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Original poster

What (if any) compromises did you make for the right home?

106 replies

RunRunGingerbreadMan · 07/01/2022 16:14

I'm just curious really, I've been watching old Escape to the Country episodes and it's funny how people are willing to compromise once they find a home that feels right. We were the same, we wanted a garage and a big hallway and in the end went for a house with neither! If you don't mind me asking, what did you compromise on? Do you think you made the right decision?

OP posts:
ConstanceL · 08/01/2022 20:04

Our compromise was being further away from the DCs school than we originally wanted, we were initially looking within 15 mins walk, but the house we bought is 30 mins walk. But after being outbid on houses in our preferred area that were going for ridiculous amounts, we realised if we went a bit further away we could get an extra bedroom and off street parking. And on rainy days when the walk would be miserable it's a quick 10 min bus journey, or 5 mins in the car.

BasiliskStare · 08/01/2022 20:19

I wasn't fussed about buying a much smaller house as long as it had a bigger garden - as it turns out we got a much much smaller house and much much smaller garden which is about the size of some people's dining tables. But the location is fantastic. I know the compromises we made but I love this house now. I can walk to pretty much everything and 2 parks really easy distance away. But the house is small.

CointreauVersial · 08/01/2022 20:35

Our only real compromise was the fact that we can sometimes hear the M25. Having lived near a main road in our previous house I was adamant I wanted to be nowhere near traffic noise, but the house was so amazing (needed a lot of work but in a brilliant location and the perfect size/layout) we couldn't turn it down. I knew as soon as I walked through the front door.

I do wish we had a fireplace, but I didn't realise how much I'd miss it until we didn't have one. The next house will definitely have to have a fireplace. Definitely, no compromise......Grin

SilverGlassHare · 08/01/2022 20:37

Single garage instead of double. Probably slightly smaller garden than we’d have wanted ideally.

StartingGrid · 08/01/2022 20:39

Absolutely nothing - we wanted decent living space downstairs, a 2 car drive, a downstairs wc, 3 bedrooms, got everything on the list and then some but it did take us 4 years to find the right house which not everyone could work with!

Shmithecat2 · 08/01/2022 20:40

Location. The location of our new house is lovely, but it does mean changing ds' school, which I really didn't want to do.

Redglitter · 08/01/2022 20:41

I wanted a modern house 2 bedrooms, a driveway at the front & a small garden

I bought a house built around 1900 with lots of features just 1 bedroom, a huge garden with parking at the end of the garden

I absolutely love my house. Its in the perfect location and soon as I viewed it I knew it was the one

CathyorClaire · 08/01/2022 20:44

We bought a slightly run down 50's built chalet bungalow with very little in the way of character or looks.

A house with the number of bedrooms we have would have been way beyond our means.

SuPerDoPer · 08/01/2022 20:49

Smaller garden than I would have liked. Weird layout downstairs, small kitchen but space to convert the garage so in the end it should be just what I need. I didn't want to spend years waiting for the right place in the location I needed.

AshLane · 08/01/2022 21:00

No bathroom window.

BasiliskStare · 09/01/2022 04:01

@SuPerDoPer - I bought my current house with compromises but had already waited 2 years - so bought it. There are compromises but that said there are much better things than the house I thought I wanted. Location is great - and even with the most massive budget ( which mine was not ) - not always possible to get all you want. I am grateful I did not hold out for the house / road I thought I wanted & bought this instead - not perfect but I rather love it.

Sometimes buying with your head and not your heart works.

SuPerDoPer · 09/01/2022 06:40

Sometimes buying with your head and not your heart works.

This is how I approach most things in life tbh. There are benefits to being a highly practical person! I got a house with all my main requirements within the catchment of a great secondary school but I definitely didn't fall in love with it straight away. When I bought my previous house there were huge compromises (mostly budget constraints) but we stayed years longer than I thought we would because it all worked out fine.

andpeggy1 · 09/01/2022 06:50

Ours ticked Absolutly everything on the wish list abs more, apart from having a bathtub. So 4 years later we've saved up enough to have the bathroom redone to get one installed!

4pmwinetimebebeh · 09/01/2022 07:03

Like others the garden. Small and north facing. It’s grim in winter and gets very waterlogged and mushy but in summer gets a fair amount of sun! We have room for a veg patch, shed, slides and Wendy house and a patio with table and chairs and bbq so everything we need really but it’s certainly not spacious.
On the flip side we have a gorgeous Edwardian house with a giant basement beautiful features and off street parking in a lovely suburb. I never ever want to move.

gracedentsleftbumcheek · 09/01/2022 07:04

Were about to compromise! We’ve been looking almost 2 years and viewed over 60 houses. Offers on 5 (all had compromises) but never secured for various reasons.

Completing in Feb and it’s not the location we wanted. In fact, DH didn’t even want to view. However, it ticks most other boxes - acre south facing garden, large (non-shared, which was very important to us), 4 beds plus playroom, outbuilding and garage. We are knocking through kitchen into conservatory to make a large kitchen diner and then dining room will become a pantry, music and utility room (all divided up).

But it’s not in location we wanted, on a busier road than we wanted and we’d have liked a nice big hallway which it doesn’t have. And we’re having to compromise on price too of course given how the markets gone!

So we won’t yet know until we get in if we regret it, but house feels right

gracedentsleftbumcheek · 09/01/2022 07:05

*large non shared driveway!

SuperheroBirds · 09/01/2022 07:28

For us the compromise was curb appeal. We bought a 1960s chalet style house, which I think is really ugly. But, the location was great, and we spend all the time inside enjoying the large proportions of the rooms and not outside looking at it.

Numnumcookie · 09/01/2022 07:36

Wanted a house we didn't have to do up, after the last house that needed everything doing up and DIY horrors that were hidden by the previous owners.

Bought a house that needed plastering, new kitchen, new bathroom, drains clearing, new boiler and complete redecoration (70s style still in situ).

However, it is my dream location and has loads of storage, massive garden, near the beach.... Basically location won out. Previous house we compromised on location and I will never again compromise on location - everything else is fixable to an extent.

MrsJamin · 09/01/2022 07:42

We wanted a larger house on a nicer road, detached, driveway, garage, and larger garden. We got all those things but the house itself is ugly, poorly laid out, and seemingly had structural issues! We knew all these things could be fixed though and what we really wanted couldn't be conjured up in a house. We're having to renovate the whole house but still super chuffed with the space, detached nature and especially the garden plot.

JustJam4Tea · 09/01/2022 07:45

Sacrificed big garden for period features and location. Also ended up doing a shed load of work on it. It’ll be a beautiful house, it’s in in a fantastic location, walk to work, views over a park, surrounded by trees, 5 minutes to a beach, huge rooms. But no room for the veg patch, greenhouse, pond, trees of my dreams…..

oohmama · 09/01/2022 10:01

To get our dream house we compromised on location... it was a mistake
So we are now moving to a better location
We will have to compromise massively on the house but for us location is more important

We found out the hard and expensive way

croon979 · 09/01/2022 12:14

I wanted a detached period property with loads of character and a beautiful big garden. This did not seem to be available in our ideal location and location was more important to us.

We have instead ended up buying a large detached house built in the last 6 years in our ideal location. The garden is not as big as we ideally wanted but it has stunning views and open fields at the back of it. It is 5 minutes walk from a glorious beach.

We decided we could add character in with some clever cosmetic choices. We see the fact that we are buying a very energy efficient house built to a high standard as a bonus we would not have had necessarily with a period property.

I am sure we are doing the right thing - time will tell though - we are looking to complete and move in the next few weeks.

ginislife · 09/01/2022 15:14

6 miles out of town - but identical house in town was £50k more - and now at least £150k more. No regrets. I love my house

BasiliskStare · 09/01/2022 17:16

I have bought 4 houses because they were ( sometimes potentially ) beautiful . This last current one was bombed during the war - rebuilt - looks nice from the outside - 70s rebuild on the inside - but not a period feature in sight inside . Previously period features would have been v high up on my list But I think we have made it cosy and attractive & over time some nice things in the inside and I would not swap the location for a better bigger house further away.

So just a way of reiterating - Location is the one thing I would not compromise on - any else is just money and steel.

Movinghouseatlast · 09/01/2022 17:26

I told the agent I wouldn't look at semi detached or UPVC windows. Guess what I bought?!

For us, location was everything in the end. For the same money I could have had a beautiful 17th century detached farmhouse but it would have been a 20 minute drive from absolutely anywhere. Our house is rural but on the edge of a village with pubs, restaurants and the sea only 5 minutes walk away. Our house has absolutely zero curb appeal, which was always important to me before,but it's set on such a steep hillside nobody ( including us) can see it unless they are on the other side of the valley.

I was willing to sacrifice what I thought I wanted to be able to be swimming in the sea within 10 minutes of leaving the house.