Dilemma! Same house on same street, £34k cheaper

[Parisah]

Hi all!
This scenario in the SE:
House A: decent enough interior, few steps away from amazing school, north facing garden, last sold 2016, chain free, further from train tracks, north facing garden.

House B: older interior but not awful, other end of road so further from school (but relatively close still), last sold 1998, not chain free, closer to train tracks (they are at the end of the road) south facing garden.

Both Victorian semis. House B is £34k cheaper.

Can house A be worth so much more, maybe because of train tracks?

Can you link both properties? Yes a train line could lower the price if its a noisy mainline very close but there's not enough detail to say this is the reason here.

Will there still be the chance of a school place with house B?

It's still a big difference. Even if the cheaper one needs a kitchen and bathrooms straight away.

Are they in same school catchment? And if they are what was the last place offered in catchment. Where I live catchment children don't get into the school if they live on the edge of catchment. Does it need structural work?

I would never buy a North facing garden, I think south facing is worth 34k!

Depends what the interior difference does too- a new kitchen and bathroom would rack up the price

The South facing garden would sell it for me. The biggest difference is probably vendors expectations. Cheaper house prob looking for a quick sale.

I think sometimes sellers pick prices out of thin air. Presumably they just ignore the agent's recommendations. In which case it might be the cheaper one that is the 'right' price and the other sellers are just taking a chance.

There was a perfectly ordinary house near me (quite dated on the inside but looked in good condition) went on the market last week at 100k more expensive than similar houses. And where I live 100k makes a huge difference to what you can get. Why those people think that someone will buy their ordinary but dated 3 bed, one bathroom bungalow for that amount when the same amount could buy them four bedrooms and 3 bathrooms and a modern kitchen and huge garden is a mystery.

Same school catchment..and good to know on gardens. In terms of the train tracks, they are top and bottom of the road difference, with a road in between. So A has the benefit of a road between..

I don’t wanna link because it’s a really popular area, and I want to buy! Is there way I can attach a self drawn very cool and beautiful map to show you guys?

Also in this market, isn’t chain free an advantage? (We are also chain free, want to move quick as poss)

You must check the last place offered to the school im catchment, the local council publish admissions for the last few years.

@caughtalightsneeze yes so many trying it on atm, and it’s infuriating, especially with talk yesterday of a 14pct price drop coming.

@Crockof for school, B is also safe. But maybe less safe than A in a few years, and not when it’s a heavy on the siblings year. This is actually the reason we want to move - proximity to the school. DD1 is 2.5 and DD2 is three months.

South facing garden would cinch it for me.

South facing garden would be a huge plus for me

What does £34k represent as a %? I don't know if these 2 houses are 2 bed or 4 bed or the house value is £150k or £800k. FWIW our street is loosely divided into top and bottom. Bottom properties are generally worth more for no real tangible reason other than being 200 yards closer to the pub and at the bottom of a very gentle, hardly noticeable slope. In the last 6 months a house with work needing doing at the top of the road (including moving the bathroom from downstairs) went for £450k. A "finished" house went for £800k. I do think the train line would make a difference.

Just seen the 14%. Took me a while to write my post.

@Parisah where I live (not SE) the catchment of our local school is huge but our youngest scraped in (no sibling) and we can see the school from outside our house. Was a sibling heavy year and a friend six doors down didn’t get a place. Frustrating and it’s not even an amazing school just convenient.

@PurBal two beds, both.

@Okbutnotgreat ah! I think this is the reason for the premium tbh. It’s brutal

Because it's listing at that price doesn't mean they'll get it!

Crockof We have a NW facing garden .Shady and cool for these hot days we have had .Sun gets round mid afternoon and quite hot!

Probably a mix of things really ,being closer to the School is probably almost a guarantee of getting in .Even slightly further away may be out of catchment .Also if nearer to Train tracks may be noisy at night /early morning maybe?

What's the catchment for the school? The catchment for our secondary goes through the middle of the road!

But, if you said 5K for train 5k for bathroom, 5K for kitchen,5k for updating, 5K for aspect you are getting close to the price difference.

It also depends on the house price. If the houses are 100k and 134k, it's a big difference. If they are 600 and 634, it's really not very much!

If the services for the 2nd house are old (plumbing and electrics) that can make a difference as the cost of a re-wire plus new kitchen and bathroom really adds up.

Check the school stuff. Train tracks could also have a bearing. But also the difference in when it was last sold could have a bearing too - last sold in 1998 they probably have greater built up equity so can afford to drop a bit more than the people who last bought 4 years ago.

Which house feels nicer to you? South-facing over north-facing is a biggish difference in many ways.

House A feels nicer to me because of how it is inside, closeness to school and away from tracks.

B, you open the door and look down the road - train tracks!

We can afford A, but just afraid I will regret overpaying?

It is a long term home tho, we don’t have plans to move again.