Buying a house I don’t like in a market of little choice

[newnameforthehousehunt]

Am I insane for considering this?

Me and DP have been house hunting for about a year. We are in a sought after area and need to stay here for DC school and transport to work reasons. Out of the 10-12 houses we have viewed, we’ve both really liked just one house which was top of our budget. We offered the asking price, then the vendor decided they didn’t want to sell after all DP has liked more houses than me, I’m much more critical

We viewed a house yesterday, also top of our budget but we don’t like it as much as the house we offered on. DP “quite likes” it whereas I feel it is just “ok”.

The positives:
end of cul de sac so will hopefully be quiet and no traffic for our cat

Garden isn’t overlooked at all

Bathroom and downstairs loo are recently refitted

Newish boiler

Has a hallway with stairs off it rather than from living room like we’ve seen

Parking for two cars

Larger than average garden for the plot

The negatives:

Kitchen/diner is modern-ish and functional but layout is atrocious, it’s not a huge room yet it has a back door plus sliding patio doors minimising work space meaning the only space for a fridge freezer is in the corner of the dining area. IMO the whole room needs an overhaul, money which we don't have and would need to save for/get a home improvement loan for. I could live with it for a few months probably.

3rd bedroom is a box room and this would be DC2’s room (not yet conceived )

main part of garden is north facing

garage isn’t attached to the house and is in front of it, and the agent didn’t know if there was power to it. If there isn’t we’ll need to get that sorted as ideally would want a bigger freezer and tumble drier in there.

there’s parking for two cars outside the house but guests would have to park further down the road and walk to the house, as the house is on a kind of shared driveway

the house felt a bit meh and soulless. Like there was no love in it. I know once you’ve moved in with your own stuff and make your own memories there it is different, but I wouldn’t feel excited about moving into it despite being desperate to get on the property ladder after renting for years. But maybe I’d feel better once we’ve moved?

Thoughts please - I am starting to realise my expectations are too high for what our budget is, and maybe all houses coming to market will the same as the house we viewed yesterday. Maybe I just need to go with one of them and get on with it? We could offer the asking price and be outbid anyway

10-12 houses isn't a lot for a year. Are you living in a place where not many houses come on for sale?

Both times I've moved I was stretching my budget and it was difficult to find what I needed.The first time I looked at about 30 properties over 6 months (and then, typically, two came along at once!)

And the second time I must have looked at about 20 or so.

I'd hang on and see what comes on the market in the next month or two, as a PP said, it's about to be a good time of year for new properties coming in.

Also can you expand your search by looking for places with fewer bedrooms but with extension potential?

Even people spending millions make compromises. This is a very important thing to keep in mind - it helps to stay realistic.

I think you are starting to think more realistically in realising your budget isn't going to buy you the house you'd like, but, I don't think this is the right compromise house either!

Now you've realised you're not going to get what you had in mind, for the budget you currently have, you need to think hard about your priorities.

(I grew up in a Cul-de-sac and it was brilliant!!)

I've lived in enough places now to know I don't want shared anything!! And I don't want a north facing garden! Neither of those are negotiable.

I'm definitely not having another baby but a box room for a potential baby wouldn't bother me at all, I know plenty of adults who had the bix room all their lives until they left home- they're remarkably undamaged by this 🤣

I would sort out my top priorities and only look at properties that ticked those boxes, then be very realistic about the other things it does/doesn't have. And get on with buying!! Renting is dead money you could be paying off a mortgage, so every month you wait is costing you.

It's remarkable how quickly you can get used to awkward layouts & how time flies. Personally id look at living somewhere for a year until making big layout changes.

Look for 'Best Buy' -ticks top priorities!

Best of luck!!

Another thing to consider is that changing schools isn't the end of the world! and you're probably really really limiting yourself if you're trying to stay very close to your child's primary school.

Don't do it, you'll regret it if you don't even like it before buying.

@Kshhuxnxk

Shared driveway would be immediate no.

And for me.

All these people saying 10-12 houses isn't many to view....

We must be in the minority, because when we've been looking to buy (have bought/sold 8 times) we've never looked at more than six properties! Even when we were buying a bog standard Victorian terrace (our first house, in a south coast city) we only viewed about five before we found a brilliant one that was head and shoulders above the others (due to having been built to specific requirements for a master butcher - it had ornate plaster ceilings, internal folding doors into an extra reception room and pretty Victorian trellised lobby leading into the rear garden - all original and things none of the seemingly identical houses had...and all for £65k! It was the 1990s, lol!).

I think it's because we always go for quirky, one-off, project houses, lol! So, when we were moving from England to Wales in 2018, we wanted somewhere with a bit of land and period features. Within our search area (three counties) and budget we had a long list of nine, three of which we discounted before viewing as being wrongly located. We did drive-bys to be certain, then viewed the remaining six. The one we both would have loved, we lost out in sealed bids although we were cash buyers and later found it sold for what we'd offered to someone getting a mortgage 🙄

The house we ended up buying was a compromise - as they all are in some way, obviously - but one compromise too far imho. I let DH choose as I'd chosen our previous house....it was a big mistake.

unless you have millions of pounds and a search area of many many miles then there will be some compromises to be made!!

We had a very small budget for what we wanted. basically we wanted a 4 bed house but had a 3 bed budget!!

We were really really lucky and fouond the house we are in now.

We did have to make some compromises -
no off street parking (but scope to either drop the kerb at the front and make a drive or to move the back fence that backs onto a lane to make a parking space there - both options have been done by lots of houses on the street)
not in the 'ideal' end of town but to be honest nowhere in our town is 'bad' just we are a bit further away from the school/highstreet etc and as our bit is old council houses it retains a 20-30+ year reputation that no longer really exists!
4th bedroom is a box but as the alternative was the 2 boys sharing they are just happy to have own rooms finally!
End terrace so still have neighbours but again we didn't have a detached budget.

We have been here a year and the house really suits us. yes there are things we would like to change but dont have the money for yet.

so bascially we knew that the 4 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms was what we did not want to compromise on and that we could compromise on some other things.

I would look on rightmove with a wider search price.

Are you finding properties you would like above your budget; and this is just an expectation within budget problem. Or are you just searching for the impossible?

The reason I say that is because you comment that having the bathrooms recently refitted is a positive - but the kitchen recently refitted is not a positive because you dont like the layout and could live with it for 'a few months'.

Quite frankly thats insane. It is near impossible to find a house to your exact tastes and preferred layout if you want to buy a house 'done'.

I would write yourself a plan. Is this a 2 year house, a 5 year house or a 10 year house. Based on this what priorities are most important. Probably bedrooms and sqftage over everything else the longer you want to keep the house. The shorter you want to keep the house, the more important 'less work' is if you wont have the money.