when is a house too big?

w00519772

i am a single first time buyer. I am 32. I am in the process of buying a 3 bed house.

i like the house but i think it would be more suited to a family. I like to hope for best and plan for worse. The worst case scenarios are:

1) circumstances change during fixed period. Then i could get a lodger (subject to bank approval)
2) i am offered a job elsewhere. Then i can rent to a family. The house is quite close to a school. It has good transport links.

i am interested to hear from other single people living in three bed houses. Is a three bed too much? Sometimes i think i may be more suited to an apartment. I just prefer houses.

Ucrane

House looks like the best way to go, it can never be too big. I'm in small 2 (1.5 really) bed, wish I had more space.

macster77

Please allow me to give my thoughts as an owner.

I have both houses and flats. The first key point is..... houses appreciate more. Of courses, there are exceptions, but this is a good rule of thumb to follow.

The 2nd point is..... in a flat, because it's part of a larger building, you don't really have this "sense of belonging". Well, that's how I feel. A house, on the other hand, is your own. Even if it is not detached (terrace or semi-d), you still have this "sense of belonging". You have your own garden, etc.

Thirdly, it's best to go for something with "demand". 3-beds have higher demand. Definitely so, if compared with 3-bed flats.

Had a few more points, but they escape me at the moment.

macster77

Oh yeah, re. rental, yields on 1-2 beds might be higher, but this is mostly due to the higher price of houses with more beds (thus lowering yield).

Old_Git

I started off renting a bedsit ,
moved onto a one bed flat
then two bed flat
then 3 bed council house (not a good area )

Then bought a two bed house .
Next move three bed semi .
Last year bought a four bed bungalow.
It took 30 years but I got here.

moneyistooshorttomention

I've got a 2 bedroom house, but would ideally like a 3 bedroom one. I have one of the bedrooms as my bedroom and the other one as my study. I would like a guest bedroom though and generally a 3 bedroom house might have more room in other respects (eg storage space). I cant think how previous owners of my current house lived with the low amount of storage space and am busily adding it in every way I can think of.

Davesnave

Old_Git wrote: »

I started off renting a bedsit ,
moved onto a one bed flat
then two bed flat
then 3 bed council house (not a good area )

Then bought a two bed house .
Next move three bed semi .
Last year bought a four bed bungalow.
It took 30 years but I got here.

On the other hand.....

As I was saying on another thread last week, a number of young(ish!) people bought in the same street as I did in the late 1970s, and at least three couples are still there.

These were all 3 bed terraced/semi houses of average proportions, but big enough for many when families came along. Now the 'youngish people' are of retirement age and still enjoying their homes: not too big to manage, but easy if their kids and other visitors come to stay.

Buying slightly large initially can save money through flexibility later on.

moneyistooshorttomention

That's how I think of it Dave. I would have bought my "final house" immediately if I could have managed to do so. That would still have applied even if it had been in a right state and I needed to work on it.

As you say, it gives flexibility and also avoids all the costs and upheaval of having to move again.

I just studied the figures about how much it costs to move each time (thousands of £s) and how much, on average, people spend on work on a house on average (£15,000 I believe? I wish...in my case...:() and wouldn't want to throw away £20,000 or more per move in effect.

In the event, I had no choice but to throw away thousands of £s having to move on from the first house I bought, but I would have avoided that if I could.

The one countervailing factor to that is the Other People Factor, which sometimes causes people to move on who wouldn't choose to do so of themselves. In my case, I would have chosen to move from last house anyway, but the Other People Factor came into it (because I could see that neighbours were gradually getting replaced by less desirable neighbours and the area was teetering on the brink of "going down" because of that and a couple of external factors that I could see looming on the horizon from outside).

paddyrg

Something to add - extra space means extra tidying, cleaning, heating and maintenance!

getmore4less

Its not just how many bed its the rest of the house/land.

more beds also often means more or bigger rooms downstairs.

we wanted a double garage, round the places we were looking that means a 4 bed.

There are oddballs like very large 2 bed apartments with big rooms or well laid out bungalows, but for the main housing stock, more beds means more space.

bouicca21

I'm single. I want a 3 bed. Room for me, room for my books and PC, guest room. I hate the thought of living anywhere smaller.