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Mrs213
????????
Member since 2/09 18986 total posts
Name:
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Re: Starter home or Forever home?
Our starter home happens to be our forever home. If the house has enough room for us to grow when and if we have babies then that's good enough for me. My only advice is don't buy something that's too small...
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Posted 5/19/10 10:35 PM  |
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Long Island Weddings
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Goobster
:)
Member since 5/07 27557 total posts
Name:
:)
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Re: Starter home or Forever home?
I would buy with the potential for forever but keeping in mind needs change as time goes on.
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| Posted 5/20/10 12:08 AM |
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Grill
LIF Adult
Member since 4/09 994 total posts
Name:
J
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Re: Starter home or Forever home?
I didn't read all the other posts. However, I am a new mom and was faced with a similar situation. I had a great career that I worked hard to achieve. DH and I made a good bit of money together and we planned to keep it rolling in after the baby was born. I was convinced that I could have, and wanted both a career and a rewarding parenting role.The day my water broke, I was certain that I was going back to work after my FMLA. WELL...nothing could have prepared me for the intensity of love and attachment I felt towards my new son. It was not an option for me to leave him when he was only 3 months old to go back to work. My mother was even going to watch him...but that wasn't good enough for me. He was MY child and he needed me, and I him. DH and I almost bought our forever home a year before getting pregnant. It would have required 2 salaries for sure. I honestly would be in a serious state of depression if I was forced to go back to work to maintain a house payment. If you can give yourself the option of living off of one salary..to me, that is worth all the gold in the world. A house, even a dream home, is nothing to you if you can't live the life you want to in there. No amount of possessions can ever equal my joy over being home to nurture and raise my child. I live in a small 1 bedroom house now and we are moving to a small 3 bedroom cape. It's not by any means the ideal home for us. But we can afford it on one salary and I can choose to stay at home with my child or go back to work (which would give us a great lifestyle since we wouldn't even need the money). Also, if/when I choose to go back to work, we will put an addition on the house and turn it into our 'forever' home. It's just not that season in my life right now and I'm completely o.k. making this sacrifice. So, moral of my story.... I would really encourage you to do whatever you can to afford yourself the CHOICE of having to work or not...you never, ever know how you are going to feel post partum. And, being forced to go against your instincts may be an agonzing truth for you. Good Luck with your decision.
Message edited 5/20/2010 8:31:25 AM.
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| Posted 5/20/10 8:24 AM |
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Re: Starter home or Forever home?
Posted by Grill
I didn't read all the other posts. However, I am a new mom and was faced with a similar situation. I had a great career that I worked hard to achieve. DH and I made a good bit of money together and we planned to keep it rolling in after the baby was born. I was convinced that I could have, and wanted both a career and a rewarding parenting role.The day my water broke, I was certain that I was going back to work after my FMLA. WELL...nothing could have prepared me for the intensity of love and attachment I felt towards my new son. It was not an option for me to leave him when he was only 3 months old to go back to work. My mother was even going to watch him...but that wasn't good enough for me. He was MY child and he needed me, and I him. DH and I almost bought our forever home a year before getting pregnant. It would have required 2 salaries for sure. I honestly would be in a serious state of depression if I was forced to go back to work to maintain a house payment. If you can give yourself the option of living off of one salary..to me, that is worth all the gold in the world. A house, even a dream home, is nothing to you if you can't live the life you want to in there. No amount of possessions can ever equal my joy over being home to nurture and raise my child. I live in a small 1 bedroom house now and we are moving to a small 3 bedroom cape. It's not by any means the ideal home for us. But we can afford it on one salary and I can choose to stay at home with my child or go back to work (which would give us a great lifestyle since we wouldn't even need the money). Also, if/when I choose to go back to work, we will put an addition on the house and turn it into our 'forever' home. It's just not that season in my life right now and I'm completely o.k. making this sacrifice. So, moral of my story.... I would really encourage you to do whatever you can to afford yourself the CHOICE of having to work or not...you never, ever know how you are going to feel post partum. And, being forced to go against your instincts may be an agonzing truth for you. Good Luck with your decision.
I will say one thing, I did have a paradigm shift from your post.
My situation was a little different. My wife didn't want to go back to work, but she also did not want to give up her career. So we went the nanny route and it work out pretty well for us.
This post brought out many thoughts and it opened up may mind to realize, it is not all about the money. It's about a life style each of us choose.
Another question I will include when I talk with my buyers.
Thank you
Arthur
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| Posted 5/20/10 8:58 AM |
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2BEANS
wow time is going fast.
Member since 9/07 16106 total posts
Name:
Tina
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Re: Starter home or Forever home?
depends on what I find. When dh and I were looking ideally we wanted forever home.. but not realisitic. Things change like neighborhoods, school districts etc.. so we are trying to find a home that meets our needs and wants the most, but most of all were wanted that feeling when we found it. If we didnt get the feeling we walked away.
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| Posted 5/20/10 9:01 AM |
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ARIELSMOM
Love my Babes
Member since 8/05 5889 total posts
Name:
MEREDITH
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Re: Starter home or Forever home?
we got a started home 4 years ago. we only had one child then. After the first year we decide to have another and 10 months later got another suprise! we outgrew our house FAST!! much faster than i ever thought. Its a 3bdrm 1ba undormered cape. within the next 3 years we will expand or move- id like to move to a nicer block.
I prefer the starter, after being a homeowner i know different things to look for when house hunting again- thinks i didnt know before that will make my life easier in my forever home. The last thing i would want is to get into my forever home and say i wish this was different.
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| Posted 5/20/10 12:50 PM |
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Nik211
my little monkey<3
Member since 5/08 3303 total posts
Name:
Nik
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Re: Starter home or Forever home?
Posted by ARIELSMOM
we got a started home 4 years ago. we only had one child then. After the first year we decide to have another and 10 months later got another suprise! we outgrew our house FAST!! much faster than i ever thought. Its a 3bdrm 1ba undormered cape. within the next 3 years we will expand or move- id like to move to a nicer block.
I prefer the starter, after being a homeowner i know different things to look for when house hunting again- thinks i didnt know before that will make my life easier in my forever home. The last thing i would want is to get into my forever home and say i wish this was different.
you brought up a good point about knowing what you'll want next house...you think you know what you want/need in a place but until you live somewhere for awhile you may not really know...so very good point!
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| Posted 5/20/10 1:08 PM |
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CrankyPants
I'm cranky
Member since 7/06 18178 total posts
Name:
Mama Cranky
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Re: Starter home or Forever home?
A lot of people buy a starter home and then can't trade up when they want.
Because of that I would buy a home that you can see yourself living in for a while, with a growing family (if you plan to have kids), etc. I know a few people that bought a small home thinking they could trade up in a few years and they are stuck.
I'm not saying stretch yourselves, but get a realistic idea of what you can comfortably afford with whatever cuts you willing to make and then find the best house (best location, layout, size for your dollar) that fits.
Message edited 5/20/2010 2:26:10 PM.
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| Posted 5/20/10 2:11 PM |
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ave1024
I Took The Wrong Road
Member since 12/07 6153 total posts
Name:
That Led To The Wrong Tendencies
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Re: Starter home or Forever home?
Posted by bdmom
Posted by bicosi
Posted by EXIT Realty Achieve
Size is number 2: Buy the biggest house you can afford eating pasta for a year. You will out grow a smaller house fast and extensions are expensive
Good Luck,
Arthur
I'm sorry, but I totally disagree with this.
Especially in this economy, that's the last thing someone should be doing. You don't want to be house poor.
Arthur, Suze Orman would give A Suze Smackdown for giving this advice! 
Arthur brings up some good points actually.
Now I am not saying that if you were looking at a 400k starter, to buy a 600k forever home.
But if the forever home is only say 50k more than the starter, you might want to push for the forever home.
Interest rates are CRAZY LOW right now. The rate sheet I got from my broker today was at an all-time low. 4.65% zero points 20% down 
It costs money to move. If you buy the 400k starter and then decide to upgrade to the 450k forever home, you have a ton of sunk costs. You lose the mortgage tax and all 800 fees paid on the first home. You pay 4% commission to sell your first home. You pay the transfer tax to sell your first home. You pay the bank attorney once and your attorney TWICE when you move. Add up all those costs and you could be looking at 30-40k of lost money.
Then what if interests rates when you buy the second house are up to say 5.5%. Still low, but no where near the 4.65% you can get today. Add up how much extra you pay over the 30 year life of your loan between those rates and you will go .
Yes it's a tough economy. But if you feel that you are actually somewhat financially strong right now, buy something decent. Don't over-extend. But don't sell yourself cheap either.
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| Posted 5/20/10 3:18 PM |
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ave1024
I Took The Wrong Road
Member since 12/07 6153 total posts
Name:
That Led To The Wrong Tendencies
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Re: Starter home or Forever home?
Posted by clwp
Most banks want you selling your current home before they'll allow you to buy the new one in order to give you the new loan. We are in this dilemma now... if we sell w/o a new house we have no place to live, but if we don't sell we can't buy. We have an offer on a house, but our current house is holding it up and we have been warned that we can lose the offer. We have no choice though. It's so stressful. Basically, I can't go into contract on the new one until I'm in contract on the one I'm already in. I have 2 kids and 4 cats... who's going to take all of us in while we search for a home?
If you have good credit and strong assets, many banks will lend up to 50% DTI ratio.
If I wanted, I didn't have to have my previous house "sold" before I found a new house. I was able to carry both my old house, and a potential new house at the same time because I was able to show the income for it, 20% downpayment for the new house without needing the equity in my old house, and 8 months of what the bank called a "hardship fund" or in other words an emergency fund.
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| Posted 5/20/10 3:22 PM |
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Melmel821
Love being a mom!
Member since 5/08 2776 total posts
Name:
Melanie
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Re: Starter home or Forever home?
If you buy the more expensive forever home keep in mind that now you need childcare and the money for cars and fun money. Being house poor is no fun either.
ETA: with the started un dormered cape, when you go back to work full time you may be able to dormer the roof. My parents did this and raise the roof to created a full upstairs.
Message edited 5/20/2010 4:36:56 PM.
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| Posted 5/20/10 4:35 PM |
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Erica
LIF Adult
Member since 5/05 11767 total posts
Name:
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Re: Starter home or Forever home?
selling stinks, but DH and I are not forever house people.
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| Posted 5/21/10 5:54 PM |
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Janice
Sweet Jessie Quinn
Member since 5/05 27567 total posts
Name:
Janice
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Re: Starter home or Forever home?
we bought a who the hell knows home.
brand new, 140k townhouse, appraised at over 180k.
great schools, safe neighborhood, in an area without any apts.
wanted something we could rent out if we chose to go. dh says this isn't forever. i said it might be if we want a 2nd home in the mountains.
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| Posted 5/21/10 6:10 PM |
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Chatham-Chick
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Member since 5/05 10312 total posts
Name:
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Re: Starter home or Forever home?
We purchased a starter home with the potential for it to be a forever home. We were fortunate in that we purchased a house in a neighborhood where people in the area upgrade to for their forever home. I know of at least 6 neighbors that lived within our school district (small district too) and when they were able to upgrade, they moved into our neighborhood.
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| Posted 5/21/10 8:10 PM |
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Goldi0218
My miracles!
Member since 12/05 23902 total posts
Name:
Leslie
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Re: Starter home or Forever home?
At our age, I think our first home will be our forever home.
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| Posted 5/21/10 10:40 PM |
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