2-bed townhouse vs. 3-bed semi-d dormer..?

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Lynnie

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Hi all,

apologies in advance if this is a stupid thing to ask but my head is melted thinking about it and I could really use some impartial imput.

Myself and The Other Half [both FTBs] are currently looking to move out of our parents' houses and buy our first place together. We've seen two properties that we like the look of and seem to fit our requirements; however, we're not sure which is the best buy for our circumstances...

Property 1: 2-Bed End of Terrace Townhouse
> "Offers in excess €195k" [current offer on it is €203k]
> Back of the house/garden is west-facing
> Rear garden backs onto the large rear garden of a private residence; front of the property faces the side of another house in the estate
> Wired for alarm
> No access to the kitchen through the hall due to the downstairs W.C., but the downstairs seems fairly open plan otherwise
> Both bedrooms are good size doubles
> GFCH, uPVC double glazed windows, side entrance to rear garden, major kitchen appliances incl. in sale
> One allocated parking space and visitors' spaces but no driveway/own front garden [although there is quite a large communal green area with trees out the front]

Property 2: 3-Bed Semi-Detached Dormer Bungalow
> Asking price: €220k
> Back of the house/garden is east-facing
> Slightly larger rear garden backs onto the rear of another rear garden in the same estate; front of the house faces the front of another house [so pretty typical estate situation]
> Fully alarmed
> Slightly larger kitchen/dining area and living room
> 2 double bedrooms and 1 single
> GFCH, uPVC double glazed windows, side access to rear garden, major kitchen appliances incl. in sale
> Own driveway and front garden

Both have a downstairs guest W.C. and one bedroom en-suite, are in small, well-maintained estates, within a three minute walk of the train station and the nearest Centra.

As there's just the two of us, we not sure that we necessarily need the extra space that the three bed would give us, but in terms of value for money/best buy and looking to the future for ease of resale/rental potential/whatever, we don't know which way to go. Is an extra single bedroom and some extra downstairs space worth €25k?

Sorry for such a long-winded post but I desperately needed to get that off my chest - absolutely any thoughts/suggestions/ideas welcomed with open arms.
 
I'd go for the 3-bed semi without even giving it a second thought.

Reasons being

1) ease of resale. The market for a 3-bed includes families, young couples, investors, etc. The 2-bed will only pull in investors or couples really.

2) driveway and front garden rather than allocated parking space. If you needed an extra parking space, you simply concrete/cobblelock part of your garden. Allocated parking spaces can be a nightmare, esp when clamping is imposed in order to regulate it. Try inviting a few friends around then!

3) if a market crash were to happen, it's gonna be the apartments/townhouses that are gonna really suffer the brunt of it imho. If you decide to start a family in the next few years, you'd find it difficult in these circumstances to trade up. If you're already in a 3-bed, you can sit tight and stay where you are.

Good luck whatever you choose!
 
I would go for a 3 bed semi-d any day simply because it can sold easily even if the markets were to crash tomorrow.
 
Yeah, the logical grown-up in me agrees with you. I think we were getting very excited about the 2-bed partly because compared to similar properties that we've looked at, it's about half the price and an awful lot bigger. [Although admittedly the other ones were around Sallins/Naas, what did we expect!]

It's also "prettier", for want of a better word. [Can you tell I'm a never-bought-a-house-before girl..?! :rolleyes:]
 
stuartmc said:
the 3-bed semi-d dormer went sale agreed last week :(
Click to expand...
Just to clarify, stuartmc doesn't posess extraordinary psychic powers, he's The Other Half. [And I don't know why he didn't just ring me.]

So, should we take a step back and hope another of these 3-beds comes on the market or should we rethink the 2-bed? [I'm fixing on these two estates as they're the only two within a short walk of the train station which is one of our main concerns.]
 
We were in a similar situation a couple of months back, could have got a 2 bed end of terrace, we were going to go for it as there wasn't really anything else at the time that we could afford. But then the chance of a 3 bed semi came up and we jumped at it. Much bigger, much better chance of re-sale. Won it for me hands down, completely forgot about the 2 bed as soon as we saw it.

Just read there that the 3 bed sold, is there another similar one around? What area are you looking in?
 
Lynnie...is there the potential to extend the 2 bed town house? If this is possible and you feel you would do this, it might be worth considering...otherwise 3 beds will hold their value better
 
Hiya roxy, we are looking in Portarlington and hoping to spend in the region of 200-230k.

Just hopped on to myhome.ie and there isn't really anything similar; there are a couple of 3-bed two-storey semis in our price range but can't tell where they are in relation to the train [the fabulous "map this property" facility on the website never fails to disappoint :rolleyes:] and the estate doesn't look too hot.

Sunster - good thinkin but I don't think we could extend as the side of the house that's not attached is right next to the car park & I'd say extending much out the back would really eat into the garden...
 
I know, its so frustrating isn't it, we were in the exact same boat as you. All I can say is get very pally with local estate agents, in our situation we originally had a deposit on a house that fell through and told the estate agent to hang onto the cheque so we could try for a quick sale on the next house we could get and be first in with booking deposit. We went to see 2 bed which was with another EA and I called the one with our deposit and said if he didn't have anything else coming up we'd go for the 2 bed what with the way the prices were going. He told us to hang on day as he thought he had something coming in. That was on the Wednesday I think and by the Saturday we had viewed, put deposit down and offer accepted without the house ever going on the market. So opportunities do come up, just drive them mad, they'll eventually feel sorry for you. Have booking deposit ready, people are easily persuaded with money at the ready!

Hold in there, you're probably sick of people saying 'the right house is out there for you' bla, but it will happen!

p.s. that map thingy is a joke, best map is yourselves in the car on a Sunday afternoon!
 
Do I take it by your talk of the train station that one or both of you have to commute back to Dublin? In that case I'd say make proximity to the train station very high on your list of priorities. I know the extra space in a 3 bed would be wonderful, but if you're not planning on adding to the population in the short term :) then proximity to your main transport links could make a huge difference to your quality of life. I'd also echo advice given on an earlier post and test out the location on a traffic jammed Monday morning as well as the usual weekend/evening viewing times.
 
Yep both of us work in The Big Schmoke, Himself in Citywest and me in Donnybrook. At the moment we both commute from Naas; he intends to continue driving and I'd be sticking with public transport.

Took the commute to Portarlington from work for a "test drive" yesterday evening and it took Himself 45 mins driving [which is about 3 times his usual journey but still not chronic] and took me the guts of 2 hours on Dublin Bus/train - but this is what the journey from Naas takes on Bus Eireann anyway!!

And there are definitely no plans to add to the population! :p
 
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