Which house would you choose?

[OverwhelmedAndUnderprepared]

Help! I have been house hunting for months and there was very little of interest on the market, now I am in a position of potentially having 3 to choose from, and struggling a bit. Which would you choose?

All houses are in the same village, which we have chosen for the schools and general location (proximity/transport links to nearby city for work). We have 2 primary age children.

A. Beautiful large detached 1930s house, with a beautiful large garden. Located on outskirts of village so further from the school (1.5 miles) and garden backs onto field but also distant view of busy A-road from end of garden.
Owner is a retired lady who has furnished and decorated it beautifully but some things wouldn't be hugely practical for us so we would want to make a few changes. However it's the absolute top of our budget so large mortgage payments and we wouldn't necessarily be able to spend lots of money on changes and redecoration, we'd have to do it gradually. It is more than liveable though and has a "forever home" feel about it.

B. Large detached house with large garden, not sure when it was originally built, has been extended/renovated and wouldn't need much doing to it. Very well located in centre of village, 0.6 miles to the school. Only downside is road is slightly busier than the others (it's on a bus route and there is some through traffic). Within budget.

C. Semi-detached house with medium size garden, built around 1930s-1940s, we would want to do a lot of work to it. Well under budget so could afford extensive renovations and renting elsewhere while we do them. Main advantage of this house is that it's on my favourite street in the village, quiet and friendly with lots of families with children. As we are new to the village it would be nice to make friends with some neighbours. Reasonably central in the village, 0.8 miles to the school.

C is my favourite location but I'm torn about the renovations, part of me would love a project and would love to make the house exactly how I want it, but I am also aware of the stress and disruption, and probably shouldn't be embarking on it given that moving house will be challenging enough.

DH really wants a detached house so he is leaning towards B.

We actually already made an offer on A, before B and C came on the market, so we need to decide whether to withdraw our offer. Argh!

A sounds the best. Detached house with beautiful garden backing on to fields, sounds lovely. Can you hear traffic noise from the distant A road?
No way to the semi, detached all the way. Couldn't stand hearing my neighbours, what if they were awful?
No way to B, it's not only the constant traffic noise on a busier road day and night but also the pollution and dirt from traffic fumes( even on a village through road).

B for me. I can understand why you'd want C, but however you change it it'll never have the privacy of a detached house, which is important to your husband.

Plus a serious reconfigure & building work requires you both to be keen, not just one of you. He might be able to stomach either the work or the semi, but both together sounds like a lot to ask of him.

B then A
I'd bin off C

A or B

quiet is hugely valuable and that means detached

i would probably go with B, but it depends on road noise and the price difference between a and b.

B or C. Both have their great points. The bus route will be handy when the kids hit secondary age

Not C. id hate a busy A road close by.

C if it’s liveable and you can make the renovations over time, but I love a project and my partner is a builder, so not the most unbiased of opinions.
Tradesmen availability/reliability is indeed a problem at the moment as others have said but over time this may change.

I'd discount C. All the relocations in the world won't take away the fact its a semi.
B would probably be my preference, but you need to go see it first.

B. Never stretch yourself too much financially. I live on a "through road" and I thought it would bother me after living in a cul-de-sac. It absolutely doesn't, the double glazing means no noise and DS steps out of the front door onto the bus for college!!

If your husband wants a detached house then I would respect his opinion and discount house C.

Would probably go for A personally as dislike busy roads. But none of the houses sound perfect for your family.

I was on team A until you said B was the only detached. Could B have 'forever home' potential?

OP described A as a beautiful large detached house.

A or B. I agree with husband don’t get a semi if you don’t have to.

which one out of those? Depends on how stretched your budget would be for A and how busy the road is for B. If the road isn’t bad I’d be tempted by B.

A would worry me if your budget is stretched because of stuff like bigger heating bills. It’s a bigger house, older house are there more likely to be potential repairs? I live in an Edwardian/late Victorian house and we have damp issues, the roof needed doing, it’s quite cold.

if you bought A and the boiler packed up would you be so stretched this would be an issue?

Detached. You only have to read some of the threads on here about batshit NDNs to realise that neighbours can make or break, so the further the better IMO. After that, if you don't want to keep moving to upsize, go for the forever home.

C

I can't cope with much traffic and it nearly always get busier.

If you are not sure is there a reason you can't withdraw your offer and keep looking?

i don’t believe in spending this much money on something that gives you “flutters” - that’s bullshit for TV programmes.

I’d only stretch yourself for A if you are planning on going back to work or you see childcare costs falling massively to give yourself financial wiggle room.

I would go for B - financially more prudent and detached. Our first house was an ex-LA with zero kerb appeal. It was built like a tank and we made more than the market average when we sold.

Though I guess with A if you’re both planning on increasing hours and as dc get older childcare gets less expensive then the stretch will be less? If it’s only a stretch short term then maybe. But I do agree with someone earlier who said they’d never want to stretch too much for a house. We bought a cheaper house than we needed to, we paid the mortgage off in our mid 40s and even when we had the mortgage it wasn’t large. I really liked having money for “stuff”. So if Dd wanted a school trip, a new computer, we needed a new car, etc we could buy these things without blinking.

Does A have pavements to walk into the village on? I would pick A in a heartbeat if there was a safe route for kids to walk t9 school / bus stop but avoid if just lanes.

If you like meeting people and hosting, house B. A house that is ready to move into and invite people over will encourage more friendships than running shoulders on a busy street but not being able to have them in. Likewise- A is maybe slightly too far away for after hang outs.

A... why would you NOT go for the forever home?

Update!

DH and I went to view house B today and loved it. It's not completely perfect and we would make some changes in time, but there is plenty of space for our family and we could easily live in it for a while before deciding what changes to make. Great big kitchen. The garden is huge so would be quite a bit of maintenance but also great to have all the space for the kids. The road is a bit busy but we've decided it's not a dealbreaker so we've put in an offer. We've offered asking price and we think there will probably be a bidding war but we can afford to go higher (since we already offered £100k more for house A!)

The sellers of house B are viewing a house they want today and I really hope they get it. If they don't get that house it will be a bit of an issue because they are unlikely to find anything else any time soon (houses in the village don't often go on sale and the sellers have quite specific reasons for moving and the house they want ticks those boxes).

I do have a bit of a pang about house A because it's so lovely (I love 1930s houses as a PP said) but we have concluded that it is a bit far out of the village centre and house B is a really great central location.

We also went to see house C after the viewing, couldn't look inside obviously but looked outside... DH agreed the street seems great and the house has potential. But we reached the conclusion that it's not worth all the work for a semi detached house.

Thanks again for all your thoughts. I am relieved to have made a decision although also slightly worried that if we don't get house B, we'll have lost our opportunity to get house A... I think we need to take the risk though.

Good news. Cross fingers the chain comes together!

This is a really good point, thank you. We do like hosting - or would like to be able to host (not really enough space in our current house) - and B would be great for that. It's one of the things we like about it.

Ooohhh all very exciting!! Let us know how it goes!

Whatever happens with B I'd count house A out, because it a bit too far for the kids to walk independently and that's an absolute god send during the last few years of primary! & with you increasing your hours, when old/sensible enough they can walk home, so much more flexibility.

House B sounds lovable but not so perfect that you can't justify renovating the bits you want to. Good distance to school. Shame about the road, but life's a compromise.

How far away do you live now?

If I could afford the detached the semi wouldn't be on my list.