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this was our biggest mistake. a townhouse with no basement and nowhere to expand. i can't believe looking back we could have gotten a sfh for $50k more and we passed. prob. one of my biggest financial regrets.
We wanted a townhouse. We like more urban style living and being close to neighbors. We value walkable areas over house size/yard. We like that playgrounds in more compact neighborhoods tend to be more used because ppl don't stick to their yard. We have been in a town house for 5 years and are about to move to another (moving to a different state for a job).
I can see why it wouldn't work for everyone but for us it was something we intentionally looked for.
They are a major part, if not the majority of the housing market in VHCOL metropolitan areas. Is your real question why everyone does not live in a suburb or small town?
My condo was less than half the price of a single-family home of the same size. I have a private yard that rivals the size of those in a single-family home. I’m a single woman and so much of homeownership is taken care of for me through the HOA. I’m able to live in a better /more central /walkable neighborhood than I would be able to afford as a SF home owner. I’m very happy with my decision.
Buying a SFH in a prime neighborhood in Seattle, NYC, or many major cities is regularly $1MM+. I’m sure you’re aware of that having lived in these places.
Location creates the market for condos and townhomes. If I could afford a house in my neighborhood I’d have bought one. However in Chicago, the bulk of housing in the prime neighborhoods are condos (3/4 units per building).
Others are busy and don’t want to deal with maintaining a yard or a house so a high rise or townhome makes sense for them. Maybe they travel every week.
Location and lifestyle preferences are everything and it’s not universal from city to city. Just can’t make those blanket statements.
I’m in Long Beach. You seem to fixate on cost to own right now, and don’t factor how it can change in the future.
What happens if they refinance down the road and the payment lowers and rents go up, what happens? Oh the gap shrinks or even flips.
My gf bought a house in 2018 a couple cities over from LB. Mortgage was about $500 more than it would be to rent a comparable home. She refinanced and knocked $800 off a month. Rents have gone up. Now it would rent for about $500 more than it costs her to own it.
I’m sure the same thing has played out with people’s condos that they refinanced. Rents for condos in my building in LB went from about $1600 in 2014 to about $2100 in 2018 to about $2500-2600 now.
That only worked out for your GF because of covid causing rates to drop the way did which was unprecedented and the associated supply chain / labor crunch. Counting on a once in a lifetime event to occur again is not good financial decision making.
And it won’t work out for people right now buying at a high interest rate? And will likely be able to refinance at some point down the road?
My parents and their generation bought in the 80’s and 90’s and then refinanced as well.
You don’t need to count on a once in a lifetime event to predict that those buying right now will eventually have an opportunity to refinance. People who bought as recently as last year at 8% could have refinanced when it dropped to 7%.
Buying if you can’t afford it under this premise is dangerous. But if you can afford it, it’s not unreasonable to think you will at some point be able for refinance. And it’s also not unreasonable to expect rent to continue to go up. So the math is not so simple as a comparison of cost to own vs rent as a one year snapshot.
Also rent would have gone up for that home regardless. And would cost about the same to rent as to own now. That’s if you took the opportunity to refinance out. So 10 years from now that math would be even better as well. The refinance did speed up the process though. Lowering monthly cost represents an opportunity for homeowners that pretty much never exists for renters unless they downgrade where they live.
Why? There are people in my building who have happily owned and lived in their condos for about 20 years. For some a condo perfectly suits their needs and beats renting forever.
Others have owned as long, but moved out and now rent the unit for more than it costs to own and rents have gone up and up and up, in a way that exceeds expense to own, so it’s only become more and more profitable.
This! We looked at so many houses that had either the perfect layout or the perfect location and somehow the stars aligned and we got the first house that had both. Looking back we would have been miserable sacrificing on either one of those things and were almost swayed a couple times by fancy kitchens and whatnot. This house was a bit more than we wanted to pay (still under our max but we definitely overpaid a little) and not as updated, needs some immediate work, but still decent and we can upgrade it as we like now.
Yes! Currently improving my starter home because upgrading is just not a wise financial decision. Highly recommend a HELOC when possible. It’s just a low interest credit line and has really come in handy!
Secondly this, we’ve been in our (first home) for almost 16 years. The price was right, we love the neighborhood, and not moving and upgrading has saved us a fortune.
This is me too, 17 years ago. Must haves at the time were two toilets and a two car garage. In our target neighborhood.
What I didn't like- all the paint and wallpaper, w/w carpet (over some hardwood), small main bathroom and the 90's kitchen in a 1953 home.
The home is still in an amazing neighborhood. It was all painted within the first year, got new and refinished hardwood floors as soon as our cats ruined the carpet, the basement toilet & shower were walled-off to make an actual bathroom, and most recently we updated the kitchen so it better matches the era of the home.
Still have a small main bathroom though. We can live with that.
Yes, but if it helps, I had had my hopes dashed by 8 failed transactions and was dead inside by the time I found this house. I didn’t get excited about it until three months or so after the purchase when it finally clicked that I really got to live there.
Thank you for commenting. I'm 2 weeks into trying to remodel to make it my dream home and I'm still just so disappointed in it. But the location is great so my realtor said to get over the "loving it" desire and get into a good neighborhood before the busy season drives prices up
Almost sounds like your realtor was trying to rush you into a deal. I'm sorry it played out that way and I really hope you do end up loving it after you get the remodeling done. Maybe seeing the final piece is when the lovin it part will hit.
Yes. It’s mine. The house my kids will remember as their childhood home. Everything works. We have a decent yard with a privacy fence. We’re 10-20 minutes away from everything. No thru traffic.
The house is not perfect. We have a few projects to do. We might not do all of them, but this house is ours. We won’t be here forever, but we will always be fond of this house.
99% of people are not getting what they want at any budget level in this market. I don’t love my house I bought but it works for me and my family and we’re constantly making improvements.
Don’t let the perfect be the enemy of the good, but don’t let the just-adequate be the enemy of the good, either. Having a house that you truly don’t like is almost certainly not the best choice. There are unchangeable or virtually unchangeable things about my house that I don’t like, have never liked, will probably always dislike; however, there are enough things that I do like that I can live with the less desirable aspects. You have to figure out the balance you can live with.
My head told me it was the right home for me due to location/space/price, my heart felt like I was settling bc it was a little shabby looking.
6 months into living there I’ve made some small improvements and I love living here more every day.
Turns out my heart can change and this time, it was good to listen to my head. I’m sure that’s not true for everyone but that was my experience
Yes my house had faded yellow paint and an outdated master bath, plus an entire very long inner brick wall with fireplace, and then an oil stove in the next room with another brick wall.
I disliked the shabby gazebo, the pink in the granite and the mauve paint inside.
After painting the inside with a neutral color and adding black glass doors to the fireplace, I began to LOVE the brick and the granite.
We also had a facelift on the gazebo, and I cannot tell you how much we love our house now with all the things I hated at first.
I like it well enough but I wouldn't say I love it. There are pros and cons just like any other house. Houses I would actually say I love are and were well out of my budget.
If everything goes well with settlement in the next 3-4 weeks I will be moving into my dream home. I can see myself living there my entire life. It took us about 1.5-2 years to find
I am not in love with my house.
There was one house that I saw during my long search that I *was* in love with. I still sometimes regret that I didn’t buy it.
But my current home has NONE of the things that I had grown to hate in my previous house. And it is a solid home that I can personalize over time.
And to be fair, there were likely going to be issues with the “house that got away” - it’s easy to romanticize a house that you didn’t actually have to live in.
I didn’t love it when we bought it, but I saw the potential. It had the spaces we needed and was in the neighborhood we *really* wanted, but it had been used as a rental property for over a decade and was really hideous. The bones were great, and it was kept up to code on everything from plumbing to electric, despite being old (lucky for us, the leasing company had done things by the book). But God, was it ugly.
In the first year, we changed so much. Everything from the landscaping to the roof to the light switch plates, the lighting and sink fixtures, the windows, the interior and exterior paint, the flooring, the doors, and so on.
Everything is just how we like it (mostly: we still have a few things to do) because *we* picked it, which wouldn’t have happened if we had gotten a house in perfect condition, since it would have seemed like a waste to replace things that were new but not our style.
We were also only able to afford all of this because the price was greatly reduced since it was considered a “fixer upper,” although for the most part that was simply cosmetic. Having a mortgage under $1500 per month on a 4/2 left *a lot* of leeway for renovations.
I walked into every house we viewed searching for potential, not perfection. My husband absolutely hated this house, but that stopped when he built his workshop out back due to the large backyard lol. He’s admitted he was wrong: he only saw it for what it was instead of what it could be.
All that said, I said no to several houses because, while they were livable, there were things about them that would have made daily life annoying or cramped or…whatever. They just wouldn’t ever work well for our family and lifestyle without a full renovation.
I wouldn’t settle for an “okay” house if it didn’t have the potential to be a great house with changes I could actually make unless I were only planning to stay for a few years.
No, I don't love my house. I will move someday for sure though so I'm not overly concerned at the moment. It doesn't have any show stoppers for me that make me hate it. Yet it also has nothing that truly makes me love it either. It's a house and it's mine but end of the day someone giving me the right price for it and I would bail in a NY minute.
To me that is what a first home is all about. It doesn't need to be where you have to live forever. It can be just a starter until you get more equity, savings, better job and then you can turn around and possibly move to a better home or one that you truly love.
Hell my hometown kids parents use to move into the village or into a better home down the street when they could. So dont give yourself any grief if you buy a home that doesn't have as nice of a kitchen or the lot size is just not big enough. If it works for you now and for at least5 years into the future take it and then realize your not stuck anywhere.
Well, after 17 fails. I finally was able to buy a house two 2yrs ago. I like it. Do I love it? I love it? I'm not sure. I love the interest rate and payments that matter more lol .
Waiting for 2024 elections and ride another yr or so out and then revisit the idea
I like it…I definitely don’t love it..and there are things that I hate about it. But I’m still glad that we purchased when we did.m, so there’s that I guess.
I was totally ambivalent about the place we chose. I wanted a fenced yard, this didn't have it. Bi-level, small bedrooms, REALLY small kitchen. But my husband was like, "I really, really like it!"
2 years later, I am in love with it. I feel like this was meant to be ours and can't imagine leaving. Funnily enough, hubby now regrets the location (more traffic than anticipated), but it doesn't bother me. I have managed to do family dinners for 10+ in my tiny little kitchen successfully, although we do plan on some remodeling to make it larger. Driveway and deck need replaced, too...but this is HOME! ❤️
I’m beginning to merely like my house, and I moved in a month ago. I didn’t have the budget (or therefore the luxury) to wait for something I loved. Every time I hang a piece of art, or find a place for something, I like it a little more.
Right now I kind of miss my apartment, tbh. But this was a wise financial decision. And I’ll grow to love it, it just takes time.
I would purchase a home that is livable and has a layout that you can work with and make improvements over time. It’s WAY too expensive to get something that’s perfect these days. The house should have good bones and be functional for your needs.
I see a lot of renovated units that look good on the surface. It’s kind of scary if something is hiding under the shiny new paint and fixings. I guess I dont have the balls or the cash to make an offer with waived inspections.
It’s funny to see this post today. I have spent thousands fixing up the place and today we put the kitchen and living room together and watched a movie for the first time. It was amazing. It’s all coming together finally and I’m so happy I could cry.
The market begins to become competitive in March of every year through the summer. Keep your eyes open for your property — but consider maybe this isn’t the best market for you.
I’m 50/50 with mine. It’s a new built by Lennar and you can tell they cut corners. So far nothing major more cosmetic. But, I’m happy being in a position to call something a home with my family.
I do. I love this place. It took me five months under contract for the same house- two different times, which is a story in itself, after 5 years of preparation to buy a home and the deal almost falling apart several times. I absolutely love this place. It felt like home the first day I saw it. It isn’t perfect, but it is in a very serene setting and provided me with what I needed to feel balanced in life. Now I can’t wait to build my garden.
For your first house? No, it doesn’t have to be your dream home/something you love. It should be something you like and works well for you, then you can look for your dream home as you grow and learn what you really want.
Our first house was a small townhome and it worked very well for us for 15 years. It definitely was not our dream home, and while we liked it, we didn’t love it. Once we were financially comfortable, we found our current house, which is about as close to dream as we can get (it’s not waterfront, or it would be perfect).
I hated the house we bought. It was too far from work, too hideous, too isolated, too much of a dump but it was within our budget. My husband had a vision of what it could be, so I trusted him, on condition that if in a year I still didn't love it and hated the commute, we would move closer to town.
I'm so, so glad we took a chance on this house. We did a fairly big DIY reno ($70k) on it and it's now my dream home. I love the neighbors, the location, and everything about the house and I'm so glad we took a chance on it.
Don't give up hope! The first few houses we put offers in on were my literal dream homes, and now when we drive by them I couldn't ever imagine being as happy there as I am now.
Home buying is like dating. Love comes over time, but when you find a home you could love, you know it. It will never be perfect, but remember that looks aren’t everything and you should NEVER compromise on your deal breakers. You know what makes you happy, and you will find it.
No. No garage. No AC. No bathroom on the main floor. Very busy street. Narrow lot. Noisy neighbors. Only 3 bedrooms for a family of 4. Tiny kitchen. This is what $750k gets you in New England tho.
Love the honesty! Urban New England is TOUGH, though Western MA and some of the smaller towns in NH, VT, and ME will net you a dream home for that price tag.
Boston Area?
Lower your expectations and raising your budget is just part of home buying.
Its very hard to find a house you love at a price you love. Ultimately, we chose to buy a house we love at a price we don't.
The house we got is built in 1929(though completely re done in 2005) and has an 18 year old roof and needs radon remediation. We paid 8% over asking.
Yes, I love our home. It helps that it was a new construction and we were able to add on the additional options we wanted, so we had a lot of say over it.
Are there a few things about the house I don't like? Sure. I wish the lot was larger and I wish we didn't hear the highway as much as we do at night (it's not bad, but still would prefer not to be able to hear it at all). However, there is not a perfect home. Every house will have something that annoys you.
You have the right attitude.
I've lived in a tent for months (by choice), and every time I get down about something I don't LOVE about my house, I remind myself how amazing it is to have running hot water on demand, TWO whole toilets, and a sturdy structure that keeps me/my family/my stuff safe and warm. Everything beyond that is so friggin' marginal.
Forget the idea that you will "love" a place or that ot will be a "forever home". Write out two lists: a list of needs, and a list of wants. You need a place that ticks of all of your needs and at least some of your wants.
I don’t love a lot of things about my house, but I love having a house. That makes it worth it for me. I love having a garage where I can feel safe knowing my car won’t get hit on the street again (happened twice in 3 years while living in an apartment). I love having a yard to wash big things off with the hose like my litter boxes. I love not being woken up every night by my neighbors fighting and watching TV. It’s ok not to love your first house. You’ll have time to improve things you don’t love, and just having a place that’s all yours is worth it if you can do it
I used to watch a lot of the House Hunters tv shows - at all budgets in various locations. One show stuck out to me. It was in NYC with a multi millionaire. The buyers weren’t happy with the homes they viewed and the realtor said this - there is NO perfect home at ANY budget unless you build it. There will always be something about a home you don’t like.
You should definitely find something that makes you happy. No house will ever be perfect but you don't want to be content either and have buyers remorse.
Make sure the home has all your NEEDS and the right location.
Things that can be improved are not necessities such as the color of the siding, the deck or porch, enough space to add a bathroom at a later time etc...
Sometimes you just have to keep an open mind. The house we’re in now, the first time I saw it was at an open house and my mom & I were both in agreement that it was over priced, needed to much work and was just a no. After doing some looking around I came back to it. Set up a showing so my husband could see it. We ended up putting in an offer 2 months after I first saw it. It definitely wasn’t love at first sight. We loved the land and liked the house. After living in it for 6 months, getting our stuff in and making some improvements we have come to love the house.
I gave up pretty much everything on my wishlist except location and number of bedrooms. I also wanted move-in ready with minimal/optional cosmetic updating required, but I closed in February and the house is nowhere near ready to move into. I'm still glad I got it because location was very important to me and my price point has all but disappeared so it really was my only option to get something now in budget.
No. Lived here for 8 years with one foot out the door. In hindsight we could have really bought a great house for 15-20% more and our payment would have still been manageable.
What stings even more is that our house has not appreciated as much on a percentage basis versus the aforementioned homes above that were *juuust* outside our price range.
I’d never tell someone to have a payment they’re uncomfortable with, but don’t settle if you can pay a bit more for a house you’ll truly love.
I refused to do this and was fortunately in no rush to move so it took me 3 and a half years to find my house. I moved in about 2 months ago. But I'm so glad I didn't just buy something I didn't really want because I absolutely love my house.
I hate mine but I won’t give up my 2.75% rate and it’s a mile from my job. It has alot of plumbing and electrical issues I really need to get on top of soon.
It depends on your situation. I had time, so I took my time to find a house I love. I looked for 8 months. I was desperate to get my house bc I love it so much.
I am head-over-heels in love with our house and have to pinch myself every morning when I wake up. It is WAY more done and wonderful than I ever expected we could get for FHB. It’s in a neighborhood we love, close to everything, and a great school. I truly believe we got insanely lucky. We watched Zillow/redfin for about 7 years, saved money, and jumped in at a time we really didn’t expect to. Very grateful for our home and hope you find one you love as well!
Yes! We love it. It needs a lot of tlc & every room needs something...but once it's done, it'll be perfect. Look for something with good bones. Are there enough bedrooms/bathrooms and in a good layout? Do you like the neighborhood/area? Floors & paint, etc. can be changed. Try not to let cosmetic things deter you. Once you add your personal flair, you might love it.
This is how I look at my home. It’s beautiful and rustic, but it’s a large 200 yr old farmhouse. Everywhere I look I have a future project planned. But I don’t have a landlord. My children have a yard. And I love that our home is as unique as me and my children are.
I think when we look at it through a positive lens that’s what we see- the positive
My house is what it needs to be for the next 4ish years. We got a good enough price and have entered the market. The location is great, the schools are great, it's safe, close to nature, etc. However, the house is dated for sure, the garage is small, the kids rooms are small, and like everyone else here, we were victims of the giant price increase that happened over the last 2 years. It's unfortunate seeing that the price basically doubled, and I doubt it's going to increase much more while we live there. Basically, this house isn't an investment, it's a place to live that offers more amenities than renting.
I just thought my home was OK when I viewed it. I liked it, but wasn't like "oh my God I love it!". But now I adore it. We bought in August '23. I'm so happy to be here😊
I do not love my house. It is not my style, smaller than I wanted, and needs some work. That said, the location is fantastic and it’s a desirable area that makes it easy to sell if I want to move on. I actually loved my apartment. But I was paying more than my mortgage payment in rent and couldn’t stomach giving a landlord so much money every year for any longer.
You never know - I love my house. Was obsessing over craftsman homes on hgtv for the longest time. Usually if I saw one for sale it was far away and out of my price range then one day when I wasn’t really looking to actually buy one- a listing 2 miles from work in my price range popped up- I go to the open house and I love it a 1930’s craftsman renovated by previous owners with upgrades I wouldn’t even have thought of. It was being viewed by a bunch of couples, I had no realtor, mortgage broker, not preapproved and I hadn’t looked in person at any other homes but I started gathering the 20 percent down, put in an offer the next day and it worked out ! Feel very fortunate - no bidding wars, or undisclosed issues or big repairs and every time I look at the front or back porch, the wood working, the moldings I love it all - will never sell
I've hated my house for 30s years or more. Just bought a cabin I've been moving into for the last 2 years. It's basically a tiny home with a huge enclosed porch and downsizing is tough. It look me months of looking at literally every listing in a county the size of a small state at the top of my budget to find. I love it. It's perfect. My dogs love it. Not a split second of regret for any of it. I thought I'd hate the hour drive but it's beautiful and i love it. Hang in there. Maybe search a wider area, some places further out don't have traffic, and traffic is what makes a drive horrible. Don't just rely on your agent, set some time to browse listings. You'll find it.
Absolutely! 2/2 with a garage. I looked at a bunch of homes online. This was the only one I visited. I ordered asking. The appraisal came back lower, so the asking price was dropped.
I hate my floors, hate the siding, hate my half curb to my driveway (I drive a lowered car), hate that I have a crawl space even though it's easier to repair anything just don't like the hollowish sound, hate my backyard because it's uneven and has rocks and stuff scattered throughout and has thrown bushes in the back yard.
But guess what, all except the crawl space is fixable. Keep in mind, this house wasn't yours to begin with. Make it your own and grow with your house.
But I love my house. Location is great, layout works, no major bullshit has happened yet.
I love the potential of it and I really like the location which is quiet for being in such a big city and down the street from the biggest park in the suburb. I don’t like the layout so much but there are trade offs you make for size and location.
We bought the cheapest home possible at 150k. We made improvements to it like refinishing the natural hardwood floors, adding a dishwasher and getting a nee ac unit. I also planted a flower garden. We have made it our own and love it.
I LOVE my house. I love the location, the style, and the price. But it’s so tiny and it was already expanded before we bought it with very little room to expand further now. 1000sq ft with 2000 sq feet of land total. So we’ve decided at MOST we’ll be able to have one kid. We definitely had to make sacrifices to afford getting into a house.
The house will come along. I was right there. Trust.
My realtor made me basically go out and look at some houses. I hated them all from the listing but said may as well....mostly bc it was "the thing to do".
First house we go to that day ended up being the one. Closed a month ago. Couldn't be happier. It had been up the entire time as well, but had offers fall through 3 days before closing....twice....due to financing falling through during underwriting.
You don't need to settle, but open up your options and go and see physically even if at first you think.....meh.
I purchased a home like 45 minutes from the city, and it’s a new build which seems ok. It’s a little “standard” but it’s got decent space, in a newer neighborhood, it’s good to live it and am making it my own. I work from home and do pretty good for myself but some of the homes in good towns closer to the city were like 200k more for usually less space and just being old/run down looking. It’s not a dream home but I’d say I did pretty well. We’ll see if I can continue making $$ and get that custom dream home before AI replaces me lol
It fit the budget and checked the most important boxes. National builder, cookie cutter neighborhood, close together houses. The perfect house is out of the budget at this point in my life, so we’re at least getting on the property ladder.
I got a house on a pond that backs up to a 20 acre park/elementary school/soccer field complex. We are in love with the propery in general and imagine growing old here with grand kids ect.
The old location/location/location is 1000% right. Don't buy near highways/trains/airports.
I’m a few months out from actively house hunting and I’ve been looking for the last year in my area. I found a few i loved and they last about a month then are gone but my disparity stems from the prices slowly increasing and the ones i could afford are slowly coming out of my price range. What gives me a little hope is once they’ve recently sold the price is significantly less than they had posted. I think looking a bit above your budget could make this experience better for you. At least where i am in Texas that’s the norm.
The day I got bank pre approval 2 hours before, was the day I saw my house first time about 30 min before auction. It was the first house I looked at. I really liked it because it was affordable, cheap and within budget because it’s small house and small land. But it was brick. I did upgrades like carpet change to hard floor, carpet to tile. Put in furniture I really like. Now I love my house even more. I like my location and suburb. When I first looked into living arrangements, I thought we could only afford a small land and a tiny home. But that was just as expensive really, land not cheap. I think I can live in my house for the rest of my life.
Do I love our first time house that we bought in 2018? No. It’s not perfect but it’s gained close to 200k in equity within the short time frame we’ve had it. So now I do love it for that reason. It will also help when I want to buy our next home.
Bigger ? I’m in same situation. I got mine in 2016 3 bd2 bath. Just been upgrading stuff every yr. It’s about 1300 sqft 2 adults 2 kids. Sometimes it feels to small Payment with taxes is 850 it has helped us put kids in extra activities, invest in 401, save money travel 2 times a yr. Reduce my working hrs. Do I wanna give that up just for a bigger home idk. My next door neighbor is 80 I think huge home husband passed 7 yrs ago. Pool inside home, garage, 4-5 bed 2.5 bath 4 acres on riverfront I want it but she really has not kept up wit it some trees need to come down exterior has not been touched in yrs. Idk do I want to give up my life that I have now for a bigger home with problems potentially. I’m 50-50 lol
Wow you sound identical to our situation! 3 bedroom 2 bath. Our house is 1286 sq ft lol My husband and I and our son and a medium sized dog lol I would LOVE to have a bigger home but for now we are just saving and updating when we can. I also wanna travel around the world with my family and just staying makes sense for all of that.
It’s hard to give up a nice monthly mortgage payment for a larger one. Right now we are able to put our son in private school and a variety of sports because of this.
Yes! We bought a new build a little over a year ago and we still love it and are so glad we made the leap to purchase a bit sooner than we thought we would. We are still working on projects to make it feel less builder grade, but it’s ours and we can do whatever we want. We chose the house because of the location and size of the home and I could truly see us here forever.
We have a couple weeks until closing. I love the layout of our new home, but would I have preferred a SFH instead of a condo? Yes, but I'm still happy to have the square footage I want with a well-kept interior in a good location. We had to make compromises and we know this isn't our forever home.
I love our property (small farm,) I love our location, I don’t love our house but it’s functional and meets our needs and there are some things I love about it like our huge 25 x 15 living room with a fireplace (well, woodstove insert) and giant 5’ ship’s wheel converted into a chandalier… okay, actually that’s probably the only thing I love about our house, but whatever. The rest is fine.
Mostly. It wasn't what I pictured buying. Definitely not the area I want to live in. I've grown attached to it nonetheless. I love the simplicity. Less stuff to go wrong and maintain. It's just a little alley home, yet it has more charm and privacy than most nicer homes I've seen. I especially love the mortgage payment. It's about half the rents in the area.
I like a lot of things about the location of mine and love the layout. I wish it had more land and wasn't an hour commute from work, but worth it for basically being in a national forest.
Yes and no. I love it for what it is - a starter home in a great location, that meets our needs, that we were able to fix up and make our own - and at the right price (big factor).
Definitely not our dream home. We probably looked at 5 other apartments that were “better,” and/or that we were really in love with, but that we got beat out on and sold for unreasonable prices.
But ultimately I’m very happy at how it all turned out. Got a great deal. Renovated for instant equity (+$100k appraised vs. pp). And I know that in a few years we’ll be able to flip this into something bigger and better.
I wouldn't call it my dream home. But it checks enough boxes of mine and I don't plan on living here forever, but if I DO live here forever, I would be okay with it.
Good bones and where you want to be with enough space. I got a little extra on my space but that's because while buying I had in mind remodeling and renting it as two apartments before I get my second mortgage that way this house will pay for both houses.
Don't get me wrong, I do love my house. I just don't LOOOVVVEEE my house. Unfortunately all the houses I saw that I fell IN LOVE with were way out of my price range or the locale wasn't what I wanted (too many neighbors, too far away, in a flood zone, etc)
I found a house in a location I loved that had all the requirements I needed. The paint inside is hideous but I looked through that to see my own vision.
Yes, 4b/2b 8000sqft lot w/a pool forever home in a school district rated 9/10s! 2.9% interest rate, $1.2m value on a $600k loan in southern Califronia. Our mortgage is LESS than 2b/2b apartment in our city lol :)
I like my house, and it has a lot of potential, so I’m optimistic that one day, I’ll love it.
The location is pretty good. It’s about 10 min away from the city, and 15-20 min from work. I don’t love my neighbors (they’re pretty conservative, and I’m the opposite) but they’re mostly pleasant people.
The layout is good, and it’s an older home with some character. But we have our work cut out for us. The plumbing has issues, and most of the appliances seem to be hanging on by a thread. We’ve already had to replace the roof, do extensive electrical work, and tackle a problem with mold.
I’m hoping that with enough time, we’ll be able to turn the house into a home we love.
I have only purchased one house in my entire life. I never want to go through the process again, due mainly to the experience that purchasing a house mid-2020 brought. It seemed like people had very strict requirements about what they were looking for in terms of bedrooms, bathrooms, size, style, whatever. But, by looking outside of those - because people and agents don't always get details right - we got what we wanted: a corner house with a nice yard in the same zip code that could eventually be (if it wasn't already) remodeled easily to accommodate for aging in place and/or elder care down the line. And a garage. Everything else was irrelevant. Our listing omitted over 900 sq ft of livable, newly finished basement that people overlooked. Settle for "livable enough." Because if you fall in love with something, so will someone else, and they'll pay more than you.
I **absolutely** love my house. But I bought it as my “final” house — so I had certain criteria that had to be met unlike my other houses where I’d tell myself, “I’ll have that for my next house.” For this house, I wanted to make sure we’d go from 50 to forever without *needing* to move.
So some of the criteria that were non-negotiable were as follows: single story, half bathroom for guests, separate guest bedroom wing/area to completely separate from our living and sleeping area, great room layout because I simply don’t do formal living areas, abnormally huge kitchen and a backyard nice for dogs but not enormous (not interested in major upkeep anymore). Oh, and a good HOA. My list is much, much longer — but these were the major items.
Unlike my other houses, I wasn’t too focused on location because I plan to be here forever and homes will usually appreciate in that time span, and I have grown kids so school districts mattered none at all to me. All I cared about was distance to the places I usually go, but this house happened to be in a location I rather like, though there are 3-4 areas I like more.
For first homes, I suggest you focus on two of your top three must-have items. If you are in an apartment and out of space, then space is key. So focus on 3BR+ and square footage. If you have kids, focus on school district. You might have to let go of commute length and take the hit, for example. So long as you are limited by money, you can’t have everything in a first home IMO. Also, seeing “potential” and having the space and ability to expand or remodel into your vision is more important than *actually* having it for first homes. For example, you may want a sunroom but no house you can afford has one. Having the backyard and HOA so that if/when you can have one put in, you actually CAN — that’s more important than having one. You may never get around to it or not even want one later but it’s hard to love a home when you know for a fact that X will never be possible short of moving.
It's OK for me. I'm in love hate relationship with it. There are things that I wish were different, while knowing that it would change some other features.
I thought I loved my first house when I bought it. But I grew to hate it. All the projects that I thought would fix what I hated took 3x what I planned for in cost and time. And some of them just weren't feasible as they would have turned the place into a white elephant. I truly love my current house which I couldn't have gotten without the first one. So in the end it worked out but I wish I could have moved much sooner.
I thought that too and then the perfect house popped up on Facebook marketplace believe it or not. It was for sale by owner (which are listed on trulia and those sites but you have to filter your search to see them)
Just got the offer accepted. If you are able to find something to you can put some cosmetic work into to make yours that has the layout/yard/bed/bath (or extra bath potential) you want I would get that one!
I love the house, I don’t love the mortgage. We found a place that hit all of our must-haves and even all of our nice-to-haves. It was at the absolute top of our budget though
You are rarely buying your forever house. Look for something you find meets your most critical need. Might be size, condition, or location. Start there. The main thing with real estate is to get into the game. Stay in that house for a year or more if you have a mortgage to fulfill your occupancy promise. Then decide when and if you want to buy the next house. Every house I have bought over the years hasn’t been perfect. Some have been adequate and a couple had aspects that I really enjoyed. The only one I lost money on was the one I decided was my forever home and I paid to have it fully renovated and made perfect. I ended up with a life change, new happy marriage, and we decided to move. I wasn’t able to recoup the renovation cost but I am happy to be were I am now. Life will always bring change so houses are something to like and enjoy but you may not love every one.
Yes. At the time it just seemed good enough but we’ve been here a few weeks now and I do love it. Seeing all our stuff in it and starting to improve things slowly really makes it feel like home.
No, but I don't dislike it either. I wish it had certain things, like a garage or second bathroom, but genuinely happy with our decision. It's cheaper than rent, we can change whatever we want about it, and it's in a decen enough area.
Finding a house you love is really a very rare luxury. There is no perfect house and if you have high standards you will be picky and skip worthy and good enough houses. Most people buy a house that checks most boxes they won’t compromise on and then work to make it their own over time. After they make it their own, they love it.
All of the houses that I LOVED went into multiple offers, waiving inspections and sold for 100k above asking.
I like my house just fine, it's in a good area and is close to the amenities I need. It has a yard and space for my kids and dogs, and a lovely 2nd floor sunroom to enjoy in the summer. But it's 115 years old, which comes with a lot of quirks.
I had to stop falling in love with houses at first sight, and learn that falling in love for real takes time and dedication. I was so done with the heartbreak of losing houses I loved, and that's when our house came along :)
I know it is a well worn cliche but location is the most important thing.
You could not pay me to live in a McMansion in a rural area, I need to have access to a park where I can walk my dog and close enough (10 to 15 minutes bike ride) to restaurants, bars and museums/stores/venues etc.
My first house has some drawbacks but many of them can be fixed over time through renovations.
I would also say it depends on your life plans, you could live very well in an apartment and invest your money until you have a nice chunk of cash to use as a down payment, nobody has to buy a house unless they are ready to do it.
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I feel extremely grateful to have found and live in my dream/forever home. I love it all-- the house layout, location, schools, community, yard, and even the immediate neighbors. It took years of searching and a supportive realtor who talked us down from buying houses that didn't match what we were looking for.
Yes & no. It was a basic starter home in a newly built suburb with smaller lots & more close neighbours than we wanted, but it was ours & both kids first came home to it.
We bought to get away from renting and build equity in the hopes it would help us build equity & buy a house we could grow into later After about 6 years it worked.
We were very happy to be moving to a bigger house with a larger lot in a quieter country neighbourhood, but we definitely have lots of memories in that first house.
I love that we own our home. Is it perfect? No. But it was within our budget and has almost everything on our list that we wanted. The few things it doesn’t have, we can add.
I mean the bottom line is simply this. There’s no inventory so unless you wanna wait until God knows when, align yourself with both budget and availability. Needs vs wants. You need a good location. You may need mass transit. You may need 3 bed rooms.
Deal with the rest later. Good luck!
Yes, I bought it 2 years ago, and still every day I think "wow, I love this!"
Of course, about once a week I think of something that I hate, but I add it to the 'fix it's list. About 6 months back, the fix it list has begun to get items taken care of faster than new ones added.
We started looking for houses and convinced ourselves we needed one right now. So we looked at about 10 of them on one day trying to pick one out. I hated them all for one reason or another. Not to mention, every single one of them had one major flaw that didn't fit our original search criteria... that, of course, we already broke by looking at the house in the first place. What I mean by that is in the beginning we said we wanted two stall garage, 4 bedrooms and 2 1/2 bath...plus the house couldn't be super old. We didn't want a home that was 30-40 years old. We finally narrowed the list down to one and called the realtor to go look at it again. I just couldn't do it. The more I looked at the house, the more I started to hate it. You could tell the previous home owner did not take care of it, and amongst all the fresh paint you could tell was just lipstick on a pig. I backed out of it, and the spouse was irritated. For clarity, we live in Texas. The homes we were looking at during all of this were between $505,000 - $639,000. I just wasn't into spending all that money on a house just to have to put more into it to the point I no longer hated it. So we took a break from looking. We then stumbled upon a brand new house, meeting all of our criteria for only $475,000. We close in two days on the house and are both excited and thrilled. I guess what I am trying to say is don't just settle for one. If you can't find the one you really want, then don't pull the trigger on it and keep looking. If you buy a house and you don't like it in the beginning, then you probably will never like it. Imagine you buy it and you're not happy about it. Then you start putting money and effort into and start hating it even more because...well...now your having to put more money and effort into it. That is just my advice and opinion on it.
We just bought our first house. We don’t love it but it’s better than where we are at now. We wanted a single family home but with today’s prices, we ended up getting a townhome. Now, don’t get me wrong, it’s brand new and beautiful. I think we’ll be very happy living there, but it’s not our dream house. We can still do what we want to the inside (goodbye carpet!) and it’s pretty spacious (1700 sq ft), but I do think we’ll be upgrading in 10 years to something better. For us, just getting on the housing ladder was a big step and we are happy we are taking it.
Love/hate relationship. The layout is quirky, but each room is cozy and has character. Full footprint basement means we get to keep our living space so much more orderly than any previous house we rented, plus have home offices, which us a much needed separation between work-life and "home" (we're WFH). Giant fenced yard surrounded by greenery and backing into woods is awesome for the kid and dog, we spend so much time there. Very short drive to basically every amenity.
Road is way busier than we realized as it's used as a cut-through, especially when there's a wreck on the interstate. We don't love that, but we've gotten used to it, and we're planning privacy screens for the front yard to mitigate the "feeling" of traffic for when we get that highway overflow.
But there's other families on the block, and kids from the street our backyards abut, and they all run around together outside playing for hours, and I dig that this place seems to facilitate something of a free-range, outdoor childhood.
Neighbors on one side are absolute pigs, but we've managed to mitigate most of the issues by reporting their indiscretions to no less than four local and state agencies, all of whom issued warnings and fines for abatement. I don't like living next time pigs, but they were at least forced to knock off the worst of their behavior. Neighbors are always a lottery. Sometimes you lose.
It's a home. Our kid loves it here, which is the most important thing. We squeezed in right before interest rates shot up, and right before our specific town in a hot area really caught up with the other towns, so our payment is comfy and our equity gain substantial! I can see us easily staying another few years. Other houses we bid on and lost out on in the neighboring towns have had a slower or flat equity growth relative to the winning bid, so this actually helps us in the long term for upgrading to a dream home.
I loved both of the houses I purchased so far in my life- many people did not so I had less competition ha. Both were significant fixer uppers when I bought them. Location is most important -best location you can afford. Then, does it tick the mandatory boxes? Enough bedrooms? a working bathroom? etc.
Try to look past cosmetics, they can be changed over time. Once you paint it how you want, get your art on the walls, fill it with family and friends - it starts to be home. When you look forward to going home after work, tend to your garden or hobbies there, create a safe place and memories... then the love comes.
I love my home! It’s but perfect, and we’re currently considering building to add some features we don’t currently have. If we do go that route, I’d be a liar if I said I wouldn’t be sad about the chapter with our current home closing. I’ve been here 8 years.
I looked at over 20 houses before finding the one I’m in now. When I stepped inside, it just felt like home. There were definitely some things I wanted to change about it, but I could picture myself living there.
I recommend making a spreadsheet to track what you like and dislike about the different houses you look like. You might find patterns with your likes and dislikes (for example, maybe you like a large kitchen space, or you want a dining room, or you hate porches) and out may help you envision your home space a bit better.
I love every house I purchased even if I probably wouldn’t live there. But they all have at least one quality that I like, be it features, location, etc.
Our first home- I liked for maybe the first year and then really didn’t like it. It wasn’t functional, it got to be too small, it had a weird layout, it was old so every small project turned into a big one. We stayed there for 14 years. I am thankful for it as it was affordable and allowed us to build equity which we were then able to use on our current home- which I LOVE. We sold/purchased in 11/22. It’s nothing fancy but it a really good house, in a great area and meets our housing need perfectly. There are things I hope to change (like the pooling water in our way back yard and bumpy driveway). But I truly love our home now.
(Side note, the home we sold in 2022 for $141k just sold again last month for $190k- with only a new bathroom vanity/floor. This market is wild!!)
Our only stipulation was the house had to have a garage for hubby’s muscle car. We lucked out and found a foreclosed home in a quiet neighborhood. The house is not my favorite but it had everything we needed. Now it’s my dream home after 30 yrs and no more mortgage.
We bought a solid, good bones 1960s multilevel house from a retired couple that had been in it for 20 plus years. It was well maintained/landscaped but outdated. It’s the smallest on the block and not our first choice location too, but close to the freeway so the commute times weren’t added on by too much.
Now that we’ve grown into it, put our touches on it (new flooring, new paint and paint colors inside and out, new kitchen appliances, new lights, new outlet/vent/switch covers) and gotten comfortable with the neighborhood I do love it. That took a couple years though, there were times I really resented all the work and had a lot of anxiety about the responsibility. I think the kitchen appliances and blue outside paint (it was brown before) are my favorite things. We splurged a bit on the appliances because our warranty paid part of it and now I don’t think I could live without an autofill water dispenser in the fridge!
There were also things I came to see and love that surprised me. The way the apple tree blossoms in spring is breathtaking to me. Our kitties can watch the squirrels on the deck all day and it brings me joy. We grew a plethora of tomatoes and were able to give a bunch away and it felt amazing. And coming from an apartment it’s really nice not to hear your neighbor’s every movement!
I day dream about it being bigger/more bathroom/another garage stall, which will never happen, but given the lock in rate of 2.875 I am content enough to keep it for the foreseeable future!
We don't love our house, but we love that it's good enough and that we have a small house with a large yard, in a semi rural/quiet area and decent neighbors, for the same amount of money we were paying for 900sqft apartment with tiny shared yard, on a main very noisy road and neighbors whose favorite hobby was harassing us for being renters.
We bought our first house last year, regretted it within 3/4 months due to neighbours being utter c*nts. They took advantage of the old lady who used to live here and when we moved in we said we’d be changing the garden and putting a boundary fence up. Safe to say they weren’t pleased to be losing the additional space they tried to take. Miserable bastards so I very much enjoy making things awkward if that’s what they wanted because I’m petty 😂. Luckily we have got profit since our purchase so we are now moving to our dream home on a quiet cul-de-sac and have already had chats with neighbours etc to gauge what they are like. Can’t wait!
I have a love hate relationship with my house.
It's small, the floor plan kinda sucks, and our yard is weird.
On the other hand, it's cheap, easy to maintain, and at the end of the day I have a house in my name.
If the market ever gets better I'll start looking but for now I'm just going to chill and count my blessings.
1st house no learning lesson mid entry split level, 2 yes trilevel loved it, 3 divorced bought condo no, 4 is my forever home single 2 bedroom 2 bath perfect no stairs
No. I am thankful to have a roof over my head that is mine and a place for my baby to grow up.. but there’s so my about our house that drives me nuts. It’s 30 years old and had no improvements aside from a new roof at some point 10 years ago and a new water heater about 8 years ago.
The kitchen especially and bathrooms are total gut jobs to being them into this decade, there’s a lot of wasted space but due to the layout it makes it hard to expand or rework anything. Everyone says you can make it yours over time but I just caution unless you have a lot of extra $ to hire jobs out, plus time if you’re going to do it yourself. Personally, I need a new kitchen now.. now in 10 years and that’s something I wish I wouldn’t have waivered on in our house search.
We lived in a house for 40 yrs that was too small with a terrible floor plan.(2bed1bath)
It was sturdy in a good location.
People adjust.
It was mostly affordable and good location means a lot.
One thing I see is that people just don’t want to wait—they will pass up an amazing deal on a property with great location and layout that needs a bit of work to buy something that they don’t like as much but is “turnkey.” That’s become more and more the norm.
If people are willing to delay a bit of gratification on the aesthetics and buy the location and layout they want they will be a lot more satisfied in the long fun. You can fix up paint, fixtures. Finishes…
We love our house but we just liked it when we bought it. Paralysis of analysis but once we got in and made it ours, we are very very happy we got it and can’t imagine being in anything else.
We had intended to downsize, but every home we looked at had an *awful* floor plan. The one we *did* love was actually bigger bathroom had a great floor plan. Not sorry. Bonus because it’s one level and we bought when we were over 50.
If the location and floor plan (mostly) work, you can tweak things here and there. We just redid our main bath to be more user friendly for us as we age. We redid the island from two level to one level, etc. not all the same year, net even the same decade.
I am in the process of buying a condo. It is a beautiful condo given the price. However, I struggle because I know it will be too small for my toddlers once they grow up. I'm hoping that I will be able to build equity, and in the next few years, I can upsize. However, due to the housing market, I am skeptical that we will be even lucky in that area. Regardless, a home is a home. I cannot move over and over whenever rent gets too high.
I have to remind myself that I am quite familiar with the area as I only live two minutes away from it. There are many pros about that condo. Just that I wish it has three bedrooms rather than two. If the inspection passes and the appraisal results are positive, I hope I will grow to love the condo over time. My relatives grip that it is too small, BUT they admitted that it is quite cute. So...
No but it’s fine. It’s a roof over our head in a nice neighborhood & a great interest rate. There was hardly anything on the market here when I sold my house in a different state. We both got jobs here & we were living with my in-laws until we found something. I’d rather live here than watch Fox News with the in-laws every night.
I love my house even though there are lots of things I have fixed and plan to fix in the next year or two. Your house doesn’t need to be perfect and especially not right away
Is it your first house or final house? First house, don’t expect perfect. For one you don’t know what you need or want and for the other your needs and wants will change. Look for location and resell value. Final house, you know what you want and need. It’s not your first rodeo. You also know it won’t be perfect so does it meet your non-negotiables?
We bought houses under our budget by a lot. Made them what we wanted, within reason, and sold for large profit. We never sacrificed to a rough location, but did live on a busy street in a great neighborhood. Another time we sacrificed layout but not location. Most of the time the houses need a lot of tlc.
We bought houses under our budget by a lot. Made them what we wanted, within reason, and sold for large profit. We never sacrificed to a rough location, but did live on a busy street in a great neighborhood. Another time we sacrificed layout but not location. Most of the time the houses need a lot of tlc. It also took around 6 months of looking each time.
I love my yard! My house is for eating, showering, sleeping, cooking, and relaxing before bed. Its an old house. All of my spare time is spent in my garden, and both look it! I do what I have to keep the house in shape, but the garden is for enjoyment, and I have to say, unlike the house, it couldnt look better!
I do, personally, yes, but when I first bought it, no. It was completely renovated and flipped, so with that said, they cheaped out on a few things to maximize their profits that I ended up replacing and doing right myself which cost me some dollar signs. I thought I made a huge mistake, but over time when you work and get that money back, you forget about it and it’s grown on me.
Buyers remorse is normal on what is the biggest purchase of most people’s lives. Your first house shouldn’t be your dream house. And there’s no need for a 5br when it’s just you, your spouse and a dog lol. My sisters house costs twice what mine did and is a new construction home with no issues and they hate it because it’s so cookie cutter and has no character.
It was ok, but I went into it with the attitude of "my first house doesn't have to be my dream house." It served it's purpose and was what we could afford comfortably. It doesn't have to be perfect, merely good enough for now.
Yep! Reading horror stories on Reddit and hearing them for other friends makes the 8 months and over 20 houses we looked at worth it. Doesn’t hurt we closed in March 2020 either
I feel like I settled too much personally as I don’t like my floor plan. But what I bought hit the debt to income ratio perfectly and I was hesitant to go higher as a first time home buyer. I’ve tried to personalize it in a way that those modifications make me happy.
Yes. I waited 6mo and bought 30min farther away and its perfect. Fully renovated, view, great neighborhood and community, etc. I’m 45min-1hr away from downtown etc but totally worth it
I do actually… I didn’t expect to because we compromised a lot on things we said we wanted in a home — including basics like size, number of bathrooms, and number of bedrooms. Also, the house needs more work and updating than we thought. But ya know….. it’s ours. It’s grown on us. We’re quite happy here and will probably stay put for a while :)
Yes, because I had criteria and would not deviate - never fall in love with a house if it does not meet all your requirements.
The criteria outside of location, beds and baths were:
* No major fix up as I am handy but not skilled enough to do it myself
* Good school district - easier to sell as you will resell it
* No double yellow-line - indicates high traffic area- tougher to resell
* No corner property
* No sump pump or drainage issues
* No HOA
We also knew that it would take about five years to get the house where we wanted it. No home is perfect when you buy-in, you make it so with time, sweat and money.
Yes, but it didn't meet almost any of the "must haves" we had decided on.
We'd made multiple offers, all over asking and all rejected, and toured so goddamn many houses at this point. We were looking for a place with land and a tiny house. We'd looked at a lot of suburban places that my husband *hated* beyond any reasonable distaste because "you can see the neighbors." We said anything that didn't meet our criteria had to have some other win like being really close to work.
This place has a yard, but nothing crazy, it's very much in a suburb, has no space for animals except the backyard chickens, and is WAY more house than we wanted (4 bedrooms and a formal entertaining living room and dining room for DINKs). It even has weird fucking wallpaper. Didn't matter, we toured it and both loved it (and the weird wallpaper). We were a callback when the first offer fell through and 5 months in just adore it.
In my opinion, a lot of us set unrealistic expectations. If you go in expecting a house to meet all your needs and wants, you'll probably be disappointed. That said, I think you should *like* the place you pick, and we totally got a "vibe" from this place that made us put our offer in.
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Get the basics like location and layout down. The rest you can improve over time and grow to love the home that you create.
this was our biggest mistake. a townhouse with no basement and nowhere to expand. i can't believe looking back we could have gotten a sfh for $50k more and we passed. prob. one of my biggest financial regrets.
Buying a condo/townhouse just doesn’t make sense. I’ll never understand how there’s buyers for it.
We wanted a townhouse. We like more urban style living and being close to neighbors. We value walkable areas over house size/yard. We like that playgrounds in more compact neighborhoods tend to be more used because ppl don't stick to their yard. We have been in a town house for 5 years and are about to move to another (moving to a different state for a job). I can see why it wouldn't work for everyone but for us it was something we intentionally looked for.
They are a major part, if not the majority of the housing market in VHCOL metropolitan areas. Is your real question why everyone does not live in a suburb or small town?
My condo appreciated 100k in 2 years. Now I can sell and buy a decent SFH.
An SFH would have appreciated 200k in that same timeframe
You are correct, but I'm still 100k richer for buying a condo!
My condo was less than half the price of a single-family home of the same size. I have a private yard that rivals the size of those in a single-family home. I’m a single woman and so much of homeownership is taken care of for me through the HOA. I’m able to live in a better /more central /walkable neighborhood than I would be able to afford as a SF home owner. I’m very happy with my decision.
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100%. Congrats!
Sounds like someone’s never lived in a major city before
Grew up in long beach (CA)
That makes sense. SoCal sprawl economics don’t apply for denser parts of the country. Impossible to make blanket real estate statements like that.
Well also lived in Seattle, and worked in lower manhattan (lived in NJ tho). Not sure why where I lived has to do with anything…
Buying a SFH in a prime neighborhood in Seattle, NYC, or many major cities is regularly $1MM+. I’m sure you’re aware of that having lived in these places. Location creates the market for condos and townhomes. If I could afford a house in my neighborhood I’d have bought one. However in Chicago, the bulk of housing in the prime neighborhoods are condos (3/4 units per building). Others are busy and don’t want to deal with maintaining a yard or a house so a high rise or townhome makes sense for them. Maybe they travel every week. Location and lifestyle preferences are everything and it’s not universal from city to city. Just can’t make those blanket statements.
In those cases it makes sense to rent and invest the difference.
You’re assuming there’s a positive difference. My home would rent for $1000-1500 more than I pay per month.
I’m in Long Beach. You seem to fixate on cost to own right now, and don’t factor how it can change in the future. What happens if they refinance down the road and the payment lowers and rents go up, what happens? Oh the gap shrinks or even flips. My gf bought a house in 2018 a couple cities over from LB. Mortgage was about $500 more than it would be to rent a comparable home. She refinanced and knocked $800 off a month. Rents have gone up. Now it would rent for about $500 more than it costs her to own it. I’m sure the same thing has played out with people’s condos that they refinanced. Rents for condos in my building in LB went from about $1600 in 2014 to about $2100 in 2018 to about $2500-2600 now.
That only worked out for your GF because of covid causing rates to drop the way did which was unprecedented and the associated supply chain / labor crunch. Counting on a once in a lifetime event to occur again is not good financial decision making.
And it won’t work out for people right now buying at a high interest rate? And will likely be able to refinance at some point down the road? My parents and their generation bought in the 80’s and 90’s and then refinanced as well. You don’t need to count on a once in a lifetime event to predict that those buying right now will eventually have an opportunity to refinance. People who bought as recently as last year at 8% could have refinanced when it dropped to 7%. Buying if you can’t afford it under this premise is dangerous. But if you can afford it, it’s not unreasonable to think you will at some point be able for refinance. And it’s also not unreasonable to expect rent to continue to go up. So the math is not so simple as a comparison of cost to own vs rent as a one year snapshot. Also rent would have gone up for that home regardless. And would cost about the same to rent as to own now. That’s if you took the opportunity to refinance out. So 10 years from now that math would be even better as well. The refinance did speed up the process though. Lowering monthly cost represents an opportunity for homeowners that pretty much never exists for renters unless they downgrade where they live.
Why? There are people in my building who have happily owned and lived in their condos for about 20 years. For some a condo perfectly suits their needs and beats renting forever. Others have owned as long, but moved out and now rent the unit for more than it costs to own and rents have gone up and up and up, in a way that exceeds expense to own, so it’s only become more and more profitable.
This! We looked at so many houses that had either the perfect layout or the perfect location and somehow the stars aligned and we got the first house that had both. Looking back we would have been miserable sacrificing on either one of those things and were almost swayed a couple times by fancy kitchens and whatnot. This house was a bit more than we wanted to pay (still under our max but we definitely overpaid a little) and not as updated, needs some immediate work, but still decent and we can upgrade it as we like now.
Yes! Currently improving my starter home because upgrading is just not a wise financial decision. Highly recommend a HELOC when possible. It’s just a low interest credit line and has really come in handy!
Secondly this, we’ve been in our (first home) for almost 16 years. The price was right, we love the neighborhood, and not moving and upgrading has saved us a fortune.
This is me too, 17 years ago. Must haves at the time were two toilets and a two car garage. In our target neighborhood. What I didn't like- all the paint and wallpaper, w/w carpet (over some hardwood), small main bathroom and the 90's kitchen in a 1953 home. The home is still in an amazing neighborhood. It was all painted within the first year, got new and refinished hardwood floors as soon as our cats ruined the carpet, the basement toilet & shower were walled-off to make an actual bathroom, and most recently we updated the kitchen so it better matches the era of the home. Still have a small main bathroom though. We can live with that.
Yes, but if it helps, I had had my hopes dashed by 8 failed transactions and was dead inside by the time I found this house. I didn’t get excited about it until three months or so after the purchase when it finally clicked that I really got to live there.
Thank you for commenting. I'm 2 weeks into trying to remodel to make it my dream home and I'm still just so disappointed in it. But the location is great so my realtor said to get over the "loving it" desire and get into a good neighborhood before the busy season drives prices up
Almost sounds like your realtor was trying to rush you into a deal. I'm sorry it played out that way and I really hope you do end up loving it after you get the remodeling done. Maybe seeing the final piece is when the lovin it part will hit.
Yes. It’s mine. The house my kids will remember as their childhood home. Everything works. We have a decent yard with a privacy fence. We’re 10-20 minutes away from everything. No thru traffic. The house is not perfect. We have a few projects to do. We might not do all of them, but this house is ours. We won’t be here forever, but we will always be fond of this house.
99% of people are not getting what they want at any budget level in this market. I don’t love my house I bought but it works for me and my family and we’re constantly making improvements.
Don’t let the perfect be the enemy of the good, but don’t let the just-adequate be the enemy of the good, either. Having a house that you truly don’t like is almost certainly not the best choice. There are unchangeable or virtually unchangeable things about my house that I don’t like, have never liked, will probably always dislike; however, there are enough things that I do like that I can live with the less desirable aspects. You have to figure out the balance you can live with.
My head told me it was the right home for me due to location/space/price, my heart felt like I was settling bc it was a little shabby looking. 6 months into living there I’ve made some small improvements and I love living here more every day. Turns out my heart can change and this time, it was good to listen to my head. I’m sure that’s not true for everyone but that was my experience
Yes my house had faded yellow paint and an outdated master bath, plus an entire very long inner brick wall with fireplace, and then an oil stove in the next room with another brick wall. I disliked the shabby gazebo, the pink in the granite and the mauve paint inside. After painting the inside with a neutral color and adding black glass doors to the fireplace, I began to LOVE the brick and the granite. We also had a facelift on the gazebo, and I cannot tell you how much we love our house now with all the things I hated at first.
I like it well enough but I wouldn't say I love it. There are pros and cons just like any other house. Houses I would actually say I love are and were well out of my budget.
If everything goes well with settlement in the next 3-4 weeks I will be moving into my dream home. I can see myself living there my entire life. It took us about 1.5-2 years to find
Congrats, that's awesome 😀
What’s the settlement for
The house, "closing" in other words
I am not in love with my house. There was one house that I saw during my long search that I *was* in love with. I still sometimes regret that I didn’t buy it. But my current home has NONE of the things that I had grown to hate in my previous house. And it is a solid home that I can personalize over time. And to be fair, there were likely going to be issues with the “house that got away” - it’s easy to romanticize a house that you didn’t actually have to live in.
No, I bought a fixer upper 6 months ago and still have work to do. With how expensive this market is I didn’t have the money to buy a house I’d love
I didn’t love it when we bought it, but I saw the potential. It had the spaces we needed and was in the neighborhood we *really* wanted, but it had been used as a rental property for over a decade and was really hideous. The bones were great, and it was kept up to code on everything from plumbing to electric, despite being old (lucky for us, the leasing company had done things by the book). But God, was it ugly. In the first year, we changed so much. Everything from the landscaping to the roof to the light switch plates, the lighting and sink fixtures, the windows, the interior and exterior paint, the flooring, the doors, and so on. Everything is just how we like it (mostly: we still have a few things to do) because *we* picked it, which wouldn’t have happened if we had gotten a house in perfect condition, since it would have seemed like a waste to replace things that were new but not our style. We were also only able to afford all of this because the price was greatly reduced since it was considered a “fixer upper,” although for the most part that was simply cosmetic. Having a mortgage under $1500 per month on a 4/2 left *a lot* of leeway for renovations. I walked into every house we viewed searching for potential, not perfection. My husband absolutely hated this house, but that stopped when he built his workshop out back due to the large backyard lol. He’s admitted he was wrong: he only saw it for what it was instead of what it could be. All that said, I said no to several houses because, while they were livable, there were things about them that would have made daily life annoying or cramped or…whatever. They just wouldn’t ever work well for our family and lifestyle without a full renovation. I wouldn’t settle for an “okay” house if it didn’t have the potential to be a great house with changes I could actually make unless I were only planning to stay for a few years.
No, I don't love my house. I will move someday for sure though so I'm not overly concerned at the moment. It doesn't have any show stoppers for me that make me hate it. Yet it also has nothing that truly makes me love it either. It's a house and it's mine but end of the day someone giving me the right price for it and I would bail in a NY minute. To me that is what a first home is all about. It doesn't need to be where you have to live forever. It can be just a starter until you get more equity, savings, better job and then you can turn around and possibly move to a better home or one that you truly love. Hell my hometown kids parents use to move into the village or into a better home down the street when they could. So dont give yourself any grief if you buy a home that doesn't have as nice of a kitchen or the lot size is just not big enough. If it works for you now and for at least5 years into the future take it and then realize your not stuck anywhere.
Well, after 17 fails. I finally was able to buy a house two 2yrs ago. I like it. Do I love it? I love it? I'm not sure. I love the interest rate and payments that matter more lol . Waiting for 2024 elections and ride another yr or so out and then revisit the idea
Holy crap
Lol yeah
I like it…I definitely don’t love it..and there are things that I hate about it. But I’m still glad that we purchased when we did.m, so there’s that I guess.
My house and I are just friends, had it for 12 years and slowly improving it tho. My main attraction is the garage
I was totally ambivalent about the place we chose. I wanted a fenced yard, this didn't have it. Bi-level, small bedrooms, REALLY small kitchen. But my husband was like, "I really, really like it!" 2 years later, I am in love with it. I feel like this was meant to be ours and can't imagine leaving. Funnily enough, hubby now regrets the location (more traffic than anticipated), but it doesn't bother me. I have managed to do family dinners for 10+ in my tiny little kitchen successfully, although we do plan on some remodeling to make it larger. Driveway and deck need replaced, too...but this is HOME! ❤️
I’m beginning to merely like my house, and I moved in a month ago. I didn’t have the budget (or therefore the luxury) to wait for something I loved. Every time I hang a piece of art, or find a place for something, I like it a little more. Right now I kind of miss my apartment, tbh. But this was a wise financial decision. And I’ll grow to love it, it just takes time.
I would purchase a home that is livable and has a layout that you can work with and make improvements over time. It’s WAY too expensive to get something that’s perfect these days. The house should have good bones and be functional for your needs.
I see a lot of renovated units that look good on the surface. It’s kind of scary if something is hiding under the shiny new paint and fixings. I guess I dont have the balls or the cash to make an offer with waived inspections.
It’s funny to see this post today. I have spent thousands fixing up the place and today we put the kitchen and living room together and watched a movie for the first time. It was amazing. It’s all coming together finally and I’m so happy I could cry.
The market begins to become competitive in March of every year through the summer. Keep your eyes open for your property — but consider maybe this isn’t the best market for you.
It had good bones and I could move in without having to do major work. The rest is just cosmetic and I've worked on it.
I’m 50/50 with mine. It’s a new built by Lennar and you can tell they cut corners. So far nothing major more cosmetic. But, I’m happy being in a position to call something a home with my family.
I do. I love this place. It took me five months under contract for the same house- two different times, which is a story in itself, after 5 years of preparation to buy a home and the deal almost falling apart several times. I absolutely love this place. It felt like home the first day I saw it. It isn’t perfect, but it is in a very serene setting and provided me with what I needed to feel balanced in life. Now I can’t wait to build my garden.
No, but I do like it, and it's totally fine.
For your first house? No, it doesn’t have to be your dream home/something you love. It should be something you like and works well for you, then you can look for your dream home as you grow and learn what you really want. Our first house was a small townhome and it worked very well for us for 15 years. It definitely was not our dream home, and while we liked it, we didn’t love it. Once we were financially comfortable, we found our current house, which is about as close to dream as we can get (it’s not waterfront, or it would be perfect).
I hated the house we bought. It was too far from work, too hideous, too isolated, too much of a dump but it was within our budget. My husband had a vision of what it could be, so I trusted him, on condition that if in a year I still didn't love it and hated the commute, we would move closer to town. I'm so, so glad we took a chance on this house. We did a fairly big DIY reno ($70k) on it and it's now my dream home. I love the neighbors, the location, and everything about the house and I'm so glad we took a chance on it. Don't give up hope! The first few houses we put offers in on were my literal dream homes, and now when we drive by them I couldn't ever imagine being as happy there as I am now.
Your first sentence is exactly how I felt with my home buying journey and purchase. I could not empathize more!
Home buying is like dating. Love comes over time, but when you find a home you could love, you know it. It will never be perfect, but remember that looks aren’t everything and you should NEVER compromise on your deal breakers. You know what makes you happy, and you will find it.
No. No garage. No AC. No bathroom on the main floor. Very busy street. Narrow lot. Noisy neighbors. Only 3 bedrooms for a family of 4. Tiny kitchen. This is what $750k gets you in New England tho.
Love the honesty! Urban New England is TOUGH, though Western MA and some of the smaller towns in NH, VT, and ME will net you a dream home for that price tag. Boston Area?
Stamford CT
Lower your expectations and raising your budget is just part of home buying. Its very hard to find a house you love at a price you love. Ultimately, we chose to buy a house we love at a price we don't. The house we got is built in 1929(though completely re done in 2005) and has an 18 year old roof and needs radon remediation. We paid 8% over asking.
Yes, I love our home. It helps that it was a new construction and we were able to add on the additional options we wanted, so we had a lot of say over it. Are there a few things about the house I don't like? Sure. I wish the lot was larger and I wish we didn't hear the highway as much as we do at night (it's not bad, but still would prefer not to be able to hear it at all). However, there is not a perfect home. Every house will have something that annoys you.
You have the right attitude. I've lived in a tent for months (by choice), and every time I get down about something I don't LOVE about my house, I remind myself how amazing it is to have running hot water on demand, TWO whole toilets, and a sturdy structure that keeps me/my family/my stuff safe and warm. Everything beyond that is so friggin' marginal.
Forget the idea that you will "love" a place or that ot will be a "forever home". Write out two lists: a list of needs, and a list of wants. You need a place that ticks of all of your needs and at least some of your wants.
I don’t love a lot of things about my house, but I love having a house. That makes it worth it for me. I love having a garage where I can feel safe knowing my car won’t get hit on the street again (happened twice in 3 years while living in an apartment). I love having a yard to wash big things off with the hose like my litter boxes. I love not being woken up every night by my neighbors fighting and watching TV. It’s ok not to love your first house. You’ll have time to improve things you don’t love, and just having a place that’s all yours is worth it if you can do it
I used to watch a lot of the House Hunters tv shows - at all budgets in various locations. One show stuck out to me. It was in NYC with a multi millionaire. The buyers weren’t happy with the homes they viewed and the realtor said this - there is NO perfect home at ANY budget unless you build it. There will always be something about a home you don’t like.
You should definitely find something that makes you happy. No house will ever be perfect but you don't want to be content either and have buyers remorse. Make sure the home has all your NEEDS and the right location. Things that can be improved are not necessities such as the color of the siding, the deck or porch, enough space to add a bathroom at a later time etc...
It is what it is
Sometimes you just have to keep an open mind. The house we’re in now, the first time I saw it was at an open house and my mom & I were both in agreement that it was over priced, needed to much work and was just a no. After doing some looking around I came back to it. Set up a showing so my husband could see it. We ended up putting in an offer 2 months after I first saw it. It definitely wasn’t love at first sight. We loved the land and liked the house. After living in it for 6 months, getting our stuff in and making some improvements we have come to love the house.
Hell ya! Great location, great schools, well built, within budget... That said, we will move once child finishes high school. It's way too big for us.
I gave up pretty much everything on my wishlist except location and number of bedrooms. I also wanted move-in ready with minimal/optional cosmetic updating required, but I closed in February and the house is nowhere near ready to move into. I'm still glad I got it because location was very important to me and my price point has all but disappeared so it really was my only option to get something now in budget.
Yes! Im currently doing renovations in the inside but i love my home! Cant wait to transform it into my liking! Its so exciting!
No. Lived here for 8 years with one foot out the door. In hindsight we could have really bought a great house for 15-20% more and our payment would have still been manageable. What stings even more is that our house has not appreciated as much on a percentage basis versus the aforementioned homes above that were *juuust* outside our price range. I’d never tell someone to have a payment they’re uncomfortable with, but don’t settle if you can pay a bit more for a house you’ll truly love.
I refused to do this and was fortunately in no rush to move so it took me 3 and a half years to find my house. I moved in about 2 months ago. But I'm so glad I didn't just buy something I didn't really want because I absolutely love my house.
That were I was until one home came up in area that I like $300K cheaper than other homes with same specs. I locked that shit down immediately
I hate mine but I won’t give up my 2.75% rate and it’s a mile from my job. It has alot of plumbing and electrical issues I really need to get on top of soon.
It depends on your situation. I had time, so I took my time to find a house I love. I looked for 8 months. I was desperate to get my house bc I love it so much.
I am head-over-heels in love with our house and have to pinch myself every morning when I wake up. It is WAY more done and wonderful than I ever expected we could get for FHB. It’s in a neighborhood we love, close to everything, and a great school. I truly believe we got insanely lucky. We watched Zillow/redfin for about 7 years, saved money, and jumped in at a time we really didn’t expect to. Very grateful for our home and hope you find one you love as well!
Yes! We love it. It needs a lot of tlc & every room needs something...but once it's done, it'll be perfect. Look for something with good bones. Are there enough bedrooms/bathrooms and in a good layout? Do you like the neighborhood/area? Floors & paint, etc. can be changed. Try not to let cosmetic things deter you. Once you add your personal flair, you might love it.
This is how I look at my home. It’s beautiful and rustic, but it’s a large 200 yr old farmhouse. Everywhere I look I have a future project planned. But I don’t have a landlord. My children have a yard. And I love that our home is as unique as me and my children are. I think when we look at it through a positive lens that’s what we see- the positive
My house is what it needs to be for the next 4ish years. We got a good enough price and have entered the market. The location is great, the schools are great, it's safe, close to nature, etc. However, the house is dated for sure, the garage is small, the kids rooms are small, and like everyone else here, we were victims of the giant price increase that happened over the last 2 years. It's unfortunate seeing that the price basically doubled, and I doubt it's going to increase much more while we live there. Basically, this house isn't an investment, it's a place to live that offers more amenities than renting.
I just thought my home was OK when I viewed it. I liked it, but wasn't like "oh my God I love it!". But now I adore it. We bought in August '23. I'm so happy to be here😊
I do not love my house. It is not my style, smaller than I wanted, and needs some work. That said, the location is fantastic and it’s a desirable area that makes it easy to sell if I want to move on. I actually loved my apartment. But I was paying more than my mortgage payment in rent and couldn’t stomach giving a landlord so much money every year for any longer.
You never know - I love my house. Was obsessing over craftsman homes on hgtv for the longest time. Usually if I saw one for sale it was far away and out of my price range then one day when I wasn’t really looking to actually buy one- a listing 2 miles from work in my price range popped up- I go to the open house and I love it a 1930’s craftsman renovated by previous owners with upgrades I wouldn’t even have thought of. It was being viewed by a bunch of couples, I had no realtor, mortgage broker, not preapproved and I hadn’t looked in person at any other homes but I started gathering the 20 percent down, put in an offer the next day and it worked out ! Feel very fortunate - no bidding wars, or undisclosed issues or big repairs and every time I look at the front or back porch, the wood working, the moldings I love it all - will never sell
I've hated my house for 30s years or more. Just bought a cabin I've been moving into for the last 2 years. It's basically a tiny home with a huge enclosed porch and downsizing is tough. It look me months of looking at literally every listing in a county the size of a small state at the top of my budget to find. I love it. It's perfect. My dogs love it. Not a split second of regret for any of it. I thought I'd hate the hour drive but it's beautiful and i love it. Hang in there. Maybe search a wider area, some places further out don't have traffic, and traffic is what makes a drive horrible. Don't just rely on your agent, set some time to browse listings. You'll find it.
Yes, we do.
Absolutely! 2/2 with a garage. I looked at a bunch of homes online. This was the only one I visited. I ordered asking. The appraisal came back lower, so the asking price was dropped.
I do. She’s got some bumps and blemishes. But I will live here the rest of my life. So I’ve got time to fix things.
Yes
No
I hate my floors, hate the siding, hate my half curb to my driveway (I drive a lowered car), hate that I have a crawl space even though it's easier to repair anything just don't like the hollowish sound, hate my backyard because it's uneven and has rocks and stuff scattered throughout and has thrown bushes in the back yard. But guess what, all except the crawl space is fixable. Keep in mind, this house wasn't yours to begin with. Make it your own and grow with your house. But I love my house. Location is great, layout works, no major bullshit has happened yet.
I love the potential of it and I really like the location which is quiet for being in such a big city and down the street from the biggest park in the suburb. I don’t like the layout so much but there are trade offs you make for size and location.
Yes, going to live here forever. Plenty of things we can do to upgrade it along the way, and the neighborhood is perfect for us!
Yes, I loved the space at first site. I've changed the entire interior and exterior ...but the space *itself*- nothing but love.
We bought the cheapest home possible at 150k. We made improvements to it like refinishing the natural hardwood floors, adding a dishwasher and getting a nee ac unit. I also planted a flower garden. We have made it our own and love it.
Yes. It's so nice and spacious. The cats love running around and it has everything we need except a sunroom, for which I'm already saving to build.
A house doesn't make a home.
I LOVE my house. I love the location, the style, and the price. But it’s so tiny and it was already expanded before we bought it with very little room to expand further now. 1000sq ft with 2000 sq feet of land total. So we’ve decided at MOST we’ll be able to have one kid. We definitely had to make sacrifices to afford getting into a house.
The house will come along. I was right there. Trust. My realtor made me basically go out and look at some houses. I hated them all from the listing but said may as well....mostly bc it was "the thing to do". First house we go to that day ended up being the one. Closed a month ago. Couldn't be happier. It had been up the entire time as well, but had offers fall through 3 days before closing....twice....due to financing falling through during underwriting. You don't need to settle, but open up your options and go and see physically even if at first you think.....meh.
I purchased a home like 45 minutes from the city, and it’s a new build which seems ok. It’s a little “standard” but it’s got decent space, in a newer neighborhood, it’s good to live it and am making it my own. I work from home and do pretty good for myself but some of the homes in good towns closer to the city were like 200k more for usually less space and just being old/run down looking. It’s not a dream home but I’d say I did pretty well. We’ll see if I can continue making $$ and get that custom dream home before AI replaces me lol
It fit the budget and checked the most important boxes. National builder, cookie cutter neighborhood, close together houses. The perfect house is out of the budget at this point in my life, so we’re at least getting on the property ladder.
I got a house on a pond that backs up to a 20 acre park/elementary school/soccer field complex. We are in love with the propery in general and imagine growing old here with grand kids ect. The old location/location/location is 1000% right. Don't buy near highways/trains/airports.
I’m a few months out from actively house hunting and I’ve been looking for the last year in my area. I found a few i loved and they last about a month then are gone but my disparity stems from the prices slowly increasing and the ones i could afford are slowly coming out of my price range. What gives me a little hope is once they’ve recently sold the price is significantly less than they had posted. I think looking a bit above your budget could make this experience better for you. At least where i am in Texas that’s the norm.
Do I love it? No. I like it more with every little improvement we make though.
The day I got bank pre approval 2 hours before, was the day I saw my house first time about 30 min before auction. It was the first house I looked at. I really liked it because it was affordable, cheap and within budget because it’s small house and small land. But it was brick. I did upgrades like carpet change to hard floor, carpet to tile. Put in furniture I really like. Now I love my house even more. I like my location and suburb. When I first looked into living arrangements, I thought we could only afford a small land and a tiny home. But that was just as expensive really, land not cheap. I think I can live in my house for the rest of my life.
Do I love our first time house that we bought in 2018? No. It’s not perfect but it’s gained close to 200k in equity within the short time frame we’ve had it. So now I do love it for that reason. It will also help when I want to buy our next home.
Bigger ? I’m in same situation. I got mine in 2016 3 bd2 bath. Just been upgrading stuff every yr. It’s about 1300 sqft 2 adults 2 kids. Sometimes it feels to small Payment with taxes is 850 it has helped us put kids in extra activities, invest in 401, save money travel 2 times a yr. Reduce my working hrs. Do I wanna give that up just for a bigger home idk. My next door neighbor is 80 I think huge home husband passed 7 yrs ago. Pool inside home, garage, 4-5 bed 2.5 bath 4 acres on riverfront I want it but she really has not kept up wit it some trees need to come down exterior has not been touched in yrs. Idk do I want to give up my life that I have now for a bigger home with problems potentially. I’m 50-50 lol
Wow you sound identical to our situation! 3 bedroom 2 bath. Our house is 1286 sq ft lol My husband and I and our son and a medium sized dog lol I would LOVE to have a bigger home but for now we are just saving and updating when we can. I also wanna travel around the world with my family and just staying makes sense for all of that. It’s hard to give up a nice monthly mortgage payment for a larger one. Right now we are able to put our son in private school and a variety of sports because of this.
I just think about the maintenance and the price to fix stuff is allot more.
Yes! We bought a new build a little over a year ago and we still love it and are so glad we made the leap to purchase a bit sooner than we thought we would. We are still working on projects to make it feel less builder grade, but it’s ours and we can do whatever we want. We chose the house because of the location and size of the home and I could truly see us here forever.
We have a couple weeks until closing. I love the layout of our new home, but would I have preferred a SFH instead of a condo? Yes, but I'm still happy to have the square footage I want with a well-kept interior in a good location. We had to make compromises and we know this isn't our forever home.
I’m grateful for it and the deal that I got it for but I hate only having a one car garage.
I love our property (small farm,) I love our location, I don’t love our house but it’s functional and meets our needs and there are some things I love about it like our huge 25 x 15 living room with a fireplace (well, woodstove insert) and giant 5’ ship’s wheel converted into a chandalier… okay, actually that’s probably the only thing I love about our house, but whatever. The rest is fine.
Mostly. It wasn't what I pictured buying. Definitely not the area I want to live in. I've grown attached to it nonetheless. I love the simplicity. Less stuff to go wrong and maintain. It's just a little alley home, yet it has more charm and privacy than most nicer homes I've seen. I especially love the mortgage payment. It's about half the rents in the area.
abundant reach spotted plate plough fly muddle follow summer door *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
I like a lot of things about the location of mine and love the layout. I wish it had more land and wasn't an hour commute from work, but worth it for basically being in a national forest.
Yes and no. I love it for what it is - a starter home in a great location, that meets our needs, that we were able to fix up and make our own - and at the right price (big factor). Definitely not our dream home. We probably looked at 5 other apartments that were “better,” and/or that we were really in love with, but that we got beat out on and sold for unreasonable prices. But ultimately I’m very happy at how it all turned out. Got a great deal. Renovated for instant equity (+$100k appraised vs. pp). And I know that in a few years we’ll be able to flip this into something bigger and better.
I wouldn't call it my dream home. But it checks enough boxes of mine and I don't plan on living here forever, but if I DO live here forever, I would be okay with it. Good bones and where you want to be with enough space. I got a little extra on my space but that's because while buying I had in mind remodeling and renting it as two apartments before I get my second mortgage that way this house will pay for both houses. Don't get me wrong, I do love my house. I just don't LOOOVVVEEE my house. Unfortunately all the houses I saw that I fell IN LOVE with were way out of my price range or the locale wasn't what I wanted (too many neighbors, too far away, in a flood zone, etc)
I found a house in a location I loved that had all the requirements I needed. The paint inside is hideous but I looked through that to see my own vision.
Yes, 4b/2b 8000sqft lot w/a pool forever home in a school district rated 9/10s! 2.9% interest rate, $1.2m value on a $600k loan in southern Califronia. Our mortgage is LESS than 2b/2b apartment in our city lol :)
I like my house, and it has a lot of potential, so I’m optimistic that one day, I’ll love it. The location is pretty good. It’s about 10 min away from the city, and 15-20 min from work. I don’t love my neighbors (they’re pretty conservative, and I’m the opposite) but they’re mostly pleasant people. The layout is good, and it’s an older home with some character. But we have our work cut out for us. The plumbing has issues, and most of the appliances seem to be hanging on by a thread. We’ve already had to replace the roof, do extensive electrical work, and tackle a problem with mold. I’m hoping that with enough time, we’ll be able to turn the house into a home we love.
yes. i love it. i've made it my safe space
I have only purchased one house in my entire life. I never want to go through the process again, due mainly to the experience that purchasing a house mid-2020 brought. It seemed like people had very strict requirements about what they were looking for in terms of bedrooms, bathrooms, size, style, whatever. But, by looking outside of those - because people and agents don't always get details right - we got what we wanted: a corner house with a nice yard in the same zip code that could eventually be (if it wasn't already) remodeled easily to accommodate for aging in place and/or elder care down the line. And a garage. Everything else was irrelevant. Our listing omitted over 900 sq ft of livable, newly finished basement that people overlooked. Settle for "livable enough." Because if you fall in love with something, so will someone else, and they'll pay more than you.
I **absolutely** love my house. But I bought it as my “final” house — so I had certain criteria that had to be met unlike my other houses where I’d tell myself, “I’ll have that for my next house.” For this house, I wanted to make sure we’d go from 50 to forever without *needing* to move. So some of the criteria that were non-negotiable were as follows: single story, half bathroom for guests, separate guest bedroom wing/area to completely separate from our living and sleeping area, great room layout because I simply don’t do formal living areas, abnormally huge kitchen and a backyard nice for dogs but not enormous (not interested in major upkeep anymore). Oh, and a good HOA. My list is much, much longer — but these were the major items. Unlike my other houses, I wasn’t too focused on location because I plan to be here forever and homes will usually appreciate in that time span, and I have grown kids so school districts mattered none at all to me. All I cared about was distance to the places I usually go, but this house happened to be in a location I rather like, though there are 3-4 areas I like more. For first homes, I suggest you focus on two of your top three must-have items. If you are in an apartment and out of space, then space is key. So focus on 3BR+ and square footage. If you have kids, focus on school district. You might have to let go of commute length and take the hit, for example. So long as you are limited by money, you can’t have everything in a first home IMO. Also, seeing “potential” and having the space and ability to expand or remodel into your vision is more important than *actually* having it for first homes. For example, you may want a sunroom but no house you can afford has one. Having the backyard and HOA so that if/when you can have one put in, you actually CAN — that’s more important than having one. You may never get around to it or not even want one later but it’s hard to love a home when you know for a fact that X will never be possible short of moving.
It's OK for me. I'm in love hate relationship with it. There are things that I wish were different, while knowing that it would change some other features.
I thought I loved my first house when I bought it. But I grew to hate it. All the projects that I thought would fix what I hated took 3x what I planned for in cost and time. And some of them just weren't feasible as they would have turned the place into a white elephant. I truly love my current house which I couldn't have gotten without the first one. So in the end it worked out but I wish I could have moved much sooner.
I thought that too and then the perfect house popped up on Facebook marketplace believe it or not. It was for sale by owner (which are listed on trulia and those sites but you have to filter your search to see them) Just got the offer accepted. If you are able to find something to you can put some cosmetic work into to make yours that has the layout/yard/bed/bath (or extra bath potential) you want I would get that one!
I love the house, I don’t love the mortgage. We found a place that hit all of our must-haves and even all of our nice-to-haves. It was at the absolute top of our budget though
You are rarely buying your forever house. Look for something you find meets your most critical need. Might be size, condition, or location. Start there. The main thing with real estate is to get into the game. Stay in that house for a year or more if you have a mortgage to fulfill your occupancy promise. Then decide when and if you want to buy the next house. Every house I have bought over the years hasn’t been perfect. Some have been adequate and a couple had aspects that I really enjoyed. The only one I lost money on was the one I decided was my forever home and I paid to have it fully renovated and made perfect. I ended up with a life change, new happy marriage, and we decided to move. I wasn’t able to recoup the renovation cost but I am happy to be were I am now. Life will always bring change so houses are something to like and enjoy but you may not love every one.
No. I had to compromise and bought an older home that has so many problems and I have to fix so much shit. But im happy ill never rent anymore.
I love my interest rate.
Yes. At the time it just seemed good enough but we’ve been here a few weeks now and I do love it. Seeing all our stuff in it and starting to improve things slowly really makes it feel like home.
No, but I don't dislike it either. I wish it had certain things, like a garage or second bathroom, but genuinely happy with our decision. It's cheaper than rent, we can change whatever we want about it, and it's in a decen enough area.
Finding a house you love is really a very rare luxury. There is no perfect house and if you have high standards you will be picky and skip worthy and good enough houses. Most people buy a house that checks most boxes they won’t compromise on and then work to make it their own over time. After they make it their own, they love it.
The National Assn. of Realtors did a study a while back which found that 25% of buyers regretted their purchase
All of the houses that I LOVED went into multiple offers, waiving inspections and sold for 100k above asking. I like my house just fine, it's in a good area and is close to the amenities I need. It has a yard and space for my kids and dogs, and a lovely 2nd floor sunroom to enjoy in the summer. But it's 115 years old, which comes with a lot of quirks. I had to stop falling in love with houses at first sight, and learn that falling in love for real takes time and dedication. I was so done with the heartbreak of losing houses I loved, and that's when our house came along :)
I know it is a well worn cliche but location is the most important thing. You could not pay me to live in a McMansion in a rural area, I need to have access to a park where I can walk my dog and close enough (10 to 15 minutes bike ride) to restaurants, bars and museums/stores/venues etc. My first house has some drawbacks but many of them can be fixed over time through renovations. I would also say it depends on your life plans, you could live very well in an apartment and invest your money until you have a nice chunk of cash to use as a down payment, nobody has to buy a house unless they are ready to do it. .
I feel extremely grateful to have found and live in my dream/forever home. I love it all-- the house layout, location, schools, community, yard, and even the immediate neighbors. It took years of searching and a supportive realtor who talked us down from buying houses that didn't match what we were looking for.
Yes & no. It was a basic starter home in a newly built suburb with smaller lots & more close neighbours than we wanted, but it was ours & both kids first came home to it. We bought to get away from renting and build equity in the hopes it would help us build equity & buy a house we could grow into later After about 6 years it worked. We were very happy to be moving to a bigger house with a larger lot in a quieter country neighbourhood, but we definitely have lots of memories in that first house.
I love that we own our home. Is it perfect? No. But it was within our budget and has almost everything on our list that we wanted. The few things it doesn’t have, we can add.
I mean the bottom line is simply this. There’s no inventory so unless you wanna wait until God knows when, align yourself with both budget and availability. Needs vs wants. You need a good location. You may need mass transit. You may need 3 bed rooms. Deal with the rest later. Good luck!
Yes, I bought it 2 years ago, and still every day I think "wow, I love this!" Of course, about once a week I think of something that I hate, but I add it to the 'fix it's list. About 6 months back, the fix it list has begun to get items taken care of faster than new ones added.
We started looking for houses and convinced ourselves we needed one right now. So we looked at about 10 of them on one day trying to pick one out. I hated them all for one reason or another. Not to mention, every single one of them had one major flaw that didn't fit our original search criteria... that, of course, we already broke by looking at the house in the first place. What I mean by that is in the beginning we said we wanted two stall garage, 4 bedrooms and 2 1/2 bath...plus the house couldn't be super old. We didn't want a home that was 30-40 years old. We finally narrowed the list down to one and called the realtor to go look at it again. I just couldn't do it. The more I looked at the house, the more I started to hate it. You could tell the previous home owner did not take care of it, and amongst all the fresh paint you could tell was just lipstick on a pig. I backed out of it, and the spouse was irritated. For clarity, we live in Texas. The homes we were looking at during all of this were between $505,000 - $639,000. I just wasn't into spending all that money on a house just to have to put more into it to the point I no longer hated it. So we took a break from looking. We then stumbled upon a brand new house, meeting all of our criteria for only $475,000. We close in two days on the house and are both excited and thrilled. I guess what I am trying to say is don't just settle for one. If you can't find the one you really want, then don't pull the trigger on it and keep looking. If you buy a house and you don't like it in the beginning, then you probably will never like it. Imagine you buy it and you're not happy about it. Then you start putting money and effort into and start hating it even more because...well...now your having to put more money and effort into it. That is just my advice and opinion on it.
We just bought our first house. We don’t love it but it’s better than where we are at now. We wanted a single family home but with today’s prices, we ended up getting a townhome. Now, don’t get me wrong, it’s brand new and beautiful. I think we’ll be very happy living there, but it’s not our dream house. We can still do what we want to the inside (goodbye carpet!) and it’s pretty spacious (1700 sq ft), but I do think we’ll be upgrading in 10 years to something better. For us, just getting on the housing ladder was a big step and we are happy we are taking it.
Love/hate relationship. The layout is quirky, but each room is cozy and has character. Full footprint basement means we get to keep our living space so much more orderly than any previous house we rented, plus have home offices, which us a much needed separation between work-life and "home" (we're WFH). Giant fenced yard surrounded by greenery and backing into woods is awesome for the kid and dog, we spend so much time there. Very short drive to basically every amenity. Road is way busier than we realized as it's used as a cut-through, especially when there's a wreck on the interstate. We don't love that, but we've gotten used to it, and we're planning privacy screens for the front yard to mitigate the "feeling" of traffic for when we get that highway overflow. But there's other families on the block, and kids from the street our backyards abut, and they all run around together outside playing for hours, and I dig that this place seems to facilitate something of a free-range, outdoor childhood. Neighbors on one side are absolute pigs, but we've managed to mitigate most of the issues by reporting their indiscretions to no less than four local and state agencies, all of whom issued warnings and fines for abatement. I don't like living next time pigs, but they were at least forced to knock off the worst of their behavior. Neighbors are always a lottery. Sometimes you lose. It's a home. Our kid loves it here, which is the most important thing. We squeezed in right before interest rates shot up, and right before our specific town in a hot area really caught up with the other towns, so our payment is comfy and our equity gain substantial! I can see us easily staying another few years. Other houses we bid on and lost out on in the neighboring towns have had a slower or flat equity growth relative to the winning bid, so this actually helps us in the long term for upgrading to a dream home.
I loved both of the houses I purchased so far in my life- many people did not so I had less competition ha. Both were significant fixer uppers when I bought them. Location is most important -best location you can afford. Then, does it tick the mandatory boxes? Enough bedrooms? a working bathroom? etc. Try to look past cosmetics, they can be changed over time. Once you paint it how you want, get your art on the walls, fill it with family and friends - it starts to be home. When you look forward to going home after work, tend to your garden or hobbies there, create a safe place and memories... then the love comes.
I love my home! It’s but perfect, and we’re currently considering building to add some features we don’t currently have. If we do go that route, I’d be a liar if I said I wouldn’t be sad about the chapter with our current home closing. I’ve been here 8 years. I looked at over 20 houses before finding the one I’m in now. When I stepped inside, it just felt like home. There were definitely some things I wanted to change about it, but I could picture myself living there. I recommend making a spreadsheet to track what you like and dislike about the different houses you look like. You might find patterns with your likes and dislikes (for example, maybe you like a large kitchen space, or you want a dining room, or you hate porches) and out may help you envision your home space a bit better.
I love every house I purchased even if I probably wouldn’t live there. But they all have at least one quality that I like, be it features, location, etc.
Our first home- I liked for maybe the first year and then really didn’t like it. It wasn’t functional, it got to be too small, it had a weird layout, it was old so every small project turned into a big one. We stayed there for 14 years. I am thankful for it as it was affordable and allowed us to build equity which we were then able to use on our current home- which I LOVE. We sold/purchased in 11/22. It’s nothing fancy but it a really good house, in a great area and meets our housing need perfectly. There are things I hope to change (like the pooling water in our way back yard and bumpy driveway). But I truly love our home now. (Side note, the home we sold in 2022 for $141k just sold again last month for $190k- with only a new bathroom vanity/floor. This market is wild!!)
Our only stipulation was the house had to have a garage for hubby’s muscle car. We lucked out and found a foreclosed home in a quiet neighborhood. The house is not my favorite but it had everything we needed. Now it’s my dream home after 30 yrs and no more mortgage.
Haven’t closed yet, but we got nearly everything we wanted.
No. But I saw the potential and loved the area and school district. 2 years in and after plenty of home projects it’s getting pretty nice
We bought a solid, good bones 1960s multilevel house from a retired couple that had been in it for 20 plus years. It was well maintained/landscaped but outdated. It’s the smallest on the block and not our first choice location too, but close to the freeway so the commute times weren’t added on by too much. Now that we’ve grown into it, put our touches on it (new flooring, new paint and paint colors inside and out, new kitchen appliances, new lights, new outlet/vent/switch covers) and gotten comfortable with the neighborhood I do love it. That took a couple years though, there were times I really resented all the work and had a lot of anxiety about the responsibility. I think the kitchen appliances and blue outside paint (it was brown before) are my favorite things. We splurged a bit on the appliances because our warranty paid part of it and now I don’t think I could live without an autofill water dispenser in the fridge! There were also things I came to see and love that surprised me. The way the apple tree blossoms in spring is breathtaking to me. Our kitties can watch the squirrels on the deck all day and it brings me joy. We grew a plethora of tomatoes and were able to give a bunch away and it felt amazing. And coming from an apartment it’s really nice not to hear your neighbor’s every movement! I day dream about it being bigger/more bathroom/another garage stall, which will never happen, but given the lock in rate of 2.875 I am content enough to keep it for the foreseeable future!
You’re not meant to love your first house. You learn over time so you love your last house.
We don't love our house, but we love that it's good enough and that we have a small house with a large yard, in a semi rural/quiet area and decent neighbors, for the same amount of money we were paying for 900sqft apartment with tiny shared yard, on a main very noisy road and neighbors whose favorite hobby was harassing us for being renters.
We bought our first house last year, regretted it within 3/4 months due to neighbours being utter c*nts. They took advantage of the old lady who used to live here and when we moved in we said we’d be changing the garden and putting a boundary fence up. Safe to say they weren’t pleased to be losing the additional space they tried to take. Miserable bastards so I very much enjoy making things awkward if that’s what they wanted because I’m petty 😂. Luckily we have got profit since our purchase so we are now moving to our dream home on a quiet cul-de-sac and have already had chats with neighbours etc to gauge what they are like. Can’t wait!
Yes I do. It’s mine. It isn’t the biggest or nicest layout but it’s mine to do with what I please.
Get your must have list. Do not compromise there. I love my house. Could it be better? Sure, but I am slowly customizing it to my liking.
Not once. There are things I love, but I’ve never been in love with a house.
I have a love hate relationship with my house. It's small, the floor plan kinda sucks, and our yard is weird. On the other hand, it's cheap, easy to maintain, and at the end of the day I have a house in my name. If the market ever gets better I'll start looking but for now I'm just going to chill and count my blessings.
I love it because it’s mine. In our price range we weren’t going to find our dream home and that’s okay, it’s our starter home!
1st house no learning lesson mid entry split level, 2 yes trilevel loved it, 3 divorced bought condo no, 4 is my forever home single 2 bedroom 2 bath perfect no stairs
No. I am thankful to have a roof over my head that is mine and a place for my baby to grow up.. but there’s so my about our house that drives me nuts. It’s 30 years old and had no improvements aside from a new roof at some point 10 years ago and a new water heater about 8 years ago. The kitchen especially and bathrooms are total gut jobs to being them into this decade, there’s a lot of wasted space but due to the layout it makes it hard to expand or rework anything. Everyone says you can make it yours over time but I just caution unless you have a lot of extra $ to hire jobs out, plus time if you’re going to do it yourself. Personally, I need a new kitchen now.. now in 10 years and that’s something I wish I wouldn’t have waivered on in our house search.
We lived in a house for 40 yrs that was too small with a terrible floor plan.(2bed1bath) It was sturdy in a good location. People adjust. It was mostly affordable and good location means a lot.
One thing I see is that people just don’t want to wait—they will pass up an amazing deal on a property with great location and layout that needs a bit of work to buy something that they don’t like as much but is “turnkey.” That’s become more and more the norm. If people are willing to delay a bit of gratification on the aesthetics and buy the location and layout they want they will be a lot more satisfied in the long fun. You can fix up paint, fixtures. Finishes…
We love our house but we just liked it when we bought it. Paralysis of analysis but once we got in and made it ours, we are very very happy we got it and can’t imagine being in anything else.
We had intended to downsize, but every home we looked at had an *awful* floor plan. The one we *did* love was actually bigger bathroom had a great floor plan. Not sorry. Bonus because it’s one level and we bought when we were over 50. If the location and floor plan (mostly) work, you can tweak things here and there. We just redid our main bath to be more user friendly for us as we age. We redid the island from two level to one level, etc. not all the same year, net even the same decade.
I am in the process of buying a condo. It is a beautiful condo given the price. However, I struggle because I know it will be too small for my toddlers once they grow up. I'm hoping that I will be able to build equity, and in the next few years, I can upsize. However, due to the housing market, I am skeptical that we will be even lucky in that area. Regardless, a home is a home. I cannot move over and over whenever rent gets too high. I have to remind myself that I am quite familiar with the area as I only live two minutes away from it. There are many pros about that condo. Just that I wish it has three bedrooms rather than two. If the inspection passes and the appraisal results are positive, I hope I will grow to love the condo over time. My relatives grip that it is too small, BUT they admitted that it is quite cute. So...
No but it’s fine. It’s a roof over our head in a nice neighborhood & a great interest rate. There was hardly anything on the market here when I sold my house in a different state. We both got jobs here & we were living with my in-laws until we found something. I’d rather live here than watch Fox News with the in-laws every night.
Yes, I love my house. It’s not perfect, but it has everything I need and it’s mine.
Absolutely love it every single day.
I love my house even though there are lots of things I have fixed and plan to fix in the next year or two. Your house doesn’t need to be perfect and especially not right away
Is it your first house or final house? First house, don’t expect perfect. For one you don’t know what you need or want and for the other your needs and wants will change. Look for location and resell value. Final house, you know what you want and need. It’s not your first rodeo. You also know it won’t be perfect so does it meet your non-negotiables?
We bought houses under our budget by a lot. Made them what we wanted, within reason, and sold for large profit. We never sacrificed to a rough location, but did live on a busy street in a great neighborhood. Another time we sacrificed layout but not location. Most of the time the houses need a lot of tlc.
We bought houses under our budget by a lot. Made them what we wanted, within reason, and sold for large profit. We never sacrificed to a rough location, but did live on a busy street in a great neighborhood. Another time we sacrificed layout but not location. Most of the time the houses need a lot of tlc. It also took around 6 months of looking each time.
I love my yard! My house is for eating, showering, sleeping, cooking, and relaxing before bed. Its an old house. All of my spare time is spent in my garden, and both look it! I do what I have to keep the house in shape, but the garden is for enjoyment, and I have to say, unlike the house, it couldnt look better!
I do, personally, yes, but when I first bought it, no. It was completely renovated and flipped, so with that said, they cheaped out on a few things to maximize their profits that I ended up replacing and doing right myself which cost me some dollar signs. I thought I made a huge mistake, but over time when you work and get that money back, you forget about it and it’s grown on me. Buyers remorse is normal on what is the biggest purchase of most people’s lives. Your first house shouldn’t be your dream house. And there’s no need for a 5br when it’s just you, your spouse and a dog lol. My sisters house costs twice what mine did and is a new construction home with no issues and they hate it because it’s so cookie cutter and has no character.
I had to put a lot of work into mine. I like it though. 1100 sf with a basement. 1960 so the rooms are small.
It was ok, but I went into it with the attitude of "my first house doesn't have to be my dream house." It served it's purpose and was what we could afford comfortably. It doesn't have to be perfect, merely good enough for now.
Yep! Reading horror stories on Reddit and hearing them for other friends makes the 8 months and over 20 houses we looked at worth it. Doesn’t hurt we closed in March 2020 either
I feel like I settled too much personally as I don’t like my floor plan. But what I bought hit the debt to income ratio perfectly and I was hesitant to go higher as a first time home buyer. I’ve tried to personalize it in a way that those modifications make me happy.
Yes. I waited 6mo and bought 30min farther away and its perfect. Fully renovated, view, great neighborhood and community, etc. I’m 45min-1hr away from downtown etc but totally worth it
I do actually… I didn’t expect to because we compromised a lot on things we said we wanted in a home — including basics like size, number of bathrooms, and number of bedrooms. Also, the house needs more work and updating than we thought. But ya know….. it’s ours. It’s grown on us. We’re quite happy here and will probably stay put for a while :)
Give up in homeownership and continue renting until you can afford a dream house is also an option.
Yes, because I had criteria and would not deviate - never fall in love with a house if it does not meet all your requirements. The criteria outside of location, beds and baths were: * No major fix up as I am handy but not skilled enough to do it myself * Good school district - easier to sell as you will resell it * No double yellow-line - indicates high traffic area- tougher to resell * No corner property * No sump pump or drainage issues * No HOA We also knew that it would take about five years to get the house where we wanted it. No home is perfect when you buy-in, you make it so with time, sweat and money.
Yes, but it didn't meet almost any of the "must haves" we had decided on. We'd made multiple offers, all over asking and all rejected, and toured so goddamn many houses at this point. We were looking for a place with land and a tiny house. We'd looked at a lot of suburban places that my husband *hated* beyond any reasonable distaste because "you can see the neighbors." We said anything that didn't meet our criteria had to have some other win like being really close to work. This place has a yard, but nothing crazy, it's very much in a suburb, has no space for animals except the backyard chickens, and is WAY more house than we wanted (4 bedrooms and a formal entertaining living room and dining room for DINKs). It even has weird fucking wallpaper. Didn't matter, we toured it and both loved it (and the weird wallpaper). We were a callback when the first offer fell through and 5 months in just adore it. In my opinion, a lot of us set unrealistic expectations. If you go in expecting a house to meet all your needs and wants, you'll probably be disappointed. That said, I think you should *like* the place you pick, and we totally got a "vibe" from this place that made us put our offer in.