Moving from detached to semi (same price)

[moveblues]

Morning all

I'm just not sure
We've found a beautiful 3bed 20's house in an area we love (semi, left floor plan). Current house 4 bed detached on the right. Both same £.

The semi is smaller by 30 sq ft approx, but in our preferred city. It has a glorious south facing garden (see previous post if interested to see) but definitely needs a bit of work to bring it up to what we want, and it's a semi.

We moved to our current 30's house in our current small city during lockdown and for various reasons it just hasn't been what we were after. The garden is about a 5ft drop with (beautiful) decking leading down but just feels disconnected. North west facing with slight south aspect. Busy main road, and we don't use all of the rooms! We could grow into it (babies?) but I can't see myself being a mum here, with the busy road, awkward garden and loft room just feeling a tad impractical. It's done to a T, to the previous owners spec. It's beautiful but to change it would probably lead to loss of value as it's so well done (lovely carpets and wallpaper but where we wouldn't have them)

I've felt like I'm living in a posh Airbnb for a year!

I keep looking at this plan we have made to move, and thinking 'are we mad to be moving to a smaller semi for the same price which needs more work with same (poor) EPC' etc etc. What do you think?

Your current house must have dreadful double glazing @moveblues , my sisters house is on a very major A road and you really can’t hear the road unless the traffic is at a complete standstill .

Didn't you post about this before? The semi I know the area well and it's very hip. Go for it I'd rather have neighbour noise than a main road. I've lived in a house very similar with older neighbours could hear the tv but soon got used to it.

I've spent most of my life living in terraced houses or flats, so I'm biased. It's been very rare that I've been bothered by neighbour noise. Occasionally I hear muffled laughter or very faint music, maybe I'm not sensitive to it, who knows.

If you like the semi then go for it!

@Floralnomad

Your current house must have dreadful double glazing *@moveblues* , my sisters house is on a very major A road and you really can’t hear the road unless the traffic is at a complete standstill .

We actually had an experienced local builder round who specialises in windows, he said don't bother you'll get used to it! They're Anglian windows. :(

@TangoWhiskyAlphaTango

Didn't you post about this before? The semi I know the area well and it's very hip. Go for it I'd rather have neighbour noise than a main road. I've lived in a house very similar with older neighbours could hear the tv but soon got used to it.

Do you live there Tango? Yes I think you commented when I posted about the new place!

@moveblues I used to live in KH so know the area well. It's definitely shot up in popularity over the years since I've lived there (I have work sometimes in M). I'd live there in a heart beat. Sometimes no matter how nice the house of the area doesn't do it for you then it never will. Go for it you won't regret it

Do it before you have kids. Once you have them and start putting down roots it's harder to leave an area.

Quiet road would win for me. As you say expensive mistake but we learn as we live. We've learnt all the things we would look out for if we move again.....but we love the location and proximity to schools so will stay a long while. In your shoes I would move.

I can’t understand mumsnetters and their obsession with detached houses. In real life, everyone I know would always choose location first. Even down to the street is important. After that, character properties are the most sought after. I could buy a 4-bed detached (ugly) house around here within a few streets of a beautiful 3-bed Victorian terrace, big windows, high ceilings, converted cellar with parking for one car - the latter is more expensive. The Character proprieties in more central locations always command more money. Personally, I would go for the house I want to live in. My dream property is a big Victorian semi just down the road. It’s gorrrrrrgeous! I will 100% be buying one of those when I can and not a 1950s detached just down the road. Just buy what works for you and don’t listen to mad obsession with detached only on this site

I've lived in terraces all my life and never heard noise. Moved to an end terrace and after 5 long months wanted to move because of horrible noisy neighbors. I now rent an apartment and even with more neighbors I prefer it because there is less noise.

I would never swap a detached for a semi.

We are in general fans of detached because we've had horrible experiences with neighbors. Unless you have lived with it and it has broken your health you will never understand.

I'd move in your situation. They're both lovely looking houses of a good size so it's all about location and where you want to live. No good staying in a house just because it looks "more attractive" from the outside. That's FA use to anyone living their lives inside and around it. Don't make decisions based on your friends thinking it's mad, or that it's wrong on principle to go from detached to semi. You clearly want to live in the other city and you can do so in a nice house and make it work, so why would you stick it out in a place you don't like?

Also I understand the potential neighbours issue in some places, but it's a big semi on a nice looking road. Chances are you'd be absolutely fine with the neighbours. Check the neighbours out by all means, but no reason to assume they're going to be a problem.

You may be able to do a deal on price so that Amy not be the biggest issue. I’d move. I lived in a semi and really disliked the house, proportions all wrong etc, and didn’t feel inclined to do anything with it, the terraced house I owned I loved and it showed. The one we have now I spend money on it because I want to add value and make it work.

Feeling can add value to any property and take away from bad properties, don’t underestimate it.

In your case the semi is pre loved and likely to go downhill as the fixtures are used, the other likely to add value as you improve it.

Thank you everyone. Just waiting on the valuation and mortgage porting to go through!
I do wonder if it may get downvalued a little.
Out of interest what would you tackle first? We are thinking downstairs bathroom (pop a small shower in!) to tackle upstairs bathroom after, while putting two log burners in the downstairs rooms. Also rebuild wall out front and tackle back garden slowly before moving on to kitchen.

Ambitious? Me? Never 😂

I think I know the areas both houses are in, and I think you should move. Pretty sure I previously lived in the location you currently do, and just down the road from the place with the semi!

I agree with the neighbour noise vs traffic noise, you might get a bit from neighbours but it's likely in that area that your neighbours would be reasonable, and it would be sporadic, not constant. It's also a really great area to live in if you have kids.

From my perspective I would say don’t do it!. You have much less control over your quality of life in an attached house - it can become completely dependent on what your neighbours are like.

We live in an semi in a lovely area, lucky to have a fairly large garden, and for the majority of our time here, have had nice, reasonable neighbours. The current ones (here about 5 years) are ok, but very self-absorbed and thoughtless. When they have parties with loud music (without giving us a heads up) leave their (lovely) hound of the Baskervilles home alone, howling and crying, decide to drill on the party wall at 7.30 on a Sunday morning, have their surround sound tv thundering - a few examples out of many - I can’t tell you how much I long for the distance a detached house would give us.

I also think you’d be very unwise to downsize, especially when it sounds like you might want a family in due course.

@TheCheeseBadge

I think I know the areas both houses are in, and I think you should move. Pretty sure I previously lived in the location you currently do, and just down the road from the place with the semi!

I agree with the neighbour noise vs traffic noise, you might get a bit from neighbours but it's likely in that area that your neighbours would be reasonable, and it would be sporadic, not constant. It's also a really great area to live in if you have kids.

You lived in both places? How did you find them both?? W seems so dull compared to M but not sure I've given it enough of a chance....

I grew up in a detached and now live in a semi and I'd say don't move.

My neighbours are lovely but I'm sick of hearing the Countdown music each day from their tele. If they had parties or a loud dog I wouldn't be able to cope.

I'd love to live in a detached.

I have lived in a detached all my life. Barring hammer renovations I have never heard the neighbours at all. Maybe I have just been lucky to always have thoughtful neighbours.

Though nextdoor currently have two kids and we never hear them.

Traffic would drive me crazy its not just th noise but the pollution of rhe doors windows etc. Though yours is set back so this may not be an issue. My friends door gets black on a main road. It can't be nice to breathe that in.

I meant semi🥴🥴🥴 sorry

I lived in a very robust Georgian semi for 4 years but was driven out by horrific neighbours. Never, ever again will I be anything other than detached. I had to move to protect my MH. So please do bear that in mind!