Snooping around: Rural, urban or renovation

Wreck of the week: The Lizard, near Helston, Cornwall. This five-bed house is squalid – £50,000-£60,000 should provide new ceilings, replastering, a damp course, new fittings, plumbing and wiring. It'll be worth it as well – you'll be able to enjoy views over National Trust land to Kynance Cove. It is cojoined with a neighbour, however, and will set you back £350,000.
Your Move, 01872 277451 Photograph: Your Move/Your Move

In the country: Myddle, Shropshire. This £285,000 three-bedder is larger than it looks and is perched down a quiet lane with views to the Welsh hills. An old bread oven in the living room inglenook serves as a quaint cupboard, the kitchen and dining room are thickly beamed and the floors quarry tiled. There is a third reception, a basement playroom and a decent chunk of garden. Beware the bathroom – it is downstairs where the bedrooms are not.
Homesbury, 01743 342142 Photograph: Homesbury/Homesbury

In town: Anerley Hill, London SE19. Despite its rural feel, this four-bedder, built ahead of the Great Exhibition of 1851, sits opposite Crystal Palace park, two minutes' walk from a station. A dining room offers french doors to the garden and there is a fireplace before the modern kitchen, with a utility room just off it. A chute drops your smalls from the master dressing room to the utility room. The fourth bedroom leads off the third. Yours for £600,000.
Wooster & Stock, 020 8613 0060 Photograph: Wooster & Stock/Wooster & Stock

Dream home: Hampshire. If you could spare a few grand to update the fittings, this three-bed confection should answer most fantasies. Beneath the recently renewed thatch are two spacious receptions divided by a wood burning stove and latticed with beams, and a kitchen big enough for family feasting. It is in the centre of the village of Broughton, buffered by a large south-facing garden. Cost: £425,000-£450,000.
Penyards, 01264 810863 Photograph: Penyards/Penyards