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.

All I would need to do to house 1 in the short term is put up a garden fence and replace the wet room.

I think people are missing the the garden on house 1 isn’t as the photos make it look; they don’t have a fence up between the gardens of next door, so it’s half the size of the picture. That slip of a garden won’t feel like a garden when your kids are riding bikes and kicking a football. I would look at house 2 with better potential because it’s a fairly traditional lay out. The walk in bedroom pictured as bedroom 3 is a totally manageable size for a child into early adulthood with sensible choices of furniture and sharing of space. The downstairs extension is a great use of space and a great garden. It’s house 2 for me.

It’s lovely, but unfortunately not in the catchment of the schools we want. There is always something, it seems…

How many children have you got OP

A girl and a boy, so they could share initially, but we would like to have 3 bedrooms in our forever home, and we are not really into upgrading and moving every few years. We would like a house we could raise our kids in all the way into adulthood, so a possibility to extend and/or renovate at some point would be ideal. Maybe we are not realistic though?

Someone mentioned above working from home, so just to clarify, I meant working full time (while renovating) not from home (I wish…).

Im a bit confused then, whats wrong with house 2. I took it from your OP that you had 3 kids and therefore needed 4 bedrooms.

I change my vote to house 2, nicer road, nicer internals, although I would prefer access to the back without going through the house, thats a bug bear of mine

Definitely house 1. A lovely house needing very little work.

Are we looking at the same house?!?

I think it’s quite confusing the way the links are, with only the first link coming up with a photo.

I'm local and house 2 - much better area!

Having had noisy neighbours in a semi - go for the detached - you can take your time to do any work and have space to grow

I clicked two but meant one - sorry!

And the school is one of the most sought after in the area

Maybe not. What work needs doing?

Me too, and the downstairs wet room is still useful though not attractive, so no great hurry.

OMG! My late Aunt used to live in Peel Road, a couple of streets away from House 2. It's a lovely area with the forest almost on your doorstep - in fact it was literally on my aunt's back doorstep.
The houses on that street (Stanley?) look larger and nice than my aunt's, which was a 2 bedroom semi but reasonably spacious.
I did think the Stanley Road house was the nicer one of the two you're looking at and i think the area is better than Highams Park. Or at least it was....
It's very close to Woodford High School (used to be a very good all-girls grammar, not sure now) and there are several private schools in the area if money is no object including Chigwell School, a decent public school and Forest School, bit of an also ran then but it takes girls now so might be better. (my DB went to Forest! )

I’m sorry, I don’t know how to fix it and make the second link come up with a photo as well.

What work needs doing?
It looks bloody amazing!

Am staggered that that is a first time buyer house! God I wish I could ever imagine owning a house l that expensive !

This. House 2 looks like it is on a horrible road and opposite a chippy etc which could potentially attract antisocial behaviour at worst but will always have a constant stream of traffic idling. Streetmap shows house 2 on a much prettier road.

There is nothing wrong with House 2, it is just that long-term, we would like both kids to have their own room, ideally, and use the box room as a study, so we thought we could do a loft conversion for our bedroom if we had the money and if that was feasible. And if not, then I’m not sure, but probably something similar to what@Laughinglamasuggested.

Do you need a study if you don’t work from home? Or if only one person wfh you could have a desk somewhere else and a child could sleep in the box room.

My exact thoughts .

This

Posting before reading all the thread - I much preferred the second one until I saw the price! Then the charms of the first one seemed much greater. It’s an odd feel but I’m sure you could be happy there. Make an offer though.

Now to read the thread…