Buying A House: C or D?

Just realized today that it's been eleven years since we bought this house, which I sincerely hope to die in. At the time it was a financial stretch - top of our price range - and I wasn't sure I "deserved" it, whatever that means.

Maybe 14% of the time it is a pain in the ass. It's old and tiny by modern standards; some rooms are just cruelly small; the vibrant location means constant traffic; everything's falling apart and there's always another urgent repair just on the horizon. In that sense, I guess I do deserve it. I deserve the fact that the children have smeared unidentifiable types of goo over every surface.

But the other 86% of the time, it's coffee on the porch watching the birdfeeders, sunlight through the trees, a warm hearth in the evening, bookshelves that are there to stay.

But seriously, kids, what the fuck? There is no reason a crayon needs to even be near the electric heater.

Grats on the house Marcos! Missed that somehow

― IF (Terrorist) Yes, Explain (man alive), Sunday, January 21, 2018 9:53 AM (yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

thanks man!

I will say this, though. Unless there are things you absolutely HATE about a house you'd otherwise be ok living in, you'll settle in and forget about minor dislikes. You shouldn't just throw up your arms and buy a piece of crap, but minor faults disappear with time.

― Johnny Fever, Monday, January 22, 2018 12:42 AM (ten hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

this is otm

we saw a lot of houses. we did pick the one that we liked the best, and apart from some buyers' regret when we first moved in, we're really happy with it. but i realize now that most of the 20- or 30-something houses we saw would've been just fine, and that many details that led me to feel positively or negatively about a house are things that can be easily changed. we bought the house we liked the most and we still spent a lot of time and money making it our own, and we would've done that with any house

I was talking to a friend-of-a-friend at a birthday party last year about the house they were building, and their frustrations about the builders not respecting the changes from the default plan that they'd written into the contract, and came to a realization:
If you build a house you have the stress of making sure things are built how you want and making choices up front, but if you buy a house that has existed for decades, you can always dream about how things could be and complain about decisions others made but the burden of choice is forever lifted from you, because every problem was someone else's decision.

in my heart I don't think our happiness or anything about our life meaningfully depends on what building we live in

yea good outlook. i spent a year looking at houses thinking it was going to finally bring me happiness and relief when i got the perfect one and obviously that did not happen when we finally moved in.

that said i am really loving our house right now. i got my art studio set up in the attic in the fall and have been up there a few nights a week working on stuff, it is so nice to have all that extra space and be able to personalize it. we put fucking golden yellow paint on the walls with a purple accent wall up there. it looks rad. i couldn't do that in a rental.

minor faults disappear with time

This is so true, there were things in all three houses I've bought that seemed like huge problems in need of immediate attention that we adapted around within a couple of weeks and never bothered to fix or change.

do you guys think having only one shower for two adults and two kids approaching adolescence is a minor problem we'll forget about or something we should strive to fix

it depends on routines and whether you'll be lining up in the morning, imo

I grew up in a house with that setup and my parents added a second bathroom in the basement with a shower around that time, but it was mostly due to three people wanting to shower in the same timeframe

seems fine xp. we only have one shower. but two bathrooms. two bathrooms seemed essential

(our kids are little tho)

only one shower for two adults and two kids approaching adolescence

terrifying imho

Agreed, and I'm only imagining it.

In between. You can learn to live with almost anything. Modern expectations are historically aberrant, especially modern USian expectations. But you still may feel it's an unnecessary compromise.

The house I grew up in had one bathtub (no shower) for 5-7 people. That seemed crowded-but-manageable to us in 1976. It would have been normal in 1900, when the house was built, and luxurious in 1850.

That said, we don't live in 1850 so make the decision that feels right for your family.

Oh hey, I bought a house in November! It was a full year earlier and 25% more expensive than I'd originally planned, but I don't regret going for it one bit.

Of course, I haven't yet paid for the new roof that it needs soon, or the top-to-bottom rewiring that it really should have (it's still rocking 100-year-old knob-and-tube in some places), or the radon mitigation system that it needs, or etc etc etc....

we have a bidet, which is one more bidet than we'd like

A big part of it was the realization that if house prices around here (Minneapolis area) keep going up at the rate that they have been, the houses we'd have been interested could soon be forever out of our price range. Backing off from the ultra-responsible "not one cent less than 20% down" line was hard for me

xpost!

pmi brethren

I want a house, a particular house, in a particular area, really bad. So I guess I'm on the road to saving $20,000 somehow and hoping that no one else wants to buy it a year from now? It's already been on the market like 450 days.

As soon as I sign the papers I'll issue an ILXOR wimmens bat signal for anyone who wants to join the collective.

we're looking to buy a new house. sadly despite it being a supposed seller's market we are sellers and buyers so that doesn't help us much. we saw this one house that was practically perfect except the kitchen was too small. :/ still looking!

you guys want to see a sweet-ass duplex for a cool 1.6 mil? anyone want to go in on it?

https://www.redfin.com/CA/Los-Angeles/4349-Prospect-Ave-90027/home/7135597

I saw Los Angeles even before clicking the link, so braced for lols

we've a giant mirror in our small kitchen that offers one the illusion of a big kitchen. but hard to keep it up when the roomba finds a resonance between a cabinet and your ankle.

comes with a pool

https://ssl.cdn-redfin.com/photo/40/mbpaddedwide/184/genMid.17-212184_10_2.jpg

upgraded entertainment room

https://ssl.cdn-redfin.com/photo/40/mbpaddedwide/184/genMid.17-212184_11_2.jpg

good bones

1.6 million dollar bones

enjoy the view with a cup of coffee every morning on the porch

https://ssl.cdn-redfin.com/photo/40/mbpaddedwide/184/genMid.17-212184_5_2.jpg

amazing

Here's what 1.2 mil buys in Cleveland:

https://www.realtor.com/realestateandhomes-detail/10229-Lake-Shore-Blvd_Cleveland_OH_44108_M47992-27192#photo0

1.2m in most places inc my overpriced neighborhood will buy you a v nice house.

Even dude on the TV isn't so sure about this.

That Clevo house, holy shit

i was riding around with my dad near his place in Rochester NY a couple years back and had my redfin mobile app up while going around and i swear to christ it was depressing to see this kind of thing considering L.A. prices:

https://www.redfin.com/NY/Rochester/61-Pelham-Rd-14610/home/79330620

Hey, that LA property is two on a lot, let your renter pay your mortgage!

Damn, that Rochester house is still 7x what I bought mine for, but it seems like a steal for what it is.

Here's the https://www.realtor.com/realestateandhomes-detail/15-E-Palisades-Dr_Little-Rock_AR_72207_M78000-33055#photo3.2M house in my town. Love it when they've got a mansion for sale and show pictures like this:

https://i.imgur.com/oKXmyvl.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/k0p6nC2.jpg

"What's the matter, don't like your steak?"

lol

i think there are entire areas of the country where even the best staging is like, "well we could put an IKEA Lack table in the corner with an empty bottle of water on it..."

nice furniture is expensive everywhere

home staging is such a weird thing

my parents lived in a 70s split-level home on an acreage, and the realtor's "staging expert" was some douche who used to work for Ethan Allen who thought they should borrow or buy a bunch of staging furniture and redo rooms in dramatic fashion in order to sell

it was a relatively modest house in the countryside! I have no idea why you'd stage it like it was a mcmansion

do you guys think having only one shower for two adults and two kids approaching adolescence is a minor problem we'll forget about or something we should strive to fix

My kids are only 3 and 7 so my feelings might change over the next few years, but we settled for a single bathroom house because it was better in all other aspects than what we'd seen in the 2+ bathroom houses in our budget, and I have no regrets at all. It's occasionally a minor annoyance, more than made up for by everything else we love about the house that we wouldn't have had otherwise. The people we bought it from had raised two kids there too. We might look into adding a second one at some point but I'm in no rush.

Biggest downside will probably be resale difficulty if we don't add a bathroom, but I don't anticipate having to worry about that for 20-30 years.

I mean, on one hand sounds challenging, but otoh at least tens of millions of americans could not fathom living in my situation, i.e. raising two kids in an apartment (which happens to have two showers). I think you'd just have to plan a little more carefully, and if ultimately the rest of the house works really well for you, showering is a pretty small part of your day. I do hope it has a second toilet at least though.

Yep, right now it has 1 shower 2 toilets. I think we are leaning towards adding one more shower/toilet before we move in if we buy this place. Current owners say they're not considering places with fewer than 2 baths in their current house-shopping, so I guess THEY find it annoying....

can't figure out whether i'm stressed we might actually buy this house or stressed the purchase may fall apart somehow

One of the only times I have ever cried at work was due to buying a house for the first time. Constant stress about paperwork missing, rates changing, being short of money that was never requested before, trying to time moves, finding out something was wrong during inspection. Ugh.

can't figure out whether i'm stressed we might actually buy this house or stressed the purchase may fall apart somehow

yea, it's probably both. i was scared the deal wouldn't go through for some reason, but also scared i was making a huge mistake.

I cried at the closing when I found out about an undisclosed assessment and I thought my lawyer was being dismissive of me.

Now you are happy though, VP!

okay, here's the jam and under a quarter million! Buy now!
https://www.realtor.com/realestateandhomes-detail/508-N-Hamilton-St_High-Point_NC_27262_M62980-39945

http://hyperallergic.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/LargestDrawers-720x486.jpg
http://ap.rdcpix.com/921387147/41cd7f0ccd68f533136f2a60756ead5bl-m1xd-w1020_h770_q80.jpg

https://i.pinimg.com/564x/bd/87/c1/bd87c1210fe519af3e0600c1b5d0ab02--funny-clothes-lost-socks.jpg