Which property would you choose? aghhhh

[sarral]

Hi,
so ultimately I know only we can decide which one, but we're going round in circles so much that I think we're losing the plot with it all🤦

Out of interest what would you do and why? incase we haven't thought of anything.

House 1 we were outbid on, went on to find house 2,offer accepted moving along with it and now at point of instructing a surveyor.
House 1 is now back on market and EA have said they are willing to accept our original offer.

House 1) 3 bed detached bungalow,relatively new conservatory, large drive&garage.

House 2) 3 bed dormer semi, large drive. No garage, no conservatory or room to add one, but does have an extra lounge/sitting room downstairs with patio doors leading to garden, as well as main lounge and seperate dining room.

Both need a bit of work, house 1 more than 2.
H1) needs complete new kitchen ASAP, completely decorating throughout and new flooring, new internal doors(not urgent). At some point it will need a new bathroom, (not urgent) . It's very dated inside but seems to be of a sound solid condition (as far as we can tell without a survey) Has the bigger garden of the two.

H2) kitchen only a few years old, so is fine.Will need redecorating, new flooring throughout.New front door and radiators need replacing. Has been extended at some point to the upstairs years back to add more bedrooms & bathroom. Bathroom will need replacing, (again not urgently) . There looks to have been an issue with main bedroom ceiling (leaks) from dormer window area (which without full inspection yet) look dry now so possibly sorted 🤔
H2 is 20 thousand cheaper than H1.

H1 is 10 mins from town we want to be near, H2 is 25 mins away.

H1) will literally take us to our limit budget wise so most things that need doing will have to be done over time. Also will cost more in morgage each month which we can do, just won't have as much disposable income as H2.

H2)we can crack on getting it how we want it as soon as we move in. Will have more disposable income each month than if we bought H1.

We will feel bad if we pull out of H2, altho they are yet to find a property so are in a chain with them. H1 is no chain, as is our buyer.
thank you 😊

It’s so difficult. My sibling, who has moved a lot, always says to choose location over house. However, having more disposable income is always useful. It’s no fun if you are to your limit and things need doing but you can’t afford to. Also, I would value an extra room over a conservatory any day - they are unusable for a lot of the year because too cold. How important is it to be nearer town? 25 mins each way is a fair chunk of time everyday. These are just my immediate thoughts. In a way I have the same dilemma - nearer town but a smaller house and no parking or further away but having to drive into town every time I want a takeaway!

House 1. Location is better and it was your first choice. You could offer less this time if prices have fallen in your area.

How important is the town? Is it for shopping, train station, schools?

I think, in the current economic climate, I’d rather have a bit of a buffer in case jobs etc are compromised.

Personally, I’m not at the stage where I’d want to do a big refurb, especially without the funds to do it all in a reasonable time frame. I’d prefer to be able to move in, live in it, then see what I wanted to do.

The caveat, I suppose, is that one is a semi and one detached. Plus no garage, if that’s important to you.

With the first, you’ll make it your own, but it will take a long time, with a squeeze on finances.

If house 1 will accept the original offer, it sounds as though that will be less than the sale they had that fell through. So they may not be keen to accept lower.

I know some people are happy to live in chaos whilst doing up, others find it stressful, especially if it takes ages because of finances and the costs of materials constantly rising.

Property 2 sounds better but if you really want to be closer to the town then as always location rules over the property.

Can you go and see H1 again and see what your heart says?

Detached over semi for me every time (but then I hate listening to other people’s noise) 🤫

thanks for replies so far.
Just to add about location, House 2 does have a town the other side of it so there are shops/services 10 mins away, we just prefer the town near H1. There's no particular reason for choosing first town other than we prefer it. Work is in a city which will still be roughly 40/45 mins drive whichever ever property we choose.

there is a town 10 mins away, we just prefer 1st town, so I suppose it's not massively important in grand scheme of things. We didn't think about conservatory probably only really being usable in warmer weather 🤦 so thanks for that 😊

same 🤣 I think that's why I liked H2 when we found it as its got some bedrooms on outside wall and an extra lounge on outside wall not connected to next door. Obviously the detached one would be better, just can't decide I think mainly down to price

House 1 is now back on market and EA have said they are willing to accept our original offer.
That's nice.
Are you still offering the original price, though?

I think living in chaos would get to me tbh, I think I'm being more swayed towards H1 as its detached and has a conservatory but deep down I'm not sure I'd cope well with chaos 😏

if we went for it, we would be starting lower than original offer. From reading between the lines of what we've been told, I think they're about to drop the price but were feeling us out to see if we'd still pay what we originally offered before doing so 😏

detached any day

also ask yourself if the kitchen is dated but functional or truly needs to be replaced immediately.

I'm another one saying detached every time!

it's not really functional, it's a bit of a mess tbf. I could cope with dated for a while but it's more than that. Bathroom is dated and horrible but functional and could live with it for a while, but not the kitchen how it is.

House 1 - location, detached, bigger garden. Are there different ways of improving it without spending a fortune - change the kitchen doors and worktops if the cabinets are sound, add a slate roof to conservatory to make it more useable all year round?

most of kitchen cupboards and worktop are broken, sink is solid and room for a free standing cooker(would prefer seperate hob/oven) but cupboards have had it. Good idea about roof but wouldn't be able to do that for some time due to funds

H1 but not at the price you originally offered.

For me, it would be number 1 as I would only want to live in a detached house.

Detached every time id say if you can .
But then I'm biast after having noisy neighbours and now I'm detached best thing we ever did. (some are lucky to have good ones but people do move)

To add ours was a right state but I didn't care you soon get there.

So offer what you'd like to pay. A little lower than your previous offer. But not crazy low. Maybe £5k less?

It sounds like you prefer house number 1 to me.

Which one would you be most gutted to get a call from the agents saying it’s been taken off the market and is no longer available?

thank you!! I was wondering if I came across preferring one house over the other haha, I can't decide if I do, what made you think I preferred H1? 😊

right now reading this... H1, but when I said to DH earlier don't think just go with our gut 123...which one, we both said H2 aghhhhhhhh