Please help us decide between these two houses

[Inneedofspace]

We are FTBs with young kids, who have always lived in a flat, so this would be our first house ever, and we are super excited (mostly about having a garden for the kids). Having always lived in a flat, we would love a detached property, but these are rare to come by within our budget, so we were thrilled to see one that matched our criteria recently (House 1, link below). We are obviously looking at all other houses in our area of interest, and we have found a lovely done-up semi-detached (House 2, also link below).

From what we can tell, house 1 will need some work done, but we are not sure about the extent of it, and how feasible that would be considering we are WFT and have young kids (we could stay in our rental for some time initially). House 2 seems ready to move in, but we are not sure if it would feel like we are living in someone else’s home (we will not have the money to change much unfortunately as it’s already at the top of our budget). We slightly prefer the location of House 2, but it will need to be extended some time down the line, as we would ideally need an extra room (so that the kids have separate rooms). We would probably prefer a terraced to a semi, just because a semi somehow seems like we are getting half of an ideal detached property (I am aware this probably sounds ridiculous to most…). We have viewings scheduled for both and are ready to make an offer, but not sure if we are considering everything here and if there is something crucial we are missing. We are somewhat familiar with both areas, schools and catchments, but the house itself is more difficult to judge, so we would appreciate any advice please. Which would you go for?

House 1: https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/170883104#/?channel=RES_BUY
House 2: https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/170881130#/?channel=RES_BUY

Thank you for any advice and thoughts.

I’m going with house 1. It has more potential - the downstairs 3rd bedroom would mean no extension required, ultimately a bit of cosmetic work is MUCH easier than extending. The blueprint is just better and the garden bigger. As your children grow what you need from the house will evolve, and number 2 will evolve better.

Yes it needs a bit of work but it’s nothing urgent, you could happily live in it until you reach a good time to approach that stuff. I lived in a house the same as number 2 and I hated it due to lack of storage, lack of space, and the 3rd bedroom essentially being useless as anything apart from a home office or large wardrobe.

House 1 all the way. It has far more character, is not at the top of your price range (never a good idea to go there), lovely garden. It oozes family home and happy times.

100% house 1. With small kids giving them their own rooms and being detached so not having to worry about noise are absolutely invaluable. You will need all that lovely space.

House 1 definitely it’s a long term stay

House one is much bigger and much cheaper. Yes you would have to do the work yourself but it has an extra bedroom and bathroom and higher square footage.

Absolutely house 1! I was expecting to see a really run-down property needing a fortune spent on it, but it's fine! You can live there and redecorate, make changes as you go.

House one. It is bigger (117sqm v 100sqm) with more potential and is cheaper

I would always go for detached if possible. It looks pretty modern so there shouldn't be that much serious work to do. The only thing is who does the missing fence in the back belong to? In some ways easier if it's yours and you just put up a fence, if it belongs to the neighbour you may still have to do the fence for privacy and to keep the children on your property.

House 1, you have a ready made playroom downstairs which can turn into a teenagers den later

House 1 all the way. I’d only go for house 2 if the location was MUCH better than house 1. I don’t know this area so can’t comment on that but you mention it being ‘slightly’ better - not enough imo. Go for house 1 and make it your own!

Completely depends how long you want to stay in each house. Bringing house 1 up to your standards could easily take 10+ years, depending on the cash you have (presumably you'd want a new kitchen & make a combined kitchen/diner?). Plenty of space for an extension though.

Long long term house 1, anything less than that house 2.

Is house 2 somewhat overpriced as it's higher spec?

Purely on houses, house 1 but looking at streetview, I would not want to be directly opposite a parade of local shops/ takeaways and the road looks like a much busier road, which I guess is what explains the price difference.

Hm, I’ve only time for a quick look but my first instinct is house 2. I agree with others about the detached option being preferable, but to me, when you have young children, a lovely open kitchen to garden set up like that is absolutely perfect and will make those years so much easier. I know it’s a short term vision but how many of us with young kids have struggled through renovations during those years, it’s horrible imo. It’s worth taking the easy route for now and considering extending or moving later?

House 2. It has potential to go into the loft. It's on a nicer street (more 'avenue' than open).

House 2 looks a much nicer road and is decorated beautifully. I would go with that one but I’m a bit of a sucker for houses that require little work doing to them.

Have you considered school catchment areas? Better areas normally have better schools (not always of course).

And preferring a terrace to a semi is nuts - sorry.

There is no logical reason for that. Apart from heating bills could potentially be lower in a terrace but you can’t be too concerned about that if you’re looking at detached houses over terraced ones.

I think that the small kitchen in house 1 will drive you crazy and you'll end up needing to extend it eventually as well as renovation work on the rest of the house. Do not underestimate the hassle and expense of doing this (but then you've said that you'd need to extend house 2 as well). I'm also curious about the 'conservatory' in house 1, because it looks like a proper extension but there are no pictures of it and it is separated from the main house as you would need to for a conservatory. Makes me suspicious about the quality of the building work and whether it will need replacing at some point.

House 1.

That 4th downstairs bedroom to the side is what we have. It’s a bloody godsend when children get older! My 23 year old is still at home in it. He’s always been able to come and go as he likes, have showers etc without waking the rest of the house up coming up and down stairs.

Never underestimate how much extensions cost.

house 1 has a great foot print that you can change downstairs from the inside. We’ve just done that on our very similar house for 30k (that included kitchen, flooring etc, everything, it feels like a different house), we would never have got an extention built for anywhere near that.

That was after 5 years of living here. We had that small kitchen too, but now it’s opened up and it’s a fantastic family space - we didn’t have a conservatory but a brick built extension done by someone else years ago that we were able to incorporate. There are so many options with these 1930s houses. The downside is the tiny 3rd bedrooms upstairs, but like is, you have the bonus of larger bedroom downstairs.

If you are going to stay, you can take your time thinking about what you want to do to the interior.

House 2, what could you do? I mean, it’s nice, but the footprint is so much smaller.

A PP mentioned it has sown shops opposite. Mine has a local shop and a greengrocer opposite. It’s a godsend! Especially when we’ve just had awful snow, we use that place like a pantry cupboard.

It will be interesting to see what you think of house 1 when you actually see it. It has huge benefits in terms of you being able to make it your own (is it fully detached?), but there are some obvious negatives to consider:
-long narrow garden
-on the inside of the bend so a little claustrophobic (perhaps)
-why is the blind down in one of the bedroom photos
-opposite a takeaway and parade of shops, could be a blessing or a curse

I would try and avoid buying a “done up” house unless it’s absolutely perfect for you because if you think you’ll outgrow it and need to move soon-ish, you’ll have spent a lot of fixed fess and not have the chance to add value to help with the next move.

It sounds like 1 would be the better bet, if you can get the work done on top of jobs and kids. Really worth doing if you can, and would like to live there too.

Not being detached can mean neighbour problems, particularly if you or they have young children, with noise through the walls. We had extremely loud neighbours in our last semi, we didn't complain but I was very happy when we moved to a detached!

I would be suspicious that house 2 has been subject to crappy extension. The ‘conservatory’: how useful is that?

The work that has been done in house 2 is expensive.

I would find the transport connections better from House 2.

What about schools?

House 1. It has the bigger smaller bedroom of the two. I don’t understand the picture from the bottom of the garden however it has a better garden and more property for less money.

Oh and I’ve just looked at the photos again - the “conservatory” is brick built.

That was just like ours. With a bit of extra insulation, we were able to open up the whole back - the dining room, kitchen and conservatory and we now have a wonderful kitchen/dining/family room, plus the sitting room and the downstairs bedroom.

House 1 has so much more scope if you are going to stay there!

Also need to look into the history of house 1. The wet room doesn’t really “fit” with the rest of it. Has work been partially done and if stopped mid-way then why? Who owns the missing fence? If it’s the neighbours then are there issues with them?

The first house has much more going for it at face value.

Having plenty of indoor and outdoor space is beneficial when you have children. If you have really active children you might find the garden in house two restricting as they get older.

Offroad parking potential for 3 vehicles. Makes family and friends visits easier.

£75k cheaper.

I can only assume that the second house must be in a nicer area. But you need to determine how much nicer and if it's worth the compromises.