Have you found your 'Dream Home'?

[DaffoldilsandDaisys]

We viewed a house yesterday, and although there was nothing wrong with it I came away feeling it wasn't 'the one'.
So I wanted to ask those who had found theirs- what was it about it that made it your dream home?
Was it research and lots of viewings? Was it a gut feeling? Did you just walk in and know?
I'd love to hear your stories!

My first ever home that we bought. There were a few compromises with it but I had to have it. I saw it on rightmove on a Friday night and my heart skipped. I did not sleep well that night. DH wasn't sure. He is born and bred locally and this road wasn't one he wanted to live on but we still viewed it on the Saturday. MIL knocked at the door and explained that we were very interested. The vendors of the house weren't sure to let strangers in off the street so called the EA who confirmed that they knew us and that we were keen buyers. We had already offered on a house on their books but our offer stood at rejected. I walked in and just knew! I had only viewed the hallway and living room but I knew it was going to be my home. The vendor had their DS at the dining table drawing pictures and I knew I wanted my own future babies doing the same in the same spot. Looking back now, they set it up to sell a certain lifestyle and it worked. I loved it. It was over our budget and I remember begging the bank to increase the amount they would lend to us. Thankfully they extended our term and we just about passed affordability. We had viewed other houses before but they were all 'head houses; perfectly ok and ticked all the boxes but something intangible was missing.

However, we moved from dream house to our current home after 8 years. COVID happened. We wanted to have more children and I was working from home in the room that would have been the nursery. I used to walk DD1 in the pram around our area and there are some roads I used to really like - wide, quiet, tree lined and very tidy front gardens but if I carried our house and put it on those roads it would have cost us an extra 150k-200k. But what gave us that final push to move was how much more our house would sell for after the 8 years. We were shocked by what a few doors down had listed theirs on for and sold within less than a week. This is going back to the madness of summer 2020. Doing the maths we worked out that we could just about afford the houses on these other roads that I used walk the baby on. The stamp duty threshold was also removed after us buying our first home so there wasn't that financial 'barrier' to moving to the next home that we would have made it difficult to move.. All these factors, whilst small, made it easier to slowly detach from the 'dream home'. I still cried my eyes out on the day we completed and moved out. FIL had to physical drag me out of the house. I was heart broken but knew it was time to move on.

We have been here almost 3 years and I am just starting to love this home after having done a lot of work to it. I never did get the feeling I got with my first home. I can't imagine I will ever have that feeling again. Funnily, it was DH who still missed our first home long after we had moved here. Could have been something to do with the building site we were in at the time though.

Just walked in and knew. Even my DS said I love it, I love it, I love and the cat when we moved in started purring. It was first house we viewed though had done lots of research online and bought places before.

For a start it was on the street I had always been desperate to live even when growing up, never thought it would be achievable, had a phone call from our estate agents saying someone had approached them to value a property on this exact street no more details at this stage would we be interested if they want to sell. Within 24hours we was outside waiting to view it and the moment I stepped in the hallway I knew it had to be ours. Seller suggested a figure that would mean it wouldn't be shown to anyone else and it happened to be what we was willing to pay.

It was during the crazy market 2021 and I honestly think if it had been shown to anyone else we would have ended up in a bidding war and missing out as it was top budget.

Don't often believe in fate but can't help but think the stars aligned with this one. The novelty has not warn off and I love it more now than I did that first viewing

Should add we had seen other we would have been happy with and did get out bid on 5 properties to get to this point. But at the time we knew they would be a more short term solution

We were going to purchase one house but had to pull out. So we went to see another and as soon as we were walking around we knew we wanted it. Ticked almost all our boxes, was dated but extremely clean and in good condition. I think what swung it was the lovely garden with fruit trees and little features in the house that made it feel extremely homely. Other houses we had seen hadn't felt like a home but this house was clearly loved. As it turns out it had been owned by one lady and her husband their whole life until they passed and they raised their whole family there. I would have been happy in the newer houses I think but the feel of this one just made me happy instantly.

No, and never expect to - it's unrealistic. it's the biggest purchase of most people's lives, I think you have to keep emotions out of it otherwise they could cloud your judgement on practical issues.

Our previous house was one we loved immediately. Had arranged a second viewing, but later that day phoned DH at work and said "will we just offer now?" He loved it too. Stayed 16 years. Had many flaws - too small, too close to road.... but we absolutely loved it anyway.

I offered on the house I'm currently in the process of buying without ever seeing it in person.

I was for sale years ago, saw it on rightmove and loved it but weren't in a position to buy. Have been thinking about it ever since and now we have the money to buy I contacted the owner and asked to buy it without having ever been in it and only having the old listing photos from years earlier. Seller agreed to negotiate a private sale.

We looked at over a dozen other houses before I got the balls to approach them but non of the others compared they where all more money and less perfect.

Turns out its in much worse condition than at last sale BUT its cheap enough that I can afford to renovate it (and have it decorated etc... exactly as I want) and key points for me are the size, the layout & the location which are all perfect. I don't need to worry about 'investing' money and future profits as it will be our forever home.

I agree, but within the constraints of the budget and the requirements of what's needed, the emotion and 'feel' of a place can come into play.

I made an offer on my first flat having only seen it in torchlight the night before. It was a new conversion and the power couldn't be switched on for some reason. I'd viewed quite a few places but instantly knew this was the one. I think it was the layout that attracted me; it was identical to the house I grew up in where my parents and I occupied the top floor of an Edwardian property, so it instantly felt familiar and welcoming. Being on the top floor was also important to me as I didn't want the noise of people above me, which had been an issue in rented places, and the fact that it was a stone's throw from the railway station.

Once I saw it in daylight, fortunately there were no nasty surprises, other than a mustard coloured bathroom suite! And there was a lovely view of the cherry tree in the garden belonging to the basement flat. I ended up staying there 7 years. It wasn't a dream home in the sense of wanting to live there forever, but it was just right at the time.

We 'clicked' immediately with our last house, never had a second thought ever. It was sunny and happy, and no snags at all. But we outgrew it eventually -and needed to move North anyway. This house nobody could have clicked with, it was in such a neglected state. But I think it will be a house we would have 'clicked' with when we have done everything, so it was a dream house in embryo. But a bit of a challenge to see that at the time, and more of a nightmare in reality than a dream house for the first few years while we worked on it. Now it's good, but I think it will be great, in time. So we wanted what we could see it could be, rather than what it was.

weve been lucky enough to live in 4 beautiful houses with no. 2 being our forever home - but unfortunately we had to downsize from that one after 15 years for financial reasons. Then as we were coming up to retirement i found our second dream home in suffolk. We didnt even have our current house on the market but managed to sell and buy over a 7 month period. Weve been here 4 years now and its beautiful.

i would never buy a house i wasnt in love with - it fills me with such joy every day just looking at it!

Yes. It was only the third property we viewed and we loved it. Spent the whole evening in the pub troubleshooting why we shouldn’t buy it and decided on a second viewing. The minute I walked through the door again I just knew it had to be our house. We are in now and it is everything we never knew we wanted and everything we did know we were after; it’s an amazing area, the most beautiful street, fabulous neighbours and gorgeous original period features. I will never ever leave now

We will shortly be in the 5th house we have bought and it is by far my most favourite of them all. Walked through the door and thought I’d love to live there. It was the 16th house we viewed over a year. Usually it only took a few viewings but we struggled this time around. We had offered on 3 others which hadn’t been accepted and in hindsight I wouldn’t have wanted.

It has needed a lot of work but was well loved by previous owners for 45 years. Great team of people who all say they are really enjoying working on it. I said to one yesterday that a friend said there is a touch of magic about the house which is a weird thing to say but I knew what she meant and he agreed. We got a great offer accepted as were in a good position plus didn’t want to turn it into flats which sat comfortably with previous owner’s daughter as was probate sale.

We’re on house number 6 now and this one has my heart. We weren’t even looking in this area but couldn’t find anything after looking for months so my search area on Rightmove was getting wider & wider.

All my other properties had compromises, the only one this has is the area is slightly further out than ideal. But the house itself is lovely. I knew as soon as I stepped inside.

When I bought this house I was in a desperate state post separation, so I bought it in a complete brain haze because I could afford it and it was in the right location.

But it's turned into a fabulous home because it's ours and it can't be taken away by exH and it feels safe.

I knew the moment I saw a picture of the outside of the house. As soon as we walked inside I knew we had to live there. It was in a cosmetic state and needed quite a lot of work, we both did the equivalent of putting our fingers in our ears and going la la la as we were walking around as I didn’t want to see or hear anything that might make it an obvious mistake to buy.
like pps there is something magic about it. Nooks and crannies, the attention to detail of Edwardian builders, the fact that out of nowhere a massive grapevine grew in the garden. I love it. There are particular positions and views in it that fill me with a sense of huge happiness. I would feel like we were betraying it if we ever left!
we also had a connection to the previous owner which we only knew about when we came to look around.

No, like a PP I don't believe in the 'dream home' concept. We had a list of 'must haves', 'would quite like' and 'absolutely not'. It was a balance of those features. When we accepted an offer on our house we were under pressure to find a place quickly and there wasn't that much choice.

Yes, I loved the video on line and when we pulled up, I actually checked the brochure surreptitiously as I thought we’d made a mistake and couldn’t afford it.

we offered there and then after the viewing , still here a decade later and love it even more now. First house I’ve ever felt this way about.

it also helps its chocolate box pretty and I constantly get comments on how lovely it is. Amazon drivers in particular and ramblers who I see taking pics of it😂

I’ve bought three houses, and known immediately that I wanted them and loved them all the time I lived there. It would be hard to beat the current one though.

Love these stories! I'm hoping that if we keep viewing we will find the one that not only ticks all/most of the boxes but has that 'something'.
Got to keep the faith I guess!

We were in a very fortunate position when buying our current house- we weren’t selling our existing property, had mortgage approved for a healthy budget, could be flexible on location, and didn’t need to make decisions based on schools etc., so we knew we could afford to be picky and wait for the right house.

After a year of looking, we went sale agreed on one house that we loved, but the sellers ended up completely screwing us over- awful people. We were sp bruised and disappointed.

Took a few months off from the search and then spotted this house as soon as it went online, despite trying to stay away from the sales sites. I pored over the photos for so long. Also found myself tracking it down on Google Streetview, finding the plans online- basically learning everything about it.

By the time we viewed it a few days later, I knew every inch of the property but it was even better in real life. Really great sized rooms, so bright, and the kitchen of my dreams. It also had loads of the things we were planning to put into a new house- EV charger, solar panels etc.

We got into a bidding war with a cash buyer and it got to the stage where it was still within our budget, but more bids would bring it past the stage where we felt it was worth it for the area, so we withdrew. I literally said to my husband “that’s our house, we’ll hear about it again”.

A month later, the agent called. Turned out the buyer had been bidding on multiple properties as a delay tactic while they decided on which one they wanted.

So we got our house. And every single day, I find myself thinking about how much I love it and how lucky we are to live here.

So I find this interesting. We moved into our 'forever home' last year. We didn't feel a 'this is it' feeling to begin with. We had a list of things we wanted in a house and it ticked every box accept one (which was to have a garage). So we made the decision to purchase it based on that.

With our previous house, we 'fell in love' with it on our first viewing. We just 'knew' it was the right house for us and we were beyond excited to buy and move in. We were worried we didn't feel that 'in love' feeling with this home, but we followed our heads rather than our hearts.

We didn't feel the same level of excitement moving in, however once we were moved and settled, we ended up feeling so certain that this was our forever home and we now absolutely love it.

We made our list of what we wanted in a house based on our wants and needs and I think because it had everything that was on our list (bar one!), it means we're now enjoying the reality of making that practical choice.

So yeah, so us, it wasn't love at first sight, but the love grew once we were in. So it's definitely possible to end up very happy in a home you don't feel fireworks over!

I don't love this house but it's a practical solution. I hate the area of the country we live in so no house can be a forever house here for me. But it is practical for work and schools. Very jealous of people who can live anywhere they want to!

I don't really understand the "dream house" concept. No such thing as a dream house any more than there's a dream man imo. But you see it said a lot on here (on both counts, lol). I guess the larger your budget, the more you can dream though (with houses at least).