it really is pretty small as houses go; but I am grateful for the location every day.

We compromised on location, but I don't regret it. For the first couple of years I found it hard not to be in the location we had moved out of, but it was a choice of staying in the same location and getting a slightly bigger flat, or moving further out to a less posh area and getting a house.

We had the neighbours from hell in our "desirable area" flat and I'd never have a flat again.

We had to pass on the old Georgian vicarage genre, and it's an acre short of what we need to get DH pootling around on his aspirational sit on mower. Also no clock tower, no wine cellar, no wig room, we are really slumming it.

We compromised by buying a really manky doer upper when we didn't want the work right now (todder, careers, pregancy, the usual reasons). I have had moments of screaming fury about our decision but we've soldiered through it and I think it was the right thing to do.

We compromised slightly by getting a terraced house rather than detached or semi-detached as planned (though we did end up with one more bedroom than intended which was nice!). Sometimes we have slight noise issues but not enough to make us regret our choice. Like others have said, location has proved the key thing. We absolutely love the area that we live in.

We got everything we wanted - garage, good sized drive, nice enclosed garden, 3 beds, good storage, utility room and 1200 sqft in the location we wanted. Location being the most important.

The compromise was style and we have ended up with a bungalow not a house. We have only just exchanged so not in yet but I am getting used to the idea plus we will extend into the loft to make it a chalet bungalow in a few years so end up with almost perfection. The house isn't particularly pretty from the outside but I can live with that!

We compromised on size of bedrooms to get a better house/location/garden overall.

Storage is a bit of a pain at the moment, some clothes have to live in the spare room or loft, but we plan to extend in due course so it's not the end of the world and we love the house/garden/location otherwise.

Character, but got v good size, light, location.
Turned down similarly priced character option as less good location and couldn't afford to buy and do up, only buy.

We compromised on the condition of the house. It's the right size in the right location but is pretty much falling to pieces. Needs a new kitchen, bathroom, roof, could do with rewiring, every single part if the house needs redecorating. We can't afford to do everything at once as the house was top of our budget so we'll have to live in it like this for a while. But I don't regret it because in 5/10 years time this will be the perfect family home we always wanted.

I'd say find something in the right location that needs work.

We compromised on price, haha. Got the mortgage to match.

We've lived in 4 houses in the last 5 years (renting) and location has always been the most important factor for us.

We compromised on location in order to buy a house that ticked all our other boxes... And 4 years on we are putting our house up for sale to move to the location we always wanted, though due to an upturn in our finances we can now just about afford the house and location.

Compromised on garage, no of bedrooms, commute (for me), size of rooms, and condition of house. Hmm that sounds like a lot!!

In return have got character, light, big garden, partial sea view, v close to centre of lovely small town, detached, and opportunity to extend fairly easily. We both walked through the door and just knew we wanted it.

Oh and DH's commute is very good

Lots to think about,we have spent a wild and exciting evening on Rightmove (may add have to add some spurious property porn later, with its own chapel and priest's hole).

We think we may have found 2 we could compromise on, one is a bit smaller than we'd ideally like, but not stupidly so and is in budget and great location. The second we would be compromising on having enough money to be able to eat and there's no garage or other external secure storage.

DD is 4, so I really want a garden she can run round in and a house that we could get tidy if we really tried, even with the junk.

We compromised on the size of the garden. Not sure yet whether it will be worth it. We do have the option to give ourselves more space to play by ripping out loads of plants.

Everything else was right about this house - location, storage, size, etc.

Oh yeah, and we got a semi rather than detached (see previous neighbours from hell post). Our neighbours here are lovely though. We initially wanted a house that would last us at least 5 years - we've now been here 14 and no plans to move.

Location (couldn't afford a house where we really wanted to be so had to be further out of town), and character. The house is perfectly OK and has everything we need but it's a 1980s box which I hate. It also has a garden which we wanted for DS but it's all work and no pleasure for us. I'm desperate for DS to grow up so we can move back into town!

What seems the 'perfect location' can of course change as your needs and family change - and the place itself can change too.

I have been in my current house over 20 years. It was perfectly located before I had children: beautiful, semi-rural, with a view I love and lots of lovely walks; all the shops I needed daily within walking distance in the village; on a train line to commute to work in the city...

It was still perfectly located while my kids were young: streets safe to play out in; countryside close at hand to explore...

But now they are teens, the location is becoming a problem: there's not much to do without traveling; I've learned to drive, and am often a taxi service, esp. for my younger teen; last buses back from town set off before last orders, and it's much too far to walk; open countryside is not as popular with teens as younger kids; there's a lot of hanging around on street corners, and drugs like skunk and m-cat are too easily available; they have the same village friends they had when they were 5, mostly, and that's not always good; any mistakes they make (and DS1 has made a few) become public knowledge and are hard to live down - I see adults stuck with the reputations they gained when they were 15... There are few part time jobs... The high school, which was 'good' ten years ago, is now in special measures... And that's only the factors that make village living difficult for them; there's more that affects just me...

So we're looking to move closer to town, where the boys can get around more easily and be more independent... And I'm looking forward to a house with fewer stairs, a garage, and a much, much bigger garden... Tho I'll miss my view... :)

Get the house with the smaller garden. Gardens are overrated imho, we have a massive one and the weather's hardly ever good enough to be in it and it takes ages to mow it.

DD was of an age where she played out in the garden for only a short period and I'm bored of the chickens and the veg plot now.

DD now goes to the park with her mates rather than be in the garden.