We live in our "forever home". We rented until we bought it and people thought we were completely out of our minds for not buying a starter home.
We bought while it was still under construction and that was the best decision ever. We were able to customize the house a bit and choose all of the finishes.
1. Do you own your home or are you renting/ leasing? - We bought our house in the fall of 2012 3. If you own a home are you in a starter home, a forever home, or something else? - Our house would probably be considered "starter home" size/quality, but it is our forever home. I fantasize about a different house, primarily because I wish we had a separate entry and larger dining space, but the reality of moving is just no. Plus the COL here has gone up so fast that we aren't willing to spend as much as we would have to for a larger, more traditional lay out. Our space is fine and with ongoing updates over the years we will be just fine here until the time comes to downsize.
1. Do you own your home or are you renting/ leasing?
We own our home.
2. If you are renting/leasing do you plan to buy a home at some point?
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3. If you own a home are you in a starter home, a forever home, or something else?
We plan for this to be our forever home! Fun small town story, we had planned on building a house and had even bought a lot in town, and the previous owner of our house one night over beer at a hockey game (can I make this any more Canadian? This is all true lol) said 'you guys' don't build a house! I want to move to the farm and you should buy ours. Come take a look at it someday, I just need to talk to my wife" we laughed and thought he was just drunk talking. Sure enough though, after a whirlwind of calls from them, completely falling in love with the house and yard from us, being able to sell our lot we had purchased to a friend, we got the house and I got pregnant with DS a couple months later and began to fill the rooms
1. Do you own your home or are you renting/ leasing? We own, since 2010. Well, we have a mortgage
2. If you are renting/leasing do you plan to buy a home at some point? N/A
3. If you own a home are you in a starter home, a forever home, or something else? We will eventually need to upgrade. Currently we have 2 bedrooms, 1 bath, and less than 800 square feet. Right now we make it work just fine, but I know as the kids get older we will need more space. Our neighborhood is high-demand and right now houses are flying off the market for well above asking prices. We need to wait until it calms down a bit and if it doesn't, we might add on.
Post by iowamama615 on Mar 28, 2016 11:57:04 GMT -5
We currently rent. It's a fairly big, old farmhouse. Lousy on cost of utilities, but the amount of house we have for the rent we pay is kinda ridiculous. (In a good way)
We'd like to start looking for a house sometime early next year, so we can be settled before starting to try for baby #2. It's just difficult to find anything decent around us that won't be out of our price range. Also, our rental is less than 10 minutes from daycare and my work, so I don't know if we can beat that.
Post by heartofglass on Mar 28, 2016 12:16:25 GMT -5
1. Do you own your home or are you renting/ leasing? We bought our home in 2013.
3. If you own a home are you in a starter home, a forever home, or something else? Well it was going to be our forever home. It has an awesome open layout that I fell in love with and plenty of land for A to run around on. But, my H has convinced me to move to AK so I guess that makes this our 'starter' home.
1. Do you own your home or are you renting/ leasing? DH owns. He bought it before I was in the picture. 2. If you are renting/leasing do you plan to buy a home at some point? N/A
3. If you own a home are you in a starter home, a forever home, or something else? It is a starter home but we can't sell anytime soon because of how much DH overpaid for the house. I am hoping at some point we can buy another house that I like better and we can rent out this one. We are close to having this house paid off at least.
Post by musicfrk2002 on Mar 28, 2016 13:07:37 GMT -5
1. Do you own your home or are you renting/ leasing? We rent our apartment.
2. If you are renting/leasing do you plan to buy a home at some point? Eventually. We really need more space and I would love to not have neighbors above us. But we are also enjoying not having to have a yard to take care of or having to shovel.
Widget123 Yes, he's hot. To keep this on topic, I'd like to rent him though, not buy because I just can't make that kind of commitment with a husband and baby on the side.
We own our house. Or like veggiemo said, we're 2.5 years into a 30 year mortgage.
It's a starter home. 3 bedroom 1.5 bath 1530sqft on a 7,000sqft lot. Bought it as a short sale and renovated most of the house (All new doors, interior and exterior paint, new kitchen, new bathroom). I think we're going to sell it this summer and buy the house I grew up in from my mom. The market has gone up an insane amount since we bought and we're fairly confident we could sell for $200K+ more than we bought it for. Our thought is that my mom will sell us her house to completely pay off her mortgage even though it's worth quite a bit more. Then we'd give her some of the profits and use the rest for savings and a total renovation. I assume we need to talk to a real estate lawyer to figure it all out? I don't want my mom to have to pay a realtor to handle the sale of her house since there would be no showing or listing involved and I'm assuming a lawyer would be able to best advise how to handle it all.
ETA: My mom's house is a 4 bedroom 2 bath with a bonus room on a +9,000sqft lot. Probably our forever home.
carrots Is he an only child? My mom totally wants to just hand the house over to me and not take any profits, but it's worth probably $300K (maybe more?) more than what she needs to pay off and with 4 other siblings I don't think it's fair for me to be the only one to reap the benefits of it so I told her she's can't just give it to me.
Post by blueskiessmiling on Mar 28, 2016 13:55:23 GMT -5
We own our home- we built in 2011. We have a 4 bed, 2.5 bath, 2400 sq ft, on a 13000 sq ft lot.
We built this house intending to stay at least until our kids are grown. Its value has appreciated quite a bit since we purchased, so we're very happy about that. Around here, it just doesn't make sense to buy a home you don't plan to stay in, as the real estate market is a bit unstable. Once we're older, though, it will probably be too much house for us, and not quite the right setting (huge, family-filled subdivision).
We own our home....well, it will be ours in +/- 25 years after we pay off the mortgage.
This would be our forever home if it was on a dead end street or a cul-de-sac. When we bought, it was an upgrade from our first house (that we still own and rent out) that we thought it was amazing! However, after having kids, and spending more time in the front yard, people drive way too fast down our street that we'd never let the kids out by themselves until they get much older. We are tossing around the idea of building, but we need to find the lot first.
Happy Monday! I know a few people have mentioned moving/buying houses lately and it got me wondering what everyone's living arrangements are.
1. Do you own your home or are you renting/ leasing?
2. If you are renting/leasing do you plan to buy a home at some point?
3. If you own a home are you in a starter home, a forever home, or something else?
Feel free to add questions or any discussion about living arrangements.
1. We rent. In an air bnb until the end of this week. Then we are moving to a short term rental April 1st-July 1st. I'm excited for the next rental! It's a beautiful house 1 block from the lake w a perfect yard and it's already baby proofed! The owners are a nice couple renting it to us while they vacation in Spain.
Side note, we do own a rental property in Los Angeles and we were in the process of buying another one but it fell out of escrow last week and now it's a short sale. We still want it but the short sale is taking a long time.
2. We want to buy a house here. We are passively looking at this point. Not in a huge rush because we are still getting to know the area and the housing market here.
Post by mrsmonogrammed on Mar 28, 2016 14:42:08 GMT -5
1. Do you own your home or are you renting/ leasing?
We own. We bought it June of 2014, 9 days before our wedding.
2. If you are renting/leasing do you plan to buy a home at some point? N/A.
3. If you own a home are you in a starter home, a forever home, or something else? When we were looking to buy we wanted to find a home we could see comfortably being in for a long time. We ended up in a 4bed 2.5bath house with a large fenced in yard that we could grow into. Don't get me wrong, I love our house, but part of me wonders if we have gone for a smaller house if I could have been able to stay at home with DD. I think it's a trade off and I'll never really know the other side of it....we were very nervous to buy a small house and then get "stuck" in it if we had more kids than it could hold.
1. Do you own your home or are you renting/ leasing?
2. If you are renting/leasing do you plan to buy a home at some point?
3. If you own a home are you in a starter home, a forever home, or something else?
Feel free to add questions or any discussion about living arrangements.
1. We own our house (with a mortgage). We bought it in 2008 and moved in the day after our honeymoon ended.
3. We always intended to move when our family grew. That took longer than we'd hoped, so we have been here for seven and a half years.
I've never heard anyone mention the area of their house before so that doesn't mean anything to me :-) My understanding is that houses in the US and Canada tend to be a lot bigger than UK houses, because you have more space. Obviously that's a generalisation!
We have a kitchen / dining room, downstairs loo, living room, our bedroom, L's room / nursery and the bathroom. There are small gardens front and back.
We have improved the house a lot. The decor is significantly better, and not just as a matter of taste - it's objectively in better condition. H laid a solid wood floor in the kitchen instead of the lino that was there. The garden was mostly paved, and we've made it into a really lovely space with lots of colour for three out of four seasons.
It's therefore frustrating that the house has been valued for exactly £1,000 more than we paid for it. Of course we bought in spring 2008, and the market crashed a few months later and is only just beginning to pick up seven years later. So the price is entirely a reflection of the market. It still stings a bit, though.
On the positive side, our estate agent (I think that might be what you call a realtor, although they seem to have slightly different rôles) was shocked and thinks we've been undervalued, so she's pushing back at the surveyor and hopefully we'll get a slightly increased price soon.
Ever since we cleared the rest of our debts, we've been overpaying into our mortgage at every opportunity. H has twice yearly bonuses and share awards, and we usually use some of that for a holiday or another big treat, and otherwise the rest goes into the mortgage. We have some money in a savings account for unforseen expenses, but in the current climate we were advised that savings are not a good investment and overpaying on the mortgage is. We've paid well over half of a 25 year mortgage in seven and a half years, which will help with our dream home as we have a pretty good deposit as a result. Now we just need to hope that the right house comes on the market at the right time!
Sorry, this is very long. Not surprisingly, this is very much on my mind at the moment!
1. We own our home - purchased in June 2014 3. I'm not sure yet if this is our started home or forever home. I love our house and we have plenty of space to grow into, but I also don't have big kids yet so we will see. I think with the updates that we've made so far and a few more down the line, it's a place that I'd like to be in for the long haul.
Post by mrsdee1982 on Mar 28, 2016 15:25:58 GMT -5
1. Do you own your home or are you renting/ leasing? We own. Purchased in 2013.
2. If you are renting/leasing do you plan to buy a home at some point? N/A
3. If you own a home are you in a starter home, a forever home, or something else? Not our forever home. 3 bedroom/2 bath, 1200 sq feet. Small backyard with hot tub and koi pond. When we move, we will be moving out of state. I want our next house to be our forever house. I'd prefer 4-5 bedrooms, 2-3 baths, at least 2000 sq feet and a little bit of land. We'll see!
I love hearing about everyone's house! purple, what does the estate agent do for you? It sounds like they don't get to set the asking price with you?
I've never sold a house so I have no idea how that all works.
We have three bedrooms (including the master) upstairs. We have an ensuite bathroom and one more bath upstairs. Then we have a "bonus room" which is basically a second family room over our garage so it's not really upstairs, not really on the main floor but kind of between, almost like a loft?
The main floor is an open concept kitchen/dining/living room then a hallway with a bathroom and the front entry to one side, the door to the garage and the laundry to the other.
In the basement we have two more bedrooms (one is currently DH's "office" which means junk pile) and a bathroom as well as a rec room and some storage areas.
We have an attached garage and small back yard with a deck and gas bbq.
Once ours is live online I'll post a link on the private board just for you :-)
I promise not to be creepy and pinpoint your location I love looking at houses and home decor.
The online listing includes our address and a map, so it would take zero effort to pinpoint my location! That's why it's only going on the private board :-)
Like a lot of 70s houses in the UK, ours is pretty hideous from the outside, but we've made it lovely inside.
Post by sugarkissed on Mar 28, 2016 16:25:43 GMT -5
Do you own your home or are you renting/ leasing? We bought our home in 2011.
If you own a home are you in a starter home, a forever home, or something else? We are in more of a starter home. It's a half duplex, but it's decent sized and has everything that we need. I think we'll eventually move to something bigger and detached, but the housing market is insane here and with me being a SAHM right now it's just far too expensive.
I love hearing about everyone's house! purple, what does the estate agent do for you? It sounds like they don't get to set the asking price with you?
Estate agents are mainly responsible for advertising and selling houses. So the estate agent photographed our house, put together the paper schedule and the online listing, and is responsible for arranging viewings. It's up to us if we ask them to show interested parties round or do it ourselves. There is no additional charge. It's the surveyor who inspects the house and says how much it's worth, and that determines how much you can charge as a mortgage provider won't give a mortgage for any more than the surveyor says it's worth.
My understanding is that estate agents used to agree a price with the vendor, but the law changed less than six months after we bought this house. They may also have more to do with it in England and Wales, where the legal system is very different and house purchases seem to be more complicated and with more elements of risk, as far as I can gather.
We have already viewed a few houses. To view a house, you get in touch with the estate agent who is listing it and arrange a viewing with them, although it may be the current owner who actually shows you round.
In Scotland, you have to be in a position to buy a house before you can make an offer, and the offer you make includes the date you intend to move in. That's why it's so vital that we find somewhere perfect, quickly, once we sell. It's pretty common for people to have to put everything in storage and live in short term accommodation, but a) the costs mount up quickly, and b) the thought of doing that with a baby makes me feel slightly queasy.
There are obviously legal transactions that need to take place when you sell or buy, and for that you need a solicitor. (I know the legal system in the US is different from the Scottish legal system and from the England and Wales legal system. A solicitor is one of two main types of lawyer. The other main kind is a barrister. Now I will look like an idiot as everyone goes, " Duh. Obviously we have solicitors and barristers too.") It's important not to use the same solicitor for selling and for buying because of conflict of interest. For this reason, many solicitors in Scotland also act as estate agents. We've chosen to go with a dedicated estate agent because they are cheaper than paying for a solicitor, and we have our own solicitor who charges us less than the going rate because we used to be next door neighbours.
Horrendously long again, sorry! It's almost eleven o'clock so I'll answer any more questions in the morning.
It's 100% a starter home. We did a lot of upgrades when we moved in (ripped up carpet and refinished hardwood floors, redid the kitchen), but there's still a lot more to do. We plan on moving slightly closer to where H works and in a much better school district after he gets tenure, so sometime in 2017-2018. We have three bedrooms that's more like two since we have a cape cod, and 1.5 baths (we have a shower and toilet in the basement). Ideally we'd like 4 bedrooms and 2 baths, but I don't think we're going to find that in a price range we'd be comfortable with (which all depends on if I have a full time job or not).
We own our home which we purchased in 2012. It's a transition home because we've already had a starter. 3 bedrooms, 2 baths, 2 car garage, unfinished basement, single level with gorgeous vaulted ceilings. I think we have like 1/8 acre. We want to move closer to work and get more space. I love my home but know it won't work with older kids.
3. We thought with a major renovation this would be our forever home but DS1'S mobility means it's not. It's a big old beach house split over 4 levels - so lots and lots of stairs. We love the location so we'll stay nearby but we need a house in which DS1 can have more freedom and independence. We are very actively househunting right now but because we're heading in to Winter and because Sydney's inflated housing prices are threatening to drop, there's not much on the market.
Interesting reading about how real estate works elsewhere. Here, you have a seller's agent who advertises and shows the homes. There are buyer's agents but in general they only get involved towards the end of the process, e.g. to bid on your behalf at auction or to negotiate on price. House showings in Sydney are generally scheduled Wednesday and Saturday "open houses" even for very prestigious homes. For the seller this means you get all the neighbours stickybeaking in your home. For the buyer, it means you spend Saturdays in the car rushing from one open house to the next.
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