What to compromise on when buying a house?

C

Carmel

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Hi
We sold our house last year and have been renting while we look for a new house (in Dublin). We have a list of 'wants' but finding a house that meets all of them within our price range is proving a challenge. We are reluctant to compromise on what is such an important purchase, but don't want to rent for much longer. Our eldest is due to start school in 2013 and we want to be settled by this September so that we can get him a school place.

Our list of 'wants' is:
  • Within 10 minutes walk of the QBC on the N11, preferably on the 46A route (for my commute into town, and my husband works in Dun Laoghaire)
  • South or west facing rear garden
  • 3 living spaces (kitchen/dining, living room and family room)
  • Side passage (for bikes, lawnmower)
  • Downstairs toilet
  • minimum 3 bedrooms
As a location, top of our list is Stillorgan. The house type around there would generally mean converting a garage to gain the third living space. We would be quite happy to get a fixer upper and carry out this work ourselves. At this stage, I think that we will have to decide between a sunny back garden and a side passage.

Any thoughts / advice?
 
I was going to suggest living close to the dart line, rather than the QBC, but I think most of those areas are even dearer!

Depending on you budget the below should be attainable - none of them are unreasonable
 
Totally dependent on budget, if you have a lot to spend you might not have to sacrifice anything!
 
Compromise

Hi Advisepls
The problem is that our budget isn't stretching to all of the items in the list. My question is what to compromise on?

C
 
It's up to you, only you can decide. My personal thoughts on your list would be:


  • Within 10 minutes walk of the QBC on the N11, preferably on the 46A route (for my commute into town, and my husband works in Dun Laoghaire)Very important - you don't want to waste loads of time commuting
  • South or west facing rear garden - I personally would be less concerned about the aspect once there was a decent garden, but as a First time buyer I have bee told that these thing become more important as time goes on.
  • 3 living spaces (kitchen/dining, living room and family room) A decent size kitchen/dining and a living room should be enough. How many kids do you have? Could a small spare room upstairs function as family room for the kids
  • Side passage (for bikes, lawnmower)Pretty important if you have kids. Not essential. In fact this is one of the things I may be sacrificing myself, although I'd prefer a side entrance.
  • Downstairs toilet- Not essential but handy. Check if there is room under the stairs to add one later when you have the money
  • minimum 3 bedrooms- Pretty non-negotiable, you need what you need!
How much above budget are the house that fit all criteria asking? Remember, asking prices are not selling prices.
 
That seems like a fairly standard wish list. Can't see anything there that one could comprise on, apart perhaps from the west facing garden. But then I'm not a gardener. The side entrance would be a "must have" for me, for bikes, bins and perhaps some DIY supplies.
 
Carmel said:
  • Within 10 minutes walk of the QBC on the N11, preferably on the 46A route (for my commute into town, and my husband works in Dun Laoghaire)
  • South or west facing rear garden
  • 3 living spaces (kitchen/dining, living room and family room)
  • Side passage (for bikes, lawnmower)
  • Downstairs toilet
  • minimum 3 bedrooms
Click to expand...

You can move some of these goals through the application of time or money, but some are pretty much inelastic.

10 minutes walk: will you take 15 mins? 20 mins? Cycle (foldable bike for the bus journey)?
South/west facing: you can't throw money at this one, so I think you can't compromise on it.
3 living spaces: If a close candidate house has 2 spaces, would you live with it until you can build an extension? Very expensive, so technically an area for compromise, but you need to consider the costs involved vs. the cost of ideal houses
Side passage: once again, you can't throw money at it, so if it's important, you can't compromise on this.
Downstairs toilet: You can use one of those saniflow setups to install a small toilet room in an existing downstairs area, so cost this up and see if it makes sense overall on the costs again.
3 bedrooms: You can't compromise on this one.
 
We kind of had to choose between a S/W facing garden and a side passage, and went for the former. Although it's not ideal, we can get over having to bring stuff through the house, but we'll never be able to rotate the aspect of our house/garden.
 
It is easy, compromise on the 3 living spaces and the downstairs toilet if there is space to extend in the future. These two items are most easily solved.
 
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