Which house??

hazyjo

House 1 by far. House 2 does not back on to the A38 - it's on the A38! That would put me off. Great big lorries trundling past on streetview.

Get what you pay for though - house 2 is over £100k cheaper...

Jx

Ellie83

If money is not a problem, I would much rather buy house number 1. It seems more private and "secluded".

Wobblydeb

Another vote for house number 1. It has a workable layout already - decorating is fun, building work isn't! Spend your summer (if we get one) in that back garden.

namecheck

phoebe1989seb wrote: »

Like namecheck we have only ever bought old houses (1930s being the 'newest', Tudor being the oldest) in need of major work and have spent many years and tons of money restoring them to their former glory. We also have friends who have always bought new and can testify that they seem to have much more 'carefree' lives. Despite this under normal circs I would always advise to go for the older house, but I can honestly say in this instance I prefer house number 1
....

phoebe1989seb and I agree! It will be interesting to see which (if either) the OP goes for, hope we will hear back.

BlueberryMuffin

I would also vote for house number 1 due to the location. I would not even bother viewing anything right on an A road!

Davesnave

hazyjo wrote: »

] House 2 does not back on to the A38 - it's on the A38! That would put me off. Great big lorries trundling past on streetview.

Technically, you're correct, as it's clear that the house was originally built with the front facing Wellington Road.

For some time, the owners seem to have used the back door as a main entrance, as there's only pedestrian access through a leylandii hedge at the front. The leylandii are so tall it's impossible to see what this facade looks like, and the agents aren't enlightening us either!

Front or back, it makes no odds; the house is still on a busy main road.

bigg2001

Thanks for all the replies. I sent my husband to house number 2 and he agrees there's a lot of work and neither of us are happy with the location so think we have discounted that one!

Now Deciding what offer to put in - the owners walked us round and seemed really nice but went to lengths to tell us how much they had done since buying the house so don't want to insult them by offering too low a price. Equally don't want to pay over the odds, if the house is only worth 416 k as Crazy Diamond estimates ( thanks for that - I have no idea how you got the land registry figures but really useful for talking to estate agents I think!) or 422k as Zoopla estimates.

Suggestions for starting bid gratefully received?

Also any ideas on what we could do to front to make it look less like a 'done up council house' as one of my husbands colleagues described it as?? If we moved the front door flush with line of garage would this help? Planting flowers, hanging baskets, those green balls (???!?!!) etc??

Thanks again x

Slinky

From your written description I prefered number one until I saw it... inside it's nice but outside at the front there's something a bit lacking. Maybe its all those windows of differing sizes and shapes. I like fan windows myself so I'd be tempted to put those in.

However not really a good reason to reject a property. I think if you were to lug out some of the block paving and put a shrub/flower border in along the front, perhaps paint the garage door another colour, put a matching coloured front door on it would look less stark. I'm not normally a fan of growing large plants up houses, but maybe wisteria would look good?

amcluesent

Also any ideas on what we could do to front to make it look less like a 'done up council house'

It does look stark, but once the sun blinds are raised a vases of flower are in the windows, that'll help.

Personally I'd replace the study and cloakroom windows with single panes. Neither is big enough to take a divided opener and one vertical and one horizontal adds to the visual muddle. If the garage door is metal, that could be painted a muted shade, selected from Farrow & Ball obviously!

Replace the front door with something in oak or beech, rather than white UPVC. I'm not a a big fan of ostentatious porches, with greek columns, but something like this with the box balls will give the eye something to rest on and make it clear where the entrance is





After than, stretch some wire on vine eyes and plant some nice roses, honeysuckle, clematis, wisteria etc to scramble up the frontage and winter-flowering jasmine at the front door for some welcome scent in the cold days. Some though to evergreens and shrubs in the front border will help a lot too, those cordylines just shout 'municipal'

Crazy_Diamond

bigg2001 wrote: »

Thanks for all the replies. I sent my husband to house number 2 and he agrees there's a lot of work and neither of us are happy with the location so think we have discounted that one!

Now Deciding what offer to put in - the owners walked us round and seemed really nice but went to lengths to tell us how much they had done since buying the house so don't want to insult them by offering too low a price. Equally don't want to pay over the odds, if the house is only worth 416 k as Crazy Diamond estimates ( thanks for that - I have no idea how you got the land registry figures but really useful for talking to estate agents I think!) or 422k as Zoopla estimates.

Suggestions for starting bid gratefully received?

Also any ideas on what we could do to front to make it look less like a 'done up council house' as one of my husbands colleagues described it as?? If we moved the front door flush with line of garage would this help? Planting flowers, hanging baskets, those green balls (???!?!!) etc??

Thanks again x

If anyone wants to use land registry price changes as a negotiating tool you need to go to this link, click on single location and type in the postcode:
http://www.landregistry.gov.uk/public/house-prices-and-sales/search-the-index