Buying house on main road or side street

Schwarzwald

Lived on a busy London road for 6 years.
house shook when lorries passed by, lot’s of sirens, and general noise.

personally would defo stay away from any busy main roads, i found it v draining over time. Especially with kids.

sonub4ualt

Lavendyr said:

It's really hard to know what to say without knowing what your priorities are. If you need a bigger garden, then the first one sounds promising, but if you value peace and quiet then the second one sounds better. Personally I'm a fan of a detached house but the garden doesn't sound like a family garden to me so question mark there. But if you have 3 kids how long is a 3 bed going to last you - they may well want their own rooms in time, are you considering this as a lifetime home or a mid-term home? Also worthwhile knowing what amenities are nearby - e.g. is there a park near that you could take the kids to so they can run around etc? And how tied to that secondary school are you - i.e. how important is the catchment? So many questions!

@Lavendyr the main road ticks all the boxes for what we are looking for, schools catchment for both primary and secondary(Grammar school) with park about 5-10 min walk except that it is on the main road. The inside street house ticks all the boxes except for very tiny garden and the detached house is extended, so no further scope, but the semi detached has lot of potential including adding a conservatory, 4th bedroom (planning permission approved) and a large garden. 

I have been WFH since pandemic, will hardly visit my office once in a month so less driving. Considering my little one is 2 year old we would be spending another 12-14 years within the area.

Bendy_House

Hard for anyone but yourselves to decide just how much of a drawback - noise & pollution - the main road location will be. I mean, if you were to knock on the neighbouring houses, half would probably say "Yes, it's horrible," and half, "You get used to it."
The DETACHED house (that's a biggie in my books, but might not be in yours), will also cost you ~£50k less in around 10 years time, as you wouldn't have to add the fourth bedroom! You could use some of that to make the limited garden something special to sit out in? 
The house you passed on due to the survey, just how bad was this, and how much better a house was it? Could you list the big issues with it? Is it still available?!
I guess the pressure is on you as you are in a chain, but don't make a 'mistake'.

Bendy_House

(And if you could post links to both - or all 3 -houses, folk love to have a nosy. Er, I mean it might help to highlight other angles and issues. )

sonub4ualt

Bendy_House said:

Hard for anyone but yourselves to decide just how much of a drawback - noise & pollution - the main road location will be. I mean, if you were to knock on the neighbouring houses, half would probably say "Yes, it's horrible," and half, "You get used to it."
The DETACHED house (that's a biggie in my books, but might not be in yours), will also cost you ~£50k less in around 10 years time, as you wouldn't have to add the fourth bedroom! You could use some of that to make the limited garden something special to sit out in? 
The house you passed on due to the survey, just how bad was this, and how much better a house was it? Could you list the big issues with it? Is it still available?!
I guess the pressure is on you as you are in a chain, but don't make a 'mistake'.

Yes absolutely, the pressure is on us. The house we passed on had rising damp, movement in building, cracks on walls and bay windows, ceiling changing, garden drain issue, complete roof replacement, but 3 bed detached in a cul-de-sac prime location £440000, but the surveyor quoted  circa £70-£100k to get it to basic standard for us to move in. 

The 2nd property with small garden has slabs which can accommodate about 5-6 prople but in a triangular shape, and a bit of grass to walk around.

sonub4ualt

Main road property

sonub4ualt

Detached property with big driveway and garden at the back

ProDave

Detached one on quiet street every day for me.

I hated living on a busy road, and I hated sharing a party wall with neigbours.  I like my quiet in a house.

Snookie12cat

That main road, is too busy for my liking, and you will get cars and motorcycles going faster than 30mph.
I would only buy detached in a quiet street, and honestly that garden looks an okay size for me, but depends what you want. You cannot get more space so if you are on the fence about them both, maybe buy neither

user1977

It's a "side street", not an "inside street".