Buying a house, is there always a compromise?

bensboys

We have been looking at houses for the last 12 months within a small radius of about 3 miles. I have seen houses I like but there is always something to put me off. E.g too overlooked, North facing, no green area at the front for children, busy road.
Am I too fussy? Do you think there is always comprises to make when purchasing or have people found a house they believe is 100%.

nhunter100

Nothing is a 100%. Even if the house is neighbours could be a**holes.

miezekatze

It depends on your budget too I guess. If you have a huge budget then you may not have to compromise. Unfortunately most people do though. You'll have to decide what kind of compromise would bother you the least.

bensboys

The difficulty I am having at the moment is trying to figure out which comprises I am ok with. My brain is fried from it all. :-)

April 73

Make a list of your must-haves starting with your top priority and working your way down.
We did this & it helped us to understand what really mattered to us in a new house.
We ended up comprising a bit on the aspect but all of our other must-haves were ticked. We had wanted a west of south facing garden. We bought a house with a south-east facing back garden but it has worked out better than we thought. We have sun from first thing in the morning until 7pm.

bensboys

That's interesting as one of the houses we ruled out was E/SE and I thought the sun would be gone at 12 in the afternoon. I might get another viewing later in the evening and check this out.

Cathmandooo

Use www.suncalc.net to see how long the sun will be in your garden. Great site for that, you can zoom in and pick different times and dates.

A list of your priorities in a house definitely helps

Piriz

Cathmandooo wrote: »

Use www.suncalc.net to see how long the sun will be in your garden. Great site for that, you can zoom in and pick different times and dates.

A list of your priorities in a house definitely helps

also using satellite view on google maps and birds eye view on bing maps gives an indication of the shadow cast on the garden from the house and surrounding houses.

In addition to compromises its also can be difficult to secure a house you do like, there is a lot of buyers out bidding each other and decent houses are often selling for over their asking prices in my experience..

April 73

bensboys wrote: »

That's interesting as one of the houses we ruled out was E/SE and I thought the sun would be gone at 12 in the afternoon. I might get another viewing later in the evening and check this out.

Definitely arrange a late afternoon, evening viewing. We're not overlooked to the south, so as the sun moves around we've found we get far more sunshine than we thought we would have. Granted by 7pm it's at the mid to end of the garden but it's fantastic to have it from sun-up until that time.

TeaBagMania

Typically, yes, there is always compromise

I start by overlooking anything that can be fixed down the road, plumbing, electrical, kitchen, bathroom, etc. if the house has a good structure all those items can be replaced or repaired

My focus is on location and size of home. I want a small house but will settle for a larger house if the location is exactly what im looking for or a smaller house with more land at a lower price might trump the location requirement.

I ve been window shopping on daft.ie for years and maybe found three properties that were perfect without any compromise

Askthe EA

I'm not sure there is ever the perfect property unless you are building it yourself. I would have a few suggestions, as someone said above write out your red line issues. These are different for all of us, but number one should always be structure. Don't compromise on these issues ever. You will only regret it.

Price. Choose a figure you are comfortable with, and dont go a penny above that. If anything ever goes wrong, you'll be angry at yourself for evermore.

View, re view and view again. Any EA should be happy to show it to you multiple times.

Drive by. Pass by at different times of the day & week, get a feel for your neighbours. Have a nose at how they keep their gardens etc, will give you a good idea of the type that they are.

Dont be afraid to ask questions.

Good luck with the hunt!

Alf Veedersane

What we thought were deal breakers before we viewed our first house changed hugely by the time we viewed house 20. Usually the more important issues start to crystallise as you go through the process.

If they haven't, sit down and put together a list of priorities and have them in a hierarchy. You're likely to have to compromise on some things but it's up to you to figure out if the compromise is one you're willing to make. If it isn't, then don't buy it.

duedate

"What we thought were deal breakers before we viewed our first house changed hugely by the time we viewed house 20. Usually the more important issues start to crystallise as you go through the process."

This, x 10 in our situation. To be honest, we've gotten so far from our original list of 'wants' that it is unrecognizable. Must have viewed at least 50 houses in the last 18 - 20 months. Went sale agreed on 2, in both instances the surveyor found problems that we felt would be too expensive to do on top of the price of the house.

Our problem/issue is our budget, I'm painfully aware of that now. It's great if you don't have to compromise on location/house size but I think a lot of people don't have that luxury.

Anywhere we went to look at that did tick most of our criteria (budget/location/house size/garden size) always had another 10 couples also looking, thus a bidding war and some of those 10 couples clearly had a bigger budget than we did as all went a good chunk about the asking.

There is usually one main, main thing which you are unwilling to compromise on - everything else might have to be up for debate.

Best of luck, it's hard to persevere with it (I am so over it by now) but try & be patient - hopefully it will all work out well for you in the end.

Hazydays123

Askthe EA wrote: »

I'm not sure there is ever the perfect property unless you are building it yourself. I would have a few suggestions, as someone said above write out your red line issues. These are different for all of us, but number one should always be structure. Don't compromise on these issues ever. You will only regret it.

Price. Choose a figure you are comfortable with, and dont go a penny above that. If anything ever goes wrong, you'll be angry at yourself for evermore.

View, re view and view again. Any EA should be happy to show it to you multiple times.

Drive by. Pass by at different times of the day & week, get a feel for your neighbours. Have a nose at how they keep their gardens etc, will give you a good idea of the type that they are.

Dont be afraid to ask questions.

Good luck with the hunt!

What's your take on properties with a flat roof?

DavyD_83

From my experience, there will always be some sort of compromise in either location; property type or price.

If your budget is limitless, then 'compromising' on price may not be a deal-breaker, so you should have a lot of flexibility to allow you to achieve the other elements.

Most people tend to work within a defined budget to get the best balance in other elements.

athtrasna

Hazydays123 wrote: »

What's your take on properties with a flat roof?

Insurance/mortgageability may be am issue, it's an added risk

riclad

A Flat roof is fine if its properly sealed and water proof.
Say your budget is 100k, see whats on the market for that price.
Sometimes theres a choice ,a small house in a nice area,
or an older house with a garden in a more downmarket area.
or a ex council house thats cheaper .
house price is based on location, close to schools,shops,railway, bus service s
etc
a house that needs simple repairs ,redecoration ,etc is worth it if you want to live in that area .
One thing is you might buy a house with a small garden,yard, if the house itself is ok.
Dont be put off by a house thats older and full of ugly furniture ,
if its a location you like .
Often theres a choice between an old house that needs repairs , with a larger garden
or a house thats a standard semi d thats in very good condition.
Banks might require a survey to give a loan, if the house is older ,
or is not a standard design .

Askthe EA

Hazydays123 wrote: »

What's your take on properties with a flat roof?

For me, it depends on when it was installed, what type it is and how it is maintained. The modern flat roofs are generally fine (once installed properly) but if it is an older type or felt, pay close attention. Has it been recently refelted? Does it look like the ceiling below has been recently painted? These are often giveaways that the roof has been an issue previously or is currently an issue but is being hidden.

New felt is fine but you cant be sure about the timbers underneath them. A good engineer will know the likelihood of it being an issue.

budhabob

Flat roofs can be fine, just be sure to have it inspected. I opened up some of the ceiling below ours to determine if the timbers were ok - made life easier for the electrician to rewire the extension anyway so it was win win.

Also allowed me to check to see what the situation was with insulation - there was none. There are numerous products now with long life that can be used on a flat roof.

MrDerp

We're very happy with our house, we compromised somewhat on garden but the house is great and has 3 aspects on the ground floor which made orientation moot.

I know lots of people who compromised on location and are generally unhappy now. Nice modern houses that are poorly located for commuting or in an area that's lacking in amenities and 'character'. Then I know people who yearn for more space, and more parking permits, but are really happy with the location and amenities. In either of these extremes, their lives just need a bit more organizing, be it well planned weekly shops and trips/runs in the car, or regular sorting/decluttering/dumping. Overall, the people I know living where they want to live are happier in their compromised houses, than those who compromised on location.

I don't know anyone who gives out about their north/east facing back garden, they just get on with it.

As others have said, you'll learn what's really important after you see a few houses.

Do you really need a sunny back garden with room for a trampoline and a swing set? Is it worth an extra 45/60/90 minutes a day in your car or could you spend that time walking your kids to a nearby park, and enjoy a glass of wine at the bottom of your garden or in the shade?

How often do you really have guests? Would you rather have a 4th bedroom and live in an estate at the extreme edge of your city/town, or would you rather make do when guests stay and walk 5 minutes to the restaurant/pub. Conversely, do you actually go out enough to make that location important, or do you just like the idea of it?

It's a nightmare, as I don't think anyone out there has ambitions that are truly within their budget, or what they want to spend. For us, location was important, but also I was so sick of trawling daft and myhome at 1am, looking for that mythical house I had somehow missed. It's not good for you.

At the end of the day, try to buy the best house you can afford in a location you actually want to live in. If budget permits, set your hard boundary on the locations and then see what's available. If you tease yourself with lovely big houses, or turnkey houses, in locations you don't want to live, you'll never make a compromise to live where you want to.

Hazydays123

Askthe EA wrote: »

For me, it depends on when it was installed, what type it is and how it is maintained. The modern flat roofs are generally fine (once installed properly) but if it is an older type or felt, pay close attention. Has it been recently refelted? Does it look like the ceiling below has been recently painted? These are often giveaways that the roof has been an issue previously or is currently an issue but is being hidden.

New felt is fine but you cant be sure about the timbers underneath them. A good engineer will know the likelihood of it being an issue.

It's an older property. Money is being collected from all the owners to establish a fund for the upgrade of the shared roof (there are a few properties which are attached to each other).

I suppose i'll have to put my faith into the surveyor...

riclad

For someone with kids , a small yard ,or garden is important .
Theres always a compromise between price, location, distance to work.
A 2 bed house in a posh area is more expensive than a 3bed house ,
in a working class area .
Houses close to a luas shop are more expensive in general .
my friend bought a house ,
Her garden is 2 times the size of the other house,s as its at the end of the row .
A flat roof may make no difference to price of insurance,
they go more by location ,or the size of the house .

Ursus Horribilis

The one thing I didn't want to compromise on was the location and the neighbourhood. I looked at a lovely house that I still wish I could've picked up and spirited away from where it's built. But the estate it was in wasn't all that great when we drove around and looked at the neighbouring houses. And some of the neighbours.... yes I know that's going to sound so snobby!