So as I wrote in my last post, we started looking and houses and have been out to see one so far. Last night was our second visit there, though with a different (more competent) realtor. Let's recap:
Nice things about the house
1. Spacious - open floor plan, cathedral ceilings, full walk-out basement (half finished)
2. Gorgeous kitchen with real wood floors
3. Wrap-around porch covered in the front
4. Great lot size: 1.5 acres
5. Great location: about 5 miles outside of town
6. Attached garage
Things we wish were different
1. Only full bath is the master bath, which can only be accessed through the master bedroom. We do, however, think there is room to move a wall and add a shower to the half bath on the first floor.
2. Garage is only one-car, but it wouldn't be hard to enlarge it. Or we could deal with it.
Two of the biggest things for me to get over
1. This is the first house we've looked at! People don't try to buy the first hosue they look at, do they?!?!
2. I still have trouble accepting that we can in fact afford a house. And I wonder about the unforseen expenses: we'll need a way to plow the driveway, mow the law, we don't have enough furniture to fill it, energy costs are higher, etc. etc.
Very few of my friends have purchased houses yet. Tim, I know you and Anna considered it for awhile - any thoughts? I'd love comments from the rest of you, too.
P.S. Mitch is doing a mortgage pre-approval today and calling the realtor about checking out another house in which we are mildly interested...
2 comments:
Hey, Laurie!!
I dealt with some of the same insecurity with a condo we looked at. It seemed perfect for us (and it was, even in retrospect), but we couldn't get over the idea that it was pretty much the first one we'd looked at.
I guess sometimes you're just lucky, eh?
The reason we wound up NOT doing a house was because we didn't want the hassle of dealing with all the upkeep, and because I am still too much of a free spirit (career-wise) to be able to guarantee that we'd be here for 6+ years. I had several 1-2 hour conversations with the financial-planning folks at USAA, and they basically helped talk me out of investing in a house, primarily due to my confessed inability to commit to this area for the long-term.
Also, regarding looking into making those expansions, changes, etc. -- I've really enjoyed doing minor stuff around the house, rebuilding our waterbed after redesigning it, etc., but I found it VERY frustrating to do all this without the proper equipment. I know Mitch is really handy, and he could probably borrow all the tools he'd ever need from his parents and siblings, but it's still something to consider. The process of DIYing is never quite as much fun as it seems from all those TV shows on TLC, esp. if you're underequipped or have outside interests that eat up your time during the week. Any project will take a LONG time if done only on weekends...
But I'm VERY excited for you! This is a huge step, and I hope the way forward becomes clear before long :-)
A few thoughts came to mind...
1. A lot of my coworkers have bought houses, or gone house-hunting--and it seems to happen fairly often that they love the first house they see. That said, you may want to look at a few others, just to get an idea of what else is out there--but if you love it, you love it. I really think that what it comes down to is your gut reaction: can you see yourself living there?
2. Glen also hasn't wanted to get a house (he can afford it, I can't) for the same reasons that Tim mentioned. He doesn't know if he'll be in St. Cloud for the long term, plus there's a lot of upkeep--not just renovations, but as you mentioned, plowing the driveway, mowing the lawn, etc. And don't forget regular maintenance stuff like windows, roof, plumbing, electricity, etc. (By the way, definitely check into how new all that is, especially the roof, which is expensive to replace.)
3. I've heard roundly from everyone here that you should NOT take the full loan that a bank offers you. If your credit is reasonably good, a bank will offer sometimes up to $400,000! If you don't need that much, don't take it and get an even bigger house. It's much better to get as small a loan as possible, and pay as large of a down payment as you can. I've also heard (from Prof. Lemmon) that if you make 13 mortgage payments a year instead of 12, you can cut a mortgage down from 30 years to 23.
This isn't intended to guide you one way or the other, just some thoughts. : )
~CH
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