Which house would you choose?

[Christmasinbed]

Couldn't sleep last night & ended up surfing Rightmove. I discovered 3 houses near me are all for sale (none have boards up outside). Two are direct neighbours (semi's), the other is directly opposite. Knowing all 3 really well, it got me thinking which you'd choose? All 3 have the same number of bedrooms/bathrooms.

House A, overlooks golf course at rear. compact period property, lovely kitchen (no work needed), vacant possession, good condition throughout. Just needs a lick of paint for your own colour scheme & perhaps remove modern built-in wardrobes if you didn't like them. £400K

House B, to the right of house A, also overlooks the golf course, almost identical compact period property, small very old kitchen which is well overdue gutting/extending/ or knocking through. All other rooms in the house are in excellent modern condition. Wouldn't even need painting as totally up-to-date.
£500k

House C, on other side of road, 1.5 times the size of the other two, 20s pebbledash, not overlooking golf course but nice wide garden. Probate sale, new kitchen/bathroom needed immediately & whole house decorative updating long overdue. Potential for large loft conversion (nearly all other 20s houses nearby have done this)
£400k

So which would you pick? I find it hard to choose. Looking out across a golf course in a near perfect (but smaller) house seems great. But over the road you can get a bigger house for the same money with potential for a loft (& add value). I think B is asking too much.

Difficult without seeing pictures as one persons “turn key” may not be another’s. However property B seems to be the outlier in terms of price especially if it needs a new kitchen.

House B was for sale 2yrs ago at £400k but it didn't sell back then. The kitchen issues are a real sticking point.

I grew up next-door to a golf course. I would worry about flying golf balls . We used to get the occasional one in the garden despite the direction of play being from left to right instead of towards the house.

DM still lives in the same house but she no longer has the golf course behind her because the club sold some land for housing after redesigning the course to be more compact.

C.
More room for the money. And whilst you might think overlooking a golf course is lovely, the early morning groundwork soon loses its charm, as does the constant mowing and golfers calling "fore" all weekend.

As you say difficult to say without seeing pics - for house c the question will be do you have the means / desire to realise its potential and if so how long are you prepared to take to do this? If you haven't had a house like this before you need to go into it eyes wide open as can be a costly and lengthy process. We are 3 yrs in to a similar situation, nearly there now but at times it's been a struggle, not necessarily financially, but all the thought and decision making needed, arranging work and living in a house for quite a long time that never seems to be finished. If I move again I'd go with House A situation. House B sounds over priced

I would think A or C but so much depends on your circumstances and preferences. I might prefer a period property, want a smaller house and one I can just walk into without loads of upheaval.
C has the most potential, especially for a family, but I dislike pebbledash, although I could get over it for the right move.
I’m assuming you mean 1920s not 2020s? The former was a nice period for house building

Do you need the extra space of C, which will cost more to heat and maintain? Worth thinking about if you are hoping that this will be the house you'll live in for the next 20+ years. Is C a semi too? If you're going to need the extra space, planning children or elderly parent/s moving in or whatever, C sounds the better bet. That said, I hate pebbledash and am always a bit concerned about what may be going on underneath it, so I'm prejudiced about C.

I'd prefer a house overlooking a golf course rather than another garden. But possibly more important is the direction. Ideally a south-west garden: better for growing and sitting outside in the evenings. North-east gardens not so good. We used to have lovely quiet neighbours. The new ones have put their children's trampoline and basketball hoop at the end of their garden so that we have the pleasure of their shrieks as they bounce...

Nice to have plenty of choice.

Impossibly to say with so little detail given. For example, does one side of the road have gardens facing North, the other South? It’s harder to sell houses with North facing gardens so that should be a factor in the price. Also you haven’t explained why houses A & B are 100k apart in price but sound very similar?

You need to be aware that a house built in the 1920s is likely to be single brick — so the walls are only a single brick thick. This make them some of the coldest, most difficult to heat properties on the market. There have been threads on here in the last week from people in similar properties finding them impossible to heat. Obviously being a semi is an advantage because you're not leaking heat on all sides.

You'll probably need to factor in extra heating costs if you're moving from a more modern property.

I'd go for C. Bigger with more potential and I wouldn't see the golf course view as a bonus.

There is also the risk as another poster pointed out, that the course could be sold in the future and built on.

House C

I wouldn't buy a house overlooking a golf course ever

We need links to fully immerse ourselves

C but then I always go for space!

What are the EPCs of the period homes? The newer house is likely to be much warmer.

What direction do the gardens face as that would help with my decision. Assuming the garden of the one not facing into the golf course doesn't face east I would choose that one

A for me. I prefer a period home and golf course view would be lovely. It is so expensive to replace a kitchen so that would swing it for me along with the lower price.

I'd discount B - it seems to be an outlier compared to its neighbour.

A or C sound like they would appeal to different people. Not sure I'd go back to an old property having had the delights of a well insulated Barrett box - although I'm deeply envious of the room sizes, I'm not envious of the heating bill!

I would go A as like a nice kitchen and they are very expensive to renovate. Painting etc would be quite easy to do.

I would go for house C. Can't see the appeal of overlooking a golf couse.,

Unfortunately the golf course isn't 100% guaranteed to always be there and as a PP mentioned, some sell land on and you may find your once lovely, open view is now someone's house right up on your land border. House B will be reducing its price sooner or later as people will see all the other properties listed for less.

I'd probably do house A because it's in good condition and I don't have the spare cash to renovate house C.

I’d be worried about security overlooking a golf course. I used to know people who lived in a house overlooking a playing field and she got stabbed to death by a burglar in the middle of the day.

Building work is a nightmare and expensive. I bought in 2021 and needed work that was estimated at time of survey as around £20k. Took me a year to get the work started , costing by then £65k, and a quoted 12 week build took 1 week short of 6 months. Main contractor tried to walk half way through with a lot of my money paid by deliberately bullying me , whereas I knew he was struggling to get sub contractors to do specialist work as everyone is so busy. He couldn’t be arsed with the hassle and seeing his profit being eaten into from the costs of sub contractors rising .

just avoid a house that needs building work to be habitable for your needs for at least next 5 years. Maybe by then we’ll have a functioning supply chain for building materials and functioning skilled and low skill labour market for building/trades.

I became mentally unwell because of the stress over a period of over 19 months post moving, that it took to get the house right and wouldn’t wish it on anyone.

Just be very careful I bought a house overlooking a beautiful golf course. I loved living there but moved away because of work. (Needed to be closer to an airport) I went back there to visit friends a few months ago and the golf course is now a housing development bang goes the view. Just a thought x

Some good points made. As for why are A & B priced so differently when they are almost identical? I've no idea, I presume the owner of B needs the extra funds to move on? A & B both have north facing back gardens (that slope down away from the house) & have been known through the years to get an occasional golf-ball smashed window. Though the golf club are very good about repairs I hear. They've planted extra trees in recent years to help stop the stray balls. House C has a south facing back garden.