Bungalow on an awkward plot - to buy or not?

Whilst a corner section does have its advantages, I’m wondering if the driving force here is price? From what you say there appears to be rather more cons than pros and it’s the cons you can do nothing about….section size, position of buildings on the land and concerns re future alterations around the chimney. And that’s not addressing the fact it’s taken along time to sell. Several red flags here.

If the only thing you are finding attractive is the price, I’d not buy. Too many cons as denby has pointed out.

It sounds to me the only thing attractive about the house is the price and the cons mentioned you cannot change. I personally would look elsewhere especially as it has been on the market several times over the last few years and appears to be very difficult to sell.

You are not getting any younger and heaving groceries a distance is not good.

With those reservations I think I would pass on this bungalow if I were you.

However I wonder if
-the chimney is necessary for heating?
-the road is a busy one? Have there been accidents at the junction?
- could the front garden become a drive-in to help with loading/unloading the car?

Good luck with your search.

I wouldn't ever look at bungalow on a corner plot. I think you have already decided it's not what you want. So I would look for one on a straight bit of a road. Where I live there are 40 bungalows mine is in the the perfect place. 4 th bungalow from the one end and 18 th from other end of the road. . I have more garden than my neighbours because the house the back of me is in the corner of the next road. Which met I had a space the back of my garage for 6'x4' greenhouse. Mines a 2 bed but my room sizes are bigger than shown on your plan. Brought it 4 years ago for £220k now worth £320k.

I don’t suppose that information really helps the OP’s decision but as you say, it sounds as though she may already have decided it’s not what she wants and I can certainly see there are too many cons to that bungalow.

Put on your other, optimists's, hat and look for ways you could use the house, if you saved enough on the price to do some alterations. If you didn't fill the garage with stuff (it looks like a double one, so you could restrict the "stuff" to one side), and added a remote-control door, you could drive in with the shopping and take the bags into the house through the French doors.

You could resite the kitchen to be in the part of the living-room beside those French doors, and have your dining room at the other end of that room near the back bay window, and remove the wall into what is now the kitchen to make that the sitting end. A low partition could partly divide the kitchen from the dining part, with furniture against it that was either dining or livingroom. The current back door could be bricked up and the French doors considered the new back door. The side passageway to the old kitchen door could have a locked gate and be just a place to keep the bins.

Has the chimney been definitely stated to be essential? If not, it could still be removed to widen the sitting area at that point and smooth out the transition from sitting to dining - but it may be that you could make a feature of the sitting end being "snug".

From the panels on the roof. I think the back of the house faces south. You could have the garden mostly as patio and outdoor living, with a high fence and/or trellis between your garden and the neighbours, and rely on the front and side for your greenery..

It could be delightful, but it would take imagination and possibly a fair bit of money. I think you have already made up your mind on it.

Where is this bargain bungalow? I know someone who might find this exactly what they are looking for, but the location matters.

if you already think it has an awkward point then say it has been on the market several times over the years but did not sell.... you can bet many people looked into buying it to renovate but let it go. beware!

Awkward plot says it all I would pass on that one.

Elegran
There’s always a way, isn’t there.
We bought a house abroad purely for the view, the house was as ugly as sin.
The only problem was, the staircase was outside the house.
All the builders we were introduced to scratched their heads and said there’s no room.
We showed them with a little jigging, it could.

Surely it is impossible for on this thread to make decisions as to whether or not the OP should purchase this bungalow. We are not them (indeed do not know how many or ages of them), but Except for price, none for why they should.

They have bee at pain to point out all the reasons they do not like this house, so here goes with mypoint of view.

To me it looks a lovely, well arranged bungalow. Three bedroom, although the smallest one would make a perfect home office/snug. Lovely en-suite shower room and nice size separate bathroom. As for that chimney between Kitchen and Living room, no reason why that could not be removed by appropriate builders. Many houses have had chimney breasts removed from them. As for the garage being a distance away and too far for shopping. Well, my garage is on the ground floor on our flats, and not the closest to the communal front door. When I go shopping I take my wheeled trolley and leave in the garage, so that when I return from shopping, my shopping bags go into that and I wheel it up to my flat .

No good reasons NOT to puchase this property, but if all they can see are the faults and problems then it is probably not for them.

From the panels on the roof. I think the back of the house faces south.

From the shadows, I thought the front faces south.

Could the garage be given a door opposite the kitchen door?

If you want to extend outwards, tho, it's a No to this one.

It looks as though there are too many difficulties which may stick in your craw, as it were, for you to feel truly happy in this bungalow.

As it hasn't sold in the past there's a reason, isn't there? I think I'd pass on this one. A better property is elsewhere.

Do you have a builder friend or even employ one to look over the property? The chimney may be removable but if you are thinking of knocking walls down you need to know if they are load bearing. The builder can tell you what can be done and how much it will cost so that you know how much extra this cheap bungalow needs spending on it to get it to suit you. This could, of course, make it more sellable at a future date.

The rooms are a good size and there is an en-suite for the master bedroom that faces the garden which seems quite private and not overlooked. With some judicious planting it could be quite attractive. There are solar panels on the roof so a saving on electricity.

The garage could possibly be knocked down in the future and built onto the house maybe with a connecting door? Something else to ask your builder.

The position of the garage just before/after a bend is dangerous. You will be unsighted turning in and out of it. There is a junction opposite. Where does that lead? I’d be looking for accident data on this or similar sites:

www.crashmap.co.uk/

I once lived in a village house four doors up from a bend, set a good six car lengths back from the road with bedrooms upstairs and full double glazing. The whine of engine noise as drivers braked into and accelerated out of the bend was always intrusive especially in warm weather. Motorbikes were particular pain. I soon moved.

Such a small rear garden puts you at the mercy of any kind of noise from neighbours, even the every day stuff that isn't anti-social. If I am reading the plan correctly, your sitting/dining room and main bedroom face onto the garden.

I think you mentioned on another thread about being bothered by neighbours (but in the context of apartment living). Neighbours can be bothersome anywhere but the more physical distance you can put between you and them the better.

The bathroom toilet so close to the dining room would put me off. It looks as though it may have been one bathroom chopped into two to create an ensuite, I am wondering where the natural light and ventilation is.

What is the building next door and is it attached?

As has also been said elswhere, bungalows are usually snapped up even at epic prices. Why hasn’t this one and for so long? Worth talking to local people to find out if there’s a story. Look at planning applications for this and surrounding properties. Look particularly for anything the council would like to do, for example, if it is an accident blackspot, there might be plans to alter the road configuration.

grandMattie

If the only thing you are finding attractive is the price, I’d not buy. Too many cons as denby has pointed out.

Of course, this bungalow has positives too, but in my opinion they did not need discussing, so I concentrated on the negatives. As for the positives, here they are (bearing in mind our budget is tight and the lack of bungalows in our area of South East, also we are a couple in our early 60-s and DH will be working for the next 10 years):

1. The house is on a quiet road of a desirable green village.
2. It would take DH only 30 minutes to get to work.
3. The vast majority of the bungalows in the area were build in the 30-s and fall apart or have leak and damp issues. They are also extremely outdated. This one was build 35 years ago and is in sound condition.
4. It is warmer than those built in the 30-s plus has solar panels.
5. It is detached. It has the number of rooms and total area to meet our needs. We need 2 bedrooms, an office and a garage.
6. The bedrooms are a good size (the older ones are much smaller) and a good layout.
7. DH would be thrilled to have a double garage, and hopefully would spend more time there, thinking of converting the part of the garage into an office, and I could have peace indoors (he talks on the phone or Zoom all the time).
8. The vendor has no chain.
9. It fits the idea of the last home and is manageable.
10. I love gardens and gardening. But as our health is deteriorating already, I am worried about having a large garden and having no energy or being in too much joint pain to look after it down the line.

As you can see, I think with my head rather than heart. The house and especially garden does not wow me, but bungalows are in such short supply and in poor state and cost way more (this vendor is desperate to sell to go into care and is prepared to go down 10%).

If you need to start a thread on GN to guide your decision to buy, then don't buy it.

You only buy a house because you know you want to live in it and know that it is the right decision. Needing to ask advice means you should not buy the house.

Despite the positives you list, I wouldn’t touch this place. Its previous sales history tells a story. People have not wanted to stay there and it’s been difficult to sell. It’s cheap for a reason. You might be able to do internal works but you can’t do anything about that tiny back garden, the close proximity of the neighbours and the noise they will generate, and the garage and drive are dangerously positioned. Don’t do it.

We looked at one on a quiet corner plot but decided against it; the front garden was a reasonable size but the back garden was tiny.

The garage looks awkwardly located in the aerial view too, RusBun.
If you're hesitating because of location then it's not right for you.

Caravansera

The position of the garage just before/after a bend is dangerous. You will be unsighted turning in and out of it. There is a junction opposite. Where does that lead? I’d be looking for accident data on this or similar sites:

www.crashmap.co.uk/

I once lived in a village house four doors up from a bend, set a good six car lengths back from the road with bedrooms upstairs and full double glazing. The whine of engine noise as drivers braked into and accelerated out of the bend was always intrusive especially in warm weather. Motorbikes were particular pain. I soon moved.

Such a small rear garden puts you at the mercy of any kind of noise from neighbours, even the every day stuff that isn't anti-social. If I am reading the plan correctly, your sitting/dining room and main bedroom face onto the garden.

I think you mentioned on another thread about being bothered by neighbours (but in the context of apartment living). Neighbours can be bothersome anywhere but the more physical distance you can put between you and them the better.

The bathroom toilet so close to the dining room would put me off. It looks as though it may have been one bathroom chopped into two to create an ensuite, I am wondering where the natural light and ventilation is.

What is the building next door and is it attached?

As has also been said elswhere, bungalows are usually snapped up even at epic prices. Why hasn’t this one and for so long? Worth talking to local people to find out if there’s a story. Look at planning applications for this and surrounding properties. Look particularly for anything the council would like to do, for example, if it is an accident blackspot, there might be plans to alter the road configuration.

Thank you for your detailed thoughts. Yes, it was me on another thread, and admittedly I am noise sensitive due to my illnesses.

This bungalow is detached, the next door is another bungalow, and the next 2 after that are all similar bungalows, but windows do not face each other, and the fence is high to make it private. The next door is a pensioner, the house behind is empty most of the time. The neighbours have no dogs, we visited 4 times, always has been dead quiet.

The other road on the junction leads to a cul de sac of other bungalows and is very peaceful. I like the main bedroom facing the back to reduce traffic noise impact, but the road is not busy by any means.

The neighbour proximity worries me too. The bathrooms were designed like this originally, and I am wondering how effective mechanical extract fans are at eliminating bathroom moisture.

There is no dining room, that room will be a study. The dining table will be in the living room (shame kitchen is not a kitchen/diner, but we are hoping to remove the wall to create an open plan.

I’d be tempted to extend the kitchen into the smallest bedroom to create a kitchen diner, and use the current sitting room as a bedroom.

Germanshepherdsmum

Despite the positives you list, I wouldn’t touch this place. Its previous sales history tells a story. People have not wanted to stay there and it’s been difficult to sell. It’s cheap for a reason. You might be able to do internal works but you can’t do anything about that tiny back garden, the close proximity of the neighbours and the noise they will generate, and the garage and drive are dangerously positioned. Don’t do it.

One part of me is thinking exactly the same but the other half realises that out of 100 bungalows we have seen this is the best one and the only one affordable for all that it has to offer.

Similar ones with larger gardens in a cul-de-sac cost 100K more and still need a complete renovation - just unaffordable for us with the Surrey prices.

As someone said upthread if you are having doubts don't do it. When buying a house you need to be sure it is what you want in your heart.