Lydia72

A few years ago I looked round a lot of new build show houses (friend was thinking of buying one) and it seems to me they are all employing the same tricks - implying a 'lifestyle' will be yours if you buy the house.
IMO you have to look beyond the nice furnishings etc; my friend was raving about the fitted kitchen (I couldn't see where their fridge freezer would go) friend loved the lounge (had one armchair and a small sofa plus a nest of coffee tables so looked quite large until you realise there is no room for another armchair or a TV!), friend loved the spacious bedrooms (one double bed plus two bedside cabinets errr where do you hang your clothes?). I couldn't figure out where they would store an ironing board or a vacuum cleaner.....the sales person also failed to point out that next to the front garden was a public footpath (and the garden had to be open plan, fence or hedges etc not allowed).

Usual things in show houses are using the same coloured carpet or flooring throughout the house to make the rooms 'flow' into each other, having lots of extra lights in every room (switched on for viewers), every table/ sideboard etc being made of glass (when you can see the floor below it makes the space seem bigger), dining table being set with nice crockery and napkins etc ("live here and you will be having lovely dinner parties!"), one colour scheme throughout the house - again to help the 'flow', lots of mirrors, scaled down furniture.....all designed to make the house look bigger than what it actually is and lighter and brighter.

Having said all that I do actually live in a new build and I love it! Funny thing is I wouldn't dream of criticizing someones 'period' home but they always feel the need to make comments on new builds (characterless boxes blah blah blah, "no offence") and they fail to mention all the negative aspects of older properties.

Monkeybone

Happy wife, happy life. Whatever the lady wants tends to be what the couple gets

We bought a 2 year old place as it was miles better than anything else in our price range old or new. It's nt huge but for a first house we don't need big, and it's big enough for us now. It's not somewhere I'd plan to raise a family, but it's good enough for now.

Moving in was hassle free, everything works, no work needs doing to anything, was an easy process which for a first place is what we wanted.

MattW

The reason why I stay off threads like these.

richardg

as long as people keep on buying new build houses, i'll still be working (and no, i'm not an estate agent!)

there are pros and cons with each - and each to their own i say. take a look at the floorplan for the new house. then have a think about which walls you would want to put your furniture on. then sit back and look at the floor plan again

JamieMacdonald

My girlfriend and I looked at about 30 odd houses, but it was worth it in the end. We started off looking at semi-det properties with 3 beds, and like you say they all had a small 3rd bedroom! This didn't bother us too much though as we just wanted 2 decent sized double bedrooms plus a spare room. We were lucky in that we both like older houses - something with character. I don't think my girlfriend could cope with living in a building site though, so it had to be something which didn't need any/much work! After about 20 viewings I saw a terraced property and, as I was getting a bit despondant, I thought I'd give it a go. For some reason we'd discounted terraced houses, not really sure why (snobbery maybe? ). But anyway - we loved it. It wasn't quite suitable (small garden/main road) but it really opened our eyes to another part of the market which we hadn't been exploring. We looked at a couple more and within a couple of weeks we found our current house, which is a 3 bed (extended) turn-of-century terrace with 150ft garden right next to the countryside/coast which was just what we want. It has also been fully refurbished, with new electrics/central heating and there is room to extend in to the loft.

So what I am saying is go and look at things which you might not have originally considered, worst case scenario is you can confirm that they are definitely not for you - but you might be pleasantly surprised!

I'm not a big fan of 'new build' type houses, but I like older properties done in a modern style.

collierm

Same here, we moved into our new place last November after searching for the best part of 6 months. She wanted a new house, I didn't like the fact the walls were so thin and there was so little space. We must have looked at over 30 houses and eventually we bought a 1960's bay fronted semi with a garage, driveway parking for 4 cars and a massive garden (go to the end of it, you can't see the house!).

You get a lot more for your money with older houses and they'll stand the test of time better than new houses made of plaster dust and wood shavings.

Cheers

Matt

Aaquil

Thanks for all the replies... Nimbus any input helps so thank you.