How did you choose your house? Any compromises?

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A really open question I know! I’m house hunting and just can’t find anything that I like that I can afford. I have a small search area and everything seems to be such a compromise or hugely overpriced (there are some ones that have been listed a while that I like but can’t really afford!). Head or heart for these decisions?

We compromised on size. So we’re hoping to settle a little bit and extend. We also ended up in a good but slightly different area. The area we’re looking initially hasn’t got detached houses as such (a few and very very expensive) and I wanted a detached house, I just couldn’t compromise on this.
DH couldn’t compromised on ceiling heights and room sizes. It wasn’t on the list when we started but became obvious in our house hunting. He wasn’t after really high ceilings, just against very low ceilings of some houses (80s-90s built).
We both also wanted garage or at least parking.
It’s very extensive list for our area tbh!

I feel like it's bit of a compromise on everything. Our problem being that the wish list had some pretty conflicting items on it.

Our priorities were location (for commute and also neighborhood), school catchment, and house size. It was important to us that we could be close to DH’s work, have plenty of room for both us and guests, and be in a nice leafy neighbourhood with a good school. Sadly it meant we had to compromise on the style and layout of the house, which was sad, but it got us the quality of life we wanted. I wanted a cosy period property and we’ve ended up in a very modern townhouse with lots of glass. I’m not very keen on all the stairs—it would never have been my choice to have so many floors—but the extra floors do mean we have tons of space to grow and we have a whole floor that can be a designated a granny flat, which is a big bonus. Garden was a big compromise for me. It’s a series of decking and terraces instead of a normal flat garden with grass. We do have lovely views because of it though (we’re on a hill in a forested area), and at least the children still have space for swings, slide, trampoline, etc to play, so it wasn’t a dealbreaker in the end, but it’s not ideal. I sometimes visit my friends’ homes with more conventional layouts and gardens and have a bit of house envy. Our children are happy though, and anyway with the weather being like it is, they only get maybe 3 good months of use out of it per year, so inside space took precedence!

I think no matter what your budget is, you will always have to compromise on something. It’s just important to think about the things that really will affect your standard of living vs what is just nice to have if that makes sense.

Our compromise for our new house is that it's on a road. But as we're now retired and we don't want to move again, we prioritised the fact that it's in a village with a pub, shop, fish and chip shop, post office and main bus route which is half an hour into a major city. We both drive at present, but this does reassure us that we could still get out and about if we weren't able to. The main bedroom and living space is at the back, and it's got new double glazing, so there's not much road noise. Also we're moving from a period house with a huge garden to a lovely newish four bedroom detached which has had a new kitchen and both bathrooms. Another compromise was a shared driveway - yes, I know all the horror stories on that one, but we shall just have to cross our fingers. We're also much nearer our children now, which we all wanted to achieve. You do always have to compromise on something - I am thrilled to get this house, there was nothing else that was suitable.

So I guess my next question is: when do I accept I’ll have to compromise? Do I just go for the best option when my house has sold? Or go into a leased house and wait for something more towards my perfect?

I guess only you can answer that.

Pros of two moves : Gives you a chance to look around, find something that really suits you. You will be really attractive to buyers (no chain, sitting on a sizeable deposit with small mortgage, what's not to like)?

Cons of two moves: My biggest worry would be that the market would get away from me (this has happened to me in the past...) However, with Brexit uncertainty hanging over the housing market, I actually think you're fairly safe on that one at the moment. The sheer hassle of two moves instead of one.

I saw my house on Rightmove and completely disregarded it. Mainly because it was so completely overdecorated and had furniture crammed into every space.
I’d seen it but just kept scrolling past.
Once I looked closely, past the garish colours and antique furniture, I could see that it had promise.
Drove past and thought yes, had one viewing and was bowled over. Everything needed redecorating, but the owners had so carefully renovated it. They were so passionate about it when I met them.
I’ve changed loads of stuff, but hopefully been sympathetic to the original features

Is your more perfect likely to come up?

We're keeping an eye out at the moment but we know from going through sold prices on Rightmove, that more perfect does come up once or twice a year. So we're waiting.

There's also even more perfect in my head but I'm pretty sure it just doesn't exist so not trying to find that.

I’ve looked at under offer ones on rightmove and there are a couple I would have jumped at. One came on this week that would be close to perfect but it’s VERY overpriced. Last sold in 2006 and asking price is almost double. It’s an area that has seen house prices decrease, stay the same or increase slightly. Other similar ones have gone for 2/3 of the asking price. So I guess it’s not close to perfect!

I found the list of needs and preferences that we wrote up when last house hunting, a few days ago. It’s almost laughable how few boxes we actually ticked with the house we are now living in, but we love it.

We wanted a four bed, semi or detached, period home, two bathrooms, parking at property, kitchen-diner, light etc.

We have a three bed, mid terraced, with 1.5 bathrooms, allocated parking in the next street, small kitchen etc etc etc.

It is, however, a period cottage and gets round the lack of light by being unusually open plan for its age. We both fell in love on our first viewing, rejected it due to not ticking the boxes, but came back after viewing lots of box ticking houses and just not feeling them.

I hope you find something you like soon.

OP, sounds like something should come up soon. Waiting can be pretty, worrying, though...

Compromised on age/character. I had a set of strict reqs that must be met and so just kept looking until I found them. That meant some of my 'nice to haves' were missed. Eg a large garden. This is not a forever home though so that's fine.

Compromises:

Busier road than I would have liked
North Facing garden
Smallish bedrooms (i.e. can't comfortably fit King Size in any without some work, e.g. removing chimney breast or built in wardrobes)

To Get (in loose priority)

Primary School Catchment
Preferred Location
Large downstairs living Space
Off Street Parking

Current house:

Compromised on: not period property
smaller garden than we wanted, not south facing
Not picture perfect village

Gained
Lovely village school
Great friends
Massive house

Next house:
Compromising on:
Situated on a road
Semi-detached
On outskirts of village, will have to walk across fields for 15 mins to get to friends.

To gain:
Period house
Beautiful large garden, south facing

Still going through buying process at moment, but we wanted a more unique property within our current village, and there are very very few that come up for sale and at a price we can afford. We saw one last year, was over our comfortable price, and vendors would never accept our offer as we hadn't sold. As it happens, they still appear not to have completed a year later. We agreed that we'd only sell when there was an appropriate house to buy, which put us in quite a weak position. Thankfully, once we put ours on the market, it sold immediately, so fingers crossed, we're on the move!