Which house would you go for?

[ACatCalledFang]

Bit of a dilemma here: we've had an offer accepted on House 1 (some way over asking price and close to our max budget but pretty much our perfect house) but the owners are no longer in a position to proceed as they lost the property they are buying (which it took them a year to find). House 2 has just come on the market and we're planning to view it asap. Plan B had been to move into rented accommodation as we are proceeding with sale of our flat (but only at survey stage).

House 1

1940s semi.
Quiet tree-lined road.
4-bed (loft conversion). 1 v small bedroom, 3 doubles.
Bathroom, en-suite, downstairs loo, tiny utility.
Really good-size eat-in kitchen with rear extension.
Good size garden.
Would want to decorate, no plans for major works.

House 2

1930s semi.
Busier road (bus route) but still quiet and residential. Nearer shops and station but not by much.
3-bed. 3rd bedroom is tiny. We'd want to convert loft and would probably put in en-suite.
Kitchen is separate from dining room and we'd want to knock a wall down.
Not a "project" - looks in good decorative order - but we'd want to make changes.
No downstairs loo or utility.
Big, beautiful garden.
About £45k cheaper than our offered price for House 1 but suspect we would have to go over asking price.

What would you do? Hold out for the "done" house or go for the one we'd have to do stuff to?

How much hassle would a loft conversion and removal of a downstairs wall be?

OP, as I said upthread, we bought a house similar to House 2 (also 30s semi) and we have put a double storey extension on the back to get a 4th bed (and little ensuite) and made a big kitchen diner at the back. We haven't had the additional expense of swapping plumbing (kept 3rd bed & bathroom where they were) and we've spent more than double the figure you quoted (and I did all the research / trawled for bargains etc). Have you factored in VAT? Unless you're in a really cheap part of the country / using existing kitchen & bathroom etc or have trade relatives etc, get a realistic quote yourselves before you get too attached!

Really?! I thought it seemed optimistic - I'm sure it would only cover the basic build and assume not VAT - but hadn't thought it might be double. You're right, we definitely need to look into it further. We would have a max of about £60k to do the work so would have to cut our cloth accordingly.

Update: we saw House 2, we liked it, we put in an offer - and so, apparently, have four other people! We figured we have nothing to lose from making an offer in view of the vendors' position, it's a house we could live in from the start, and we could make it into a house that would work for us in the long term. So we'll see!

Apparently someone has offered asking price, everyone else "slightly below" (assuming EA is telling the truth, which I think he probably is based on the location), so I suspect most people feel the same way as us - it's a nice house, great garden, but you'd want to extend (and vendors will be making a handsome profit if they get asking price, based on Zoopla evidence).

Waiting to hear back now!