Okay, I've just been thinking about these two houses. These are our favorites and I need some advice.
Each have pros and cons. And for those of you who are homeowners and/or know more about the whole house-buying process than we do, I'd like your input please!
One of the houses is located in our ideal location with the ideal yard and acreage. It's a newish house with an okay-floorplan. I don't love the floorplan, but I could deal with it if we remodeled the kitchen and maybe knocked out a wall. It also costs $30,000 more than the other house we're looking at. Even though it is our ideal location, the elementary school is not so great.
The other one is older but in "okay" shape. It's HUGE and is on a HUGE lot. The location is not our favorite but we could probably deal with it. It does need some work but with the price-tag it has, more money over the long haul would make it into an AWESOME house. But would that extra money to fix it up be worth it? Is the low price worth not being in the "ideal" location but still one we could live with? And with this one the elementary school is awesome.
We've also heard that you want a house that faces south or west to avoid major snow/ice on the driveway in the winter and have shade during the summer. Any thoughts on this? Do any of you live in a north or east facing house and is that a problem you deal with/does it bother you?
Ah, decisions, decisions! At least they're fun decisions right?!
2 comments:
They are fun decisions! You left out one more option... keep waiting and watching until the perfect house fall in your laps! I have lots of opinions on all of this, but that shouldn't surprise anyone right?! On the driveway facing south or west, it is a HUGE PLUS! This winter, I have shoveled our driveway ONCE... we have had probably about 6 other snow storms where I should have shoveled, but since our driveway faces west, and I could see on the next day's forecast that it would be sunny, I didn't worry about it. Our neighbors with north or east facing driveways had perpetual ice problems.
Any chance that your $30,000 over priced home would accept a lowball offer? Have you placed any low offers yet just to see what happens? That would be my first step. Also, remember that if you think that you will have to do any major remodeling to make the house liveable for you in the next five years, factor in some hefty costs. When we started our basement project, I naively thought that it wouldn't be that big of a deal, especially since Kyle would be doing all of the work. Once you add up the costs, we have spent thousands more dollars which you have to think about over time increasing your purchase price on the house. Would you be able to afford the older home without having to pay Private Mortgage Insurance? Again, lots of remodel costs over time really do add up, but if you can afford that house easily with lots of extra monthly cash coming in that you could sock away in a savings account for that, the equity you would build into your home might make it worth it. I don't worry about elementary schools too much because things can change in that department base don the administration and teachers and Lauren still has a few years before that is an issue... there are also charter school options if her school is really not working for her. In any case, I want to chat more and hear all about your options, so call us on skype one of these days! Keep in mind that if you aren't in a hurry to get into a house, you have the time to make it a buyers market and you can really wait till you find just what you want. We put offers on three different houses before we finally found ours. It was frustrating since I really just wanted to be in a home of our own, but looking back now (and there are still things we would change about our house) we both still comment how we are glad that we didn't get any of the first houses... one would have pushed our budget a lot even though it was only $15,000 more than what we bought ours for. Changes in Kyle's company's insurance premiums and cost of living adjustment freezes made us really glad that we bought a house that was in the lower part of our price range... it gave us breathing room when our taxes went up an extra $800 one year and when other bills went up without the salary increasing. Enjoy your house hunting!
For us, neighborhood and school were everything! Ok, well, price was everything, but after that . . .
We have a west facing driveway, and that's nice.
Our second biggest thing is that we didn't want to HAVE to fix anything right away. There's so much little stuff involved with buying a house, I'm grateful we didn't have any major problems to fix immediately. Long term updating isn't too bad, but immediate fixes are a big money drain and stress.
It's such a personal choice- no one can really tell you what the best fit for your family is, just make sure you like the area and that you aren't buying something so small you'll wish you could move again the next time you have a baby.
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