Which House?

[raspberrybomb]

We are trying to choose between two potential houses at present. They both have significant pros and cons. I wondered if anything might jump out to other posters that we haven't considered.

Both houses are large, beautiful period properties.

House 1:
Pros:
Huge potential (has potential to be even nicer than house 2)
V nice road in sought after part of town
Good sized plot of land
Cons:
Needs a full renovation which would be very expensive and disruptive for the family.
Would be significantly more expensive once renovation money taken into account.
Low EPC
Estate agent has a very poor reputation.
Seller appears 'difficult'
Two sales have fallen through previously (we happen to have a bit of info' via colleagues)

House 2:
Pros:
Tastefully renovated to a very high standard
Estate agents have a good reputation in town
Seller apparently v motivated to move.
Cons:
Road isn't great (a bit more busy and run down although not terrible)
Area isn't great (again not terrible)

Looking at the lists it looks like a bit of a no brainer but perhaps some people have no regrets about taking on a big project and making a house beautiful again.

Does anyone have any thoughts on this?

Many thanks

If you can definitely afford the renovation then I would advise house one. You have potential to add value and the location also sounds great.

We need to see the details....

house 1 for the potential

Links please (nosey and love old houses 😃) but location wins every time.

House one but be very strict about timelines etc with the seller so you don't waste too much time being messed about for it to fall through. Sounds like they actually don't want to sell?

Another vote for House 1. You can improve the house but not the area.

The EA & seller are a temporary pain and shouldn't affect your decision IMO.
The 2 things you can never change about a house are location & plot size. So I vote house 1 for sure

Another vote for house 1 if you have the £ and emotional resilience to battle through the crap. Otherwise neither.

My thoughts would be based around

1. Do you have children and if so how old? Is a large renovation doable with very small children/will they have to work through renovation noise for exams)?
2. Need to be close to good schools (particularly secondary if considering house 1 and a long term project)
3. How good is the parking (drive/plenty on the road)
4. Would the renovations take years, or could you do them straight away in house 1? If years, and you don't have the money yet to do them, will you definitely be able to source the finance? I know so many people who have started with a plan to do grand renos and have run out of money/steam and ended up hating living in the house.

Another vote for house 1 : The 2 things you can never change about a house are location & plot size

What I'd really want to know is why two previous sales fell through? People are very quick to say that vendors are tricky, but actually is there a fundamental problem with the house itself? Tricky vendors - doesn't matter once you've completed, you''' never need to see them again.

From your description of house 2 don't think you should consider it. If you are put off by the area generally AND the road in particular, it doesn't really matter how nicely renovated the house is (IMO).

Neither of them. Or put an offer in on property 1 but keep looking and be prepared to pull out if it gets messy.

Many thanks for all these replies.

I should have mentioned a key bit of information that the first house will end up being a good £200000 more expensive once renovation costs are included so a very big difference. We could do most of the work in the short term as we do have some funds set aside but I worry about the costs spiralling because extra things are discovered.

We do have children, primary and secondary age. They are, unsurprisingly, more keen on house 2 and have already moved in and allocated bedrooms! The schools are not a worry as they are at good local schools already. Both house have good sized drives.

I'm not keen to post links on here for privacy, sorry. If anyone is really interested I can give a bit more info via PM.

House 1

After your update - house 2.

As you rightly point out you may find further costs once you begin the renovation on house 1. Do you know why the previous two sales fell through?

Think it would depend what stage of life I was in tbh

If you are relatively young and likely to stay in the house long term them I would go for house 1. The short term disruption and cost will be worth it in the long term.

Are you going to hit the ceiling price of house 1 after the renovations? If it's a 'forever' home, it shouldn't be viewed so much as an investment as such, but obviously you don't want to be paying a ridiculous amount over it's market value when renovated. I think most people are aware now just how much materials and labour have gone up in the past 18 months or so. And waiting times too of course.

Is house 2 renovated exactly to your taste? I personally am always put off houses that are already 'done' as generally I'd be paying for styles/layouts I wouldn't necessarily have chosen but wouldn't feel able to strip them all out.

I think it's quite telling you think house 2 looks like a no-brainer, as to me house 1 does! I think you'd need to absolutely adore house 1 to go ahead with all the aggro, and it doesn't seem to me like you do, you'd just prefer house 2 in house 1's road/area.

I'd be reluctant to put too much weight on the kid's input... they will always pick shiny and new over old and ugly!

@CellophaneFlower- really useful comments. I agree with all of them.
The kids wouldn't sway us as they are not old enough to see the bigger picture yet.

@sunshinesupermum- agent hasn't been honest about the reasons. At least one pulled out 2-3 months into the process after spending lots of money on surveys, trying and failing to renegotiate plus issues with the seller.

I don't want to view either house as an investment and disagree with this as a concept for housing anyway. I think prices will fall before long, just no telling exactly when.
I am concerned about the prices and the potential for them to get even worse so costs potentially escalating in this way too.

House 2 is similar to our taste so no ripping out of expensive kitchens. I would also be out off by something done up expensively but not to my taste as hard to justify starting again.

The overall situation is more complicated than I have given away but I haven't wanted to put too much detail online.