Buying A Home
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Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
If you have questions about this, please email help@theknot.com.
Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
Buy or Wait - House sizes
So my H and I are looking to buy a house. We offered on the first one and they didn't accept it because they had other interest in the house and wanted to see if they would get a full price offer after their open house last weekend. In the meantime we saw another house that we really loved and offered on that. Unfortunately our offer was beat out by another one the same day. I was pretty heartbroken over it but the H is ok with it. So a few days later we get a call from our realtor that the first house we offered on will now accept our offer and include all the appliances in the deal. I love this house and so does my hubby. The only problem is we've now seen something bigger and worry that the first house may be a little small for us long term. The house is 3 bedrooms 2 bathrooms with a nice living room, dining room and kitchen upstairs and a full family room with laundry room downstairs with a 1 car garage. The third bedroom is tiny but would make a good nursery. We want 3 kids and this will be our first house. Is it worth buying something that we will most likely grow out of when we get to child 3? The house would be great for 5-7 years at least. The neighborhood is great and backs up to cornfields. The location couldn't be more perfect. I'm used to moving but my hubby has lived in the same house his whole life. Our concern is that if we wait for something else...nothing else in our price range will come on the market in the small are we are looking in and then we'd be pressured by our lease on our apartment (which we can't wait to get out of), my job is going to change in about 4 months and the rates going up. I was hoping to get some other opinions on how important bedroom sizes are when buying a house. Any advice would be great!
Re: Buy or Wait - House sizes
Pretty much everyone who posts on the BOA board who has bought a SFH or a TH that was perfect for a couple or a small family, wishes they had purchased a larger home taking into account the growing family needs.
The Fed meets next month. It's likely they will keep the rate the same. It is not advisable to rush a home purchase just to beat a rate increase. Doing so would probably cost you more in the long-term if/when you had to sell that too small house.
Also, I do not believe the housing market is going to turn around anytime in the next decade. In fact, I think it is going to fall further. So, if you had to resell in 5-7 years, you would probably sell at a loss (if at all).
Wait until the right home comes. Don't sacrifice the size you need. And, if you do feel the need to buy now, why not build?
Thats good advice. It's so hard to predict the housing market. I do wonder which way it will go but you are probably right that it isn't going to sky rocket any time soon.
We did look into building but in my area (Central PA) we really want to live in this one town that's between Harrisburg and Lancaster. The school districts are good and the location is great for commuting back and forth to work for both of us. We couldn't buy a lot and have enough left to build right now. The lots are going for so much!
We did consider being able to put an addition on this house in the future though. There is plenty of room to do so I think. The location is perfect and the house is great except for the rooms being to small. An addition would definitely solve the problem! I just don't know how much that would cost so we would have to get estimates after buying to get an idea.
The housing market is never going to sky rocket again. It was a bubble that burst. It built up the way it did because it was unsustainable growth without any underlaying legitimate economic cause for growth.
Building: Are there any big builders in your area that have lots included in the building price? Ryan? Fischer? Ryland?
Also, regarding additions they would probably run around $100k for anything decent enough to allow room for a family with 3 kids.
There are some good builders in the area and they are building and selling but those houses (or lots with build packages) are going for about 25-30k out of our budget right now. If we waited a few years, building would be more of a possibility.
I would not buy a house that I plan to grow out of in 5-7 years. You would probably just break even at that point in time, meaning that you'd need to save a downpayment for a new house while paying for your current house and adding kids to the mix.
I'd also be leery of the addition plan. With 3 kids you'll be facing either large daycare bills or the decision for one parent to stay at home with the kids. Either way, your income will be reduced, making it much harder to save the cash or secure the financing for an addition. And do you really want to live in a construction site for 6+ months with 2-3 little ones?
I think you should wait to find a house that has the number of rooms and sizes you will need in the future. I wouldn't move into a house that's just for a few years, I think long-term. If you like that location, perhaps house-search in same subdivision but bigger house.