Big house vs disposable income

[Roseybee10]

What would you do?

Big four bed detached house and not a lot of disposable income?

Smaller three bed semi detached with a lot of disposable income?

(We have two kids at moment).

Similar situation to OP, we have chosen 3 beds and disposable income.

We've never bitten off more that we can chew. 7 years ago we did a big loft conversion on our 3 bed semi. Today I paid the final payment on our mortgage
Now uni fees to save for...

Bigger house! Nothing, NOTHING is as wonderful as your own, detached, beautiful home!!

And detached living is worth paying a premium for. No one really wants to share a wall.

I'd go for the 3 bed. Or find a smaller house that you can extend in time. No way would I be getting a mortgage that left me with little disposable income. Not only because I like days out, eating out, going on holiday, buying nice clothes etc but also because I wouldn't want to be up shit street if we lost our jobs for example. We have two kids and bought a 2 bed with scope to extend when our eldest was a newborn. We've done the loft to give us a master bed/en suite and soon will be extending on the ground floor to give us a large kitchen/dining/living space. We've saved up to do the work (because of that disposable income) so have no additional debt and a small mortgage, so we've not wasted thousands of pounds in interest payments.

I would go detached! I'm a sucker for new builds though!

I would buy a 3 bed with space to extend, i.e. a roofline that would allow a loft extension AND a garage space at the side that could add more room. That way, if you need more space you can add it without moving and if you don't, you can enjoy the disposable income!

My house is nothing special at all but I love it. I have just decided to stay put because we are lucky enough to be mortgage free and the freedom that this brings is worth far more to me than extra space. I can basically explore the world in my holidays and work far fewer hours this way.