SnyderShrugged Posted May 14, 2009 Share Posted May 14, 2009 Ok, as many of you know, I have been in the midst of a corporate relocation over the past 5.5 months. Selling my home has been a nightmare and I have lost most of my equity even if I get list price now, and I don't hold out a lot of hope for that either. Anyway, I am approved to carry 2 mortgages and I am forced to buy another house so we arent homeless in the new location. I am stressed beyond belief! I have about 3-4 more months to sell it because I have a dual mortgage coverage benefit as part of the relo package. I fear greatly that I will have to go Jingle mail or lease it out just to stay above water. Thats the backround...Onto my questions. We have identified 4 potential homes so far as possible options. Each has positives and each has negatives. I'd like to ask your opinions on what you would chose if you were in my shoes. We have 2 elementary age children, we desire privacy and if possible a little bit of land. Wife desires a nice kitchen. We are moving out of a 4250 sq ft home on 2.25 acres. home 1: 1800 sq ft cape cod, 3 bdrm, 10cres, unfinished basement, OK kitchen, no garage, great schools, a little far out of town. home 2: 1923 sq ft all brick ranch, nicely done interior on 2.63 wooded acres, 2 car garage, crawl space. Feels smaller than it is, wife concerned over where exercise equipment and "stuff" can go. Best location of the bunch. Great schools. 3 bdrm home 3: 2500 sq ft, absolutely beautiful home, all upgraded and wife loves interior and exterior. Crappy yard, 1.49 acres, but way less thats actually usable yard. awful schools.3 bdrm home 4: 3800 sq ft 6 bedroom ranch with unfinished full basement on 3.4 acres, ok schoold, nothing to write home about. Previous owner got halfway through remodel and ran out of $, so it's a half "fixer-upper". Lots of space and privacy Thanks for your opinions! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dictator Posted May 14, 2009 Share Posted May 14, 2009 home 3. happy wife happy life. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TimmySmith Posted May 14, 2009 Share Posted May 14, 2009 Keep looking. Sorry. You have presented 4 choices that do not combine what you need. Your wife is used to a 4300 sf home. You have spoiled her. Believe me when I say that anything under 2500 is going to cause you misery. That rules out 1 & 2. #3 has crappy schools. If this is true, this is no good. Ask yourself are these the type of families that I want to be friends with, because they will be your major source of social activity. If not, move on. Finally #4, do you have the time and money to finish the job? Do you want more headaches? Are you ready to deal the previous owners screw ups? There must be better houses than these. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheLongshot Posted May 14, 2009 Share Posted May 14, 2009 What you need to look at is what are the things you can change over time. Depending how much land you have that's buildable, you can always make a house bigger (particularly if it is a ranch. I've seen a few projects that put second floors on ranch houses.) You can't change the location and you can't improve the schools, unless you are willing to do private schools. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dictator Posted May 14, 2009 Share Posted May 14, 2009 also, which house has the hottest neighbors? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
armstrong001 Posted May 14, 2009 Share Posted May 14, 2009 Rent until you are out of your first mortgage. Don't put yourself in that kind of position. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Elessar78 Posted May 14, 2009 Share Posted May 14, 2009 Yeah, I'm with Dictator on this. Home 3. Home 2 and 1923 sq feet raises concerns about space and storage. So Home 1 with 1800 sq feet is even more of a concern. Personally, I hate long commutes so another strike against #1. Home 4 sounds like a good option that you maybe able to get a good deal on. Depends if you're willing to deal with the cost and inconvenience of finishing it. Sounds like you've had a lot on your plate in recent months so I'd suggest just to keep life simple for the near future and move into a house that meets your needs and is ready to be lived in. The small acreage on #3 might just mean less maintenance. Which for me is a good thing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TMK9973 Posted May 14, 2009 Share Posted May 14, 2009 School - You have two children. Why would you move somewhere with a crappy school? In addition - It will always hurt you when you try to sell. School is important. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Switchgear Posted May 14, 2009 Share Posted May 14, 2009 House 2 sounds pretty good, maybe there is a chance of building on to it at some point. If you can't or don't want to look at other places, it would seem to me to be a choice between 2 and 4. My first house needed a fair amount of work, it was pretty rewarding to learn drywall and other useful home repair skills. Good luck! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FanboyOf91 Posted May 14, 2009 Share Posted May 14, 2009 Gotta agree with TimmySmith. Also, bad schools will probably get worse in a recession, good schools not so much. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dictator Posted May 14, 2009 Share Posted May 14, 2009 Home 2 and 1923 sq feet raises concerns about space and storage. So Home 1 with 1800 sq feet is even more of a concern. Personally, I hate long commutes so another strike against #1. my house is only 1300sq/ft. not including the finished basement. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brad_Edwards_Fan Posted May 14, 2009 Share Posted May 14, 2009 Rent until you are out of your first mortgage. Don't put yourself in that kind of position. I think this too... i did a similiar move not too long ago and am very pleased that i chose the rent first route. Allowed me time to sell the old house and get to know the new area a bit more before i bought. I knew the new area very well, but my wife did not. Turns out the area we thought we wanted to be in wouldnt have been a good choice and we ended up elsewhere. We rented for about 9 months before buying the new place. Of course, i dont have kids and i imagine that 2 moves in one calander year with kids could be tough. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tulane Skins Fan Posted May 14, 2009 Share Posted May 14, 2009 I would go with home 4. Personally, I think schools will be as important as anything. You can also turn home 4 into a good investment, at half the cost, so it sounds. Edit: I actually misread that. Although, I sorta would still go with 4 if the schools are pretty good. Not sure where on the spectrum they are from your post. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hailskinz1991 Posted May 14, 2009 Share Posted May 14, 2009 its all about the schools...think of resale. No one wants to send their kid to a bad school. If you buy the house with the bad schools you can only sell it to a bachelor type, or an empty nester. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
da#1skinsfan Posted May 14, 2009 Share Posted May 14, 2009 All 4 choices sound weak. If you think you will be relocating again any time soon dont pick a bad lot or a bad school district, right off the bat that eliminates choices. I would say home 2. Location and lot are most important. You can knock a wall down to create space, add a room, whatever. If there are much higher comps in the neighborhood, with the above info, I would go #2. Need more info though to make an educated recommendation. If it helps, I grew up in 1700 sq ft with a sister and both parents and it was a bit cramped compared to my buddies with bigger houses but by no means was it ever really an issue growing up. Plenty of space. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SnyderShrugged Posted May 14, 2009 Author Share Posted May 14, 2009 Keep looking. Sorry. You have presented 4 choices that do not combine what you need. Your wife is used to a 4300 sf home. You have spoiled her. Believe me when I say that anything under 2500 is going to cause you misery. That rules out 1 & 2. #3 has crappy schools. If this is true, this is no good. Ask yourself are these the type of families that I want to be friends with, because they will be your major source of social activity. If not, move on. Finally #4, do you have the time and money to finish the job? Do you want more headaches? Are you ready to deal the previous owners screw ups?There must be better houses than these. LOL, she actually is on the side of "trimming down and simplifying" our lives some. We both found that the large house was way too much to maintain and enjoy. I should have mentioned that we are still looking, but the available list is almost out. we've looked at 30 homes so far. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Larry Posted May 14, 2009 Share Posted May 14, 2009 Granted, I've never bought a house in my life. My advice may not be worth much. But it sounds to me like if you think you're Tim Allen, then you could make a lot of money by fixing up House 4. If you can do it, you could double your money in 5 years. It has the second largest lot, and I'm a believer (please note how experienced I am) that usually, the house doesn't go up in value, but the land does. Drawback I see with #4 is that you don't seem impressed with the schools. Schools are a very important factor in a home's price. I'd also look at the values of the surrounding homes. If your fixer-upper is the same price as the neighbors, then no, you're not going to fix it up and double the price. If, on the other hand, it's unfinished condition is causing it to sell for half the price of the neighbors, then you've got a bargain. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IbleedBnG83 Posted May 14, 2009 Share Posted May 14, 2009 I would keep looking. Seems like the 2 most important needs you need to focus on is... 1. Good Schools 2. Plenty of space. Sorry, by land will have to be the least of your concerns. As far as how "nice" it is inside, you can always renovate. But you don't want to settle for a P.O.S. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SnyderShrugged Posted May 14, 2009 Author Share Posted May 14, 2009 home 3. happy wife happy life. The schools is the killer on that one and she isnt happy with the nearly unusable yard. It's a shame because it really is an incredible house. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SnyderShrugged Posted May 14, 2009 Author Share Posted May 14, 2009 What you need to look at is what are the things you can change over time. Depending how much land you have that's buildable, you can always make a house bigger (particularly if it is a ranch. I've seen a few projects that put second floors on ranch houses.) You can't change the location and you can't improve the schools, unless you are willing to do private schools. Thats kind of where I was thinking in regards to House 1. It's smaller, but doesnt feel tight and there is a lot of room to expand via addition if needed. It has the best Elementary on the list too, with house 2 a close second. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SnyderShrugged Posted May 14, 2009 Author Share Posted May 14, 2009 also, which house has the hottest neighbors? LMAO!! Thats one I dont know! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SnyderShrugged Posted May 14, 2009 Author Share Posted May 14, 2009 Rent until you are out of your first mortgage. Don't put yourself in that kind of position. This is definitely a thought on our minds too. It's something we really would like to avoid, but reality of the housing market may make it a neccessity. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SnyderShrugged Posted May 14, 2009 Author Share Posted May 14, 2009 Yeah, I'm with Dictator on this. Home 3. Home 2 and 1923 sq feet raises concerns about space and storage. So Home 1 with 1800 sq feet is even more of a concern. Personally, I hate long commutes so another strike against #1. Home 4 sounds like a good option that you maybe able to get a good deal on. Depends if you're willing to deal with the cost and inconvenience of finishing it. Sounds like you've had a lot on your plate in recent months so I'd suggest just to keep life simple for the near future and move into a house that meets your needs and is ready to be lived in. The small acreage on #3 might just mean less maintenance. Which for me is a good thing. My commute will be about the same within a 10 minute range for each of these. There is actually a lot more storage with the 1800 vs the 1923 due to the basement at the storage "nooks" in a cape cod style. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IbleedBnG83 Posted May 14, 2009 Share Posted May 14, 2009 The schools is the killer on that one and she isnt happy with the nearly unusable yard.It's a shame because it really is an incredible house. When you say "unusable yard", what exactly will you be using it for? Is this a home where you will be staying for many years? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SnyderShrugged Posted May 14, 2009 Author Share Posted May 14, 2009 School - You have two children. Why would you move somewhere with a crappy school? In addition - It will always hurt you when you try to sell. School is important. I agree completely. Private or charter school is also an option, though the expense is a concern. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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