Big house or better location

[unikorn]

Just that!
Both are £700k.

House a) 4 bed, detached, 3 reception rooms, 2 baths plus downstairs cloakroom on a leafy residential road but backs onto a flyover/A road (traffic noise is minimal surprisingly), 4 miles to work and school, medium garden, garage plus driveway

House b) 3 bed, semi, 1 reception room, 2 baths plus downstairs cloakroom, residential road, very "upmarket" location, 1 mile to work and school, long but narrow garden, driveway.

As you only have 2 kids then definitely B.

If you'd said you had 3+ kids it'd have been worth going for A for a bedroom each, but with only 2 children you don't need a 4 bed, 3 reception room house! B is definitely the better option.

Unless detached is incredibly important to you I suppose - that's the only real argument for A. How thick are the walls of the semi?

Personally I'd want my kids in the nicest area because they will be walking independently to shops/friends/socials/school
at some point and you'll feel a lot better about it in house B.

Also the air pollution would seriously worry me

I would sell yours and rent.

I'd favour B but be tempted to keep looking, unless in a rush. It's not big but it is big enough and your day to day lifestyle as the kids grow up will be do much less stressful because everything you need is so much closer. 1 mile is walking distance, while you will always need the car with the other house.

I would go for B, for location to work and school ( if A was nearer we to school, I would choose that option). One mile is a walk, four miles is a car ride.

option c) keep lookimg

And agree with sell and rent, given where you are. With the predicted trend, it's possible that you may find b but with a garage or a longer drive. Our budget is lower because of where we live but we're looking for a house b and parking and potential to extend will probably be the clincher, particularly as some of the areas we are interested in have permit parking.

You can make changes to a house but not a location!

B because of the road. The A house road will never change and will always be polluting.

Please show us the two houses.

I'd always chose location. But I'd consider renting if you aren't sure.

You can make changes to a house but not a location!

Except you can't make it bigger if it has already been extended to the max.

Personally I think a 3 bed house with 1 reception room, for a family with 2 children when you have a 700k budget is too small . There is no spare bed room for guests. No study for you or DH. Can you have a big table for dinner parties and christmas etc?

Location without a doubt. I'd hate to be so close to a busy road plus your house will get filthy with all the dust and pollution from it.

We already live 4 miles from school, it's just 4miles in the different direction. It's a private school so kids travel in from within a 10mile radius; they'll be there until they're 18.

Work for dh will be 6miles, and for me 2.5miles.

We've had an offer accepted on house A. Can't wait.

We were in a similar position in that we viewed a small period cottage (mid terrace) on a lovely road (driveway and garage round back, plus on street parking and an office in back garden) and a larger 'old' new build on an estate that has seen better days that had 4 bedrooms and an office, garage and driveway and on street parking. Both are convenient for school, friends, work and price was almost the same.

As a larger family the 4 bed makes more sense, but we fell in love with the character of the cottage and the location is more upmarket. We will have to squish for a couple of years until we can afford to extend out the back, but are willing to make the compromise.

The mattress on the grassy area out front of the larger house and the beer can on the neighbours front step definitely helped the decision making process though....

Hm, think about the parking very carefully for house B. Our house in London has off street parking which is used by commuters and we ended up selling our car as parking was such a nightmare. Now our residents association is in the middle of trying to get a CPZ in place to deter commuters parking on the road so that they don't have to park 5 streets away! It has taken years and it still hasn't been sorted. It has really put me off ever buying a house where off street parking is available to all. Is there at least a CPZ on street B?

In saying that location wins every time for house purchasing. Especially for you with small children. A 4 mile drive each way sounds like nothing but it will become a grind.

We've had an offer accepted on house A. Can't wait.

CONGRATULATIONS!!!

I'd love a RM link for a nosey :-)