Small house - are we making a mistake?

sheepy21

I'd personally go and look at the three bed and see how you feel about it, you might fall in love and you might hate it, at least you won't be left wondering if that's the house you should've bought. Also depends on whether you mind the chaos of having a conversion done, I'm pretty adverse to any upheaval in the house and most I like being done is a bit of decorating, but if that doesn't bother you then maybe get the two bed and convert it yourselves.

steampowered

Personally I'd go for the bigger property. I wouldn't worry about stretching the budget a bit as you are in good jobs.

Mortgage affordability rules don't let you stretch too much anyway.

If you take the smaller property, it sounds like you'll be looking at moving or getting an extension done when the little one is a toddler.

ThePants999

We went smaller than we would have liked in order to get the location (schools) we wanted. No regrets, the kids will be better off in these schools than with bigger bedrooms.

happyandcontented

We have a great house that we have extended over the years, and it is now everything we want. However, before we did extend we looked at another house, detached and double fronted with a lot of potential for improvement, although it was fine as it was. We decided against the financial stretch for similar reasons to you. Looking back (and whenever I pass it as it is close by) I do regret that decision.

You need to view them both as dispassionately as possible! Then make a decision. Good luck.

Owain_Moneysaver

It's £70k more expensive in cash. If you're buying on a mortgage it'll cost you much more than that over the years.

On the other hand, as well as the cost of doing your own loft conversion you have to consider the disruption and mess. To some extent you're paying for the convenience of it already being done.

Worth looking at the other house -- do you actually like how it's been done? Would you actually like to do the same to 'your' house? If it's 'opposite' does that mean a north-west facing garden and is that a major influence?

The larger house may have a higher council tax band and will have higher running costs including insurance. However, would you be willing to consider a lodger in the extra room for a few years until you have a child? Rent-a-room scheme is £7,500 a year tax-free extra income. A very quick look at Spareroom suggests 500-600 a month for a room in Zone 5, although obviously that may vary widely depending where in Zone 5!

lincroft1710

Cakeguts wrote: »

1150 sqft is small for a 3 bed. About the size of the average 3 bed semi so if they have got 2 bathrooms in there as well as 3 beds I would think that one of the bathrooms is in the loft.

1150 sq ft is a very good size for a 3 bed! Spent virtually my whole working life looking at house sizes and 1000 sq ft is more like the average, and I'm talking gross external not gross or net internal.

ReadingTim

I'd be looking at the footprint of both houses and the sizes of the other rooms before deciding - it's not clear whether the other house is significantly larger, or merely appears to have more space due to the loft conversion.

Historically, the more bedrooms a house had, the larger the other downstairs rooms were as well - bigger rooms, higher ceilings etc. Loft conversions and other extensions do add bedrooms, but don't necessarily make the other rooms larger, just more numerous.

If the other place is just over the road, then that's the case here - a sort of before and after conversion story: your current place has the potential, the other place has had it realised. In which case, the question isn't about size, just whether you have the appetite for having the work done yourself, or want to move into somewhere where it's already been done.

If you want something that's properly bigger, I'd be looking for an unconverted 3-bedder, but then your budget might not permit that.