Struggling with buying a house

[Tri Girl]

personally, I would jump at the 2nd house. You can change a house, you can't change it's location. You can customize it the way you want over time, and you will have that acerage to build trails, have a little breathing room, and get in a little extra mileage on the commute to work. Plus, it's only 6 miles from work (not 20), so the commute is still doable and you're still close. Go with your gut. What will make you the most happy in the long-term?


Good luck with your decision.

[Catrin]

Which house can you see yourself living in for the long term? As someone else said, you can do a LOT with 4 acres Also being able to ride from your front door is very hard to put a price on.

Personally, I would choose the second house and just take my time doing the work that might need to be done since it is currently livable. Fixer-uppers do take a lot of time and effort, but in the long run you will have the best of both worlds. Of course it is easy for me to say that as I won't be the one spending the money or doing the work...

[jyyanks]

I would choose LOCATION! LOCATION! LOCATION! As others stated, you can change almost everything about a house except where it's located. A better location would help with resale and would make life easier in the long run.

Remodeling is a pain but it's a temporary pain. We did a whole house remodel (8 months where I had to live with my in-laws. Practically got divorced) and while it was a long, stressful and expensive process, it was well worth it in the end. We love our house, and we customized it for us so it has exactly what we wanted. Good Luck with your search.

[Geonz]

The logging trucks would be the deal killer for me, period... I'd want to know the fatality rate on the road...

[lph]

I wouldn't buy a fixer-upper unless I enjoyed fixing-upping. Or could pay someone to do it for me. I actually do enjoy it, I love finding out how to do new things, but it's not a hobby and I wouldn't want to spend a lot of time in the future having to fix things rather than go for a swim or go for a ride or sink into the couch with a cup of tea and the cat. I've built a porch once - lots of fun, am never going to do it again because we spent 5 times as long doing it as a carpenter would. I'm all for doing stuff that gives a lot of effect for your time and money, though, like painting. And I'm game for remodeling for a shorter period of time, say 3 months. After that it had better be 5 years until we need to do something drastic.

That said - I think most people are pretty good at adapting to what they get. And if it's a really hard choice, chances are you would be equally happy both places, otherwise it wouldn't be a hard choice. Personally I tend to overestimate what I have and have trouble imagining myself somewhere new. I'm feeling pretty sad about moving out of our rather tiny apartment now because I'm losing a view. But then I tell myself that our next place doesn't have to be the home of a lifetime, just somewhere that I'm reasonably sure that I can thrive for the next few years. The last place wasn't perfect and if I expect the next one to be I'd never find anywhere to live.

Good luck

[Wahine]

The logging trucks would be the deal killer for me, period... I'd want to know the fatality rate on the road...

In the 6 years that I've lived in the valley, I've not heard of a single fatality on the road. It's relatively a small town, so if something like that happened it would be big news.

[Crankin]

I'm going to give this another spin.
Always think of resale when you are buying. Most people don't; they get too personally attached to "their "house,whether it's beautiful or a piece of cr*p.
My advice is given being on my 5th house in 2 states. All sold in 3 months or less, 4 of them during recessions.
OK. As another poster said, you cannot underestimate how much time home remodeling/repairs take. The house I am in now had to be totally rehabbed: roof, doors, windows, outdoor landscaping, 3.5 baths, kitchen, paint inside. Then, there's the upkeep. This is time away from riding.
Are you willing to live in a house that is not what you want inside? We thought we could, for awhile, but our house was totally remodeled inside within 9 months. If this isn't important to you, then it's a different story. For a lot of people I know, those plans to remodel never happen.
So, while house #2 has the acreage,it's not really what you want. And, when thinking of resale, how important are those trails you are going to build, to other people? I've seen several examples of things that were personally important to homeowners (the most obvious being elaborate pools/spas/backyards) that are actually liabilities when selling. Again, you might not be thinking of resale now, but sometimes this stuff hits you in the face, later.
Last point. DS just bought his first house. He was lucky to get a state subsidized first time buyer loan, but with home prices the way they are around here, he was outbid on every decent house he and DIL liked in the more "prestigious" areas. So, this is what he bought: a totally rebuilt/rehabbed 3 bedroom 2 full bath Cape. Stainless appliances, hardwood floors, woodwork from 1905 saved and prominent in the living room/dining room. A sun porch, a finished full basement, with a work area/studio for DS to do his music and DIL to paint. Boiler room big enough for the washer and dryer plus tools and 4 bikes. Downsides: on a very busy street in a close in suburban city that's traditionally more blue collar, plus home to a well known university. Schools not so great, but not the worst, either. No driveway, garage, have to park on adjacent street. House is high up on a steep hill, with 50 steps up to the front. Has a large amount of side land and a back yard. Front yard is a steep slope that is terrible to cut the grass on. Bus stop to almost anywhere one block away, close bike ride into Somerville, Cambridge, Boston. Oh, and very near (but not next to) a major highway. You can hear it and probably see it in the winter.
DS and DIL overbid the asking price by about 6K. They were about 500.00 over the closest bidder and got the house. There were tons of young couples wanting to buy this house, despite the obvious negatives. Why? Because of what my son says... the other houses were just pieces of sh*t inside. This house was walk in ready. The came to us with hesitation about putting a bid in on the house and we said "do it." They are used to living in the city and dealing with parking. And they can slowly look at how to fix the slope, parking, etc.
They are very happy and their friends are very jealous.

[shootingstar]

Hope you make the best decision Wahine...for a place that you both plan to stay for the next..10-30 yrs.?

Location (close to services, accessible roads) plus a decent inside of the home is always a big draw.

Speaking of which, we were vacationing 15 yrs. ago in a small town-resort area along the British Columbian coast. We wondered about the low pricing of large homes sitting on top of long hills in an area that tends to get grey days and enough rain in fall and winter. A long hill is ok in areas where there isn't much snow.

But not in the region where I live with much colder winters and if there is a sidewalk to shovel, etc. What looks great in one region, is not easily coped with in another region of a country.

More and more locals in our city are SLOWLY finally now getting it: living close to services, transit and parks, etc. and designing communities accordingly.

[MichelleOH]

If you've been happy in the cute house for almost two years...well, I think that says a lot. Buying it may give you time to look for an even better property that doesn't need as much work as the current "second".

[shootingstar]

I'm sure it's a temporary thing 6 month, a year? Things do change especially with construction traffic and logging traffic. Once they finish the "clear cutting" up the canyon, they will move on.

But looks like the touristy traffic..which is ...3-4 months annually? And in 1 day, is the traffic just continuous for 8 hrs. or is it just 3-4 peak hrs. per day?

I'm fascinated by different perceptions of country living vs. city living vs. surburban living.

Maybe it's better to think of country living best for different stage in life..when one has time, energy to deal with maintenance, travel time (to get to services), etc. when having more acreage.

Appreciate Wahine's strong sense in the area where they are looking, the housing prices and mortgage rates may be more ideal this year compared to 3-5 yrs. later. (Who knows.) This is what happened to me: I only looked at 4 places before I bought. I live in an expanding city where housing prices are going up moderately.

I do wonder if I did the right thing but on the other hand, nearly once a month, I'm exclaiming happily to dearie while we're cycling homeward on home's peaceful street downtown: I'm so glad we live close to many things and services.

Every time I tell people I live downtown, people think of traffic, crowds, etc. No, my street dead-ends into a cul-de-sac and half a block away is a park greenbelt that is the spine of a major 80 km. bike-ped. path (that interconnects to 300 km. more of bike-ped paths and interconnected parks.)

I like my hobbies (cycling as one of them, even though it's just transportation to me 60% of the time) but I have to do other stuff ...shopping, banking, work, etc. efficiently by getting there.

So location, location, location is important. But in your gut, it must feel right now ..and for next 10-20 yrs. for you?

[GLC1968]

So location, location, location is important. But in your gut, it must feel right now ..and for next 10-20 yrs. for you?

So, so, so true!

And personally, I am *really* struggling with the concept of buying a house that we will stay in for 10+ years. I can't even fathom that...

[Wahine]

But looks like the touristy traffic..which is ...3-4 months annually? And in 1 day, is the traffic just continuous for 8 hrs. or is it just 3-4 peak hrs. per day?

I'm fascinated by different perceptions of country living vs. city living vs. surburban living.

This is an interesting question. Where I currently live is considered rural residential and it's outside of town limits. I've been sitting here at my computer at 2:30 in the afternoon and the vehicles are coming by about 1 every 10 to 40 seconds. That's pretty typical for mid day and evening. In the peak hours in the morning and late afternoon that will increase to 1 vehicle every 5 seconds, often with clusters of vehicles. Between 9 pm and 5 am the traffic is light. The bugger at 5 AM is that is when the logging trucks start. The speed limit is 45 mph (75 ish kph) but most drivers are going much faster than that.

As for the increase in tourist traffic, that's mostly between June and September. The general mid day and evening traffic is less outside of those months.