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.

They are bloody expensive these days though. As is any extension.

Which is why I would always (and did!) go for a house like number 1, which already has a bigger footprint so you can do internal work to make it how you like.

We did ours in stages so it wasn’t utter chaos.

A dormer loft extension is around £50-£65k (depends if there’s an en suite). You need to take into account other issues that might arise when they start building plus the resale value. House 1 will not be as desirable as house 2 no matter how much it is upgraded simply due to the location. I’d be wary of ‘overspending’ on it as you may not recoup the expense. The garden looks really poor in house 1 too - just a triangular scrap.

I'm a bit torn. Normally I'd always go detached over semi but the position of House 2 looks preferable. I can see commercial premises opposite property 1 which doesn't appeal to me. It's also on a much busier road, property 2 road looks fairly quiet and quite leafy. I'm no longer in touch with what's a good London postcode but South Woodford used to be preferable to Wood Green. Hope you sort your dilemma.

DH is definitely leaning that way after this thread. 😂

That’s good to know, thank you.

House 1 is much more attractive to me, but that could be outweighed by location. I don't understand posters saying they wouldn't be opposite a shop and a takeaway - why on earth not?! So convenient and when the kids get older and want to go to the shops by themselves, you can keep an eye on them.

House 1. It’s opposite a chippy! What more could you want 😂😂

That is a very conservative estimate as prices have risen significantly in the past few years.

I’d go for house 2 because it is so hard to do house project with young children and the garden is so small and shaded on house 1

I said house 1 until i looked on google earth, i really don't like the road at all, lived on a similar busy road years ago and it isnt ideal with young children plus the cars would drive me mad.
House 2 maybe for a few years then move again to the detatched 'dream home'?

House 1 - very narrow garden for a detached house. Weird impractical shape to the downstairs bedroom. Where would you even put a bed ? Guests going through the room to get to downstairs loo.
difficult to resell in future?

house 2 - no room to extend it in future. Really needs another room downstairs for children toys etc or office/ quite room.
utility room ? No side passage, where would you put all your bins?

….keep looking is my advice…

The location of 1 is awful judging from the photos. That’s why it’s a lot cheaper - I think the house itself is ok (small kitchen aside) but that road looks rough. House 2 isn’t very big - 1000 sq ft is on the smaller side for a family home (ours is just under that, it’s fine but not big by any means) I don’t think I’d pay 750k for 1000 sq ft, no mind how nicely it’s been done up unless it was otherwise perfect.
Keep looking op, there will be better options out there.

I also feel we should keep looking after all the advice we got from this thread. It is just that we have been looking for a while now, and if it’s perfect, we obviously cannot afford it, so once we put the filters back (max price), then there is always something to compromise on, so I feel we will be here again in a year, still looking… I really do not understand how people make themselves do this more than once in a lifetime. 😅

Thank you again, everyone, this was super helpful.

Don’t let the comments here put you off going to view them though. There’s so much good feedback with points to consider, but ultimately only you can decide how you feel about the road, space, neighbourhood etc. I live in a house that is flat out refused to view based on Rightmove until the EA talked me into it and as soon as I walked in, I knew it was the one.

I would also go and see the other house that was posted and maybe check out the nearest school given they are rated Outstanding? It may be that these two houses are just too small for what you need/want and by pushing your location boundaries a bit you may surprise yourself? Or maybe that only happens in Location, Location, Location 😀

Or if you see both houses, there's no reason not to make a cheeky offer. Spoke to a colleague who is selling a flat in London today. EA has told her the London market is 30% down...... so your timing and FTB status might mean you get some flexibility on pricing.

Totally get your post. Looking for houses can be soul destroying! It maybe if you wait a few months something else will come up but then your life is on hold! U will know more when you view them. House No 1 would be a definite no for me, and I really like house no 2. Please give us an update. All the best. Feel for you.

Thing is that there are always compromises and people's red lines are different- I have a north facing house/ garden which is a hard red line to a lot of people on MN but I'd happily trade that on a quieter road for south facing on busier road. Similarly, I'm happy to live with dated kitchens and bathrooms until I get round to replacing. Someone else might feel the opposite and trade size/location for turnkey condition. But unless you have unlimited funds there are always compromises or trade offs between two properties. Go and see them both and see what you think.

I feel like if we go see something we are not seriously considering that we are just wasting everyone’s time. We only ever go see something if it could be “the one”, but you got me thinking now. I am always impressed when people say they knew it was their house immediately, as I always feel it’s just someone else’s house and even viewing it makes me uncomfortable. 🤷‍♀️

House one for me too. It looks fine for now other than the bathroom. Also just a bit concerned that the garden seems quite open with the neighbours ? But again a couple of fence panels aren’t a big deal IMO.

We did say that we might need to move somewhere else at one point, so what you are saying makes perfect sense, and it’s not really about the location per se, more about the familiarity of it and being afraid of a change if that makes sense.

Thank you. I will come back with an update, I promise.

Yeah, I see what you mean. I really couldn’t care less which way the garden is facing as long as there is one for the kids to play in, but then again, we’ve never had one, so nothing to compare with, and some things people only learn to like or dislike from experience. Our list is not that long really, and it’s still difficult to find something within our budget.

That is v considerate of you, but as a seller so long as people aren’t just window shopping I’d rather they viewed. The people who bought our house had said “no semis” rule and only viewed our semi as they were walking past with the agent and he had the keys with him and said “just have a quick look”. So you never know.

I agree with this. Photos are deceiving. You really can't judge houses on paper and red lines have a way of disappearing or morphing into yellow lines. Hand on heart, I've loved every house I've ever lived in, but if you'd handed them to me on paper a year before, I suspect I would have said no to all of them.

Unless your red line is that you would never live in that postcode, go look. There are always compromises at every level of the market. In London, you'd be making some kind of compromise at 4 million, but you don't know which ones matter until you've been in a house.

I know both these areas, you have to choose location, if you really want to be in South Woodford and you don’t buy there you’ll end up regretting it. If you prefer Woodford than go for house 1, this area is all about location, location, location as they say.