House hunting must haves

[HungryForApples]

DH and I are first time buyers and about to start looking at houses, so I'm drawing up a list of "must haves" and "would likes". What would be on your lists?

4+ bedrooms
3+ bathrooms
Period
Garden
Parking
Good location
Detached

I don't have a lot of these things but live in a very desirable part of london. No parking, an edwardian terrace so no side access, no downstairs loo, small overlooked garden. So it really depends what kind of area you live in.

I'd go for location, location, location. Good shops, cafes and restaurants in walking distance, safe neighbourhood, good public transport, green spaces, good schools (though mine are too old for me to worry about that now). I can spend all week without ever needing to use a car because I'm so close to amenities whilst I realise thats very different if you live in the country.

Priorities depend on circumstances, surely.
Location is number one for me (and probably a lot of people).
Aesthetics are important too, and I don't mean interior design as that can all be redone, I mean how the house is designed - does it look good from the outside, does it have well placed windows allowing light inside, etc.
Apart from that I look at layout. Unless you have the budget to knock down walls, rearrange rooms, move bathrooms and kitchens, etc, it needs a sensible layout.
I dislike new builds because they tend to be poorly designed with small rooms, zero storage and far too many bathrooms.
I also dislike "town houses" (ie over 3 storeys), because the living space is spread over 2 floors, and with young children it would be a nightmare going up and down all the flights of stairs because you forgot something essential or they want teddy and will have a tantrum if you don't find it.
If you already have children or would like children in the near future, I suggest looking for:

• somewhere with STORAGE
• a porch, lobby or hallway with space for pushchair and other paraphernalia (you can manage without this but you will wish you had it daily)
• open plan kitchen/diner with space to have a little play corner within view of the kitchen, this would be SO helpful with little kids
• somewhere to hang laundry indoors (sounds like a minor thing but with kids there's so much bloody laundry)

Oh and having bought a house that had been "done up" (looked good on surface but actually wasn't done well) I would now choose somewhere that needs a bit of work but I could do it the way I wanted and choose good quality appliances, fittings etc to my own taste.

Everyone prioritising differently, and also, be open to changing your priorities as you look at houses.

When we last bought, we had four bed detached as our top priorities. When it came to the crunch, though, we looked at loads in a our price range and didn’t fall in love. After looking at one semi, we realised that more than anything we wanted period features, and a home we fell in love with. In the end, we bought a period three bed terrace, with allocated parking and a garage down the road. The other things would have been lovely, but this one felt like home, and not a box-tucking exercise, and that was important to us.

I will point out, we were not punching above our weight with our ideals - our three end terrace coat more than a lot of 4 bed detached, and is much larger than many!

Absolutely agree about not having fixed priorities. It may be that you look at both period and modern to get a feel for both. We have just moved and our priorities were:

location
although there are only two of us, a big enough house not to feel cramped
downstairs cloakroom
two upstairs bathrooms
a light, spacious sitting room
a spare bedroom to be converted into a dressing room
two separate reception rooms
decent kitchen with space for a small table, but not worried about a top of the range open plan type one
small, private garden
garage

Our compromise was being on a main road, but that main road means that we have a lovely pub, fish and chip shop, bus stop, post office and village shop all within walking distance. Can honestly say that because of the angle of the house and the front garden noise hasn't been an issue at all.

Parking
Somewhere to hang coats/put shoes, preferably a porch/cupboard in the hall
Utility room
Downstairs loo

Must have a compass on your phone, or in your pocket when viewing properties. So you can quickly check which is north/south and therefore which rooms get morning sun, evening sun. Whether garden will get sun.

We are moving soon and had a long list of must haves. But we were very restricted in area as we wanted to be in the tiny catchment of one particular secondary school. So we had to compromise. But we didn’t compromise on location and we are getting a huge garden - both things you cannot change. Everything else we wanted that the house doesn’t have can be changed at some point, like a utility room for example,

Retirement home, so-

a) compact
b) min 2 bedrooms
c) lots of sun - preferably morning
d) sea views
e) no close neighbours
f) quiet
g) older style
h) verandas
i) big garden
j) cheap
k) no further than 50 kms from the nearest town
l) within 5 km of a pub

And guess what, reader, we found it!

My criteria were:
More than one toilet
Hallway - is not straight into a living area
Bathroom with a window (rather than an internal bathroom)
Bath
Garden than gets some sun

Since finding a house and moving in there are some more discoveries I have been very happy to have, which include:
Good bus links to town (I used to drive everywhere and not mind but now I get the bus whenever I can!)
A corner shop within very easy walking distance

But it is a very individual thing so everyone’s lists will vary.

Not on a main road/buses go down it.

Garden

Kitchen/diner

Parking

Easy access to school for DD and work for me.