Head or Heart ?

[mumzy]

we're in the process of moving to a new area for schools and buying a bigger long term property. All the properties we've seen have had a compromise which we can't do anything about mainly being too close to main road or parking issues or not being in the borough of the schools we want. However on the EA websites there are some lovely period houses which have been sold STC recently but before we started looking. We've seen a not particularly nice looking house which ticks most of the boxes but you can hear the very noisy A road on windy days and the garden is quite narrow. My dilemma is do you go with this house as its the best out of whats currently available or do you wait for your dream house and how long would you wait? We do have time as dc are 2 years from secondary school but I really want to move by the end of this year as I want dc to enjoy the big garden while they are still young

That's a tough one. If you watch the relocation type programmes, you come across a lot of people who wait and wait for the perfect house that just doesn't exist at their budget.

If you are not in a desperate hurry I would keep looking for a while but not for too long and keep a very close eye on what is on the market.

As for compromises, there isn't really such a thing as a 100% perfect house I don't think because human nature is always to stretch for what is just out of reach. I would think about what you want from your house in an ideal world, then work out which of those things are essentials and which are wishes that could be compromised. To give you an idea, we are moving and for me, 4 bedrooms was a must, 2 reception rooms were a must, an eat in kitchen was a preference but I have compromised on a reasonable sized kitchen which is not big enough for a family table but which is next door to the dining room which we could knock through at some point in the future if we had the budget.

I would wait.

Buying a house is a big thing and costs a lot of money. It's important to get it right. Be guided by your heart. You will know when you have found the right house and who knows, it may just pop up when you are least expecting it.

I think that if I went for this house and my dream house came up I'd really kick myself for not holding out. The annoying thing is that all the houses I liked that have been sold recently were well within our budget, also the area we're looking in, houses usually only come up when people die or go into residential care. Have even tried leafletting the roads we like but to no avail, tis a waiting game!