What compromises did you make when buying?

[WWBWBapparently]

How do we feel about compromising when house buying? We had the following non negotiable things when we marketed our house for sale with a view to moving.

1. Detached
2. Newer Build
3. South facing or at least sunny garden
4. Not too overlooked
5. Good kitchen and bathrooms so we won’t need to renovate straight away
6. Room for all the family to congregate.

We’ve seen a beautiful house in the right location, its detached, new bathroom, kitchen.

However it has a north facing garden, is very overlooked with a terrace of townhouses at the back.
House is 22 years old and therefore so is the double glazing and heating system.
Lounge is smaller that we’d like, kitchen a galley with only small areas of worktop. Would need to house the tumble dryer in garage with only access through up and over door.

Im so conflicted over it, price is about right although we’d offer 10k under due to the double glazing and old heating system. Will the garden, sun and privacy be awful? We only have about 3/4 months of the year decent weather anyway.
We are downsizing from a big house so it will feel small but will be easier to clean and maintain.

What compromises did you make? Are these dealbreakers?

What part of the country are you in? If you are in the south east, a north facing garden is an advantage with the increasingly hot summers. I have a south facing garden and, on hot days, my kitchen and back bedrooms are far too hot and I cannot sit outside or do any gardening.
A galley kitchen with a small worktop does not sound great.

We needed 3 bedrooms with room for a study, location compatible for both of our commutes, drive for 2 cars and a garage.

We wanted detached, southish facing private garden, ensuite, utility room. Not too big a project but also not done up and not to out taste, good schools.

We found a 5 bed detached, no ensuite, no utility room, a school that was classed as needing improving and a garden where we could see into our neighbours garden on either side. Within a year we had built the utility room into half of one of the garages, discovered that a 4th bedroom with room for two separate full size desk should actually have been a need, planted bushes and built a bin store which makes the garden feel more secluded and the school now had a "good" rating. We have started the process of turning part of one of the bedrooms into an ensuite although it's taken a back step as other work was a higher priority.

Look at how you would want to live in the spaces and how the house could evolve with you.

We had 3 things a garage, a drive/off road parking and a decent sized garden. We ended up compromising on the garden. We just moved again to a house with a large garden and we both realised that we‘d missed the garden so much in our old house that we’ll never compromise on that again.

Our current house needed a lot of TLC, but is in a great area on a small close. My biggest compromise is the garden, North facing, I had West facing at the old house. I’ve since realised it isn’t that bad, it’s actually North West facing so pretty sunny in the summer, that’s when it’s not peshing it down like the current weather. The winter can be a bit grim as the sun doesn’t catch it at all.

We love the house and the area so I was willing to compromise. It sounds to me that you’re not too keen on more than the position of the garden, don’t do it unless you’re 100%. I knew as soon as we stepped in the property. Viewed it at 4pm, called the agent at 4.25pm, told our offer had been accepted at 4.45pm, it was meant to be 🤗

I had detached, a garden that had grass for the dog (didn’t need to be huge) and 3 decent sized bedrooms for when adult kids come (one is moving with me). I had 3 different locations though, as I am relocating 250 miles, and needed to factor in where my office is, and distance to family (not too close, but not more than 1hr). My favourite location was a beach town, but in the end I went for my 3rd location but best in terms of distance to family, and i’m exactly bang on distance wise in the middle with work / family. I compromised on the lovely beach town I had in mind, but I am 5 mins walk to the river front, and I was blown away when I saw it. Buying a new build, which I guess was also not top of my preference but with moving such a long distance, it had made it a lot easier and I absolutely love my new house.

I wasn’t too fussed on north or south, though of course north would be lowest choice but I have an east facing garden which i’m very happy with.

Preferences but not priority I had utility room (haven’t got) and kitchen diner big enough for a small sofa and dining table. I have enough space for a dining table, but not a sofa too, but that’s fine.

Sometimes it's hard to know in advance though and possibly you still made the right choice at that time- not having a garage or off street parking might have been even more annoying at that stage of your life.

My biggest "failed compromise" was when I insisted on a period conversion over purpose built flat and the sound proofing was non existent (converted in the 70's so no insulation between floors). Spent 2 years lying in bed listening to the neighbours breathe and dreaming of the fugly 60's concrete block I rejected.

I think if you are going to compromise on some things you need some bonuses in other areas, otherwise it doesn't feel good enough. So for us the compromise was semi-detached rather than detached, but we got more space than we needed, ideal layout of rooms and bigger garden than expected. I also think you need some red line things you wont compromise on. For me, not enough kitchen surface space would be one of them. That'd be a daily annoyance.

Compromised on size of house to get a detached house in a lovely area. Whilst our upstairs space is smaller than ideal, I wouldn't swap it for a bigger house in a less desirable location.

Becsuse my price limit was £250,000 I had to compromise on everything.
I wanted a cottage but had to settle for a 1990s terrace in the sought after village I wanted but as property is so rare here I was pleased to get a 3 bed with a downstairs additional loo.
The biggest compromise was the garden. I love a big garden but I had to settle for a courtyard. But I'll manage.

For us, most important was proximity to the secondary school where two older children are, close to a nice primary for younger, 4 decent sized bedrooms (so many had one tiny one) and parking, the town we're moving too often has interesting houses with no parking!

We compromised on garden, it has an outdoor area for sitting and room for some play stuff but it's also where you park the car so not great and it is weirdly joined up with the neighbouring house and adjacent to non residential buildings.

For us the amount of space it gives us and proximity to schools outweighs the rest and we don't have a garden we spend much time in anyway at the moment, find it too cold most of the time!! We got 5/6 decent sized bedrooms and character which was better than expected. Still haven't seen anything matching it on Rightmove, currently waiting for the sale to be completed 🤞

I agree that this doesn’t sound right for you.

When we last moved the main criteria (other than size and price) were:

1. location - it had to be no more than 15 minutes walk from the railway station because we both commuted into London, but not on a main road and

2. condition - I was 5 months pregnant when we moved and we had a toddler, so we needed to be able to move in straight away without doing any major renovations.

I would have liked an older house (ours is 1980s) with a bigger south facing garden, but those were nice to have rather than essential. 27 years on we are still here, so those elements obviously weren’t that important!