Which property, A or B?

[Mamma44848]

We’re struggling to decide between these two houses. They have nearly identical layouts, both detached and are in a similar quiet areas, similarly priced. This is likely to be a 5-10 move depending on personal circumstances.

House A
Pluses

• 5 mins from local shop, safe walk for kids
• 5 mins from bus stop (distance is important because of disabilities and small kids)
• 5 mins from planned community centre (not yet built)
• large garden (south-east facing), essentially a blank canvas (and with no shade)
• Front of house is a green strip that won’t be developed on. No through road, sort of tucked away. Safe for kids who might try to dash out the door. The town as a whole is a bit rough so maybe fewer opportunistic thieves would come this way.
• Front faces another house but at a distance. Back garden is surrounded by neighbouring back gardens so not too overlooked, feels very open.
• Playground round the corner for young and older kids. (Not amazing)

Minuses

• close to a field popular with walkers, lots of foot traffic in front
• field could potentially be developed on, though there is a lot of other land further away that is already earmarked
• layout has a couple of things - combined toilet/utility room is not ideal. Kitchen leads into the back garden so all the mess from kids goes straight into the kitchen.
• internal decor shows a lack of finesse or care, slap-dash painting, weird DIY jobs, lots of bits need to be touched up. For a relatively new house it is very well lived in (owners have young kids and dogs). Decor is also not to my taste, doesn’t match our furniture, but it’s otherwise a blank canvas. We are unlikely to be able to devote much time or money to decorating so we’ll have to live with it.
• Newish estate, trees are still saplings, not much community feel yet.

House B
Pluses:

• Layout is slightly better - it has a separate utility room with a door to the back garden which we’d really like because of messy kids.
• Garden is a plus/minus - north facing so mostly shaded which I didn’t like initially, but given this summer a north facing garden might be better for kids as they could use all day without worrying about sun and UV.
• Internal decor is lovely, very well looked after by the same owners for 20 years, no touch-ups needed.
• Maturer estate, 20 years old, lovely community, neighbours have mostly been here since the development was built, mature trees throughout, toddler playground on an island in front with lots of trees so it’s a bit more private.
• Prefer the look of the house externally but it’s not a deal-breaker House A is lovely too.
• 15-20 mins walk to another development with a few more amenities and a lovely large park. House A is about 40 mins walk. No direct buses there from either house.

Minuses

• No pavement in front of house, front door leads straight onto road which is quiet-ish. Safety could be managed by only using the back door with kids.
• Garden is completely paved over (presume it’s hard to grow much) and has a very raised deck (to get more sun presumably) with concrete steps, not as pleasant or safe for kids. Unsure whether we would have the inclination to rip everything out or just try to live with it. Also faces the side wall of another house which somehow makes it feel very enclosed - sitting in the garden you would basically be looking at a big wall. It’s a nice garden otherwise and built for entertaining adults rather than for kids.
• 15-20 mins walk from the same shop as House A and need to cross a busy main road (hard with disabilities/children)
• 10-15 mins walk to bus stop (same bus route as House A)
• House is a couple of rows away from a main road - not too busy usually but when there are issues on the motorway, traffic tends to divert to this road.
• On the other side of this road is land earmarked for another housing development. I think noise and dust won’t be that noticeable from where the house is but I don’t really know.
• Playground is for small kids only and old - other small playgrounds are dotted around.

So if it’s about location, location, location, I think House A wins. If it’s about the house itself House B is better, though the garden is different to what we envisaged. If it’s about a nice friendly community House B wins.

But as it’s also a 5-10y house then we need to think about resaleability - again the houses are quite similar so I think selling will come down to similar things we are considering, like location and garden.

DH favours House B because it’s very well looked after and he thinks we can make do with the other things - the relative distances are not that big and he doesn’t mind driving or cycling. I favour House A for the large garden for the kids and closeness to shops and bus stop when I’m dragging unwilling kids along with me, and even if the decor is imperfect it’s still a step up from where we are now.

Would love any thoughts!

Show us the pictures OP.
Post the rightmove link to each house.
Much easier to advise if we can visually see each house.

our thoughts are irrelevant if DH does not agree

B

I'm strongly leaning towards A. You can redecorate and fix stuff over time. Put up a pergola or even a pop up tent for DC.

Always the worst house in the best area. You can do something with the house, but never the area.

A

Firstly, I would never move for only five years. The costs of moving be better invested into a bigger, longer term house, unless you’re likely to make good money on the house within those five years.

Bus stop - how often do you catch the bus, or are you likely to drive everywhere?

community centre - bonus as you’ll have this on your doorstep. Negative is no adequate parking so they park up your street,

kids dashing out the house was not a factor I considered when I went house hunting, and my first house with kids was on a main road.

However, the development would be put off completely. We’ve had small developments in our village and it’s caused chaos with dust, increased traffic, traffic lights on roads when utilities are installed etc.

From your descriptions, B is your heart house, and A is your head house.

A

I used to live in a house that was close to a main road that was used for motorway diversions.
Sadly, it was diverted frequently and the massive lorries thundering up the road used to make the house rattle.
It didn't seem too bad when we moved in, I thought it would be our forever house but 15 years and the ever worsening traffic did it for us.

I like the sound of B street better I think? Maturer estate, long term neighbours, etc. garden sounds a pain but concrete can be jack hammered up and removed quickly….ive just had my concrete front garden jack hammered up and removed in a day! Do the neighbours have lawned back gardens if you’re unsure if the grass will,grow.

but ultimately only you know if you can walk to the bus stop with disability. The kids won’t stay young for ever and will get better at walking.

if you buy house A have you got the time or money to redecorate and do all the stuff which is needed?

A

Could you reconfigure the kitchen / utility in A?

A- not because it is better but B sounds soulless in the middle of a large development 20 minutes from a shop or life is no fun. North facing gardens I had one and it’s not good for kids or dogs. We literally moved for the garden for our dog.

You can’t fix the aspect or location of B. You can address the decor of House A. But if the location is rough ish I’d question if any were the correct one??

A those conveniences you mention like bus and access to playground/shop will be used all of the time. You can redecorate most people want to anyway. I agree with another poster with the cost and hassle of moving go with at least a 10 year plan.

We made the mistake of buying our house envisaging living there 5 years or so with small children.

Now we are stuck there due to costs of moving and being priced out of other areas and houses more suitable for our needs. So I also would look to the more long term.

Personally I'd hate to live near a main a road (will only get busier) and a site being built on, so overall I'd avoid B.
Is A quite new and so maybe community feel will develop with time?

How old are your kids and do you need to factor in schools as well?

house A.

House a. based on location which is very important

Plant a couple of trees at the end of the south facing garden for shade and you can do painting gradually if you decide it is needed.

My instinct says house B but that's partly because I wouldn't fancy doing the work to house A. Combined toilet and utility would very quickly start to annoy me in House A. Also I'd find myself constantly monitoring for the potential development you mentioned.

You say you're going to live there for at least 5 years - your children's needs will change in that time, for instance safety of front door onto pavement will recede as an issue, parks/playgrounds will become less important. You don't mention pets so assuming this isn't a consideration.

You don't say where you are in the UK but this would affect how important the garden is - depending on what sort of weather you get there will periods of the year where you don't or barely use it. In hot weather north-facing might be better but in intermediate weather, south-facing will be warmer - also affected by what shade is given by surrounding buildings.

As there's so little between the houses, it's also worth factoring in likely ease of purchase to your decision - are both sellers proceed able, did you form any impression about whether they are likely to be easy to deal with? You mentioned 'similar price' - unless they are exactly the same price, consider how you might benefit from the money saved on the cheaper one - e,g. if A. is cheaper would the saving pay for redecoration; if B. is cheaper would the saving pay for getting someone in to sort the garden out?

We had a combined utility/toilet in our first home it was absolutely fine. A downstairs toilet is just so handy with small kids, it being in the utility didn’t even feel like a compromise and it wasn’t something we dwelled on.

You don’t mention parking - not yours nor anyone else’s.

You don’t mention schools. School years last a long time and inconvenience can wear on you.

A. The issues you describe could be sorted over time. Having a utility at all is a bonus, so many UK houses don't. Maybe the toilet situation could be sorted?
I can't emphasise enough what a nightmare it is living near a major development. I wouldn't have realised until I was forced to live through it for a year and it was hell.

It’s the high end of what we can afford. The next price bracket (another bedroom) is too expensive. It’s a 5-10y house because our circumstances may potentially change - we’re living year to year at the moment. But yes we’re buying the best we can afford in case it turns out to be a 10y+ house, both houses would have plenty of space for our kids to grow up in.

I take the bus everywhere, and will probably do so with both kids. DC is disabled so every extra minute we can save not walking is immensely valuable.

Good point re parking at the community centre. Parking on the road is already atrocious but House A is a few roads away so hopefully wouldn’t be impacted.

I like house A tbh. DH pointed out all the small defects to me after we viewed it - I hadn’t noticed. I’d say B is DH’s heart house, but he has the same doubts about the garden. He’s less bothered about the location from amenities but he drives everywhere.

I don’t think we have the time or energy to redecorate tbh. We’ll have savings left over but are unlikely to grow it. I worry about throwing thousands at stuff that doesn’t add value to the home.

You can’t fix the aspect or location of B. You can address the decor of House A. But if the location is rough ish I’d question if any were the correct one??

I don’t think we will change the decor tbh apart from maybe paint the walls. We won’t change the floors to match our furniture for example, or vice-versa. We’d just have to live with what we have and try to make it ours in other ways.

I wish we didn’t have to move to a rough town, but circumstances mean this is our only choice. We’ve picked what seems to be the safest nicest areas, but crime does filter across.

It sounds like house A could be brought up to a better standard with a bit of TLC.
You mention a disability, is this something which is likely to get better / worse with time or stay about the same? That might make a difference to the distances conundrum.

If a house at the decor standard of B but with the garden and location of A came on the market would it likely be in your budget? If so can you wait for house C?

Also, Rightmove links would be great, not that we're nosy or anything 👀

Kids are ages 2 through 10. School for the eldest is the reason we are looking here.