How picky is too picky?

[lemonappletea]

I'm looking to buy a house and have a fairly long list of "must-haves" - but I'm wondering if I'm being too picky and I'd be searching forever? My list is:

• At least 4br detached or semi in a specific area, within 15 minutes walk to station
• Very quiet residential road i.e. cul-de-sac or minimal through traffic
• Good condition e.g. happy to replace one of kitchen or bathroom but pref. not both
• South or west facing garden
• Open plan kitchen/dining room or at least be able to make it so by removing walls

I've tried to get a sense of the market by looking through the sold houses in the area in the last few years and I can't find more than a handful of houses that fit these criteria and are within budget. Am I being unreasonable? Should I just "settle" for something that ticks most of these boxes or keep waiting in the hope that the perfect house will come on the market?

I don’t think you’re being unreasonable for what you want but maybe unrealistic of what you can afford. Having said that, prices are coming down so if you don’t need to sell and are ready to buy then you might get what you’re looking for with some patience!

My house ticks all of those boxes, as do half of the houses on my street.

They’re hardly outlandish requests.

Can you change your list so you have some must haves and some would likes? You can put your essentials in order of priority.
Do you need to be near the station for daily commutes? If not, that can go down the list. Do you need to be in a specific area for schools? If not, that can be moved down. If you are in the south east, increasingly hot summers make a south facing garden uncomfortable to sit out in and plants are dying.
Sometimes you view a property that does not meet all your criteria but it just feels right. I think you should be open to viewing houses that only meet some must haves - this does not commit you to buying!

I would be prepared to put in a new kitchen and bathroom and a house that needed total decoration. I would also add an east facing garden if the kitchen/diner was at the back of the house where I would be spending the morning. Therefore if the
lounge is at the front it would get the late afternoon/evening sun when you are most likely to be relaxing. If the garden is big enough you could put a patio at bottom of garden. Not mad on south facing garden as it means the front is north and nether gets the sun.

Other than that your list is not being too picky,

Go for (South-)West facing garden. Your house will get morning sunshine at the front and afternoon sunshine at the back.
Up the radius to 1.5 miles.
Be prepared to look at 3 beds with a view to extending.
Consider a house with a kitchen large enough to eat in as opposed to an open plan diner, or a small kitchen with the diner part in an extension.
Consider an end-of-terrace.

4-bed semis/detached within 1 mile of the station are fairly rare, and families will not be moving from them because they tick all the boxes.

I don't think you are being all that picky - you've not mentioned parking, no. of bathrooms, or steps to the street, and lots of other things

It depends on the housing stock in the area you want.

That is such a good point that is sometimes forgotten!

The longer & more specific your list of must-haves, the more you narrow down the potential pool of properties which tick all your boxes. So either be prepared to wait as long as it takes, or start making difficult decisions on possible compromises.
Obviously, it’s more difficult to compromise on location or number of bedrooms but, from your list, the kitchen/ bathroom question could become a nice-to-have if it broadens your options.

You aren't being picky in what you want so it must mean your budget. You can't afford it at that price so something has to give. Either more money, further away or less bedrooms. Focus on the priorities. If it's budget and bedroom then you are going to have to look further away. It really is that simple.

I also have a list of "would likes" that I haven't mentioned 😁

On hot summers, that's a good point and one I hadn't considered before. In that case I guess west facing would be best so the garden has shade in the morning but I'd say 80% of the houses I've seen have been east or north!

It’s a reasonable list but it’s also a list many people would have.

if you look through rightmove right now, not past houses, what would make a difference? A higher budget? One fewer bedroom? Up to 30 mins walk from station?

Prices may come down a little, but quite likely not 4 bed for the price of a 3 etc.

Personally, I feel people get caught up in the idea of a 4 bed. We found when looking that most 4 beds were extended 3 beds with a less than desirable layout. We widened our pool by looking at both 3 & 4 bed detached and semi and found a very large 3 bed semi which is far bigger & nicer than any of the 4 beds we viewed. It also has an enormous loft we will convert at some point to create a large 4th bedroom with en suite & office, plus a garage we’ll convert into an extra room (games, gym, office or whatever). So don’t discount 3 beds; you want the space and the budget to work with it.

I would say 95% of houses I'm discounting because of an east/north facing garden, being on a busier road or being too far from the station. Take away any one of these and the options open up a lot more. Interestingly, if I remove the price filter or drop to 3 bedrooms it doesn't make much of a difference. So I think it's as another poster said, the issue is of housing stock in the area and people not wanting to move.

It depends on the town. My town of 20,000 - It’s very unusual for a house to meet all of these. You’d be asking for the impossible and something would have to give. Don’t write off NF gardens

I’m just about to move from a north facing garden - we get the sun here up to around 5-6pm in the summer. And I only have a very small garden, it it was larger I’d be able to move further down the garden to get sunshine later.

I’ve just bought a house with a south-facing garden which is great, but it didn’t factor into my decision. If I found a house I loved, I’d go for a north facing garden, no problem. You still get loads of sun in the summer.

I've got a north facing garden but it's long, so I get plenty of sun.

Looking on Rightmove, in my town for a 4 bed house within 1 mile of the station, there are 4 listed.

1 is detached and has a north-east facing garden and needs a new kitchen and bathroom. probably a doer upper
1 end-of-terrace, west facing garden, small kitchen
1 semi, north facing garden, Kitchen diner ok, bathroom a bit tatty
1 detached, ticks all boxes, south-west facing garden but is almost twice as expensive as the others

We have a north facing garden, which I nearly discounted. It’s a reasonable size and the neighbouring properties aren’t too close, which makes it a real sun trap and we get sun until 7/7.30 in the summer.

I think if you can’t find a house reaching all of your criteria, you either keep waiting in the hope something comes up or the criteria has to change. Depends how long you’re willing to wait.

I was very picky about location when I moved. Other than that I wanted my own driveway, detached and quiet. My home needs alot of work but I love it. It did take quite a long time to find.

I think you need to see what's available for your budget and see what you can live without on your list.

Your list is not unreasonable, however if you're not finding anything it's either your budget isn't large enough to get what you want, or too few houses with what you want are coming to market.

I'd have some absolute non-negotiables e.g. nothing could convince me to live on a main road ever again, then id try and be a bit more flexible on the rest e.g. you could probably find a 3 bed semi for much less than a 4 bed detached.

We had more or less your list and we got what we wanted but took a few months of looking. But we were prepared to replace kitchen and main bathroom which were both 20 years old, and we took down a wall to make kitchen diner.

These are all things you could change in first few years of living there but you can't change proximity to station, direction garden faces, passing traffic etc

We did the opposite - things we couldn't possibly have, like shared access or parking, link detached not proper detached, storage heaters, oil -fired heating. It opened us to more possibilities.