Nice house in wrong location or project in good location?

[Nomorediy]

I live in St Albans and I have sold my house without seeing anything obvious to buy.

This area is fantastic if you have a £1m budget but mine is more like max £620k (single mum) and with kid settled in secondary I don’t want to disrupt them by relocating to eg Hemel or Welwyn where we don’t know anyone. I ended up here because it made much more sense when married on 2 salaries. I’d rather compromise as much as possible here than leave. My exh is close by (50-50) and I have a great group of family friends here I’ve known since kid started nursery. Also for medical reasons I can’t drive.

I sold a small terrace out of sheer desperation for more living space. And I can obtain this locally, but I am choosing between compromises. Which might be the easiest compromise?

3 bed in quite far-flung suburbs (Drakes Drive/New Greens for those who know the area), cabs to station for work and to see friends. Bit isolated maybe but family areas so we’d get to know neighbours I hope. I love to entertain and I’m sure friends would drive/cab to me.

3-bed flat in the centre, so no garden for summer bbqs but these are not exactly frequent events. Usually best way to obtain space cheaply. I do have a cat tho. Not keen on litter trays. Bit worried about leasehold and service charges and noise.

House nearer the station (Hatfield Road/Fleetville/Camp area for those familiar). Those in my budget generally need a lot of renovation I don’t really have money for. So compromise here would be saving up for 5 years for new kitchen, bathroom etc. or maxing the mortgage, in either case cutting lifestyle spend back to the bare minimum (no holidays, meals out, planned weekly shops in Aldi, very little socialising outside the home, clothes from charity shops/ebay only/packed lunches).

I know this is all a first world problem. Living in a suburb or a flat or living frugally is what many many people do. It’s compromise rather than deprivation. I’m just not sure what compromise to choose.

What would you do?

I don’t know St Albans terribly well, but the first area sounds like a non-starter if you don’t drive. Personally I’d go for the do-er upper. You can paint and decorate quite cheaply yourself and save up for the big ticket items over time. It sounds like a house in that area would go up in value more over time as being close to the station is a desirable asset for commuters to London.

Avoid the suburban house.

House near the station even if it takes time to renovate.

Yes I think so. There are beautiful houses in my budget 2 miles from station but the phrase ‘gilded cage’ keeps rattling around my head. I’d feel a bit trapped.

Will the teenager be heading off to uni soon?

What would your pref be for empty nest?

Personally I would go for the flat - live for now in a comfortable financial situation. Take the stress off.

Where is best for you socially - thats important as a single person/empty nest. Even before they go to uni they are busy and out with friends - and for you he is already 50% with his dad.

So prioritise and imagine whats the best situation for your own lifestyle right now and in the near future.

The future unknowns over service charges would put me off a flat, have been there. I wouldn’t buy leasehold again, even with a share of the freehold. I like independence over finance and privacy if possible, as well as no noise from above.

A small house, with outside space for a pet seems more sensible to me.

I’m seeing one today that is the least of compromises in all areas. It’s near the station but not next to it (a mile) it’s 3 beds with a garden, hallway and kitchen diner but on the smaller side. It doesn’t need renovating but I could extend into the loft. It doesn’t have an upstairs bathroom but the master bed would fit an en suite.

What would people say is the minimum size house to entertain comfortably? This one is just under 800 sq ft.

I am a bit cautious on larger flats in my area as they don’t seem to sell fast. The 2 beds do but a 3 bed big enough for a family doesn’t seem to have a big market. Ppl tend to move here from London for a house with a garden and to sacrifice central location for more space. At £600k for 3-bed flat I think you could get similar in north London.

Empty nest is a good point. I actually work for a multinational and speak a couple of languages and spent most of my career abroad. I’d probably take another posting when my kid goes to uni or on the gap yah. I’d be a landlady so the house/flat I buy needs to be a good rental prospect.

Location is everything in my opinion. You can change a house but not where it's at.

I don’t understand why you’ve sold your current place as sounds much nicer than the other alternatives.

crap location is a non starter, esp as get older. You’ll feel so isolated. There’s a reason you get more for your money.

i also would never swap a small terrace house for a larger flat. You’ve got leasehold issues to contend with, noise from the other floor, and yuck absolutely not to a litter tray indoors.

stay put?

There’s always a ceiling on what flats will sell for so a much worse investment than a house

What’s the point in maxing yourself so much on a house that you can’t ever go out to enjoy yourself?

Can you explain again why you’re not staying in your current place?

Would you want to continue living in the same town as an empty nester? What would your lifestyle be post children?

Where would be better to rent out?

We have chosen to sell the family home and to buy a flat in central London as we want to devote more time to cultural stuff now our time has been freed up.

I would revisit the decision to sell your current house if your son is of secondary school age. Those years go really quickly and you won't need the space once he has gone to university

I went for number three. I’ve been saving for awhile but when number three is done it will be like an absolute palace and I will not move again. It’ll be beautiful.

@Nomorediy if you're actually thinking of renting it out within five years or so, when you view, look at the properties with a renter's eye rather than an owners? How attractive would it be and what potential income would it yield? That's with the qualification that it's a decent investment and resale proposition.

Hard to say about entertaining space, what kind of entertaining do you envisage? In summer you should be able to flow outside and in winter it's nice to be cosy. You could furnish with folding or indoor/outdoor options for say a dining table and side tables.

I heard Kirsty Allsopp's advice once about property to be your home, and remembered it. Buy for what suits you most of the time, other people fit in and around what you have. So as long as it's big enough for the two of you, but not too big once he's moved on, and so long as it's in a good, convenient location, those should be your priorities.

I would go for the do upper in Fleetville. Know the area but not well. Family member lived quite happily in a flat there for 7 years. You can walk to the station as an option or take the bus. You have Morrisons there too. A taxi to the station is pretty cheap.

I agree. Don't compromise on location.

If the house in the right area is structurally sound (walls ok, roof ok, windows double glazed and OK) then I'd go for the do-er upper and aim to DIY as much as I can myself. Location, location etc

I’d say 800 sq ft is quite small for a three bed. But for two of you and potentially one in the future it should be OK.

I would be the same, or move to the south coast near family.

Ah thank you. That is definitely a consideration. My current house doesn’t suit me well either as I love to entertain. I initially compromised on that for location but, well, I’m Jewish and being the person who can’t host Shabbat dinner easily has felt much more uncomfortable than I realised it would.

Thanks all for this great advice. I’m zoning in on one house that is a nice street not too far from the station and in catchment for two good primaries which should appeal to renters in future. The main issue is a downstairs bathroom leading off a kitchen with bifold doors. You’d come out the shower and walk past the doors with full view of the garden, in your towel. Kids would drip water through the kitchen and lounge.

Is it easy/allowed to convert a downstairs bathroom into a back bedroom/study? There’s a box room upstairs that could be changed into a bathroom - I have the feeling it was a bathroom originally and was converted into a tiny bedroom 3. The g/f bathroom is an extension off the kitchen (can’t understand why).

Bedrooms in floor plan seem larger than they are because there’s loads of built in storage:

Floor plan:

So I own one of those as a Rental and actually people just manage just fine with trips through the kitchen and the dining room with a towel around them if they want to or they can of course get dressed in the bathroom.
I could relocate the bathroom back upstairs and that would then only give me a two bedrooms but I genuinely just do not know what I would do with that space.

I could make it into a big utility room, keep the downstairs Loo and just have a large space for them to dry clothes as well keeping it away from the main house.
But I strongly suspect the third bedroom is more desirable.
How about just adding an upstairs loo ?