Houses, aspects, sunlight, hedges and neighbours!

Samsonite1

I agree with points systems - quite useful to mark down the bad points of any houses you have seen to and see if you can firstly find any on RightMove that can tick more off and refine your search a bit more.

Aspect confuses me a lot - in fact annoys me. A few viewers did not buy our house because it was the wrong aspect. Nobody ever seems to know why they want a particular aspect. I would go for due West if I had a preference - get the sun in the garden from midday onwards and no shadows on any side (like you would on a South facing garden).

glasgowdan

Having seen a properly south facing garden at the weekend with loads of space and NO neighbours looking in to it, I think we've gone off the beautiful house with the crap aspect and overlooked by neighbours idea.

Time will tell...

seven-day-weekend

When we bought our bungalow last year, it ticked the following boxes:

1. It was in one of our chosen areas, near bus route and shops.
2. It was a bungalow!
3. It didn't look like an old persons' bungalow, it's very pretty with timber detailing on the front elevation
4. Not in the middle of an estate
5. It had off-road parking (never had that in 45 years of marriage and having lived in four properties).

The bonuses were:
1. A large, south-facing, not overlooked garden (bungalows at back)
2. The layout was good, as a semi it is joined to the other bungalow at the bedrooms, and the kitchen diner is completely detached, so the 'noisy' rooms are removed from the party wall
3. Large kitchen diner

The compromises were:
1. Would have liked one more room
2. Needed completely renovating
3. No storage other than the loft.

We have completely renovated it, added a large conservatory coming off the kitchen diner, provided storage and love living here.

For us though the main criteria, and indeed our reason for moving, was location. Secondly, a house that had at least two bedrooms and off-road parking and 'felt' right. Everything else was secondary.

nb73

We chose our family house based entirely on town centre location and size. Most places we go are less than 800 metres away & each child has their own bedroom.

All the other stuff is just detail for us

alchemist.1

Have a look at properties higher than your budget/then lower than your budget.

It might give you some perspective on making a compromise. We had to do that in the end.