Did your purchase match your original criteria?

rebs

We relocated to London for career reasons so budget constraint was our no 1 influence - we could only afford a certain amount.

To help with looking, we kept as few red line criteria as possible - wanted a minimum of 1000 sq ft, must have some outdoor space that we could make suitable for our dog and a loo on the same floor as the bedrooms.

Beyond those few red lines we were as flexible as possible - would have considered flats/terraced, with/out off street parking, 2/3 floors...

Stayed fairly flexible on location too but did want to be in the areas that we liked - and wanted to be able to get to central London in less than an hour door to door.

Ended up with a 1920s semi with a nice garden, off road parking and a garage on the edge of Beckenham which we feel exceeds our initial criteria.

lady1964

We moved 200 miles away from our previous home and we didn’t do what is often advised on here ; rent in the area (s) you’re looking at, we just went straight in with an offer on the 5th house we viewed.

We wanted & got (in no particular order):

Small market town - yes
walkable to a choice of decent pubs/restaurant - yes
3 or 4 beds - 3 but we have an additional room downstairs with a sofa bed in it
Good size kitchen that we could alter to our own requirements- yes, we knocked a wall down and had a completely new kitchen and have got the large kitchen/diner/family room we wanted
Small, paved garden - yes but we’ve had a complete make over with a small area of grass added
En suite - yes, needed updating and replacing but it’s been done
Garage and drive for at least one car - yes with driveway for 2 cars
Quiet neighbourhood - yes
Downstairs loo - yes, it needed updating but it’s been done
To be in the budget we set ourselves- yes, came in 7.5k under
To have good bus service into major cities in case we didn’t feel like driving - yes, lucky to be between 2 cities and one excellent larger town all with good bus services

Overall, we love where we live, we’ve spent a lot of money doing work and decorating but we feel very lucky and it was the best move for us.

Greymug

We viewed 6-7 houses before finding one that ticked most boxes, and so fare we've been pretty happy with it.

Our list was:

- detached property - got it.
- at least 3 bedrooms - got 4 bedrooms.
- bathroom and en-suite - got it, plus a downstairs toilet. Also, every bathroom has a window. No internal bathrooms nonsense.
- potential for loft conversion - yep, got a big loft with ton of potential.
- garage to use as storage - didn't get that although the original garage was converted into the 4th bedroom so that's what we're using for storage/home gym.
- nice garden - did not get this one. The garden is smaller than we would have liked due to the fact the previous owners made a sizeable extension and there is no grass, it's all paved. BUT the silver lining is I've got a nice garden redesign project in the pipeline.
- big kitchen/dining area - one hundred times yes. Biggest room in the house; the previous owners built a big extension 4 years ago and the kitchen dining area is the best I've seen among all the houses we viewed. That was the deciding factor.
- quiet area and nice neighbours - got this too. Very family oriented area, lots of young families with kids. Such a nice change from our flat in Edinburgh city centre with junkies and dog !!!!!! everywhere.
- good connections to Edinburgh - super happy to have a bus stop for Edinburgh 5-10 minutes walking distance although it takes more than 1 hour to get into town.

csgohan4

medium sized garden and garage not next directly next to the house were our compromise. 

No house is perfect unless your a multi millionaire

TBagpuss

I got most of what I wanted.

Wanted and Got 

Quiet - with ability to have a bedroom with no party walls (house is a semi so I am able to use the bedroom on the 'outside ' wall.)

Off street parking  ( I would have liked a garage but didn't get that, but the drive is long enough for at least 3 cars, so plenty for when I have visitors and, ironically, there's always space on the street as well)

Front garden so windows etc not immediately on to street. ( had to get work done as previous owners had tarmacked over the front garden and removed the fence, but once done it was much nicer!) 

Min. 2 beds (house has 3 - I live alone so would have been OK with 2, but didn't find any 2 beds with the living- and outside space I wanted 

Garden - I wanted some outside space and got it - its a bit boring (although less so than when I moved in) and it's private

Location - I wanted something reasonably close to where I work, and preferably in a village location. Got both of those - I'm on the edge of the village so have 2 pubs, plus the shop and post-office within walking distance, but am opposite fields and on a fairly quiet road. 3 miles from work so a nice short commute 

Compromises -

I would have preferred separate living and dining rooms, but compromised on the basis that the kitchen is separate so cooking smells etc can be contained.

I would have preferred to have the kitchen at the front, and the living rooms opening out into the back garden for privacy and quiet, but this seems to be very uncommon, however, my house does face out over fields, at least for now, and the front garden is deep enough that I have privacy without having to resort tot net curtains! 

I would have liked a move-in ready home, I ended up with one which had been neglected for at least 20 years - however, that was reflected in the price, and it did mean I got to have things as I like - I did view various properties which were more up to date but found they often had styles that didn't appeal to me (tiny tiles in the bathroom,  with acres of grout, black kitchen countertops and far too many spotlights!)  I haven't yet been able to replace the kitchen and bathroom but I'll get to them, and they are perfectly functional. 

(I did get the 40+ year old boiler replaced, new radiator valves, had 90% of the house re-plastered and decorated, new carpets throughout, upgraded the wiring (and added lots of extra power points) and had the loft insulated.

Period. - I would have liked a nice red-brick, bow-windowed Victorian or Inter-War semi, but wound up in what is effectively an ex council house (actually built b the local coal mine owner, pre-nationalization, but later taken on by the council, and a similar style) In the end however, I decided that location and off street parking beat were more important. I could have had the other, but it would have been on a busy road and with no parking, which wasn't a compromise I was willing to make. 

Caitykinss

When we bought our house as FTB we didn't really have a big list of needs, other than price. The main aim was finding something we'd be happy in for a few years as our first step on the ladder. Are wants were:

- 3 bedrooms minimum
- Off-street parking
- A garden (we were previously renting a flat)
- Semi-detached or end terrace
- Separate living room and kitchen (our flat was open plan and we hated the cooking smells and the sound of the washing machine)

We managed to get all of those things, plus an en-suite, but compromised on a not so great location. It's not a bad village, but it's a bit further away from where we wanted to be. 

We're happy in the house, but it's be no means our dream home. Our next home will have more wants as although it probably won't be our forever home, it's where we'd like to start our family. We know we're going to have to compromise more due to our budget. Next time, we want:

- Detached (And as far away from other neighbours as possible)
- Nicer area (preferably rural)
- Space for a proper sized dining table (our current house only fits a breakfast table in the kitchen)
- 3 good sized bedrooms with big master bedroom
- We've been spoiled with our en-suite, so I'd love another one, but we don't really need one.
- At least two toilets 

In reality, I think we'll be choosing between detached and nicer area.

My dream is something really rural and characterful, with it's own ready built vegetable garden and huge kitchen and no neighbours for miles around...we're going to need a few job promotions for that!   

rudesupermarkets

The house hunting process is so absurd under current circumstances I feel like you don't even have time to consider some aspects fully before you even offer other than most basic things you check to filter listings.  I was getting to the point of 'beggars can't be choosers' compromise when something came up that met every bit of the wishlist, not complete yet though.... what I've found interesting is that it had taken months after offer acceptance to pick up on all sorts of odds and sods issues, future expansion potential, little bonuses on construction features that make work easy etc. I just wish there wasn't this need to get a for in the door via offer being accepted to have time to genuinely assess a place.  20 minute viewing slots... seriously.

Davesnave

We were quite flexible if we got at least 2 acres with a good aspect, decent soil and a free water supply. We didn't want main road or isolated at the end of a track, as no neighbours in the country = vulnerability to theft and a feeling of not belonging etc.

We didn't want a major building project.

We got those things and a lot more. However, although the property was sound, it had been altered quite crazily, so reluctantly we re-built much of it.

Our free water dries up in summer. We're on a south slope , so although we have space, there's no chance of the big pond or lake I fancied.

Other than that, it's fine, but 150 miles from where we thought we'd be and only 80 from mother-in-law. Whoops!

phoebe1989seb

We were downsizing from a unique detached, largeish, four bed Arts and Crafts style house with fairly big, private garden and having previously owned a few other quite *special* houses that were larger, we wanted to find something smaller (ideally three beds, a couple of receptions and a downstairs loo were essentials) that still compared favourably 😉

In addition we wanted a bit of land so we could run our dogs and perhaps keep a couple of donkeys as well as some chickens.

Very rural with few/no near neighbours, close to a pretty market town.

Oh and definitely a period property that was a project - we didn't want to pay a premium for someone else's refurb/taste, lol!

Of course nowhere ticked all the boxes!

What we ended up buying in early 2018 -

A 400 year old, non-listed, stone built detached former mill with two beds and no downstairs loo. Furthermore, the only bathroom had no window as it was carved out - along with a large landing - of a formerly interconnecting third bedroom.

Only 0.5+ acre of 'garden' plus a wooded area. The garden - actually a barren wasteland punctuated by overgrown laurels, huge trees and ground elder - is also on the Historic Register of Parks and Gardens in Wales 😂

Rural, tucked away location with one resident near neighbour....plus a nearby mansion used as an occasional wedding venue (maximum four per year).

A couple of miles from the *boutique* town of Llandeilo.

Definitely a project as we purchased as a repossession 🙄

Three years in and we're gradually putting our stamp on the place.....

We've completely reconfigured both ground and first floor layouts, swapping kitchen into the front and knocking through into a middle room so we now have a large, eat-in kitchen. Upstairs we have moved the non-loadbearing walls to improve the bedrooms/hallway and create a bathroom with window overlooking the garden 😃

The garden itself is a labour of love that we started on straight away, but it's taking shape and might be as finished as a garden ever gets (ie, never!) by 2025, lol! The chickens will be coming next year....and a friendly local farmer let's us use his smallest paddock for the dogs' exercise!

Soon we're starting work on two extensions, one incorporating an existing outbuilding.

Then DH wants to sell and self-build 😉

ka7e

My practical head (getting older, disabled OH) led me to view newish (less maintenance) properties on an estate very close to my old house on the "good" side of town. 2 were OKish but with very small, overlooked gardens and not-quite-right layouts.

On a whim I viewed an empty 1930s house in a cul-de-sac bordering a not-so-nice area. It had been someone's pride and joy in the 70s, with quality fittings that were now all in need of replacement, outside loo downstairs, tiny kitchen and bathroom...but the garden was a glorious 40' x 70'  backing onto an orchard. The house just gave me the "feels" even on a rainy day in February!

So I bought it and spent the 40k equity transforming it into something that ticks every box I imagined. Big kitchen-diner, downstairs wetroom, big upstairs bathroom, all finished just before lockdown. Last summer was idyllic with the only sound being birdsong and the occasional lawnmower and I shudder to imagine living in one of "practical" choices.