Making tradeoffs when buying a home- what’s more important to you?

[amorey]

DH and I have been talking about our next home purchase, which we’re hoping to make in 2006 or early 2007. This will be our second home purchase and somewhere we’ll stay indefinitely. It’s important that we buy something that won’t cause us to be house-poor and will enable DH to be a SAHD when the time comes.

This means that we’re going to have to make some trade-offs. We’d like a three bedroom, 2 bath house or town home with 1500-2000 finished square feet. To stay in our price range, we’re going to have to sacrifice:

-Location
-Condition
-Size

Which ones are the most important? How much would you be willing to sacrifice?

[villanelle75]

I would sacrifice on condition, ut only to a point. I wouldn't buy somehting with a damaged foundation, or ploumbing or electirc that needed entirely re-doing, for example, but I'd buy somehtign that was dated, had horrid floors, etc. Then we could slowly upgrade things and DIY as much as possible as we had spare money in the budget. Sicne condition is the most changable factor, it's also the most easily sacrificed on.

I'd sacrifice on location if that meant going to a neighborhood that I didn't love, but not if it meant going to a dangerous neighborhood. I also wouldn't sacrifice more than a little on location with regard ot cummute. When we moved in March we refused to look in places that meant a long commute, both for our personal comfort and also for environmental considerations. Since it sounds like you are TTC (or soon will be), I'll mention that if we were planning on having kids, the school district would have been a foctor, but probably not a huge one since I think parent contrubutions can go a long way towards making an public school education sufficient, especailly if the kids wil have your DH as a SAH-er.

As for size, this is a bit harder to define for me. If the place felt like it would meet our needs but was a but smaller than where we are now, I'd be fine with that, but that's probably because we have a bit more hous enow than we were looking for, really. This is all a matter of how the place felt but since our size requirements weren't all that grand (We set a minimum of three beds, a two car garage and one and a half baths, moving from two bed, two bath, no garage), this is one area I would have had trouble sacrificing on.

[LeslieandPaul]

For me, location is the most important and then size. The condition of the home isn't as important b.c I don't mind putting some work in (but i wouldn't buy anything with structural problems, or a place that's been a grow op).
A good neighbourhood, with good schools would make me feel safer (and when i have school age kids, knowing that they're getting a good education). Size is important-you need room to move!

[tenofcups]

Location is also the most important to me. And that's speaking as someone who is NOT pleased with her current location--neighborhood is gentrifying, but not yet there, and I HATE being afraid to be in my home. I've also lived far enough away from my job to have an unholy commute (almost two hours each way), and again, I was just miserable. So location is tops for me, and included in that is the school district (if that's going to be a factor for you).

I'd compromise on size somewhat, as long as it had what I consider the essentials.

And I'd definitely compromise on condition, as long as it's "fixable" condition. Don't like the carpets, cabinets, wallpaper? Not a problem. Have to put in all new electricty or plumbing and then it become a much bigger deal. I'm in the middle of renovating my second house now and while I don't like that I've had to do it twice, it is doable (and shhh, sometimes even fun).

[greenbunny]

We bought our house knowing that if we needed more room in the future, we could build over the garage. We don't anticipate needing the room, but we made sure we had an "out". So I think when it comes to compromising on size, if you can buy with the possibility of future expansion, you're all right. This requires checking into zoning, land size, figuring out if it would look tacky and "stuck on", etc.

I won't sacrifice on location. We moved partly to get out of a declining neighborhood, and moving to another would have been pointless.

Condition is the most flexible, IMO. Assuming everything passes inspection and it's a matter of cosmetics, I don't sweat the hideous paint and shoddily installed flooring. We'll get to it, eventually.

[amorey]

We scarified neighborhood quality with our current house. It’s not that I feel scared there, but the schools are atrocious and we did have a gang shooting less than a mile away last year. We’re not willing to sacrifice a good neighborhood, so by location I mostly mean distance from work, friends, and entertainment. Right now we live right in the city, and ideally we’d only move out to a first tier suburb.

We’ve done a lot of work to our current house. DH isn’t handy at all, so I’ve done most of the remodeling. We want to TTC after moving, and I imagine that home improvement while pregnant or with an infant is a whole ‘nother story!

We could by a 1960’s town home in a first ring suburb, which would be 5-10 miles from my office. It would probably be around 1700sf and might have hideous wall paper and avocado green kitchen appliances. It would also have a less desirable floor plan. They tend to have galley kitchens and are less likely to have master baths. Or we could buy a brand new town home that would be bigger, 2000+sf, but would be 15-20 miles from the city.

This:

http://edinaimages.fnistools.com/Images/Listing03/9/Large/3099983_2.jpg

versus

this:

http://www.townandcountryhomesmn.com/images/hom-col-chateaupic-lg2.jpg

[greenbunny]

For me it would depend on the actual commute. If you're only talking a half hour or so, I'd get the bigger place farther out. But if you're talking about getting on a 5 AM train and riding to work for two hours, forget it, I'd rather live in a box in my company's parking lot.

[amorey]

It would be 20 minutes with no traffic. It would probably be a 30-40 minute commute most days, I think. I’d actually have to go drive it, though.

[irish74]

I'd definitely go for location, then size and then condition. Location will be the biggest factor in the appraisal or if you decide to resell. Size is important, but if there is room to grow that might be sufficient. Condition can always be changed, just don't buy more than you can fix up. We've moved out of town just to move back because we weren't happy that far from work, friends and entertainment, so give that a lot of thought.

[laura]

If you're talking about 5-10 miles vs. 15-20 miles, I would probably pick 15-20 miles away but a nicer home. My husband is also not very handy, and it would be worth it to me personally to drive 10 extra miles per day and come home to a nicer, mostly finished home. Plus you may not always work exactly where you do now, so picking a home based on where you work isn't always the best decision. I would pick the home you love, in a live-able distance from work.

[chefker]

We bought our 1820 colonial last year, and there were MANY trade-offs. In the end, I do believe we made the best choice in buying our home.

Location: I guess for ME it was a sacrifice--my drive to work is now 45 minutes-1 hour each way. For DH he has about a 15-20 minute drive. (I work at home two days a week, so I rationalized it figuring I don't have to commute EVERY single day at least). Our town's school district is within the top 10 of the state, and our town always ranks high in those 'best places to live in the state' type of polls.

Condition: Our house, being so old, does need work of course--entirely cosmetic stuff for right now. Most everything we want to do, is on a 'someday' list. But structurally everything was sound; our building inspector welcomed me to follow him around during his inspection, and you better believe I did. :) I went everywhere except get up on the roof!

We learned there are things we'll have to replace within the next 10 years---the roof over the porch for one. But nothing that required us putting a ton of $$ into it right away--unless we wanted to. (I've been posting about our laundry room plumbing saga in the older home remodelers thread--again, nothing urgent, but was an adventure to say the least. :) )

Size: We knew we wanted a two story house, but had a great one story property come available in this same location, we might have gone for it. We sold our 1100 sq. ft condo, to buy our current home, which is 2400 sq. ft. I could have lived with something less than 2400 though!

There were a host of 'mini' trade offs, and DH was really the one who did all the compromising. He used to insist that our first home would have: central air; public sewer and water; and no radiators. Guess what, we have no central air, radiator heat, well water, and a septic tank. :) So DH really compromised on all those things, and he has no regrets having done so.

[elladee]

For me location would be the most important - I can't imagine spending more than about 30 minutes each way for a commute. I'd go nuts.

Now provided both are within the 30 min, I'd go for the new house I think. When you say 1960's townhome, do you mean something where you share walls with your neighbors? I live in a duplex now and absolutely can't wait until we move into our own house and don't have to share walls anymore.

[amorey]

Now provided both are within the 30 min, I'd go for the new house I think. When you say 1960's townhome, do you mean something where you share walls with your neighbors? I live in a duplex now and absolutely can't wait until we move into our own house and don't have to share walls anymore.

We’ve been talking about town homes- probably with two shared walls, because I think we need to live somewhere with an association maintained exterior. DH hates yard work and I have to nag him to get anything done. I don’t mind it, but I have terrible allergies and it’s not worth an asthma attack. In our current neighborhood we can get away with not mowing the lawn for a month, but I don’t think that would fly in a better area, though. :rolleyes: I wonder if the newer home would have more soundproof walls?

I suppose we could buy a single family home and hire a lawn/snow service, but single family homes are more expensive to begin with.

[pullbuoy]

I agree with pretty much everybody else here. Are you ever planning to sell this next home? Location is so important. My BIL and SIL are currently trying to sell a townhome in Hugo(is that about 15-20 miles out? I don't live in the Twin Cities, but for some reason I think it is.), and it's been on the market for 6 months because it's just too far out, especially since it's just a townhome like the other 6 in their development also up for sale(something you might think about for townhomes). You can't change location, and size is very hard to change, but the condition of a home can be very flexible. If it were me I'd be looking for the house I could stay the longest in (and truthfully, it just was me- we just bought a bigger-than-we-thought-we-needed 1923 fixer upper in a great neighborhood. It was at the low end of our range, so we are able to do a lot of the work right now, but we are saving some for later. We were originally not going to move up very much in size and just move again in a few years, but I'm so shellshocked by all the costs associated with moving I want to do this as few times as possible.), and because of the flexibility of condition of home, it's the one in a location I like that's a nice size.

[amorey]

Hugo is more than 20 miles northeast of Minneapolis- maybe about 25. There’s not much northeast, since most of the industry in the southwest. That’s good information to know though. We wouldn’t plan on selling anytime soon, but you never know. Maybe we should just wait for a fixer-upper single family home to pop up in a closer neighborhood. Every so often I see one in the MLS. They get snapped up quickly!

[Asha]

after having bought our first house, we have learned a lot about what we will require of our next house.

these are what we will not sacrifice
location - right now i have an hour plus commute each way and our home is not centrally located to anything fun or entertaining.
multi-family home - we want something that will enable our il's to live in an adjacent apt if the need arrises.
at least 2 bathrooms in our living space

what we will sacrifice
space
condition of home - we are willing to do remodeling if needed.

[hmbay]

hey Ann--speaking as someone trying to sell a house in the TC market right now do NOT sacrafice location. Our house would be gone if it wouldn't be for those sucky neighbors (neighborhood is fine but both neighbors on either side are eyesores--when we bought the house only one was but while we lived there the house next door sold and we got crappy neighbors). However if you guys are talking a townhouse you really won't have to worry too much about that aspect of location as the association will make sure the lawn is nice and no one has crap on their patio etc but a good location is key--we had renters decide not to rent because we were too far from the interstate. So I'd put location first, size 2nd and condition (barring something expensive to fix) last. However in a townhouse you also won't be able to "add on" if it's too small so in the case of a townhouse location is of utmost important so it is easy to re-sell if need be.

[artist]

Hmm. I gues it's hard for me to say, because when we bought our house, I really wanted to find something I could just stay in. And though some people maybe would not like our location, I'm fine with it. (I've explained my neighborhood to you. You know where I live.) I think when we picked this house out, size was a factor for me anyway. We wanted at least 1500 or 1600 square feet, at least 3 bedrooms, and a decent sized kitchen since Allan loves to cook. I also insisted on hardwood floors and I hated anything that wasn't old. (I know you "get" that.) And sure, we don't live in Linden Hills or anything, but we also don't live in Phillips. (Why am I mentioning Minneapolis and not St. Paul neighborhoods?) But I HAD to be in the city. Just HAD to. So, I guess in a sense, location was important. In that, it HAD to be in either Minneapolis or St. Paul, but also had to NOT be certain neighborhoods, and yet had to be of a certain size, yet within a certain price range. We were definitely willing to fix something up. Allan enjoys projects anyway. We kind of lucked out though that the house was in good condition, so most of our changes have been things like, "Let's paint that room". Okay, so there was the kitchen. But we could have left it how it was and been fine.

But, of course we DO have things happen. Like on Sunday our neighborhood got hit with a LOT of grafitti from a Minneapolis gang. That sucked. But, as much as that really sucked, the neighborhood has really been responding. So, that is why our neighborhood is interesting. Sometimes shit happens, but people don't put up with it.

I know you've sort of indicated in the past that you like being more in the city. So, I can understand why you'd want to be closer to it. However, it sounds like you're talking about picking a place that is out of the city anyway. But it would be either a closer suburb, or a further away one. (Again, I don't know which ones you are thinking of, so maybe that makes a difference.) Personally I do like the 2nd house you pictured better. Besides it looking nicer, you said it has a lot more space. Then again, I can understand how a 5 minute commute sounds very tempting. I guess part of me is thinking (since I know you), you may want the house that looks the prettiest inside, or at least has the potential to.

ETA:
But if we DO ever move, aside from the same requirements I already had for finding THIS house, I'd want a REAL basement with normal height ceilings and enough square footage! And maybe a slightly bigger garage or a two story one so I could paint on the second level. (I know, I'm wierd.)

[magrat]

I would not sacrifice location, but the other two would be flexible. Our house isn't even 1400 square feet but we feel very comfortable in it. Remember that your current house is unusually small and getting something even 400 feet bigger is going to make a big difference. Every square foot bigger you go is all going to be extra. Condition...well, that one is tricky. It can be very very expensive to bring a house up to date. Think how expensive your recent kitchen remodel cost, and the fact that your new house will probably have a bigger kitchen (more to replace) and you may want to go a bit more upmarket with it. They say you only get back a certain percentage of your remodelling expenses when you sell - you may want to let someone else (with decent taste of course) take that hit for you. I'm not sure if someone like yourself could stand living with burnt orange appliances and dark 70s style cabinets, even for just a few years.

[artist]

Remember that your current house is unusually small and getting something even 400 feet bigger is going to make a big difference... Think how expensive your recent kitchen remodel cost..I'm not sure if someone like yourself could stand living with burnt orange appliances and dark 70s style cabinets, even for just a few years.

I have to say I agree!

[pullbuoy]

You guys obviously know what you want to live with best, but we're putting off the major kitchen remodel for about a year (it will take longer than we have until we need to move, and I don't want to do it while I'm still at home with the kids), so we're just painting the cabinets white and switching out the fridge and range. I know painting cabinets is awful and all, but they're getting replaced shortly, and a new fridge and range can be cheap if you look around. It's definitely money we won't see again, but we just sort of factored it into the price of the house, and it makes it a liveable (albeit not my dream) kitchen.

[artist]

The only thing I am thinking is, Ann just did their kitchen in their current house. It looks great and Ann obviously is capable of that. However, I know that kitchens can be such a pain. We did ours last year. I suppose if all you did (like the previous poster said) was paint some cabinets and get new appliances, that's not so bad. But if you start doing floors, countertops, backsplashes, plumbing, etc., then it's a real pain. And although Ann can do it, and maybe could even finance it, does she have the energy or patience to do that again? I know I wouldn't want to. So, I'd say, hopefully she can find something with at least a decent enough kitchen. If all it needs are newer appliances, cool. But if the whole kitchen needed to be gutted, not cool. Although, I really think most people do end up working on a million projects around the house regardless of the condition of it. My MIL has a brand new built house and she and her husband are always doing something on the house.

[boilermaker]

I am not at all familiar with the Twin Cities, but if the second tier suburbs are being built up to where they will include retaurants & basic shopping, I'd pick that choice.

When we bought our current house, we sacrificed on size and a little bit on location (though I now really like our location, so it turned out to be a blessing). I was not willing to sacrifice on condition because we both work long hours and our hobbies require frequent traveling...so nothing would ever get done. And to be honest, driving a little farther into work is much easier for me than pulling up carpet or redoing drywall.

[amorey]

For those that know the area, the nice new townhouses are in a nice part of Maplewood. There’s a mall there and all of it’s surrounding shops/restaurants, it’s near freeways, it’s closer to my parents and my friends in St. Paul. With no traffic it would be 10 minutes to downtown St. Paul and 20 to downtown Minneapolis, but probably double that with rush hour traffic.

Artist is right about all the work we’ve done to our current home. Actually, I’ve done most of it. DH isn’t handy. He’ll lift heavy objects when called upon, but most of the remodeling was done by me. I would imagine that being pregnant or having an infant would add a whole new dimension to home improvement.

We actually went and visited the Maplewood town homes (http://townandcountryhomesmn.com/homesearch/heritagesquare/her-maj-ove.html) yesterday. They’re so nice! We priced one out with upgrades- maple woodwork, fireplace, brushed nickel lighting, and it was very affordable.

[hmbay]

ooo I like those! They have some "style" and I love that they have something in the basement other than the garage (storage or game room for Sean?). I actually loved living in my townhouse. I loved having a nice lawn I didn't have to mow, water, fertilize and that I never had to shovel snow. We only moved because we needed more garage and storage space after Jon and I got married since it was only 2 beds 1.5 baths and a 2 stall garage with no "overflow" parking.

[MrsSmith]

I would not sacrifice space and size. Extra room means a lot when your home is small to medium. Just 100 - 200 square feet can make a huge difference in your bedroom, kitchen, living room, etc.

Condition would be the sacrifice I'd choose. Most new owners make changes anyway. Try to live with the things you're not crazy about until you remodel.

[BTB]

We're house-hunting starting late next month (yay!) and location will be most important to us - we want a neighborhood with other families we can be part of, with good schools, parks, and decent access to work.

Size is least important to me, unless it's so tiny our stuff doesn't fit. There's always additions, or finishing a basement, to get more space if need be, and heaven knows I have too much stuff anyway and weeding out what I truly need wouldn't be a bad thing.

Condition is something I would rank as more important than size because I feel it goes beyond aesthetics like paint and new carpeting. Homes need regularly scheduled maintenance just like cars, and if an owner has taken good care of the home in general it could save me thousands down the road not to have to repair or replace problems that occurred due to neglect.

Good luck and have fun! :)

[eb23sheree]

I haven't had time to read the thread, but I have to say that location is definitely a HUGE thing. My DH and I bought our first house in 2003 and it was a gorgeous 2400 square foot house with hardwood floors, an in-law apartment upstairs that could be rented out, and it basically looked like something out of better homes and gardens. The catch was that it was the nicest house on the street in an okay neighborhood. It worked awesome for us during the time we lived in it.

Fast forward 2 years... I accepted a position out of state and we had to sell our house. It was on the market for 6 months and it NEVER SOLD. We ended up having to rent it out in order to avoid having 2 house payments. The biggest reason why people wouldn't buy was the location. No one wanted to buy in that area because of the schools and because of the proximity to downtown. We thought that people would love living closer to downtown because of the convenience but aparently not everyone felt the same way we did. The economy also played a factor since there were a ton of other homes for a homebuyer to consider but I can't count how many times we had to listed to our realtor say, "it's because of the area..."

You probably don't buy your first home planning on moving somewhere else in a few years, but it's definitely something to think about just in case. Consider not only the area but also the retail value of your home and the appreciation factor.

The size of a home can always be added onto and condition can often be improved if you know someone who is a handyman... but just make sure that if you're sacrificing condition, you don't sacrifice safety as well. Make sure it has a good roof and be sure to get a furnace inspection. After a few years, our old furnace started leaking dangerous carbon monoxide that would have been deadly if undetected. Just make sure to get a good home inspection!