Tonight we're crisscrossing the River Tempts searching for a house within an hour's commute of Reading. Our buyers are prepared to shell out a cool half a million pounds this weekend. But only if we can find them the right home. Joan Simon Miles can't believe how much their northland and home had increased in value. They've been renting in Henley on Tempts before months and they'd really like to live here. Our ideal house would have four bedrooms, it would have two reception rooms, up hoping night-end. Good kitchen. Good kitchen, yeah. Good kitchen, nice room. Joe's very particular. She runs a picture framing business from home and has far the time to view over 40 houses. I think we haven't been a house yet because we're waiting for a house that we walk into and it says buy me straight away. We haven't been willing to compromise at this point. I think we're just looking for the perfect house. We are looking for the perfect house. Simon works in nearby Reading part of England's Silicon Valley, surrounded by unspoiled countryside. Demand is greater than supply, so prices are up. This week the stakes may be higher but the rules are just the same and if you need to buy any property you need to know how to play the game. So three days of intensive house hunting are challenge to use all our expertise to find them a house that I fall in love with. I think when it comes to location I'm more flexible than Joe. I imagine the internal space is going to be more important to you. But location as well is very important because I don't want to feel isolated and alone. Despite having £500,000 to spend, Henley can't offer a single house that fits their bill for that price. So we're moving away from here but staying within commuting range for Simon. Box for this were a young Kirsty Grower. It's an idyllic village with a pub and a shop nearby. This stats cottage fits their criteria for bedroom, workshop and all within budget and the good news is, Kirsty doesn't live in the village anymore. Well what you make of this it looks shortly like a million pound house doesn't it? It does. It's very attractive. It could be yours for £435,000. Well. A timber frame house it still oozes character from its 16th century origins. And Joe's commute to work could be less than 12 seconds. But this is what we considered for your work room. Yeah. It's nice and bright and light which I like. And I don't know about you but quite nice to be able to leave it at the end of the day and leave your work behind you. Simon and I explore inside. That's one at the back which would really be the second bedroom. Okay. It's decent size room isn't it? And a piece of well resistance. Wow. That's a great room. This is a good thing but the occupants of this house haven't painted these beams. You do see that quite a lot and beams are really the guts of the house are the living breathing parts of the house. Sometimes they're the moving parts of the house. I got like this style work effect and that's quite nice. It's fantastic. I was thinking initially oh let's not down that wall and make it into one big kitchen. Then I remember that it's grey too listed. And there are restrictions on what you're allowed to do internally as well as that. Internally as well as that standard. A good fact truth will last more than 25 years. Now if you're looking at a fat cottage take a careful look at the ridge across the top because that'll be the first place that'll show any signs of rod. If you need to replace the entire roof on an average size cottage it costs about 8000 pounds. You'll also need to think that your insurance premiums would be about 15 to 20% higher than on a standard house. I like the floor. I like the floor boards. I think that's quite good. Yeah. The view is brilliant. I really am. I suspect I'm going to be more keen on this than Joey's. Does that appeal? No. Whoops. Well let's keep the rolling countryside but find something a little different. Which church on Thames is a 20 minute commute for Simon and just across the river of the important shops and village life for Joe. We found this 18th century blacksmiths forge, four bedrooms, four bathrooms, it's full of original features. The price is 425,000 pounds. It's fantastic. It's really an extraordinary space. First impression is really just well. Fantastic. Fantastic then. Yeah. The price means Joe and Simon would have enough cash left to really make this place their own. I sense more reticence on Joe's part. Yeah. Yeah I am a bit because of I actually have seen the details of this house before. Uh-huh and shush everyone. Don't panic. And I didn't even think about coming to see it. That might have been a terrible mistake. The only thing I think that's really useful is a floor plan because pitches are often just photographs of other people's furniture and a bad light. Yeah. I'd need to see the rest of the house I think. It's quite interesting because this isn't a second sense that happens just very often. What do you want to see the rest of the house? No I know but let me just ask Joe. Let me ask before we go and see the rest of the house. What did you think was wrong with the rest of the accommodation? I think they've only got, is there only a couple of bedrooms? Are it is the kitchen very small? Uh four bedrooms actually. And the kitchen doesn't look small to me. In there is the oven. Gosh. Looking like a brick wall. Yeah. And this, looking like a beam is the extract of fan. Oh very cleverly done. Fantastic use. The forge has four pink bathrooms. And two staircases to the four bedrooms. This is the only room in the house where you really get a sense of the not being great ceiling height. I'm thinking posse weakest of board over the beans almost get rid of them. It's rather like being in a whale's stomach. You know you've got the sort of ribs hanging over you. If you put plaster board up, two, three hundred pounds, not at all difficult to do and it would give it more of a consistent feel and it might feel bigger. Get rid of the beans, sacrilege cursed. Now I thought this double garage would be an ideal workshop. What about Joe? Yeah I think it has got potential to use it as a studio room. Awesome. Yeah. Mm-hmm. Worst. I mean, I think you've probably got to, you've got to be more excited than that in order for it to be worth doing. Yeah. I mean it doesn't excite me terribly as a room at the moment. And the house? It doesn't really do for me at the moment. Take a look at this. It's the old blacksmith's branding panel. Would have been here working away, practicing his brands on this door. It's excellent. Now how are we doing here? I'm not convinced we're going terribly well. I think Joe's certainly got the vision to see through the work that would be required. Hippolo, don't think that they love the house enough to get in here and do the work. I'm also beginning to see why they're finding choosing a house quite so difficult. That's fantastic. That is just... Yeah, but you don't know it is because they're not on top of you. God, they're on a 20 feet above us. You don't notice them. Now you've seen it all and had a good look. What do you think? It's interesting, but I don't think it is really. For me it isn't anyway. I don't know if it's a few. It's more so for you as well. More sense of me. More sense of me. Next, the neighbouring village of Pangourn. We've discovered a house that's been on the market for just one day. So how do you fancy a great stretch of the River Thames all to yourself? Your own mooring and little garden. Plus this wonderful house. And amazingly it falls within the budget of Simon and Joe at half a million pounds. Now the bad news is this. Sandwiched between the riverfront and the garden and the fabulous house is this road. I don't know. Will it be a hit or a miss? This riverside house was built in the 1890s and has four huge reception rooms, four big bedrooms and a double garage that could be made into a workshop. Inside the Victorian features remain. It's very well proportioned, but will the road be the deal breaker? I would have said the finest living room we've ever been in on making the program. I'm bearing in mind you've got three other living rooms. It's pretty impressive stuff. You're kidding. Fabulous fireplace. Look at the intricacy that the work on the detail was gone in there. Were they originally painted like that? There was a time let Victorian when colour was used just about everywhere. Were used to more Puritan, plaster or white cornices, but yes a lot of them might well have been painted. It's not only the period features that are interesting. It's possibly the the biggest bath I've ever seen. It could slide down into us. Now I love balconies. I'm not only for the view out, but for the view out we get a real good look at the roof which is an excellent condition and the guttering which isn't in quite such excellent condition. Look it's blocked and full of it. Yuck. That means that the water is going to build up and overflow and cause damp in the house. Such an easy thing to rectify and yet such a common problem. This has got everything we wanted. This has got the high ceilings, it's got great windows, it's bright, it's airy, it's... Oh no I think it's great. Joe doesn't sound convinced. The problem is that road and while the house may be great they're not prepared to compromise on a quiet location. It's getting late and Joe and Simon have got masses to be thinking about. We've still got more house hunting to do tomorrow and one location is going to really stretch the imagination.