House buy

[Sliverofdarkness]

Interested to hear people's thoughts.
Have seen 2 houses, one with lovely orientation, South facing back garden, a bit further away from everything, public transport etc and on a busy road. The other with an excellent location, quiet cúl de sac, in a village, bus stops across the road, shops etc a 5 min walk, but dark house inside, east facing back garden and overshadowed by large trees to the front. Which should we go for?

Location, location location

Would you be able to remove the trees (not that I like doing that) or are they outside the property?

Do you own the trees to the front?

Neither. Keep looking

Keep looking

If the house faces east, then you'll get the sun in the garden in the evening, so all good there.
And you'll be glad of those trees come global warming - your house will be lovely and cool inside, and nice and cosy in the winter.

She said east facing back garden so she will get morning sun.

Can remove 1 at front, but then it'd be very exposed. The bigger ones are not within the property boundaries. Could cut down a lot at the back but then would be overlooked.

I prefer morning light so East facing is good

South facing isn’t as desirable as it used to be with many houses getting too hot in the summer these days

Cut back overshadowing greenery
Use light colours inside

I’d go for the cul de sac option

Re the first property - will you be forced to ferry dc around as they age, if public transport is not available easily? That would put me off the first house.

The second house has a better location, but I dislike dark houses.

I would keep looking, possibly around location 2.

We like an east facing rear garden, was in our previous house 31yrs and deliberately chose the same in our new house.
Means a nice, bright garden in the morning and then come the afternoon, the sun has passed over leaving it lovely and shaded for the evening.
Tall trees at the front will provide shade in the afternoon/evening.

You will be glad of the shade come the next heat wave. We all need mature trees.

The problem is houses don't come up for sale in either location very often, people tend to buy and live there for 30 years... Most of the time houses that come up need a huge amount of renovation as they're probate sales. So feel like we have to pick one of these...

I agree keep looking.
the part of our house which is quite dark is much harder to heat. At the other side the sun keeps it so bright and warm. Good luck.

Why, what would you suggest I look for?

I wouldn’t buy on a busy road especially with children. I would hate a dark house though, nice bright open house makes me feel happy so sadly neither option would suit.

The garden faces east therefore front of house faces west so depending on what buildings/trees and length of garden etc are around then there may well be limited sunshine in the late afternoon / evening. Apologies if I have that wrong.

Neither, keep looking. Those trees would worry be. Hate a dark house.

Having owned a property with a large tree outside (council owned so I couldn’t remove it), I’d never buy a house near a tree again. Makes the house dark and causes a load of other nuisances, tree sap and bird poo on cars etc.

The other house doesn’t sound great on a busy road either. I’d keep looking.

Back and front gardens are quite long. So there will be sunshine in the garden.