Which house would you choose?

[whichhousemaze]

House A: in the village our DS will go to next year for primary and we could walk to school. Is very convenient for work commute (assuming we ever go back in the office!). Needs everything. Would require an addition over the garage of 2 bedrooms to work for us. Small garden.

House B: Some things dated but nothing I couldn't live with abs is big enough. Bigger garden (the garden matters to us). Would be a 15 minute drive to school and add 15 minutes into commute time. Not nearly as nice a village. Village A is really lovely. House B is a lot more expensive than A.

A

A

Once you've added the two bedrooms, the only advantage B has is a bigger garden. Literally everything else is in A's favour.

How do you know DS will get a place at the primary school if you buy a house 15 minutes away? Is it a private school?

In any case, House A sounds the best as it has potential to make it what you want it to be.

Is it your forever house or just for a few years? If you will move again before DC goes to secondary would do A. If it’s your clever house and your heart wants a big garden go for B, would definitely think about secondary now though, it goes in the blink of an eye.

Forever house not clever house

A undoubtedly. Nicer village, less driving so more time, more exercise on the way to / from school - healthier. Sounds like a better quality of life as long as you can do what you want to the house.

Wait for House C?

Otherwise: buy House A, improve it and move again in a few years with the extra equity that your efforts have created.

A.
Choose the lovely village.

Neither.
I’d wait for the right house to come up.

A every time.

A

A if you have the money for it.

We pretty much had that decision a couple of years ago. We were renting in village A where the kids go to school. The house was ok size wise, but.not perfect (and didn't really have the possibility of extending), and had a very small garden.

Or house B which was on a main road, but was a lot bigger with a huge garden, but 15 mins from kids school.

We had the opportunity to buy house A, but went for house B in the end and it was a absolutely the right choice for us. The downside is that the kids don't have school friends from.the village to play with, but they do have a big garden to play in, which this past year has been great. There is also sooo much more scope with house B to extend etc. The road is a bit of an issue, but to be honest, it's not as bad as I thought it might be, as the kids are out the back most of the time anyway. Plus the thing with the village is that in a few years, neither will be at the village school and will be going to schools in other towns with kids from all over anyway.

A

The time and unknown cost are putting me off A. Realistically that house could swallow 400k worth of work. We will need to get planning for house A to have an extension done. I'm worried we will over improve A because we need the space but it's on a small lot. Village B isn't less nice it's just more of an unknown. We are currently renting in A so know it much better.

Think about other factors as well. Secondary school as pp have said, also shops, health centre, bus routes, cafes etc etc.
You need to go for a few walks round village B, get to know it better and see whether you can imagine living there.
If the garden matters to you that's probably a deal breaker. With house A not only will you have the hassle of extending, you'll also have the limitations of a small garden.
.

B

A Every time.

B or, as suggested before, neither. With young kids, you will get a lot of use out of a decent-size garden. Summer playtime, an inflatable pool, a play house, space for gymnastics, a football goal, a basketball hoop, birthday parties with a bouncy castle, Easter egg hunt, etc., etc.

Although in the OP you said that village B is not nearly as nice as A?

For £400k you could pretty much demolish it and rebuild from scratch - surely a 2-bed extension over the garage and a complete refit won't cost that much?

But obviously you couldn't go for it unless you knew you'd get consent and had a better idea of the work involved.

I'm voting for Neither too. There will be lots more coming on the market in the next couple of months (according to DD's Estate Agent employer).

A if you are up for the work.

Being able to walk to school (and school friends) adds hugely to quality of life, IME.

Add up the hours of return journeys extra driving you would do in village B.

If you make a good job of the house in A you can have your perfect house. You will spend less on stamp duty and your council tax band will not increase for extensions / extra rooms created during your ownership.