Accept okay house under budget, or wait for better one?

[Nodwyddaedafedd]

I cannot see the wood for the trees and am struggling with perspective.
We are in rented accommodation having moved across the country. We partially moved for my job which has led to my husband now not having a job but looking. We also moved back because the pressure from his parents became unbearable. There's backstory but suffice to say it's in the realms of stately homes thread.
We have offered on a house. It's the first to come up that ticks the boxes. It's fine. It's been done up - not to our tastes but nothing needs doing right now. To be big enough it will need a garden office and extension.
It's well below budget and there would be no pressure.
I don't actually like it - I mean sure I could grow to like it. But it doesn't sing to me.
Do we pull out and pray that something else comes along? We've been looking for 6 months since our house sold and nothing is coming on - or what is is out of budget and will take a while to come down if it ever does. There's supposed to be a glut at Easter but will it ever materialise?
Or just give up and accept and make the best of it.
I've looked at the market here over the past few years. Everything is either like this - under budget, not great but will do. Or right at the top of the budget. Nothing is really priced in between. (And theres a good 200k between them).

It's very first world problem so please understand I do know how lucky I am but I'm tired and alone and have very few in real life to ask so please be kind.
In short: accept nice ok house and have more money and move now. Hold out for the one and have less money.

If there’s nothing else coming up to your taste/budget then I would buy the non-perfect house since you will have money to develop it to your taste and then you can sell it on for a profit. How long do you intend to live there? Is it in a nice area? Are the local schools good? Are you near outside space, supermarkets, GP, public transport, parking if needed? Those factors can be as important as the size and shape of the bricks and mortar.

It's reached its peak - even if we develop it further we wouldn't get all the money back in this climate.
It's right school catchment. Everything is driving. It's a bit out of the main area eg bike ride not walk.
Ideally I don't want to move again but with this house I think we probably would -6-10 yrs.
There's a chance mil would have to move in at least for a while- in which case even with the work it would be a struggle - not enough space to hide.
There's a possible house coming up but its top of budget and I know at least 2 others also going for it as houses like that there for this price are unusual - the 2 others that have come up are out of budget but only 1 sold. I think this other house coming up has shown me that I can feel like - I want that house- whereas the others we've seen have either been out of school catchment (just) or my husband hasn't liked. He likes this house because it is easy but I just don't feel it anymore. Particularly since there were some problems with the sellers which have now been ironed out but I wonder if it's just destroyed the dream.

At the risk of getting flamed, unless you’re in Scotland, putting in an offer, and starting the buying process, does not legally tie you in. Only exchange of contracts does that.

So, if you start the process of buying and something better turns up in the next 6 weeks, then you could pull out.

I know this isn’t popular, but it is legal. And it’s a huge financial investment so you need to be comfortable with the decision. By taking the pressure off yourself to love this house now, you might actually like it better in a few weeks.

I can see us being in this position too soon. We are selling to move across the country and I can see a situation where we would end up in rental too. I’ve been watching the market and it’s very rare for anything to come up that isn’t top of our budget. We don’t want to spend that much but the houses under budget don’t do anything for me really.
Even those at the top of our budget invariably have some issue that makes them not ideal.

There seems to be little on the market generally . I would do as the previous poster suggested and pull out if something better comes along.

Hopefully there will be more coming on the market in the next month or two.

Is it not possible that you could hold off another 6 months ? I think those top of budget type houses might be coming on the market for less, or at least open to negotiate more if they can't sell. Once we get an interest rate rise or two and another round of inflation starts, prices have to start to come down surely.
It might make more sense to take another rental and see what happens.

We moved to a house that wasn’t top of our budget & that never sang to me: it was basically the only sensible option that came up in terms of size/price/location while we were house-hunting (we moved to a new area & rented for a year). Somewhat to my surprise, I’m very happy here. I still really don’t like some aspects of the decor etc but it ticks the boxes & works for us as a family & there’s a lot to be said for that.

Check Area360 for the price trend in the locations you are interested in. If prices are generally rising then you may just want to jump on the bandwagon now. But if prices are gliding down then wait till the right house falls into your lap.

Use your own judgement about whether the "news" will affect prices or not. Who knows?

I’d hold off. I think you will see house prices drop very soon.

There's a chance mil would have to move in at least for a while- in which case even with the work it would be a struggle - not enough space to hide.

If you're aware of this fly in the ointment already, I'd wait for something better.

Hopefully you won't remind me of this in a year's time when you are all living in a cardboard box because the market has done something crazy!!!!!! 🤞🏼🤞🏼🤞🏼

People always say this, but it never seems to happen - and in the area OP is in, she says there’s very little on the market, which makes it even less likely. There are still plenty of areas in the UK where housing is very much low supply, high demand and prices are not going to reduce in those circumstances.

We went the more affordable, less space route. It has really worked for us, and when interest rates started to climb......well, there's a lot of benefit in being able to comfortably afford the repayments. I sleep better in this house than I would have in the 'nicer' one.
We've made this house really nice and I'm coming to love it. We do love the area too though which helps a lot.

Hold off at least until the end of Easter. I would then just be sure of your criteria i.e. must haves and then buy the first thing that ticks those boxes.

I would also say that practicality is everything so I would have a short list of must haves with the practical criteria, usually location and essential size, at the top and go for the one that most ticks your boxes based on what is actually on the market. I wouldn't want to keep looking for too long as you could find yourself on hold as nothing really exceptional comes onto the market for ages if at all. Easy to say though!

Definitely wait.
To move again in quick succession wastes so much hard earned money.

The OP didn't say there was very little on the market. They said that, what they would ideally like, is at top of budget or isn't coming on within budget. Quite a different situation.

In fact the number of properties for sale is at an eight year high. Another reason for holding off imo. Pricing usually becomes more competitive as availability increases - which it has done markedly since the start of this year. I think that trend is likley to continue in 2026.

A quick side note:
From very recent experience, the Scottish system does not tie you in the way it did in years gone by. In our case, the missives only concluded 48 hrs before we moved out. And that was 16 weeks after we accepted our buyers' offer.

Wait for the right place for you

Update : the house I knew was coming onto the market has already gone before even reaching open market. I think it's because there's lots similar to us who just cannot reach the extra 100k - 150k that most of these houses come on for so when one comes on a bit less it does go fast. Although I feel intense disappointment perhaps I just have to accept my lot and try not to be jealous. (I have a fairly good idea of who it went to, I'll try not to be bitter )
The other house is fine. Just not what I thought id live in. We can have a commiserating holiday I suppose.

We moved across country (well, from SW Wales back home to the more expensive south coast of England) in late 2024. We knew our budget wouldn't get us as much here - we sold a fully renovated detached mill with 0.5 acre garden and hoped to buy a period cottage in a lovely coastal location, but the reality was that our choices were very limited, despite only considering projects!

DH persuaded me to go for a little Georgian cottage two minutes walk from the sea, that had last been renovated in 1965 with no original features remaining. I hated it, but the one I loved needed as much work despite being well over budget. We offered on both but our offer was declined on my choice which then went sstc to another buyer. When it came back on the market a few weeks later I thought it was meant to be, however our - increased - offer wasn't accepted.

We did pull out of purchasing DH's favourite, but I got cold feet at the prospect of finding a short term rental/putting our stuff into storage (we'd been there before on our previous move!), plus our elderly DDog was ill. Nothing else suitable was coming onto the market, so we went back to the cottage I disliked and the purchase went ahead, with DH agreeing we'd sell once renovated.

Eighteen months on and our DIY renovations are making gradual progress, I still don't have the feels for the cottage, but like it more than I did as we're putting everything into making it a beautiful home, rather than seeing it as a flipper. We'll probably sell when it's done and should make an ok profit as we got it for a good price. DH obviously hopes to stay as he loves it here.

In your shoes @Nodwyddaedafedd, I'd carry on with the purchase, but keep looking for now just in case something better comes up over Easter. If it doesn't, perhaps you need to bite the bullet and see this move as a stop gap as we're doing. Who knows you might end up loving it like @Shudacudawuda!

Sorry to hear that @Nodwyddaedafedd!

The intense disappointment is exactly what I felt (and still do, as I have to walk past the one we 'lost' almost every day). I also feel jealous as the person selling didn't need the money (a landlord with a vast property portfolio who hadn't maintained the poor cottage for years) and after our second offer was declined, it sat on the market empty for six months, the terrible damp getting increasingly worse. They then decided to do a cheap renovation that involved removing the last remaining chimney, doing inappropriate damp proofing and fitting awful shiny grey flooring 😭 It's now ssstc and I know I'll never live there, but again (having previously owned some stunning houses), like you, I never imagined I'd live in the one we bought. And, yep...I'm definitely bitter!

I had this exact thing. I felt very meh about the house to be frank.

Yes there are minor irritations
Side acess, lack of drive, tooooo many period fireplaces.

But ultimately it has what we wanted theres a lot to like and I've grown to enjoy living here.

I am also fucking delighted we didnt push for the next bracket up and in this economic climate i wpuldnt be rushing to stretch yourself.

Why on earth would your MIL need to move in with you and would the lack of space actually mean you could say 'Sorry MIL, we don't have the space'? If so, that would be a major advantage to a house that's just a bit too small

As for the changes you want to make - surely if you add a garden office you could take that with you if you move? And with the extra money you save you could make some cosmetic changes to make the house more to your taste.

You're right Zurigo.
Count my chickens and all that. It's a standard 1980s estate on the darker side. Most of the other houses outside the estate are individual and lovely.
It is in the right school catchment. And ultimately that's the one thing we really need. I don't think we can move again so I suppose some of the grief is giving up the dream

My immediate thought was to accept ok house. It’s soul destroying siting for a house to come up that ticks the boxes and you love. New house I suppose will come up but a large majority of them will be overpriced to begin with and take several months before realisation hits in.

I sympathise, op.
We moved here 15 years ago for the dcs pre school/schools.
Its now fulfilled its role in that regard, but, sadly, we've had to spend a lot on it as the previous owners were bodgers and left leaking roofs and a non working boiler for starters😡
We've had to spend so much just to make it dry and safe that moving would feel like starting all over again 😕 and I won't consider new builds.
It's a perfectly nice house, is big enough (just) for 4 adults, but it's not where I want to be.
Dh does not feel the same 😕

Another one here to say why on earth are you considering a house with space for MIL to move into if she is in ‘stately homes’ territory? Doesn’t a smaller house give you an excellent ‘out’ if it gets suggested? Protect yourself now. Once she is living with you nothing will get better.
Good luck with your move, wherever it may be.