We plan on moving in a year or two. Any advice?

[StephMK]

Since you have plenty of time, you might look around and see if there are any minor updates your house needs before you put it on the market. Faucets, lights, towel bars, and cabinet knobs are all cheap updates and you have time to hunt down clearance or really cheap items.

Another thing to think about is staging your home when it's time. Think about painting the rooms in all neutral colors. Clear the cabinets & closets of any unnecessary items so they looked neat & uncluttered. Make sure you stash stuff in your furniture because people may open anything that is part of the house.

When we went on the market, I bought all new hand towels, bath mats, welcome mat, and kitchen towels. I kept them in a drawer in each room and cleared a few dresser drawers to stash any last minute items. If we had a last minute showing, I had a fast routine and could be ready to show in about 5 minutes. No one used the new stuff and whenever we left the house, I made sure the new & fluffy items were set out in case anyone stopped by. You have time to hit clearance sales for those too.

I agree with the others though. While it's fine to think it might be your last house, don't get upset if life throws a curveball at some point or you change your mind. I would never have dreamed we'd sell our last house and be living halfway across the country. I do know this is NOT our last house because I don't plan to retire here.

 

[seasheller]

Check and recheck your neighborhood. We've made the mistake twice of looking only at the house and not the houses next door or behind us. One was covered by a beautiful garden in our backyard. After a lot of the plants died off we discovered an entirely different neighborhood behind us - not a senior one like we were living in. Our current house has the possibility of a mine moving in two miles down the road which would probably mean our dream home is unsellable and possibly impossible to live in. Not sure how we could have checked this out, but we are stuck now.

When it comes to a new mortgage, throw as much extra money as you can against the principal in the early years. It will save a ton of money on interest. We always make (and specify) extra principal payments early in a loan since most of the money goes on interest in the first years. Print out an amortization schedule by putting in the amount of the loan, % of interest, and years of the loan. The numbers will amaze you! We've paid off three houses this way - the longest took 10 years.

 

[puffkin]

I would caution against thinking of this as a "forever" home but more of a "long term" home. I think that is hard to do if you are planning to have kids but then continue to live in the home through retirement.

We built our home 10 years ago at ages 24&26 (right before housing really took off, we caught the market on the upswing and sold our starter home and built before it got horribly crazy and then bombed). Its a 2000SF 3 Bedroom 2 Bath "development" home. Our plans were a 5 year house, and then move on. Well things change and here we are 10 years later. This will probably be our "long term home" until we are too far into retirement to want the responsibiltiy anymore.

Our neighborhood has changed over twice in the 10 years we have lived here. It swung to kind of seedy with a lot of out of town renters and now it is swinging back again to families. We have re-fi'd down to a 15 year. We have finished the basement. My kids have become entrenched in the school/community. We are super involved in community things. We are close to major highways/shopping but not on top of it. My kids play organized sports year round and we have tons of parks if we need more space. We have added so many "extras" to the house that might not add resale value but really make it what we want. We NEVER EVER thought we would be here this long, but now we have no plans to leave. Sure we wish we had a slightly bigger yard, a 4th bedroom and a little bit bigger of a kitchen. But then I think in 10 years (because the last 10 year FLEW!) when the kids are gone would I really want to maintain that big of a house? We barely can keep up with the yard now due to all the kids activities, would we really want a bigger yard?

Last year we sat down and realized we needed some more space now that the kids were bigger. We decided to finish off part of our basement and stay. It would buy us the extra space we need until the kids are gone, but not be too much to continue maintaining into retirement. We also decided we would much rather buy a condo somewhere warm and hopefully work towards a snowbird lifestyle as we approach retirement. So we stayed, finished our basement off and are still on track to have the house paid off by age 45. I get a bit envious every now and then of all my friends/family with huge gorgeous homes, but ours is nice, comfortable, affordable and most importantly....something we can maintain for the long term.

 

[Chrelaine]

assuming you are selling current home in 2 years, start getting it ready for sale. Paint all rooms neutral, do any plantings this fall or spring to give time to grow/fill in. Get a punch list of home repairs and start working through it. Do any minor updates--new fixtures, new sinks, etc.

This was what I was thinking. Start prepping your current house now so that you aren't rushing later.

 

[MrsPete]

4)BUY A "CHEAP" HOUSE FOR THE NEIGHBORHOOD. We live in the smallest house in our entire neighborhood. The deed restrictions list our sq. footage as the smallest home that can ever be built there. If we ever decided to add-on, we could easily do so without our house becoming over-valued for the area. Also, if you buy the nicest house on the block, there's no telling what those other houses are going to look like 10 years from now. If you live in a place surrounded by homes that are much nicer than yours, the area is likely to stay nice.

Another way to say this: If you live in the smallest house in the nicest neighborhood, your neighbor's houses are bringing UP the value of your house. Whereas, if you live in the largest house in any neighborhood, your neighbor's houses are bringing DOWN the value of yours.

 

[MrsPete]

I would caution against thinking of this as a "forever" home but more of a "long term" home. I think that is hard to do if you are planning to have kids but then continue to live in the home through retirement.

That's a good way to look at it.

Keep in mind, too, that sometimes it might not even be your choices that affect your home. Consider my neighborhood: I live in a large neighborhood of all-brick ranch houses built on large lots in the 70s/80s. It was the first neighborhood built in this area, but many others have been built up around us. I'd estimate that 2/3 of the people in my neighborhood are "originals" -- by that, I mean that they are the original owners. As a result, most of my neighbors are now retired, some are even quite elderly, and in another decade many of them are going to move to their children's houses or nursing homes. At the same time, many people moving into this area prefer the newer neighborhoods: The house styles are more trendy, they include pools and clubhouses, and the smaller lots require less maintenance. My prediction: In another decade, though it enjoys a premium location, my neighborhood is going to be less desirable . . . and it may become a neighborhood of renters.

Thus, I intend to leave ahead of the crowd.

 

[tvguy]

It's great to plan, but you're only 32. Life can bring some crazy surprises, good and bad, and it's very unlikely that the house you buy next year will be the one you live in for the rest of your life. A neighborhood can change a lot in just a few years, not to mention in 20-30 years, you're going to have changed as well.

Devil's advocate here. We were in the same position as OP. Wanted a bigger house, been in our house for 10 years at the time, we were both 35, had 2 kids needed more room. I was looking at having to spend $100,000 more than our house was worth for the house that was the size we wanted.
Just not worth it. Spent $25,000 adding on the space we needed to our existing house. Raised our kids here, house has been paid off for 14 years now. Been in the house 31 years now, did a top to bottom remodel that cost as much as we paid for the house and the addition.......turned it into our retirement residence, have everything the way we want it now. Market value of the house is still a little over $100,000 more than we have in it, and I look at the thousands we saved on real estate commissions, interest, moving costs and property taxes, and I am glad we didn't move

So, make sure moving really is your best option. Our first home is our forever home. Of course, I come by it naturally, my parents owned their first home 10 years, on five acres, and traded down to 1/2 acre and new house that they lived in 53 years.

Now full disclosure, we do have 2 rentals on the street now (44 homes on the street)....and the demographics have changed, we are the young people on the street at age 57, second owners of our home. About half the houses are still owned by their first owners, and most homeowners are 60+.
And schools are not an issue here, we have open enrollment so where you live has no influence on where your kids go to school. In our case, we used the money we saved on the house to fund private school tuition for both our kids K-12 so bypassed the public system altogether.

 

[Northernlites]

As mentioned by another op on page 1, drive thru the neighbour where you want to live at different times and different days. We almost purchased a home then one friday night we drove by after dark and there parked in the next door driveway was a 20 foot semi. Really, I didn't want to be looking at that out my window every weekend and plus with young kids I would be worried. Most people I know in the transportation business park their rig offsite at a yard.

 

[HM]

If the area you are looking in has a long range plan for roads and development, make sure you look at the planning documents closely. There is always a possibililty of roads being widened, added through or next to neighborhoods for accessability in years to come.

We live in a high growth area and the 20 year plan keeps changing and one of the changes that keep being put on and taken off the plan is a fly-away bridge of an interstate and parking for park and ride not far from where we live. Still not sure how it could be accomplished without wiping out portions of two established neighborhoods.

 

[Mirax]

I don't know anything about the OP, just going by experience. Unless you want to have another child, do not get rid of the babycrib and baby clutter! You will end up needing it. I did exactly 9 months from the declutter day.

 

[Pamlur]

Never, ever say never if you are in any kind of urban area.

 

[eliza61]

Very interesting thread.

I had never heard of "forever" homes until the dis, I don't know anyone my age who lives in the first house they purchased. My dh and I brought a small two bedroom 2 family house when we first got married. Wouldn't have made sense to purchase anything bigger as we knew it was going to be a while before we had kids and since dh worked for an international oil company we spent the first couple of years overseas. Once the kids came along we couldn't have stayed if we wanted too.

We always knew we weren't going to live in the suburbs, for one thing we lived in NJ which has some of the highest property taxes in the country. LOL, Last year when my taxes hit 11K a year I told my fp that, that was the last time I was writing that particular check.

anyway I love my new house in the city but I do plan on being a snow bird since I hate the cold and snow so in all probability I'll be buying a condo or renting.

My old neighborhood is drastically different from what it was 19 years ago when we first built, not sure if I would have stayed even if I loved my house. too much what I call "surbaninitis" built up. walmarts, mcdonalds, etc etc.

 

[tvguy]

Very interesting thread.

I had never heard of "forever" homes until the dis, I don't know anyone my age who lives in the first house they purchased. My dh and I brought a small two bedroom 2 family house when we first got married. Wouldn't have made sense to purchase anything bigger as we knew it was going to be a while before we had kids and since dh worked for an international oil company we spent the first couple of years overseas. Once the kids came along we couldn't have stayed if we wanted too.

We always knew we weren't going to live in the suburbs, for one thing we lived in NJ which has some of the highest property taxes in the country. LOL, Last year when my taxes hit 11K a year I told my fp that, that was the last time I was writing that particular check.

anyway I love my new house in the city but I do plan on being a snow bird since I hate the cold and snow so in all probability I'll be buying a condo or renting.

My old neighborhood is drastically different from what it was 19 years ago when we first built, not sure if I would have stayed even if I loved my house. too much what I call "surbaninitis" built up. walmarts, mcdonalds, etc etc.

Some people just like to move I guess. We bought our house as a forever home. It was a stretch financially, but we pulled it off. Real estate commissions, and closing costs just seem like a huge waste of money to me.
Didn't hurt that I married an Air Force brat, she was DONE with moving by the time I met her. 6 moves in 1 year in 2 countries and 4 states is her personal record.