Detached Bungalow vs Semi-Detached House

RelievedSheff

I would go for the detached bungalow every time.

We have done the semi detached living and unfortunately landed ourselves with problem noisy neighbours. Never again. Once bitten twice shy.

cattie

Down south, where I come from, a bungalow can cost £150k+ more than a semi detached house & if a detached bungalow, then it could have a price of £200k higher. Bunglalows here are sought after, especially as there's the attraction of adding at least 2 upstairs bedrooms to maximise space/profit.

I'd definitely choose the bungalow, semi detached houses are 2 a penny.

princeofpounds

In terms of valuation - just look at it on a £/sqm basis rather than looking for another bungalow to compare. 

Stubod

..all other things being equal I would go detached over a semi detached all day long... no brainer...(IMHO)

gwynlas

You can always put in an offer on the bungaow factoring in what it woud require to make it watertight, Not everyone wants to do renovation so providing that you do not go overboard you are like;y to show a profit.

AdrianC

FreeBear said:

Tip for the gardening - Contact a company specialising in groundworks and hire a mini digger plus operator for the day. Should cost £200-300, but well worth it. Had a man+digger last year to do a bit of <ahem> gardening and we shifted 20 tonnes of soil in a matter of hours. Would have taken me all year with a spade & wheelbarrow.

Even better - hire the minidigger. They're great fun!

[Deleted User]

I think considering that the bungalow is a) detached and b) 3 bedroomed compared to the 2 bed semi, it is pretty fair to expect it to be valued more even taking the work into consideration. 

Whilst some work on the bungalow will be urgent (i.e. the roof!), consider that other work particularly cosmetic stuff can be done over time as and when. 

The bungalow to me seems a much more future proof option. Whilst a nicely done up 2 bed house might seem appealing, you could find yourself wanting to move to something bigger and more spacious in just a few years time. 

On a personal note knowing what I know now having lived in a semi for the past 5 years, if we could have stretched our budget to buy detached then I would have done so in a heartbeat. 

sjnb

ian1246 said:

I'd go for it. How much spare cash will you have a month left over after moving? If its a decent amount, it needing work isn't the end-all. You do the priorities with your existing budget, whilst saving up more to finish the other bits.

Not an awful lot. Enough to fix the roof and get it watertight, but not enough to put in the new bathroom and kitchen straight away (we would want to reconfigure the layout before). I think I've under sold the amount of work that would be required... internally it would be a back to brick approach and pretty much starting over. We're comfortable living in a fully stripped back house for a short term.

As an update, spoke to the estate agent and she says they've had 4 or 5 bids over the asking price. I'm not sure how truthful she's been considering we went to both days that they were doing viewings and the guy opening the door for us said they'd got about 12 sets of people looking at it. 40% success rate seems unrealistic. The photos on the advertisement didn't show the extent of work needed.. didn't show the leaky roof or bathroom for example. The house was also previously taken off the market but the buyer pulled out after three months of not signing paperwork, they put the listing back up on the market at the same price so I'm presuming they sold it for the asking price originally.

Think we've decided to offer the asking but won't get drawn in to offer more.

Thanks for all the advice. I'll post photos / links up after we find out how the offer goes, hopefully it will help others in a similar situation.

Davesnave

Stubod said:

..all other things being ????? I would go detached over a semi detached all day long... no brainer...(IMHO)

Equal?

But they're not!

All of us would rather go for a detached, but sometimes it's too much of a stretch without taking on works that will, potentially, take years. All well and good if, like me, you have the skills/ friends/relatives to call upon to get the work done economically and don't mind the muddle or time spent.

Alternatively, many buy the semi, find it's OK and carry on saving for that detached. For us, the semi was good enough for decades, but if things had cut up rough we would have had the cash to move.

And as we discovered, even owning a detached with a huge buffer zone around it doesn't make you immune to all neighbour issues. Ours are mostly a blessing, but there have been others!

tink_1983

Detached is worth alot if your noise sensitive.
An added bedroom also worth alot!
As for the work, hopefully they priced the property to include the work needed. But cant hurt to go in under.. has it been on market long.
Desirable area?