How do you know if the house is THE ONE?

RelievedSheff

bigolsausage said:

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. 

No our driveway is quite wide and next doors drive is next to ours.

AlexMac

Toss a coin.

As it comes down, the lurch in your gut will tell you whether it's advice is right or wrong.

Postik

bigolsausage said:

I'm not sure I got the feeling that this is our house, the feeling that everyone keeps asking if I got it or not. I don't know if I'll ever get that feeling since I can't afford the house I actually do want. 

I felt like this, I didn't have a million pounds plus spare to buy the house I'd actually like.  But once you get accustomed to what your budget is and see various houses, some better than others, you get a feel for "which is the best of a bad bunch."  I use that term in jest somewhat because I think even if you had a million pounds to spend you would still find something wrong with the houses you looked at and would still end up making compromises - I suspect it's all relative regardless of how much you spend.

When I was looking at houses there are some I found that "ticked most of the boxes" but I just had an uneasy feeling about them.  The one I settled on in the end still had compromises but I could really envisage myself living there.

I think as someone else mentioned - how would you feel if the house was sold to someone else the next day?  Disappointed or relieved?

horsewithnoname

[Deleted User] said:

Most British houses are crap. As you have found, "3 bedrooms" is often 2 bedrooms and a cupboard. Almost none of them have been designed well. Terraces and badly laid out estates mean there is always a possibility of neighbour problems.

I could go on, you get the point.

So figure out what is important, and what is essential, and prepare to compromise on everything else. It feels wrong paying so much for something so compromised and outright bad in many aspects, but that's life here in Britain.

You know what they say about opinions and bottom holes….

Savvy_Sue

I remember before buying our first house reading the Which Guide to buying and selling houses, and one of the first things is says is the obvious one, already mentioned: the only thing you can't change about a house is its location! 

Our latest purchase, we were gazumped on one which seemed perfect - location, size, price ... and just couldn't seem to find anything in a hurry, but we'd got an offer on our house and we were moving cross country over the summer holidays and were desperate to see the boys start at their new schools in September. So we moved in with a friend who was renting in the new area, and survived reasonably well, but there was nothing suitable within our price range. Then a friend suggested we should consider buying jointly with the friend who was renting, which opened up a wider choice. 

We had a bundle of half a dozen sets of details (still sent out on paper, through the post in those far-off days!). Our friend went to look at one, which he thought was plausible. I went to look at it: DH arrived very late and I'd already decided that this was Our House. I told him he didn't really need to look round because This Was It. Of course he insisted on doing so, and concluded that it was too small. I went through the sets of details we had: they were all smaller, too few bedrooms, and most importantly, all in the wrong place - whereas this one was about as close to our first offer as it was possible to be. His concern that there was no space for his office - he's been working on the landing (which is massive) ever since. Since the boys left home he has had a choice of bedrooms he could move into, but he hasn't quite managed it, so it can't be that unsuitable. 

Your concern about the driveway: if there isn't lighting along that side of the house, you might want to put some in. And if the space is wide enough, you might want to add 'margins' of some kind to flag up when you're getting too close to the wall / fence (although some cars will beep at you if you get too close to anything - ours only does so if we're going backwards). You'll get used to it very quickly but your visitors might appreciate it. 

Sistergold

Once budget, location and requirements are established and have been met. The one is the house you don’t want to lose in the bunch you can afford. For most of us it’s not about dream house with a no limit budget. 

[Deleted User]

MeteredOut said:

[Deleted User] said:

Most British houses are crap. As you have found, "3 bedrooms" is often 2 bedrooms and a cupboard. Almost none of them have been designed well. Terraces and badly laid out estates mean there is always a possibility of neighbour problems.

I could go on, you get the point.

So figure out what is important, and what is essential, and prepare to compromise on everything else. It feels wrong paying so much for something so compromised and outright bad in many aspects, but that's life here in Britain.

Not one for this thread, but I'd be interested (in a new thread) for your full list of reasons why "most British houses are crap". That's certainly not been my experience across the multiple houses I've bought and sold.

You need to live in a better country for a while, learn what their houses are like.

Vannaa

Simple answer - my wife said 'this is the one' during the viewing. After nearly 40 years together I've learnt to shrug my shoulders and say 'OK' when she makes a decision based on her feelings.

[Deleted User]

Misogyny is alive and well I see.

Vannaa

I see !!!!!! posting crap is also alive and well.