Help me choose which house please!

[Mowgli3]

House pick

We have finally sold our house after a year and have viewed 2 properties which we are interested in. There is a fair bit of difference in price but they are very similar in size/bedrooms.

House 1 - www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/141283169

• Pros-
• It’s in a quiet small cul de sac which we wanted
• We love the big extension
• It’s a 5 min walk to school
• It’s next to a lovely park

• Cons -
• the garden isn’t as big as we wanted
• The garden is east facing. We are in a south facing garden at the moment and love it.
• It’s not the prettiest house
• Kitchen needs changing

House 2- www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/139277687

Pros -

• The garden is huge, beautiful, mature and gets the sun all day
• More storage in the garden
• It’s a pretty house with a cosy cottage feel

Cons -

• After the garden there is a farmers field and then the motorway - you can hear it quite loud when in the garden
• There is going to be a development of around 2000 houses quite close and the road it’s on could become busy
• Longer to walk to school (only 5 mins longer) and not as nice a walk

Please help me decide! What would you do?

Didn't notice either.
So neither.

House 1. Less redecoration to do and a couple of episodes of Ugly House on Channel 4 should give you some ideas about beautifying it. The price differential gives you quite a bit to play with never mind the stamp duty.

The extension is lovely and will make the kitchen bright and airy without being boiling when we get those really hot days.
I've had East, West and currently South facing gardens. Of the three West is my preference but our East facing garden was about a 1/3 the size of yours so the sunny end was gone by 6pm. It was a godsend when the weather was melting though. I would establish just how much of the garden is in sun in high summer by the evening and decide.

I would have said house 1 but the leasehold thing is a huge put off.

House 2 is beautiful but I wouldn't buy it because of the motorway noise plus the huge development going up nearby. That will have a big impact on you!

No 1 without a doubt.

I'm put off house 1 by it being leasehold.

Too late to edit, I see you can buy the freehold which is an improvement. I love house 2 but I imagine it would be more expensive without the location issues.

House 2

I'd rather live next to a motorway and have the pretty house. House 1 would make me feel depressed coming up the driveway

House number 1.

House 2 is prettier and more charming from the outside, but you live inside your house. Ok, maybe in the summer you live in the garden too. But you don’t live on your drive!

house 1 looks more spacious and has a better layout. No I don’t like the red kitchen, but I don’t like the kitchen in number 2 either - I don’t like the dining table placement in the kitchen. They have house 2 looking fun and with more personality, but I bet that once you take away all their clutter you will see that a lot of decoration needs doing.

Anyway, house 2 crossed off for me for being so close to the motorway, a new development and the pub!

House 1. The motorway is a deal breaker.

I've lived near a motorway and it's dreadful in the summer, even in a lovely garden.

If you can resolve the leasehold thing then house one as there's more open space and footpaths close by which is a big factor for me.

House two is too close to the motorway.

If you can guarantee the leasehold will be sorted then House 1. I think you should always go for the best location, you know the sayings; you can change the house but not the location, buy the worst house on the best street etc etc. I think the current decor isn't doing it any favours, those style houses can be quite bright and airy with the big windows and can really look good with mid century modern or scandi styling if that's your thing.
The motorway and development has potential to affect the future value and saleability of house 2, and could be hard to live with.

Honestly neither.

House 1 is a leasehold with not long left. It might not bother you, if you're planning to live in it forever, but you'll really struggle to sell it on later.

It's got no street appeal either.

That red kitchen is diabolical, and that whole extension feels very "warehousey". The rest of the house looks quite dated and would need re-decorating throughout.

House 2 is much prettier from the street. But I don't love the layout. And clearly the noise and future development is a factor to consider. But once you look past the current owners very odd taste in interior design, it's got a lot more character and "things to enjoy" about it than house 1. But it's also not £90k better than house 1.

Personally OP, I'd keep looking.

House 1. A shorter, more pleasant walk to school is priceless! Also the nearby park. Depending on your DCs' ages, both are amazing to have nearby.

No 1, prefer the clean lines.
We used to have a house with sloping bedroom ceilings, so difficult to get furniture to fit and as a tall family, many bumped heads!

House 1 is really ugly. And that kitchen is awful.
House 2 is lovely. Not sure it’s worth the compromises you’ve mentioned, but I’d still pick it over 1

It's a shame about the development near house 2. I think it's a lovely house - kerb appeal, cosy and characterful, and you could really make it your own. The development would put me off though - the motorway less so as I do think you would get used to it.

I wouldn't be put off by the red kitchen. If it's good quality, and it looks like it might be, it would not cost much to replace the doors by ones more to your taste.

Listen to the moneybox programme from 3 pm on Radio 4 Wednesday 24th. Lots about the pitfalls of leasehold.

The £1500 you were quoted is likely to be just the fees, not the cost of the leasehold extension (marriage value), plus issues with financing short leases.

I like the red kitchen units. It's the huge games room/dining room/kitchen/conservatory-with-bifolds I don't like. Too much going on.

Thank you everyone, we are going with house 1 as nothing else has come up that is as suitable as that for the last 6 months!

We really loved house 2 but the motorway is really putting us off.

thanks again!

Good luck, hope you'll be very happy there.