When you bought your first house....

did you plan on buying a house to live there forever and bought a bigger house with everything? Or did you buy a smaller house just to get started knowing in about 5 years you would move?

Message edited 8/7/2008 7:46:02 PM.

Re: When you bought your first house....

we bought a townhouse knowing that we would only be there for a few years. we stayed 2 1/2 years. i'm not sure if the house we're in now is our forever house, but if it is i would be happy here

Re: When you bought your first house....

I dont mind staying here forever....if we move it has to be a house on the water

Re: When you bought your first house....

i bought thinking we'll be here for a long time. it's not huge, but it has the potential for growing (add a level). plus i never want to go through the homebuying process again.

Re: When you bought your first house....

We bought our forever house. Had I know I would want to be a SAHM I would have bought something a lot smaller.

Re: When you bought your first house....

We bought a townhouse knowing it would be our starter home. We got a great deal on it since it was a foreclosure and already have a ton of equity. We plan to be here for about 5 years and when we outgrow it we'll get a house.

Message edited 8/7/2008 9:30:13 PM.

Re: When you bought your first house....

Thanks everyone.
We are negotiating on a dump in Commack. A great neighborhood, but needs a lot of work. I guess we plan on spending 5-10 years in this house. But who knows!

Re: When you bought your first house....

Bought a starter house, had plans to move in 5-7 years. But the house had enough room and expansion potential if we couldnt afford to move.

We sold it 2 years later!

Re: When you bought your first house....

We bought a starter house, I guess.

It was a house with such potential in a great neighborhood. We could stay here forever, depending on how big our family will be. Our house was labeled a "handyman's special"...and oh boy was it! It was pretty much a dump and we have worked really hard to get it to be a great home.

...still renovating 3 yrs. later, but we are ok with that! We really love out house!

Re: When you bought your first house....

We plan on staying in our house forever but you never know!

Re: When you bought your first house....

In my eyes, its a starter home, unless we blew it out or up...guess we'll see.

Re: When you bought your first house....

We bought a house that we CAN stay in forever if we choose. I refused to buy a "starter" home because what if my circumstances change and I am here forever? Then what? So, we might stay here forever, or we might not. So far, I'm thinking we'll stay

Re: When you bought your first house....

We were kinda in a rush so I took the cheapest house I could get in the town I wanted (same town I grew up in) It needed A LOT of work but my dh is a contractor so I knew we would be ok. However I do not plan on living here forever. We've been here for 4yrs and we have already out grew it

Re: When you bought your first house....

We bought a house to grow into & definately a forever home. If we were to move, it would either be OOS or to the water (down the line though).

Re: When you bought your first house....

Its not a starter, but it was a dump. Its actually much bigger than we needed. I love my house but I often wish we would have picked something smaller.

Re: When you bought your first house....

i bought a house knowing we would either expand or move when we had the funds to do so.
It was a perfect size for our family

Re: When you bought your first house....

Originally we were looking at houses we could see ourselves in for 5-7 years. We ended up with a house that could be a forever house. I still hope we won't be there forever, but that's partially because I hope to move to a warmer climate someday.

Re: When you bought your first house....

I am not a "forever" type of person. We bought a co-op in Manhattan with room to grow. NYC living is very different... you get used to alot less space because the city is your front yard. Maybe we will move once we start a family, or maybe we will stay and buy a weekend home. I guess we'll see what happens... right now we are staying put

Re: When you bought your first house....

We bought a house, intending on upgrading to a bigger house in a few years. We wound up liking the neighborhood, and our neighbors, so we are upgrading the house we are in... almost the same thing.

Re: When you bought your first house....

We bought a bigger house that we plan to stay in. After going through this process once, I never want to have to do it again.

Re: When you bought your first house....

We bought the house we plan to stay in forever, the house is big enough for us and a few kids - but if we ever decide we need more space we have a large enough lot to expand.

Re: When you bought your first house....

We bought a house that can grow along with us as our family grows. We're hoping to stay there forever (unless it's more economical to move as opposed to expand).

Re: When you bought your first house....

our first house was a rancher on a decent peice of land, so we bought it with the intention of added a second floor on it one day.
it was a DUMP when we bought it, but we did some nice improvements to it in the 2 years we lived there.
BUT... then FIL ended up getting transferred and having to move to PA. their house was bigger and in a slightly nicer neighborhood... so we decided to buy their house from them instead of adding on to ours. the last time they really remodeled was in the late 80s, so that gives us a reason to do stuff to it to make it "ours".
so far, we're really happy here and i think this is our "forever" home!

Re: When you bought your first house....

We bought this house with the idea of it being a starter home. But the house is definitely big enough if we need to stay a lot longer. That is what I really wanted. I didn't want to worry about outgrowing it.

Re: When you bought your first house....