Oh an as we speak my decision making may have just got a little easier!... The house with the long thing garden with the hedge has just changed to Sold subject to checks!! I'm just waiting for this to be confirmed by the estate agents.
Whats funny though is that particular house as been on the market since January 2018 and the moment we come to look at this it gets sold lol
However there is still my preferred walled garden house still available touch wood! That has been on the market since Feb this year.
I would definitely go for the walled garden, more than enough space for a greenhouse, shed and patio plus a lovely garden. We've just moved and it's err 'interesting' how estate agents use wide angle lenses on their cameras to enhance and enlarge a garden.
Go and see as many as you can because it will increase your knowledge of what is available withing your budget, desired area and preferred style. Then you go by feel. The house for you will "feel" right.
That said, keep a beady eye out for dodgy wiring, damp patches, dodgy "improvements" by previous owners, decent roof and gutters, electric sockets in the right places, double glazing, insulation levels and materials, traffic levels, flight paths, train lines.........
Enjoy the process. It will be at times exhausting and at others baffling but just keep your eyes and ears open and you should find a good one. When you do, let us know and we'll happily advise on the garden when you're ready to start.
Vendée - 20kms from Atlantic coast.
"The price good men (and women) pay for indifference to public affairs is to be ruled by evil men (and women)."
@Jellyfire I totally agree with what you say about listings being different to reality. We drove to the walled garden house to see it from the outside and what the area was like. It is a white house and it shows brilliant white on the photos yet in reality it needs a good repaint!! So it makes you wonder if the inside might be the same.
It's easy enough to clean a house and refresh paint if everything else is sound. Chances are you'll want your own colour schemes anyway. The important thing is to see if the house will fit your needs - budget, comfort, security, hobbies, access to work and play.
Vendée - 20kms from Atlantic coast.
"The price good men (and women) pay for indifference to public affairs is to be ruled by evil men (and women)."
Exactly the opposite. The lack of it would put me off (possibly). It is easy to remove a hedge but it takes years to grow one.
Seriously, I am absolutely shocked by the responses. Considering purchase for higher tens or lower hundreds of pounds, how can be anyone put off by something which can be removed in one weekend and replaced with a fence for what is a negligible amount of money in comparison with house prices.
We are extremely lucky that we were able to find and buy a house in the location we wanted, good size for us, within our budget and with a decent size garden. It never ticks all the boxes but I consider us lucky because our house ticks the important ones.
What Obs has said is absolutely right. That TV series "location, location...…" has the perfect name for one of those property programmes because if you find the right house - but in the wrong place - you can't alter the place but can do things to the house. Another thing to consider is whether the property is one of the least expensive in the street and if there is some significant reason why that might be. If it's mostly a matter of a bit of updating that's something you'd be able to do, but structural issues are another thing altogether! Buying the cheapest house in the street often turns out to be a good thing in the end. If you reach the stage when you might make an offer on a property, you should say that your offer is "subject to survey and contract". It's always best to have a full structural survey carried out, rather than a survey for mortgage purposes only. Surveys may show some things which you could deal with but would want to reduce the offer to take the related costs into account. It's always a good idea to find out which boundaries are the responsibility of the property owner too.
@CraighB It's been many years (30 to be precise) since l was house hunting, so long before the days of the internet. We used to get all the paper details from the agents, but the same criteria applies. The agents are trying to sell the house so obviously they are going to place it in the best possible light. As you have found out already, the reality very often bares no resemblance to the pictures you've looked at online. The only way is to look at as many houses (and gardens) as possible. Just because it's been on the market for a long time it doesn't necessarily mean there's anything wrong with it, it may be because other people have no imagination, or are put off by the work required. Unless there's a really strong reason for discounting it (rough area, no garden, only an outside loo), l would take a look. You never know what you might find. There is also "the feeling" that you get when you walk in to a place , you can just picture yourself living there. Good luck !
Our newly purchased fitted the bill almost to a tee. We believe we paid a little over the odds for it but that didn't matter. We wanted it that much. It needed almost no decorating, a bus into town every thirty minutes, a small parade of shops (Co-op, chippie, etc) 200yds away, five pubs and two restaurants within a fifteen minute walk, and a small garden which was nicely planted, a blessed relief after 1/3 acre of bindweed and ground elder.
As other people have said, when you come across the right place you just feel it. I don't know if it's the subconscious mind doing a rapid evaluation, but many people have said that's how it is. It certainly was for us!
The only other comment, if you haven't bought a house before, is be patient. It's a slow process!
Posts
Whats funny though is that particular house as been on the market since January 2018 and the moment we come to look at this it gets sold lol
However there is still my preferred walled garden house still available touch wood! That has been on the market since Feb this year.
That said, keep a beady eye out for dodgy wiring, damp patches, dodgy "improvements" by previous owners, decent roof and gutters, electric sockets in the right places, double glazing, insulation levels and materials, traffic levels, flight paths, train lines.........
Enjoy the process. It will be at times exhausting and at others baffling but just keep your eyes and ears open and you should find a good one. When you do, let us know and we'll happily advise on the garden when you're ready to start.
Good luck !
The only other comment, if you haven't bought a house before, is be patient. It's a slow process!