What would you compromise on?

[Alexis92]

Currently in the process of finding a flat. Have accepted an offer in ex marital home and my ex has found an onward purchase. I haven't yet found a place. I will be porting the mortgage on the home (which will include time constraints if my purchase isn't complete when the house sale is). Buyers were already concerned about 2 onward chains and don't want to lose them. So I'm feeling a bit of pressure!

1st round of viewings last week. Things I had wanted:

• Location relatively central to the town centre
• a balcony / outdoor space
• kitchen with plenty of storage (I love to cook)
• Lots of storage within the flat
• Space for a living room area and dining area

There were various issues with the places I viewed last week that meant none of them would work. One place was perfect but there are issues with the cladding on the building that won't be resolved any time soon so avoiding that.

I've lined up some more viewings this weekend. These ones are from my reserve list on rightmove. There hasn't been any new additions (I suspect it being August!).

So I have been re-evaluating my must haves. I'm thinking of compromising on location (2 places I am viewing are marginally further out but look promising on floorplans and photos), and the balcony/outdoor space because the balconies I saw last weekend were rubbish anyway. Has anyone made similar compromises and been happy. Any other compromises you think I should make?

In an ideal world I'd like to wait until September when the market normally gets a bit busier again but obviously there are no guarantees this will happen or that anything better will come on.

Depends. If there are children or frequent guests, yes to dining area, but for just me I could compromise if there was space for a small breakfast table or a fold down jobby.

If I had to buy a flat I'd prioritise location and low service charges for resale reasons.

did you have a thread a couple of weeks ago? sorry the other one didn't work out with the cladding.

I'd probably compromise a little on each dimension. So maybe on location by a extra 5-10 min walk but not by a 30 min bus. Or storage and space but only by a bit.

What size flat are you buying? 1, 2, 3 bed for example and is it just you living there? Until very recently, I lived in a 2 bed flat with a small kitchen. I cook daily from scratch and used a cupboard in the spare bedroom to store lesser used kitchen ware and ingredients. Not an option if someone is living in the other room or its a bedsit though.

Above my kitchen cupboards, I used a long, thin Christmas tree box to also store lesser used kitchen ware.

DH and I ate on stable tables on the sofa most of the time. We did have an extension dining table though which was great when we had guests around. Prior to that it was a tiny table where the chairs tucked inside the table so took up minimal space

Look at ikea or even caravan/motorhome ideas on space saving ideas to make use of smaller spaces.

You need to think about whether you'd want outdoor space to relax/garden in or prefer more kitchen to cook in? Could you find/make extra space by having floor to ceiling kitchen cupboards and get a stool to reach? Could kitchen items be stored elsewhere? For me I'd prefer a shorter walk to shops/transport than extra commuting.

Hiya, yep that was me! The cladding issue doesn't look like it will be resolved any time soon and I decided it was too much of a risk for me so back to viewings. The location is about an extra 10 mins walk compared to the ones I viewed last weekend and a 5 min drive :)

I did consider that for one place but the day to day hassle of all that would stress me out and make me end up resenting the flat. I'm buying a 2 bed but the 2nd will be a home office/guest bed and I don't want to have it busy with other things.

In an ideal world I would love a garden and would probably compromise on other things for that. The difficulty is in my budget and where I am buying a garden is unrealistic. You get the odd maisonette pop up occasionally that has one but I can't wait around on the off chance.

I never imagined this would be so hard

I think you need a list of things you wouldn't compromise on. For me it would be location, x number of bedrooms, large kitchen, and then start from there.

We bought last year and we ended up compromising on a number of things, which actually now we're in haven't made any difference and we're really happy. We started with a long wish list and probably missed out on suitable properties