settling??

first of all, hi to all the LIF ladies...this is my first post on here coming over from LIW.

so i'm just wondering how much most people are willing to settle when it comes to finding the right home. DH and i were completely against a 2 BR but after soooo many open houses at 3 & 4 BR houses that we didn't like, we fell in love this weekend w a 2 BR!! i'm kind of bummed b/c i love everything else about the house...we could always expand and make it a 3 BR...or by the time we need it to be who knows, maybe we'll be ready to move on and find a new house...but why can't it just be a 3 BR now?!?! sigh...

i'm just kind of curious, what are your deal-breakers? how much are you willing to settle? and...has anyone had a situation like this, w an aspect of a home you thought you would absolutely not be willing to deal with, but then ended up loving a house w that anyway?

sigh...home shopping is making me crazy!!

Re: settling??

settling on the location, # of bedrooms and bathrooms was not an option.

You usually only get 80% of what you're looking for anyway but those were not negotiable.

If you think you can expand on the house and have the money to do so, then a 2 bedroom is ok. I know that after we bought the house we would have very little money to do big improvements or sink big cash into expansion.

We weren't prepared to over leverage ourselves so we bought with enough bedrooms and bathrooms.

You are going to be in this house for a while so make sure the house can grow with you.

Good luck.

Re: settling??

What is it that you like about the 2bdrm and could you apply it to the 3 or 4 bdrm houses?

ETA: I can't really answer the question about settling. We bought the first and only house we looked at (in-person anyway, we did a lot of research on FSBO and MLS) at a time when we weren't looking. It really fell into our laps.

Message edited 5/18/2009 12:03:31 PM.

Re: settling??

I think it's very hard to find EVERYTHING you are looking for ideally.

I think you need to figure out what you will NOT compromise on. (For us, it was having at least 3 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, a good neighborhood,and a garage OR a basement).

We ended up without a basement- but with a garage and everything else we wanted.

To this day I am sad we don't have a basement- as you just can't beat it for storage...but we had to compromise somewhere...

Re: settling??

we are trying not to settle its a huge investment so i rather spend more time trying to find the best place for us....

there are a lot of things i want which is making it hard to find the right house though

we found 1 but dont think we can get it anymore, its a short sale and there are alot of issues

Re: settling??

we wanted a 3 bedroom house we put an offer on a two bedroom but has a unfinished attic that could be a third bedroom easily but hardly any kitchen so we would still have to bump out so that is how we kinda settled on it.

the other house has four bedrooms but taxes are high but at least we wouldn't have to expand it eventually.

Both are in our location area and honestly that is key to us because SD is good (no kids yet but the neighborhood is great) close to our families and near shopping so we can walk to do things instead of getting in a car.

Re: settling??

We weren't willing to settle on location. We were only looking in 2 towns and were limited into what we could realistically afford. We saw a few houses and then found ours. The thing that drew me to it, although it needed work, was the location and the fact it had 2 full baths and we could easily expand it sometime in the future.

Re: settling??

it sounds like i'm not alone w having to settle. we just don't have the money to buy a house that has everything we want in nassau...but the most important thing to us is being near our families...so we've come to realize location is #1 on the list.

the thing about the 2BR we saw that is different from all the others we've seen is that we both got that "i see myself living here" feeling. neither of us has gotten that anywhere else...there were a few houses we really liked and could consider buying and imagined where we would put furniture, but i have never gotten that feeling before. when i stood in the kitchen i felt like it should be my kitchen...it's not even the nicest kitchen we've seen, just something about the house was very US.

i don't know, i guess we'll have to think about it some more...thanks for the input and for sharing!!

Message edited 5/18/2009 9:27:38 PM.

Re: settling??

when i was by myself, (and my dog which i wouldn't get rid of so renting was out of the question) i bought a 1 bedroom bunglaow on the water in lindenhurst.
i had a great life there, met my husband there.

i bought for 150,000.00 sold in the heat of the market for 222,000.00

it worked out for me, it wasn't settling for me either, remember, i was by myself.

i outgrew it when DH moved in.

I cound't afford a 2 bedroom or a 3 bedroom by myself.

if the market turns around if / when you want to sell, you could stand to make money, but you never know....

Message edited 5/19/2009 8:02:35 AM.

Re: settling??

I personally would not settle on the number of bedrooms unless I had the money to add on to the house. i was willing to settle on layout, room sizes etc.

Re: settling??

Re: settling??

Keep looking. You will find what you're looking for.

Re: settling??

I would keep looking. DH and I said we want a house that we didn't NEED to do anything to if we didn't want to. We needed 3 bedrooms...we want to dormer eventually but it wasn't a necessity..just a want.

It's a huge nut to shell out to add a bedroom and you never know where life will take you. My friend settled on a 2 bedroom house. They have a one year old daughter and got pregnant again without trying and now....they are short a bedroom!!!

Good luck whatever you decide.

Re: settling??

i hear what everyone is saying and i really appreciate the advice...but i got that feeling from this house...like that feeling when you find your wedding dress...the "this is the one" feeling. i could just see us living there. i never had that before in any house we've seen, and we've been looking at houses for over 2 years!

sigh...# BR's is a big deal though. i guess we'll continue looking, i'm just worried we won't find something we both feel like that about again.

Re: settling??

My main thing was that I didn't want a house where I'd HAVE to move once we started a family. You can always say well we can move, or we can expand, but you really don't know what your situation will be at that time. I definitely compromised on some other things for the extra space, though I wouldn't say I settled.

Re: settling??

Re: settling??

My deal breakers were: undesirable school district (we wanted something small), too far from friends/family (most of our near and dear live in Western Suffolk), busy street (we have 2 children), no finished basement AND no garage (we could live without one - but not without both), no backyard (again with the kids), less than 2 full bathrooms and a pool would have made us walk away because neither of us wanted to deal with the hassle of the maintenance, upkeep, security and making sure our kids were never outside for even 5 minutes without us.

So.. I was kinda picky. But I really refused to settle.. and suddenly I found the house I am in now. And it isn't EVERYTHING I had hoped for (kitchen needs upgrading, the basement is finished but not polished, there are only 2 bedrooms on the top floor and one of the bedrooms on the main floor is super petite. The property is way more narrow than I like and the deck is in disrepair. But I got that feeling and I just KNEW. I never once felt like I was settling!

Good Luck!

Message edited 5/20/2009 2:15:31 AM.