How do you decide which house?

tealady

If the house you love has a functional bathroom and kitchen then I would say go for that one. You can then start a kitchen/bathrom fund going and have the option to buy the fixtures/ fittings as and when. You might be able to pick up stuff in the sales that way.
BTW I dont know why people dislike North facing gardens as most people only sit in them in the summer when the sun is highest, I have a South facing house and have a light and airy sitting room 365 days a year. Means cheaper heating bills for me

mishkanorman

It's all cosmetic and preference really, we could live with it and hope to find the money from somewhere a couple of years down the line possibly. It's all usable just not practical and we are leaving a very modern house behind.

mishkanorman

Tealady,

The problem I had with the bedroom being at the rear was you couldn't see the garden from the lounge as it is at the front of the house, we have kids and a dog who like to come and go in and out the garden all day so not being able to see them was a downside.

ProDave

tealady wrote: »

If the house you love has a functional bathroom and kitchen then I would say go for that one. You can then start a kitchen/bathrom fund going and have the option to buy the fixtures/ fittings as and when. You might be able to pick up stuff in the sales that way.
BTW I dont know why people dislike North facing gardens as most people only sit in them in the summer when the sun is highest, I have a South facing house and have a light and airy sitting room 365 days a year. Means cheaper heating bills for me

Ah, south facing garden also dictates south facing living room. The front (north) is for less important things like the utility room or downstairs loo.

warby68

If you can't pick a favourite out of 3, you might not have actually found the right one at all yet.

Whilst you can be practical with lists of pros and cons etc, I think you also have to feel the love to be happy there. Its a strange thing home buying (home not house is probably key) you have to operate with a mix of supreme logic plus some good honest emotion. Or at least thats what I've found.

From several house moves, its an almost instant feeling too when you walk in a place - from the first minute its about 99% yes or 99% no whether you think you could live happily there. Or maybe I'm a bit odd lol

getmore4less

South garden North sitting

Sitting stays cool in the summer

just have a decent outside seating area for the longer days.

ellie27

Go for the one you love! The one you never thought you would ever live in. If it just needs a bathroom and kitchen thats not much at all!

Before we bought our house we knew we wanted to knock down wall between kitchen and dining room, put in new kitchen and sliding doors onto garden....... we have been too busy living to actually get our act together and now 2 years down the line we are getting architects/planners in to discuss things!

Good luck! I wouldnt ever buy a house that I didnt love.

Davesnave

ellie27 wrote: »

Good luck! I wouldnt ever buy a house that I didnt love.

Oh dear, if I'd done that, I'd have been homeless since 1987! That's when we bought our friends' house; a property we secretly laughed at when they purchased it. But it had potential and the neighbourhood was great.

I go for potential and location. If there isn't much potential, then it will soon become boring, and if the location's wrong, it might not be worth doing all the stuff I'd have planned inside my head! One dodgy neighbour can undo years of work.

This lurve thing has always escaped me. Two years into our occupation of this property, I was still 'Meh' about it, but now, after nearly 8 years, it's grown into something quite lovable. That's because we've removed most traces of the original owners and realised the true potential, which was there, but not very visible at the start.

That's us, though. For some, a house is more of a base to do other things. To them, shaping a property over a decade, or even updating it, would be a distraction, so something modern and easy to maintain would be the way to go. We're all different, thank goodness.

moneyistooshorttomention

Davesnave wrote: »

Oh dear, if I'd done that, I'd have been homeless since 1987! That's when we bought our friends' house; a property we secretly laughed at when they purchased it. But it had potential and the neighbourhood was great.

I go for potential and location. If there isn't much potential, then it will soon become boring, and if the location's wrong, it might not be worth doing all the stuff I'd have planned inside my head! One dodgy neighbour can undo years of work.

This lurve thing has always escaped me. Two years into our occupation of this property, I was still 'Meh' about it, but now, after nearly 8 years, it's grown into something quite lovable. That's because we've removed most traces of the original owners and realised the true potential, which was there, but not very visible at the start.

That's us, though. For some, a house is more of a base to do other things. To them, shaping a property over a decade, or even updating it, would be a distraction, so something modern and easy to maintain would be the way to go. We're all different, thank goodness.

I think more along these lines too.

It would be lovely to have a house I loved - but it's simply not going to happen at a price I can afford (even in the cheaper location I'm now in).

So - if you've actually been lucky enough to find a house you love - then...yep...you're very lucky and get that one. You can always do the work on it later. But, if the love aint there then it aint there and probably never will be.

It helps a lot to have done the work one wants on a house - and I feel a lot better about my current house than my first "what a tatty cheapskate old-fashioned/the taste is that of this region dump" thought I had about it. It's way different now that I've ripped everything out and it's now modern/done in the style of my region of the country - but it's never going to be loveable. That is something a house either has - or it doesnt.

So - get the loveable one.

LandyAndy

warby68 wrote: »

.

From several house moves, its an almost instant feeling too when you walk in a place - from the first minute its about 99% yes or 99% no whether you think you could live happily there. Or maybe I'm a bit odd lol

You aren't at all odd (or you aren't alone in being odd). I've always had that feeling of 'this is the one' or 'oh no, not for me' when viewing.