Not only have we sold our condo, but we have also bought a house that we will close on in a couple of months. While it may not be our dream house, it is an amazing family house and we are very excited. Several big factors went into us deciding this was our house.
Price
Price was probably the biggest factor in our search. There are two key things that were important to us when considering the price of our house. The first is that we wanted to be able to afford at least a 20% down payment. The second is that we wanted a mortgage we could afford on one income. One key thing to note is that we cannot afford the mortgage payments on only one income if we only put 20% down, which is why I’ll have another post soon about how we’re thinking of our down payment. However, our mortgage will be less than 2x both our incomes.
Size
We wanted a house that was not ‘too’ big, but that we could also see ourselves living in for at least 5-7 years. I think we’ve hit a happy medium, although with our kids as small as they are, it is hard to say. However, in the near term we will have plenty of room and I can also imagine this being our forever house.
Location Location Location
With two little kids one of the most important things for us when considering location was that it was in a neighborhood with a strong ‘neighborhood school’. We live in a city with a lot of magnet school options, but you are only guaranteed admission to your neighborhood school. It was hard to do a ton of research on schools because we do not know a lot of people with school aged children, we did the best we could and even went to a couple of information nights.
In addition to good schools, we also wanted a neighborhood that is walkable and without a terrible commute. We have lots of family in the area so we also wanted an area that would be easily accessible to everyone.
Features
We did not want to put a lot of work into the house we bought. This house has a great, updated, kitchen and has been well taken care of by the current owner. While we plan to do a lot of painting, and perhaps some work on one of the bathrooms, this house does not have a lot of deferred maintenance.
I found it really overwhelming to think in terms of buying a house we could live in forever. While I really hope we do not need to move again for a long time, thinking about this house only in terms of the foreseeable future helped to take a lot of pressure off the purchase.
I think that it’s really hard for something to be a dream house when you’ve already been through the process. That’s what I’m finding now – I’m not falling in love with anything like I did before.
I applaud you for doing a larger than 20% down payment to keep the mortgage payments affordable on only one income!
When I was about to accept my current job offer just before I graduated from college, I was freaking out about accepting a forever job. I couldn’t possibly imagine what forever looked like. (I still can’t and clearly you can’t either.) One of my friends told me to just think about it as in terms of the next two years and that made the decision a lot less scary. That sounds like exactly what you guys did with the house
I don’t know how small your kids are, but my parents moved house when I was in Kindergarten. They’re actually still there, even though my sibling and I have both gone to and graduated from college. Since the mortgage is paid off and it is a pretty good setup for my dad’s job, they’re still there. They’ve closed off the guest room (since both of our rooms are technically guest rooms) and the formal living and dining room. Our rooms were super small, but there was plenty of room in the rest of the house to wander around and be kids.
I love hearing that your rooms were small and that it worked out well for you as a kid.
Also happy to know I’m not the only one who gets paralyzed by long term thinking!
You really just need enough room for a desk, a twin-sized bed (unless maybe you have boy(s)…), and a dresser to store clothes. Homework can always be done at the kitchen or dining room table, while watching hockey games in the living or family room, or wherever else. Kids are creative!
I actually think that having separate, small rooms was better for me and my sibling growing up than having a large, shared room. Fewer kid fights, happier parents too
Man, that all sounds so very very sensible. Kudos to you! So many people decide that they deserve to stretch for more house than they can afford or buy too early.
“Sensible” makes me feel so old and boring. However, since it was said in the context of personal finances I’ll take it as a compliment.
People who aren’t sensible drive me crazy. Maybe that’s a side effect of being in one’s thirties. I prefer to think of it as “mature” as opposed to “ridiculous.”
(And there are a LOT of ridiculous pf bloggers who don’t understand why they can’t get out of debt when they keep buying things because they can’t tell wants from needs. But I *need* new carpet even though I have huge amounts of credit card, medical, and retirement loan debt. I *need* to buy a house even though I don’t have 20% down, have tons of debt, and can’t afford preschool. I *need* to complain about my spending and debt every single month and at the same time brag about my frivolous purchases… What N&M need to do is stop visiting those sites.)