which house would you choose?

[DancingLady]

DH and I are going round in circles. I think location and a nice street, proximity to public transport and shops is very important. He thinks the actual house is more important. Of these two houses, which would you go for? It's a huge decision as we're trying to find our 'forever home'. Two small DC, one in primary school and we don't want to move schools. Other is a toddler. No more kids planned.

House 1
3 beds, 5 mins from train station. 2 mins from shops. 25 minute walk to school, or 5 minute drive. Nice street. 100ft garden. Bit smaller than our current house but 75k cheaper than house 2.

House 2
4 beds, 15-20 min walk to station (husband commutes). 5 mins from shops. Too far to walk to school, 10 minute drive. Big house, conservation area, lovely period features. Big garden.

Could you ask a builder to give you a 'ball park' idea on the costs to do what alterations you would want to do to house one, and maybe that will give you more information to help make your dexcision?

House 2 sounds like a much nicer location, even if not so convenient, the way you have described it. I would always choose location over house as the latter can be changed whereas the location can't.

You are talking about £75k less for House 1, but would you still have to borrow that money to do the work, or are you paying cash? If you still have to borrow to have that money, you need to consider the long term cost of that loan if you go with House 1.

House 2 definitely sounds better to me, given you have said you would drive to school rather than walk from House 1 anyway.

I would go for house 2. Sounds nicer, more space for growing kids, still has big garden, assume “conservation area” means nice area.

If house 1 was in realistic walking distance of school, that mght have swung it, but I personally would struggle with a 25min walk each way.

And don't underestimate how time flies. those primary aged children will be thinking about secondary in a blink of an eye.
I was happy to live in one area because secondary seemed so far in the future when dd was 3 months old. I'm so glad we went with Dh's choice as that was the right one for secondary. Although that didn't feature in our decision making at the time, in retrospect it should have done.

House 2, despite being 75k more, is still well within our budget.

You know that maxim 'always buy the worst house on the best street'? With our current home we bought the best house on a not-very-nice street. We were swayed by how much space we could get for our money, and the house had been beautifully renovated. The things that concerned us then - having four storeys, being on a not-great road - have only become more of a bugbear over the years.