Looking at various places has made me think of how we could look for a new house, something bigger, better suited to our lifestyles, more open, more full of amenities, different. We've seen a lot of interesting places, and as our budget would be bigger than Jackie's, presumably we would be looking at bigger and more interesting places.
Yes, there's a wee bit of new house jealousy there.
But, on the other hand, there's a lot of down sides to the whole adventure. Every place we've looked at has been a compromise in one way or another. Features vs. location vs. price vs. storage vs. layout vs. neighborhood vs. … it goes on and on. And that's assuming you can actually get one of the places you want — Jackie's experience with places being under contract even before she could get home or her real estate agent could run the comps have been endlessly frustrating.
And then there are all the frustrations and stress of the actual loan approval / purchase / insurance / utilities folderol to go through.
Not to mention packing, moving companies, storage, unloading, unpacking, and years of slowly fitting into the place, to make it home.
We have a great house. We could have something bigger, shinier, more modern, etc. — but the incremental cost of doing so, as well as the addition of a newer, bigger, almost certainly less-favorable mortgage than what we have at the moment, means it just doesn't make any sense. In fact, it makes the opposite of sense. And we have no compelling reason to do so, and every reason to adapt what we have — and to what we have — instead.
I think we'll stick with what we have, until such time as we have to move. Even if it's been fun to help, indirectly, someone else look for a place.
You have too many books to move.
Well, @Amanda, I suspect we would probably do a fair amount of culling of same — especially since anywhere we moved would not (start with) nearly as much bookshelf space. (Another good reason to [not] move.)
At this point in my life I'd be happy to have even a most modest house. It's not looking like that's going to happen anytime soon unless a long-lost aunt leaves me a ton of money or I win the lotto. So sick of living in apartments.
I'm OK with not moving for a while too. 6 times in 7 years is good for me.
When I grew up, we moved several times — modest moves in the same neighborhood (two rentals to an owned house), a move from the Bay Area to SoCal when I was entering 2nd Grade, and a move to Colorado (and then a move back) in grade 10. So one factor in any move for the sake of improving the house would be keeping Kay in her current school and cohort of friends.
Margie and I moved here to Colorado in 1995, and into our current house in 1996. Aside from occasional twinges of house envy (ooooh, what we could do with that house), there's really no compelling reason for us to go through that trauma again, though it would certainly encourage us to get rid of a lot of our crap. (Which, of course, we can do without moving, but are much less likely to.) As things presently stand, realistically, I don't see us moving until the stairs become an issue in our (distant) future.
We're starting the house hunt, hoping to move this summer. I hated trying to find an apartment, so I'm really not looking forward to this. Although my best friend's next door neighbors are selling their house, so if it's magically in our price range (they live in a really posh area) I think we're good to go.
+Les Jenkins -If you really REALLY want to move, talk to an agent and see what they can do for you. It is in their best interest to sell you a house and if they can, they will. While that sounds like a bad idea, it doesn't have to be. When we bought our house last year, we came up short on our escrow monies bc at the last minute (10days before closing) we found out we needed flood insurance. All our resources were completely tapped…then our Realtor gave us money (somehow through the paperwork) AND the mortgage broker gave us money (again through paperwork…had a bit of a higher interest rate to lower the payment, etc etc) and we were able to make the payment after all.
I have heard that low/0 down payments are coming back. If you have decent credit and income, you should be able to do it. But you will never know until you actually try. We didn't think we would be able to buy either…and we had a lot of help…but we did.
+Dave Hill – I don't blame you for dealing with what you have! Our house was a compromise as well. I love my house, but the closet space is almost non-existent downstairs. We make due and are planning on building on (or IN) for more storage space in the future. I told DH that when we buy a house, it isn't going to be any of this "starter house" shit. Where we move is where we stay. I am NOT doing this again! LOL
+Sandy L. We tried that approach last year. The Realtor was pretty sure she could arrange a deal with a seller to have the downpayment be part of the agreed selling price (give them closer to what they're asking and use that as the down payment). Alas, our credit union won't even speak to us about a mortgage unless we have 5% set aside ourselves and while the mortgage company the realtor pointed us to did pre-approve us for up to 200K, they also wanted us to be able to provide at least 3% down and not have it be part of the selling agreement.
Our credit is actually pretty good, but apparently no one is in the mood for shenanigans with how things like the down payment are acquired. At least not anyone we've talked to. We don't have any family members in a position that they could help us out. We're trying to save up the money ourselves, but then we've been trying that for the past 12 years of our marriage and between various unemployments and just living paycheck to paycheck it's always ended up evaporating. The rate things are going I don't think I'm ever going to end up in a house unless I get stupid lucky and win a lottery or something.
There's a nice split-level in my neighborhood that's been on the market for a few months (probably because the asking price is about 15% over the county-assessed value). Our neighborhood is currently skewed toward empty nesters, so I think it'll be turning over in the next few years since we're adjacent to elementary and high schools. I don't expect to ever be a homeowner myself, but right now my measure of success is getting the kiddo to be prepared for college.
Both house-hunting and moving have their good and bad points, for children and adults. But the thing I think is really bad for anyone is moving too often. I once moved three times in a year, and it was a royal PITA. The only thing that made it remotely bearable was that I didn’t own much stuff back then. Now, moving that frequently would be much more painful.
On another note, Dave, you’ve lived in your house for roughly 17 years? I can’t even imagine being in one house for that long. The longest I’ve ever lived in one house in my life is 7 years.
It’s certainly the longest I’ve ever lived in one place, @DaveN. Previously it was 3, 3, 1, 8, <1, 7, 3, 6, 1 (and round up overall a year).
That Kay has lived in one place all her life by the time she eventually heads off to college will have an effect (plus/minus) on her, I have no doubt.
+Les Jenkins – that bites. I say just keep trying. Worst case is you just waste time. Eventually you will get lucky!