Which House Would You Buy?

[Independant]

DP and I have sold our house and currently looking for our next (potentially forever) home.

We have one DS who is 2 in January and would like to star TTC this time next year.

We’ve got two houses that we are both interested in. Both houses we both really like but DP prefers one and I prefer the other (typical!)

House A - DP prefers this house:

www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/107852696#/?channel=RES_BUY

Great semi-rural location
3 good size bedrooms
Large garden and great dog walks on the doorstep
Great schools nearby
Close enough to both sets of parents
Still within reach of friends
Will need a second car to get to work

House B (the house I prefer)

www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/115529915#/?channel=RES_BUY

20k cheaper
Looks more appealing / pretty
Detached
Garage
3 bedrooms (but one is a box room)
Big garden
Not as great location
Still within catchment of great schools
Parents / friends still relatively close by
Would need second car
Needs a bit of cosmetic work (old person has lived in it)

We feel we could live in either house. We just can’t choose?!

Which one would you pick and why? Maybe you think of something we haven’t considered?

B definitely. Especially if you may be able to do a loft conversion in future years.
It’s detached and allows more scope for expansion.

House A for me without a doubt. Kids have so much crap you will fill B very quickly! Box rooms are fine as they will each have their own space but there’s not much storage.

Tough one. The actual exterior of the house I prefer B, but the bedrooms look a much better size in A.

Would doing up B put a great more value on it?

What are the areas like? How much would a detached one cost you in area A>

Option B looks better from the outside and is detached but option one has far more potential in my opinion. Good luck whichever one you choose.

A. You would have to move within 5 years with B and that will cost £££

Our house is very similar to the second one .Detached and with a similar size 3rd bedroom that my Son loves!

House B definitely for me!

B has much more kerb appeal, looks better cared for inside and I would always opt for detached. Sorry but I couldn’t live in a semi worrying about noise etc. Also, semi not far from me caught fire 2 years ago and the adjoining house was damaged just as badly if not worse. 😰.

I think those of us who live in areas where we can afford detached are very lucky! I certainly thanked the Lord the day of that fire although mercifully both families were out so no one injured but still devastating.
The houses look fantastic now but took over a year for both families to move back.

Definitely B. Detached with a garage, definitely looks more upmarket than A and £20k cheaper. Being detached is preferable every time.

The first one doesn't appeal to me at all, no particular reason it just doesn't give of warm or home vibes.

The second one is much more my type of house but the size of the third bedroom would put me off if I wanted another child and not just a home office. It definitely looked like a home to me.

House A, the picture of the stairs, look along the skirting, looks like lifting paper/plaster, could that be damp?

I prefer B aesthetically, but A is large and you could adapt it to work for you over the longterm and not have to move, plus the great schools aspect would swing it for me. Look at the floor plans and not the decor, as you'll still end redecorating B. You may not be able to convert the loft in B, plus you may lose the box room space for stairs so the added value may not as much as you would imagine.

House A definitely looks like the work done isn't too a high standard.

This is really interesting. I am looking for a very similar property but I need 4 beds or 3+ study. (Round here the semi would be 500k+. Detached would be 600+)
For me the rural location would usually win but being detached is also very important. I would probably pick neither.

I don't know the areas but I would intuit that A is by far the better area given the price, and factoring in that B is detached and still cheaper.

I'm leaning towards A, even if it is with PurpleBricks 🤮

I love the first one-you'd get loads of space. The only thing is that the staircase looks rather steep; you might need baby gates.

@PlausibleSuit yes purple bricks I do not have very positive things from them. Took us ages to arrange a viewing they kept cancelling as “no one assigned to the property” … so annoying!

House A: Is semi, so not quite as desireable and from the outside doesn't look as nice. Its also not got much room to do anything with it. What you see is probably about as much as you can do with the property. It needs a lot less work and has the three good size bedrooms, but with a 2 year old, you may have issues with the third bedroom being on a separate floor for a few years. In time it will work well, but it will cause stress until your oldest is about 5 or so as you will need to be on the same floor as the youngest. The other probably with the layout is the lounge being a corridor to the kitchen. You will find it difficult to use to its full potential with lots of space which is effectively 'dead' because of where you will have to put the furniture to accomodate that -take a close look at the photos which kind of illustrate the point well. It looks bigger but how much of that is useable? Also have a think about how you'd do clothes storage in the attic bedroom - you can't put a wardrobe in there. However the kitchen is much much nicer and more practical that the second house. And its in a better location.

House B: Is detatched so a big plus. Has more potential to extend. And I think on the face of it the layout is potentially better in the long run BUT I think you'd need to do something about the kitchen/lounge and knock some walls down. At the moment the lounge and kitchen are both just long and thin and they will drive you nuts to live in. The kitchen isn't the most practical and you will find there is loads of 'dead space' in the lounge. I would knock through make into a kitchen / dinner and then use the dining room as a lounge. That doesn't solve the bedroom issue. There is room to extend though. The bottom line for me is that you will end up frustrated with it until you do something about both issues and thats going to cost you £££ to get it to the house you want. Plus the location isn't as good as the first.

I think on balance it depends on what you want to do long term. I think you can ultimately do more with house B but thats going to come at a cost - but that also means you probably won't want to move again if you go down that route. If you aren't prepared to do it up, I think you will get fed up of the house in time and will want to move again in the future. House A is the better option if you have no desire to get into doing up the house, but you are stuck with it as it is with little option but to move if you find it doesn't work for you in the long term (plus in the short term, you have the split floor bedroom issue to tackle).

Certainly neither is ideal.

I think I would probably ultimately go for B and get a sledge hammer out pretty quick, then work out the bedroom issue later if at all.

Could you spend the difference in price on a loft conversion? Lose the box room to put in stairs? Detached is much quieter than being semi- detached.

I'd always go detached if I could. I am drawn to the detached because my first thought when looking at the first one is that it's been knocked to bits and looks tatty and I think you'd be opening a can of worms unless it's been done professionally. Was planning permission sought for the loft conversion etc?

House number 2!

Also when you view house 2 you could ask about the foundations on the extension, Hopefully it was built with them deep enough to add a top floor.

If I had to put money on it, I would bet the first house has been put up with purple bricks because traditional estate agents won't market it as a 3 bed and the vender wanted a higher sale price than if it was marketed as a 2 bed. I think A has a 'problems ahead' klaxon going off on it.

House B. I have bought and sold a lot of houses. You are always better off buying something you can grow into - ie. you can extend as you need to.

House A looks awful and done up on the cheap - I bought a house like that once and I had to spend a fortune to redo all the bad stuff. You are better off not paying a premium for someone else's work unless you know it was done to a very high spec.

Which is nearer toddler group/swimming lessons/Cubs and friends from school?

www.greaterlondonproperties.co.uk/can-call-loft-room-extra-bedroom/
Loft Room – Extra bedroom, extra regulations

So far, so good but if your loft conversion is going to be used as a bedroom, additional regulations and requirements need to be adhered to, in respect of:

Fire and escape safety compliance: the regulations in respect of fire vary according to the number of storeys in the property, so it’s worth checking very carefully with your loft conversion specialist and building control as to which ones apply to your particular conversion. Along with Building regulations part K, which applies to escape route headroom, parts B and P (relating to fire and electrical safety respectively) will also apply. Generally, the higher the new loft room is going to be from ground level, the stricter the requirements. In all cases, an escape route must lead from the loft room all the way to the front door and include:

A proper staircase, definitely not a ladder. If a spiral staircase has been proposed as a space-saving or aesthetically pleasing design option, it’s worth checking with your loft professional, architect or building control that the proposed design and its location will meet with fire safety regulations. If there is any uncertainty, opt for a practical staircase.
Headroom of 2m (minimum) along the whole escape route. This may be permissibly reduced to 1.8 towards the edge of a stairway (for instance if the roof slopes at the edge) but only if there is a full 2m headroom at the centre of the flight.
30 minutes of fire resistance from all materials along escape route. Meeting this regulation may involve upgrading the materials in the walls alongside the escape route, particularly in older residential or period properties;
The fitting of a fire safety door, which can be opened fully, as access into and out of the new loft bedroom. Any doors on other floors which are along the loft room escape route must also be upgraded to fire doors

I do notice there is actually a door marked on the 1st floor before the stairs for the loft, which might be ok but you'd have to double check on that.

A for me. Setting nice