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?

If you actually want to move then chain free is worth it.
We were determined to relocate and had a short window to do so. I sold ours for a few k less to a woman who really wanted ours and needed to be in on our timescales. I bought and paid a few k more because similarly they wanted the same timescales. Worth every penny.
And just based on your description I can visualise the difference in price. If you are planning a long term move, negotiate and go for it.

East West facing in the best

That simply isn't true, south facing gardens are always the most sought after as they get the most sunshine / light. An east west facing garden would mean moving your garden furniture around in the mornings / afternoons to get the sun

@steppemum according to Locrating, 0.53 miles latest year and it gets closer each year. House B is 0.1 miles away

House A, you could always offer lower to start off with.

I guess north garden is alright since DCs are so young, I won’t be planting anything for a while and also, climate change! shade May not be a bad thing?

@TheRattleBag

If House A is so close to the school, imagine what a nightmare it might be with idiotic parking around drop off/pick up time (see many threads on here).

I'd have thought House B would be worth £34k more for that reason alone!

This is what I was thinking.

An east west facing garden would mean moving your garden furniture around in the mornings / afternoons to get the sun Or looked at another way, gives you the choice of whether to sit in the sun or the shade. Choose the position you like best - you can do what you like to the house, but you can’t pick it up and move it to another plot.

Have you looks at what houses recently sold for on the street to get a feel about whether house A is overpriced or B underpriced? When we were viewing many years ago we saw a house that was actually ok, would have stretched our budget and needed some cosmetic work. Another house on the road came up in slightly better condition for £20k less. Scratched our heads for a bit then checked and realised the second house was up for something more realistic based on recent sales. The owners were rejecting offers more in line with recent sales so we didn't buy that one in the end as we knew it would have been overpriced.

Away from the train tracks. It's not just the noise of the trains but the engineering works at weekends etc.

They do them over night on a Saturday here. Heavy machinery going all night til 5/6am.

The train noise I can deal with. You get used to it and I drive them so have zoned it out.

The tamper machine banging away all night no one can drown out.

But it depends what line it is. Some are very quiet, especially if it's a little branch line without a 24/7 service.

Go for A- if the school catchment is your number 1 priority then you have to maximise your chances there. Catchment boundaries can easily change with siblings, other school closures etc.

You won’t regret the price difference if you get into the school and can afford it over the mortgage period- and you are in a strong negotiating position. You will regret cutting corners if you end up having to move again to guarantee school place, incurring further costs.

It does sound like house A is for you. Long term saving the £34000 doesn’t seem as much if you are happy where you live and end up being there for a long time. Plus train tracks are a pain in the arse. We live at the end of a street from some and they are loud, day and night. I could not imagine having them pass at the end of the garden and feeling the house shake too.

Well if it was me, and moving promptly was a priority, I’d go for the chain free option, no question. With the economy as it is, people losing their jobs etc, there must be a higher risk now than ever of chains collapsing. That alone would be enough to swing it for me.

You want a south facing garden for sure. North facing wont have any sun!

@Chesneyhawkes1its a MLS :/

Not being in a chain would be the Defining factor for me if you want to move quickly.
The train track. It’s not so much seeing the track but the noise. Do you have any idea of how often train are going past and how well you can hear them from house B?

I have a north facing garden and from spring the sun fills half the garden, gradually filling most by the afternoon. In summer, it's been full of sun both sides with a cooler area nearer the house. It's ideal. I used to think north would be bad but it's not. If the cheaper house needs lots of work, you'll get through close to the 34K quite easily as it all adds up so really it's the location. I'd prefer away from the tracks as you can do the house up but you'll never change the location. Good luck!

Not everyone wants to be a ''few steps from an amazing school'' - strange as it may seem!

i agree,climate change, and in south east, you might like a bit of shade

The train tracks will make a difference, but there’s also a good chance that what you see as worse decoration other people would see as immediately needs new bathroom, kitchen and flooring. That will affect the price.

Round here, ‘doer uppers’ often fetch similar prices to those that don’t need it, as either people want to put their own stamp on it, or builders buy them to do up. Maybe 5k price difference

Top and bottom of the same road is a bit vague! My road is 34 houses (so 17 each side), but at right angles to a road which goes from 1-470!
Also don't discount a N facing garden just because it's N facing... depends how close other houses are, and how long the garden is as to what sun it gets. Mine gets loads all summer (from April onwards), but doesn't get any in winter. I love it though.

Go for south facing
You can do a house up over time
But you can’t alter that

I think people get overly fixated on aspect. It v much depends on the surrounds And layout of the house. South facing with a house right behind would be far less desirable to me than north facing without anything overlooking / shadowing it. Similarly a north facing garden with great living space that the front of the house would be preferable to a s facing garden where the utility / cloakroom / porch were at the back and your living rooms on the shady front

@ReviewingTheSituation 75 houses on the road, Which is a no through road on either side - and there is a road in between!

Also, dated interior can hide dated wiring, plumbing, heating (bitter voice of experience!). At least 20k of that difference could disappear if you need to update kitchen or bathroom, let alone windows or decorating, reflooring etc. If you never want to move again why would you want to open your doors to train tracks you clearly don’t like and then have to walk past your preferred house to the school you may not get into for what, ten years?