Please help with advice on this house we're considering

[SwedeInLeeds]

This is the one:
www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/108109685#/

Pros:
Detached (usually don't think we could afford)
Good school
Nice area
Reasonable garden
Seems reasonably priced considering the crazy market (recently reduced from 375)

Cons:
Sloping garden
Liveable initially, but we would want to extend to make a nice open kitchen diner in the future
Slightly smaller than most properties we've looked at (140-160 m^2) but with rear and loft extension we would get close to that.

Do you see any issues with this?
How would you extend it?
We were thinking 2.5/3 metres to the rear (would lose a bit of garden of course), or if planning permission around a wraparound and convert the garage for utility/office.
Do you think such an extension could work with the garden? Would it be possible to flatten it?

Thanks :)

Looks like a nice house. There is already a fairly big kitchen diner though? Not sure how an extension would best work, I imagine a builder would be best to advise.

Personally I think the garden is too small for the extension you propose. You'd make the house too big for the garden remaining and reduce your buying pool (very few want a good size family home with small garden).

Depends how much you want the house and how long you plan to live in it.

It already has an open plan kitchen diner? I think you’d leave the garden quite narrow if you extend, if you really want more space I’d keep looking, I think a house that size with such a small garden as you’re thinking would seem quite odd.

The only extension that's worth doing is up into the loft. You could covert the garage into a sudy if you need one. Don't take anymore of that garden, its small as it is. I would get a quote on levelling the garden.
There is already a decent kitchen diner it doesn't need to be any bigger?

Lovely house, personally think the kitchen/diner is a great size. I wouldn't want to loose any garden.
You'd be able to get the garden levelled off.

I hear you, certainly would not want to reduce the value of the house.
What about two floor side extension including garage, anything clever that could be done with that?
Slightly larger kitchen maybe some more space upstairs as well.

I think it’s quite small, so is the garden. Especially as you plan on extending.

2 story side extension would obviously add an extra bedroom above the garage and you could add an en suite at the back.
Downstairs would be the garage and then a utility room at the back with access from the existing kitchen?

Took the liberty of doing you some technical drawings 😂

U for utility room
G for garage
E for en suite
B for bedroom

😂😂

I think it looks fine as it is but look into converting the garage if you don't need all of it. Can't see where that goes up to on the floorplan.

Personally I think it's quite small for the price and you would be sacrificing space to have it detached. The slopeing garden puts me off a bit too. I'm not a million miles away and I have a semi with much more space for nearly £100k less!!

Thanks for all the replies!
Love the floor plan number11 :D

Would you keep the garage?
The current owners don't use it for a car.
Could be a play room office.

Would the side extension be preferable to a loft/dormer conversion?

Mseddy, I haven't been able to find anything with that size in adel for less money (within school catchment), especially detached.

It would be easier to do the side extension as it won’t interfere with your lives until the end and living on a building site is not fun!
I found having a loft conversion stressful and it was my husband doing it 😂
Garages are good for storage. You could use it as a playroom but personally I would keep at least half of it for storage then maybe add a little playroom or something at the back? If you’re not too bothered about a proper utility room, where I drew utility room you could make a playroom with french doors onto the garden for easy access for the children. Then put your washing machine, dryer etc at the back of the garage?

Any idea how much garden flattening could cost?
Two floor side extension as well, does it help that the garage is there?

We agree that it's small but it's really functional, we have seen much larger houses that still felt smaller...

I actually like the slope of the garden! It’s flat where it matters, on the patio, then the rest has a nice wild feel thanks to the tree/hedge/slope. I think it would be hard to flatten without losing the hedge.

What worries me more about the garden is that half your boundary is the neighbouring house – you can’t grow anything up it to hide it, and if you extended out as far as you want you’d be cheek by jowl, it already feels a bit looming. Don’t think detached really has the same benefits when the other houses are practically on top.

My first though is parking. Is that only for one car? How many do you have? What about visitors? So you have kids? Will you be there when they start to drive?

No cars yet, plan to get one when we move and have kids. We'd probably stay in this house for ten years then move so no worries about kids having cars. Question about guest parking is a good point need to find out.

For the neighbors looming there are no windows facing the garden, one of the most private gardens we've viewed. Any other concern that they're on the border?

OP if you are wedded to the idea of extending then GET A REAL IDEA OF COSTS before you proceed.

Anything to do with the garage will likely need significant excavations to reinforce the foundations - garages typically have much shallower ones than living space. Doubly so if you are building a second storey.

Off the top of my head, with building costs where they are now I think you'd easily spend £80K and maybe £100K doing these building works, including the garden. Then you'd have a nice house with a small garden and would lose money if you sell...

We've just done an extension which we priced at £50K but it ended up costing £80K (Brexit delays and materials costs). Luckily we love the house and have no desire to move but if we did there's NO WAY we'd recoup our spend. So for a house you're not in love with, I don't think I'd bother. Much better (and massively less stress!) to find somewhere liveable as it is.

Just my opinion obvs! Best of luck x

Yeah all fair points especially given the current insane building costs. What about a loft extension then to gain an extra room? Wouldn't help the kitchen situation, god knows where the fridge goes but could at least give a 4th bedroom. I guess garage conversion could also do that. How bad would the stairs be for bedroom 3 if we did a loft conversion?

Any thoughts about the price of the place and the fact that it's not selling? To us it seems reasonably priced compared to similar properties in the area, but obviously not selling fast.

What's that little room/cupboard off the kitchen used for? Any dimensions?

OP, the problem is the type of house here. Looks like an 80s build. Anything 80s onwards doesn’t have too much development potential. Houses tend to be on smaller plots with shallower pitched roof. You probably could extend to the side but your garden would hugely compromised. Loft conversion for these type of houses is usually a no-go. Garage conversion could work for extra living space and the cheapest way to add it. Because the plot is so small, the potential is limited. But like you say, for the location, the price is a plus point.

Why do you need to extend if it’s not a long term home? If you like the house just buy it and renovate it as it is to your taste, it’s a three bed detached house with 2 bathrooms, plenty of space for a young family, save the extension money for a house you intend to stay in for a long time and I agree with Wooly re the cost of the extension, and as for loft conversions they are much harder and therefore much more expensive on an eighties build to convert than an older house due to the roof trusses. I really like the garden by the way, the trees are lovely.

For me it would be a side extension taking out the garage, going up full height. Any digging for foundations would give you lots to flatten out the garden.

The good news is that the neighbor has no windows on that side so the council, and they probably wouldn't object.