How do you know if the house is THE ONE?

housebuyer143

There will always be compromises that you have to make but I always went for area first, and then the must haves and then would view. If you have a limited budget then can you afford the dream home? You can't tend to have it all unfortunately.

I walked into a few and thought "I could live here, it's quite nice, maybe the rooms are a bit small" but then walked into the one I bought and knew I was going to buy it within 5 seconds of the front door opening. It's just a feeling you get, which for me comes from all the items listed above all coming together in one house. In my opinion if the area is perfect and the house is the right size, then you can't really make a wrong decision. Just be certain you are not making too many compromises. 

It's hard to explain although not every house has to be "the one", you do tend to just know. 

RelievedSheff

We knew as soon as we walked into our current house that it was the one for us. It is difficult to explain but you just get a feeling about a house. We knew within minutes it was "the one"

It sounds very similar in style and design to the one that you are considering. Our driveway is to the rear of the house and the garden on the side. We use the back door rather than the front door all of the time. It's easier with the dog anyway going into the hard floored kitchen rather than over the cream carpets in the hallway!

Ours is 3 bed as well with 2 good sized doubles and then a good sized single. Most of the time it is only the two of us and the dog so loads of room and there is still loads of room when we have guests stay over plus we all have our own bathroom space as our bedroom has the ensuite. 

bigolsausage

RelievedSheff said:

We knew as soon as we walked into our current house that it was the one for us. It is difficult to explain but you just get a feeling about a house. We knew within minutes it was "the one"

It sounds very similar in style and design to the one that you are considering. Our driveway is to the rear of the house and the garden on the side. We use the back door rather than the front door all of the time. It's easier with the dog anyway going into the hard floored kitchen rather than over the cream carpets in the hallway!

Ours is 3 bed as well with 2 good sized doubles and then a good sized single. Most of the time it is only the two of us and the dog so loads of room and there is still loads of room when we have guests stay over plus we all have our own bathroom space as our bedroom has the ensuite. 

This sounds similar to what I'm looking at. Do you have any problems with the driveway being behind the house? This one is sandwiched between the wall of the house and the neighbours fence. There is an open space at the end by the garage that makes it easier to open doors, and there's a space at the top of the driveway before the house starts, so it's not too bad, I guess. 

Bigphil1474

OP, we've also been looking about 3 months, and have found a few great houses, but have only recently been in a position to make an offer. Unfortunately, they've all gone now. Personally, if I can't find the perfect house now, then I'd settle for most of the boxes being ticked with an eye to moving again in the future. I'd like to be in a house I love before I retire. 

There's only 2 of us, but apparently we need a 4 bed house so that if son and wife/kids come at the same time as daughter and partner we can fit everyone in alongside having an office for my job, and a hobby room for the OH. I'd have gone for a 2 bed myself but hey ho.

SensibleSarah

I knew that I wouldn't be able to afford a house I really liked (small fixer-uppers only) - so I went for the one I hated least, over the course of 18 months of looking  
I've been there 13 years now - very much longer than first intended, but plans change and life happens. 
Next house will be my forever home, so I'll be much pickier and will have a budget that enables me to have more options than the first time round. I've got a long list of 'wants' but only a few that are deal-breakers. 

However, I'm not expecting a 'feeling' that some people talk about. If it ticks all the practical boxes on my list, it'll be 'the one'. 

lika_86

bigolsausage said:

lika_86 said:

Why can't the box room be all three of the things you mention? We have a spare bedroom that's about 2.3m x 2.6m and it fits in a desk and sofa bed that pulls out into a full double bed. We replaced the door with a pocket door to maximise floor space and when the bed is out there isn't a lot of spare room, but there's enough. Work computer monitors can be plugged into laptops to watch TV on. It's very doable even with a tiny room.

Yes, I have found a way to make it work. I think that issue has now been resolved. It's not perfect but it will do for us. 

The small room is 3.15 x 2.26. We do have a daybed but it's huge when it's pulled out so might need to get a smaller sofa bed and see if that will work. 

If it helps, the Dreams Haze sofa bed is the one we have, it's not necessarily the one we'd have chosen given all the sofa beds out there but it's the only one we found that was both a full double bed, had arms (so many don't) and worked with our room configuration by opening out on the short end of the bed rather than the long end. I think their Hazel sofa bed is about the same in terms of dimensions.

BungalowBel

We bought our first house in 1976, a Victorian three-bed terrace.  We were only young, my husband wanted a cellar, I wanted an attic room and we both wanted a garden.  So we really ignored the rest of the house and just looked at those things.  Sold!  It did feel like home though.

We kept that house for forty years, and apart from eight years when we lived in Spain, lived in it continuously, brought our son up in it.

Our Spanish house - the criteria were, we wanted every habitable room to have a window (many houses in that part of Spain don't have these), we wanted some outside space (many don't have any land) and we wanted at least two bedrooms.

We found a three-bedroom house with a roof terrace and a wonderful view.  It was the view which sold it to us and we were happy there for eight years until it was time to return to the UK .

We came back to the terraced house, which our son had been looking after for us, but three years later decided to move.

Our bungalow - it was in one of the areas we wanted, it had a drive (neither the Victorian house nor the Spanish house had one), it had two bedrooms the same size, and it was a bungalow with a big garden.  

So what I am trying to say is, you may have different criteria at certain times of your life, so you need to decide what is essential and what you would like but could do without, then decide if this house is for you.  If you get 'the feeling', even better.  And remember, you can change the house, but you can't change the location.  We had to do extensive work on all three of our homes.

RHemmings

Now that I have a house, my thoughts are about how to make it THE ONE over time. E.g. I think that replacing two internal doors with folding doors will significantly improve it for me. And, I want to get rid of a lot of the gravel at the front and have lawn and small trees. And so on. Providing that the basic shape and location are in the ballpark, the rest should be achievable. At least, that's what I think. 

If I had bought a more impressive house, then I would have less money for improvements. 

Of course, for a house that's not a forever home, the sums are different. 

EssexHebridean

When we saw the listing for the house we now live in, back in May last year, we both agreed that not only did we need to view it, we needed to view it fast. We viewed a few days later, and the moment we set foot through the door we both knew it was "our house". And as of the beginning of September, it is! 

I was hugely sceptical about the whole "you'll know" idea - previous to that one, we'd viewed a number of places, some we knew immediately weren't for us, some we liked - one we liked enough that we had originally thought it was the one we'd buy. Our now home was the first one we felt immediately certain about though. 

horsewithnoname

My current home was one I looked at because it suited what I wanted, I’d not even put my old home on the market but as soon as I set foot in it I just knew I was going to buy it before even looking round. Sounds mad, I’ve spent more time choosing towels, but I just knew.