My DH wanted me to post this to the wise women of BB

Out of these two scenarios, which do you think you would be more in favour of doing:-

Scenario 1
? Buy a more expensive house (but not really expensive, just more expensive than scenario 2),
? maybe one that needs a revamped kitchen or bathroom etc,
? located in a good area
? most probably 10-20 minutes from work
? live in it for 5 years, until we can have 2 wages in the household again
? then sell to basically buy/build the house we want to live in long term, hopefully making some profit in the sale to assist in the new house.
? Although said profit would be marginal due to not being able to pay off a lot on the house due to the fact mortgage would be higher

Scenario 2
? buy a cheaper house than scenario 1
? either one that needs some revamped kitchen or bathroom etc, but ideally one that has already had this work done.
? Located in what is deemed to locals as a ?dodgier? area (but really just not as good as scenario 1)
? most probably 5 mins from work, so save money with fuel,
? potential to ride pushbike to work and save more fuel/money
? due to the fact that mortgage will be lower than scenario 1, should be able to make much larger payments
? therefore pay off loan quicker.
? live in it for 5 years, until we can have 2 wages in the household again
? then buy/build ?dream? house so to speak, and keep other house as a investment property.
? Due to lower mortgage repayments, rental received should cover mortgage and running costs of property, therefore paying for itself
? Then in future either keep investment property
? Or sell it, and most of the monies will be ours to pay off on our ?dream? house mortgage because hopefully we would have paid off the investment house mortgage.

Opinions please!