MrsCobraBubbles
Life's too short to wear pants all the time
- Joined
- Jul 24, 2013
- Messages
- 3,065
Edit: and now the house is gone! Figures, the same day i make a post asking for help. But you all helped me think things through and I truly appreciate it, thank you!!! My realtor called to tell me there are 3 offers on the cheaper house. I'm taking it as fate, it wasn't supposed to be mine. I dont have enough buying power for a bidding war.
I don't think I feel as bad about not getting the house as I would have if you all hadn't been so sensible about it, thank you! You all helped me realize that it's going to be ok for a wide variety of reasons and there will always be more houses out there. The realtor and I had a discussion about the other house, she feels they are asking too much and I may put in an offer below asking. I'm taking a couple days to think. Weirdly, now that it's not a race between the 2 houses I feel less stress and pressure toward making the decision. I don't want to walk into home ownership feeling anxious and stressed.
****
I'm trying to decide between 2 houses and I like both for very different reasons.
The first house is at the very top of what I want to pay monthly, and it is a very large, very nice house. Of course this is the one my kids love but it's excessive--there's only the 3 of us and there's 4 bedrooms with an apartment downstairs! My son wants the apartment and my daughter called dibs on the bedroom that has a beautiful balcony. I'm tempted by this house too, it really is very nice but I am also a frugal person and it bothers me that our mortgage would be so high (1/3 of my current income). Also, I'm 40 so the idea of taking on a 30 year mortgage for so much money all by myself (I'm single/no child support so it's all up to me) is daunting. It's a large house on a suburban lot (like 10,000 square feet so not much yard to maintain) in a decent neighborhood with a really good school district. My youngest is my only kid in school, she is entering junior high next year. This first house has a septic system that may need updated at some point but the mortgage payment doesn't give me a ton of wiggle room in my budget so it would take me a while to save up for that but is move-in ready.
The second house costs about half what the first house costs, which means the mortgage is about half monthly and it gives me wiggle room to budget more fun stuff like vacations and the mortgage is less than I'm paying now for rent on our 3 bedroom townhouse! It's small though, only 2 bedrooms upstairs with a bonus room on the first floor that I plan to turn into my bedroom/home office (I work from home) if we end up moving there, but there's only one bathroom as well and my spoiled children kind of turned their noses up at that, and there's no room to add a bathroom. The kitchen is tiny and has no dishwasher which kind of breaks my heart but my frugal side loves the monthly mortgage payment on this house and with the difference in price between this house and the other, with my first month's mortgage I'd be able to purchase a new dishwasher and cover hiring a plumber to take out a cabinet in the kitchen and put in a dishwasher. My kids are older so it's a great size house for just me after my kids leave. But my son is on the autism spectrum and still lives with me even though he is an adult, and will probably continue to live with me for an indeterminate amount of time so I have to factor that into my decision. 2nd house is in a more rural area on 2 acres of land so there's more yard maintenance there, and the school district isn't as good as house 1; the schools aren't terrible but it's just a large, consolidated rural school district without as many resources as the more affluent school district for house #1 and my daughter has special education needs so I need to consider that as well.
I don't expect anyone to make this decision for me but any input is appreciated as I'm sure it will help me think things through! I'm also on a time crunch for this decision because at any time someone could put in an offer on either house and then my choice gets taken away so I'm feeling the pressure and that makes me nervous that I will end up making a bad decision out of fear of losing out on either house. These 2 houses are polar opposites and I am having trouble with this decision and I want to make sure I'm considering this from every angle. Help please!
* I'm going to edit to add that I think the larger, more expensive house is going to hold it's resale value much better than the smaller, rural house so that's something I've been considering too because who knows if I'll even want to be a homeowner 10 or 15 years down the line once both kids are grown?
The other thing is, I'm looking for something soon because my lease is up at the end of March and I don't want to sign again, but also don't want to go to the expense and trouble of moving into another apartment and then moving again once I find a house, moving is expensive and I'm not as young and able-bodied as I used to be!
I don't think I feel as bad about not getting the house as I would have if you all hadn't been so sensible about it, thank you! You all helped me realize that it's going to be ok for a wide variety of reasons and there will always be more houses out there. The realtor and I had a discussion about the other house, she feels they are asking too much and I may put in an offer below asking. I'm taking a couple days to think. Weirdly, now that it's not a race between the 2 houses I feel less stress and pressure toward making the decision. I don't want to walk into home ownership feeling anxious and stressed.
****
I'm trying to decide between 2 houses and I like both for very different reasons.
The first house is at the very top of what I want to pay monthly, and it is a very large, very nice house. Of course this is the one my kids love but it's excessive--there's only the 3 of us and there's 4 bedrooms with an apartment downstairs! My son wants the apartment and my daughter called dibs on the bedroom that has a beautiful balcony. I'm tempted by this house too, it really is very nice but I am also a frugal person and it bothers me that our mortgage would be so high (1/3 of my current income). Also, I'm 40 so the idea of taking on a 30 year mortgage for so much money all by myself (I'm single/no child support so it's all up to me) is daunting. It's a large house on a suburban lot (like 10,000 square feet so not much yard to maintain) in a decent neighborhood with a really good school district. My youngest is my only kid in school, she is entering junior high next year. This first house has a septic system that may need updated at some point but the mortgage payment doesn't give me a ton of wiggle room in my budget so it would take me a while to save up for that but is move-in ready.
The second house costs about half what the first house costs, which means the mortgage is about half monthly and it gives me wiggle room to budget more fun stuff like vacations and the mortgage is less than I'm paying now for rent on our 3 bedroom townhouse! It's small though, only 2 bedrooms upstairs with a bonus room on the first floor that I plan to turn into my bedroom/home office (I work from home) if we end up moving there, but there's only one bathroom as well and my spoiled children kind of turned their noses up at that, and there's no room to add a bathroom. The kitchen is tiny and has no dishwasher which kind of breaks my heart but my frugal side loves the monthly mortgage payment on this house and with the difference in price between this house and the other, with my first month's mortgage I'd be able to purchase a new dishwasher and cover hiring a plumber to take out a cabinet in the kitchen and put in a dishwasher. My kids are older so it's a great size house for just me after my kids leave. But my son is on the autism spectrum and still lives with me even though he is an adult, and will probably continue to live with me for an indeterminate amount of time so I have to factor that into my decision. 2nd house is in a more rural area on 2 acres of land so there's more yard maintenance there, and the school district isn't as good as house 1; the schools aren't terrible but it's just a large, consolidated rural school district without as many resources as the more affluent school district for house #1 and my daughter has special education needs so I need to consider that as well.
I don't expect anyone to make this decision for me but any input is appreciated as I'm sure it will help me think things through! I'm also on a time crunch for this decision because at any time someone could put in an offer on either house and then my choice gets taken away so I'm feeling the pressure and that makes me nervous that I will end up making a bad decision out of fear of losing out on either house. These 2 houses are polar opposites and I am having trouble with this decision and I want to make sure I'm considering this from every angle. Help please!
* I'm going to edit to add that I think the larger, more expensive house is going to hold it's resale value much better than the smaller, rural house so that's something I've been considering too because who knows if I'll even want to be a homeowner 10 or 15 years down the line once both kids are grown?
The other thing is, I'm looking for something soon because my lease is up at the end of March and I don't want to sign again, but also don't want to go to the expense and trouble of moving into another apartment and then moving again once I find a house, moving is expensive and I'm not as young and able-bodied as I used to be!
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I understand what you mean though
