Whats your priority list for a new house?

[cat88]

We are looking to move and trying to put my wish list in some kind of priority order as I've been told I cant have everything So for a family with 3 girls and where our search is confined to a small area of one town - what is most important?

situation on quiet road
same sized bedrooms for kids
large garden - sun in different parts all day
south facing garden
nos of bathrooms - at least 2 showers
views
character/period
off road parking/garage
proximity to school/communities facilities
ease of maintenance
likely future saleability
liveability now without alterations/extensions

Any help appreciated but particularly from those familiar with the demands of growing girls!

I think from your list my top 5 in priority oder would be;

-Livability
-Promxity to school/communities
-Bedrooms
-Garden or Period/character
-And probably maintance

We're looking to move and our prioties in order were;

• Livability: able to move straight in/no "projects".
• Area
• Min of 5 beds
• Close proximity to schools/work
• Good size garden/some form of parking for 2 cars.

The house we've put an offer in for is livable but 2 attic rooms need plastering, and their ensuites need plumbing, along with the electrics. One bedroom has mould and needs floorboards replacing, the family bathroom is missing a bath, the house needs a new boiler, the basement needs steps replacing and all rooms need stripping and decorating. We didn't want a project of sorts but we fell in love with the property.

Not saying yours will change but sometimes we make allowences and lower expectations but keep an open mind xx

Our priorities were:

Detached (the only non negotiable)
Good local school
Big garden
Off road parking for at least 2 cars
Plenty of downstairs rooms (reaction to coming from an open plan house!)

when we moved last year out of your list we had:

good sized/similar size dcs bedrooms
liveability now
location-schools etc
off road parking
quiet road
low maintenance
views

I think you have a good list but I can already see a few compromises might be required - for example "character/period" and "ease of maintenance" don't necessarily go together. Also, we have an amazing large garden that gets sun throughout the day but it happens to be north facing - so don't dismiss gardens that don't face south.

Agree - if you have a large garden the south-facing thing becomes largely irrelevant.

For us in this order.
3 bedrooms
Proximity to work
Close to an excellent school
Sunny garden

Things we've had to compromise on in Cambridge... Sadly not been able to get a house with an upstairs bathroom, kitchen diner or more than 1 double bedroom. But our location is incredible and it's possibilities to extend are good.

Think however much money you have you're never going to get the perfect house there will always have to be a compromise xx

With a young family ours was:

Schools

Number (3) but not size of bedrooms - ours share though

Large garden - south facing was important but not a deal breaker. It is lovely though and makes the house feel brighter inside as we have a rear kitchen and patio doors. It's worth thinking about - our old house was very dark by comparison.

Driveway and garage for bikes, storage, utility area.

Saleability. We don't intend to move for years but we've stretched ourselves a lot to buy our house. It gives me peace of mind to know that it's a good investment and we could sell it quickly, easily and most likely at a profit if we ever needed to (which is down to all the factors above).

Ours were
Quiteness of house and garden
Non overlooked garden
2 completely separate receptions room. I really didn't want a room of another room.
Really big shiny new eat in kitchen.
Good flow to the house. I don't like houses with lots of doors dividing rooms or to houses with lots of extended bits added on.
I already had a lovely 5 bedroom detached house but it had a noisy garden so I didn't even consider non detached, or less than 4 bedrooms etc.

Ideals:

Quiet road (prefer somewhere quieter and have cats)
Plenty of facilities in walking distance
Good schools
Off road parking
Don't want a complete refurbishment, although, we accept some work
Small/medium garden

We are moving because we need an EXTRA TOILET and MORE LIVING SPACE, but wouldn't sacrifice the above for them

After looking at a ton of houses, I've changed my priorities. I thought I wanted character but I'd give it up for an extra loo!

Our new priority list (with two growing boys) is:

Close to schools
Close to family
Garden big enough to play in
3 bedrooms, don't mind if third is smaller but not a box
Ideally non-overlooked garden but we can just plant trees/taller fence
Eat-in kitchen now or space to build one later

That's it. My last house had tall ceilings and fireplaces and they were beautiful (and helped sell it), but I'd rather have space now.

Looking at your personal needs, I doubt you will get equal sized bedrooms for all the girls. Maybe whoever has the smallest room, can have it decorated first and be allowed a few extras like new curtains, pictures, cushions - something to make it nice for them. Thinking about them growing up, they can often turn up with 3/4 friends with no notice, so you could say the girl who has the smallest bedroom always has priority over her friends being allowed downstairs.

Re: south garden, don't rule out other aspects totally. Ours faces east, has the sun on it all day until 3pm, then it starts to shade the patio - takes a couple of hours and it's not until 8/9pm in summer we have no sun. The garden of our new house faces north. We've been really lucky to view at four different times, it has full sun until about 10am slowly shades over, but then has about a 1/3 sun until 2pm, as the sun's position changes the sun changes to the top of the garden. There is one corner that has the sun all the time, so if you want to see out you can have it all the time.

I understand you want somewhere easy to maintain (so you can enjoy your family etc), but don't rule out looking at all possibilities. There are some things you can live with - agents told us a property needed a new kitchen, but for me just a good clean - it had a few years use in it, so we didn't need to do it immediately.

Period and ease of maintenance do not go hand I hand.

We are moving next year:

detached
non estate location
gardens
nearby or backing onto fields/trees
three bedrooms

not bothered if we have to get a fixer-upper if the above boxes are ticked

Our priorities are (in the middle of buying at the moment):

3+ bedrooms
located in one of two VERY small areas, essentially a handful of streets
no work beyond cosmetic (I'd include replastering in with cosmetic)
hallway (current house opens directly into living room)
kitchen big enough to eat in
garden bigger than a small yard

I would have said period house too, but we've found somewhere more modern with a quirky design that we like.

Location
Square meterage
Garden
Off street parking

We've just started looking. Ours are:

Location
4 beds
Potential for dream kitchen (I'm not expecting for them to have read my mind and installed my dream kitchen but there needs to be the potential for me to do it eventually!)
Decent size garden.

We are so set on staying in the area that we live in we are pretty much happy to compromise on everything else. We need 4 beds and are happy to do work to create the kitchen and garden that we want in the long run.

1. In an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty
2. Detached & period
3. Minimum 1 acre garden
4. Outskirts of nice village
5. Min 4 bedrooms, 3 bathrooms

Thank you everyone its good to get some views. I agree with what you are saying about large gardens not needing to face south to get the sun all day and that character and maintenance dont go together.
Im interested that off road parking is not an issue for many nor views.

I would be prepared to do cosmetic changes, now kitchen, bathrooms but not sure about extensions or structural repairs.

I guess for many its a heart or instinctive decision that they then mentally check meets with their priority requirements...

We wanted a pavement outside the house which itself means footfall passing by. We didn't want to be totally isolated and wanted somewhere to walk/go with small kids, even if just a field of horses or cows.

I don't like having to drive every time we leave house

Local shop would have been nice and a pub.

With your criteria of 3 daughters and a small,fixed location to search in, I'd prioritize your list like this

Highly desirable
likely future saleability (your home is your biggest financial outlay so it should be a good asset if possible)
nos of bathrooms - at least 2 showers (imagine the queues otherwise)
situation on quiet road
off road parking/garage
proximity to school/communities facilities
liveability now without alterations/extensions
ease of maintenance

Desirable but probably unlikely to fulfil
same sized bedrooms for kids
large garden - sun in different parts all day
views
south facing garden

Totally compromisable and I have no idea of what housing stock there is in your area, but nice if you can get it. You can add style to anything
character/period

I have 3 boys and when we moved our priority was outdoor space for kids to run round (fenced in) and for several cars to park safely when we have visitors.

We compromised on the quiet road and bathrooms because the house has character (and a log burner), an extra downstairs reception room for a playroom and an amazing outdoor space.

For me the thing re off road parking and views are encompassed in being in my preferred area. Where we live just about everyhouse has a drive/garage so suppose I just expect anything we view will too. Not sure if I'd be put off if it didn't have it but probably would.

The same with views. Our search area is such a lovely wee town that there are beautiful coast and country views from so many public places I'm not sure I necessarily need to have it from my bedroom window because I'm surrounded by it when I go outside anyway.

We moved a year ago -

• Parking
• Area
• 3rd bedroom of a good size
• Broadband
• Ocado delivery area
• Storage

For us the following were deal breakers:
Ease of commute
Proximity to schools
Proximity to amenities
Ability to have at least 4 bedrooms
Ability to have at least 2 bathrooms and a downstairs WC
Quiet road
Period property (most are where I live in London)
At least two separate reception rooms
Eat in / live in kitchen
Low maintenance garden (we got South facing but that wasn't a deal breaker)

We were looking for a project.

Depending on how old your kids are, a big garden becomes less important. If the house has been extended the kitchen will be very sunny if it has velux windows and patio doors even if it's North facing. How sunny a garden is depends on what is around it so North facing can be fine in the right circumstances.

Our would like to haves that we didn't get were:

Garage or cellar for extra storage- if we ever move that will be why
Bigger garden (ours is very small)
Not overlooked

Interesting what people will compromise on.
After over a year of looking we have compromised on

• en suite
• no downstairs hall- front door opens into a small porch and then straight into the lounge
• period features

What we have got that was on our wish list was

• garden

-decent sized kitchen

• three double bedrooms
• garage (wanted either garage or cellar)
• location.

The area that we were looking at has such limited housing stock, that it's taken us 14 months of looking to get this one. Of course, it could all fall through!