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# of rooms or location
My husband and I are in the process of home buying and it's between two diff places. The first is a basically new [2007] 1bed 1.5 bath 2 story town home that's 1200sqft in a very nice gated community.
For just a little more we can get an older 2bed 1.5 bath 900sqft in an okay neighborhood.
We aren't planning on having kids for another 3-5 years so my husband thinks the 1bed is fine for now and he said when we do have a baby, the baby will most likely be with us in our room the first yr anyway. I know that's just a preference thing, but I just am not sure what I want to do. The 2bed is smaller, older, a little more $, and not near as good an area as the 1bed, but part of me wonders if im going to want 2 rooms even though it's smaller than the 1bed. I think it's more of a security thing. IF we get pregnant before we "plan," where's the baby going to go if we still have a few years before we can sell?
I'd love to hear some thoughts from people who are not tied to the situation.
Re: # of rooms or location
Honestly, I'd keep looking. It doesn't sound like either of those are what you need. You will outgrow the one bedroom faster than you think. The two bedroom doesn't even seem like a good option considering it costs more, isn't as nice of a neighborhood, and is actually smaller in overall sq ft.
Family in 3-5 years? At that time you will have to resell? A townhome? Eek. That could be tough.
I would either rent until you can buy a SFH or buy a SFH now with at least 3 bedrooms.
This! I wouldn't buy at all if you are planning on having kids in 3-5 years (seems like a long time now, but it isnt in terms of real estate). And when you do go to buy....look for houses that will support the size of family you want. We feel like our house is huge for the 2 of us (3 bed - 2.5 bath + basement), but we dont think its wise to buy a temp home so we bought one that we can stay in if kids show up, rent, save the money to get the home that you want to raise your family in.
My Blog:Through My Eyes
Were you planning to rent out the 1 bed condo if you need more space or were you planning to sell it?
You want to be in your home for 7+ years to recoup your buying and selling costs in today's market.
thanks for all the suggestions!
We'd either rent or sell depending on where we are as a family and where the market is.
I had an unfortunate situation in 2010. I was switching from insurances from my dad's to my husband's and i got sick and had a couple surgeries and a 1month stay at the hospital..uninsured. Because of that, we can't afford to buy a SFH home for a few more years. We are in Southern California -- Orange County. They run for about 350k min for an area we'd like to raise a family in. LA county is even more expensive. Townhomes or condos are our best bet for now and we just figured we didn't want to continue to rent at $1700 a month for a 1bed 1bath if we can buy even a little something for now because we will be saving about $600-700 a month by buying vs renting. Even if we don't make money but come out even, that's all we were looking for. Talked to a couple loan officers and realtors in our area and they said realistically we can turnaround in 2-5 yrs depending on the area and our market is low right now but is gradually recovering. I just don't know how much I can trust that because maybe they are just telling us that because they want to make a sale. Who knows. But I do want to make sure I'm looking at the big picture so I'm glad I posted and got some honest feedback.
this
This is what I was going to say. They might tell you different, but there is no way to guarantee either way. I guess the only way I'd buy is if I were completely 100% sure that I could live there if I had to (even if you started a family) or that you would have enough capital to rent out the place (versus taking a possible loss in selling it) if you wanted to buy another place.
I guess every market is different, but I would personally never buy something with less than 3 bedrooms since 1 & 2 BR places are a tough sell for anyone who has a family or wants a family someday.
If it is going to be cheaper to buy than rent (even after all the other extra costs are taken into account - any utilities, repairs, PMI, homeowner's insurance, property tax are taken into account) I might buy the 1 BR place if you feel like it would be easy to rent out in the future. I'd really calculate it out, though - I really thought it was going to be cheaper to buy than rent in my calculations, but I didn't account for a lot of things and it was definitely cheaper for us to rent (which is okay, since we could afford the price increase and our house is about 3x bigger than our apartment was..)
You want kids in 3-5 years and are buying a 1 or 2 bed? I can sort-of understand the 2 bedroom house b/c you could always add on or finish a basement, but a 1 bedroom for just 3 years is not a good financial decision. Rent a similar 1 bed in that area you love now and keep saving for a 2+ bed for when you do decide to have kids.
ETA: Even in CA, I would still compromise on location and rent for a few more years and then buy a 2+ bedroom when you are closer to having kids. Unless you can buy a 1-bed in a great location now with like 30-40% down, you will still have trouble when you have two homes to repair and have sunk most of the money you saved during these 3-5 years into a new down payment for another house.
...baby #3 is here...