House decisions

[silverbullet555]

Last time I bought a house was the peak of the last market. Yeah me! Now we’re going to buy again at the peak of this market. I’m only a little worried about the housing market coming down hard, but it could happen.

Anyway, running three scenarios and thought I would hear from some that might have experience in the arena.

Our goal is to be on about an acre, on the edge of town, with room for the kids to play. Wife wants neighbors in the vicinity and not too far from town. I want to be in BFE with no neighbors, but I like my wife so we will be close enough to keep her happy. She grew up in Bay Area and I grew up rural so we come from two different backgrounds.

We have 2 kids, lots of stuff, a boat, 3 cars and many hobbies. Storage is often a challenge. Currently, we are in a 2000 sq ft house and have a 10x40ish foot storage unit for the boat and some stuff. The boat takes up 30’ of it. But, we have a lot of stuff.

Option 1: Buy subdivision home in a decent neighborhood, keep the storage unit and deal with subdivision life. Take money that isn’t spent on larger mortgage and save it to buy a piece of land somewhere to perhaps build a cabin one day. We’d be in a house around 2500 sq ft and maybe be a able to build a shed in the back to be a workshop, but not what I envision.

Option 2: 1.3 acre property with 15 year old 2300 sq ft house. Half is sloped and terraced and half is flat. It is on the east side of a hill giving it protection form our normal breezes. In a subdivision but CCR allow for livestock. 2 car garage and oversized 1 car shop (won’t fit the boat without expanding it). Pasture on the property which could be used or could be room for a 1000 ft^2 shop in 5 years or so. In the meantime, the shop would become a workshop for me and storehouse for hunting and outdoor gear.

New septic system with second tank, supposedly to bring it up to current code with 5 bedrooms. At the end of a court on a cul de sac. Really the only house on the cul de sac. Needs exterior paint, interior paint and the shop needs some of the paneling replaced and to have gutters to prevent future water issue. Will need to fence the back yard to make wife feel comfortable with letting the kid run wild back there.

Option 3: 2.25 acre property with 40 year old house that has been impeccably maintained. It is in really good shape. Challenge here is that entire finished basement is one room making it great for an office for me, but useless in it’s current format as a bedroom. Not sure what it would take to split it into 2 rooms and finish them both as bedrooms. Main floor would be pretty small for us and could be tough with 2 kids running around. I would estimate the top floor at 1200 sq ft and bottom floor at 800. The lot is flat so no protection from the breeze, but the entire lot is useable. Currently there are cattle grazing on about 1.5 acres. The garage is really a 1.5 car garage which will present challenges. When we build a shop, it would mitigate this, but that is further out. Current shop could be used for storage in the meantime.

There is a shop on the property, but it is really a wood shop. Can’t drive a car into it and not sure how it would hold up to a really heavy weight being stored in there. I could work on stuff and reload, but heavy work isn’t going to happen. Has an RV awning thing that I think I could buy sides for enclosing it so the boat could go in there. Would need to bury a pipe for the irrigation canal as my wife has a fear of the kids drowning in the canal (it happens from time to time here) and add 200 feet of fencing. The nice thing is the lot can be split in two and a house could be built in the field behind the current house. Not sure we will ever want to embark on that. But, if we did we could rent out the front house or just sell off that property and recoup a bunch of money

Option 2 and 3 are the same price. However, option 3 has lower taxes and no HOA saving about $3000 per year total. Eventually the government will assess option 3 at a higher level.

Neither property is going to allow shooting and neither one has hunting opportunity. The properties are less than 2 miles apart.

I like the house on option 2 and the small neighborhood. I like the protection from the wind and the fact that I would have turn key place to do automotive or shop work. Could put heavy stuff in there and not worry about the floor. We might be able to expand shop back another 5 feet to put boat in. But, it needs some TLC to start and the current owners think their house is worth more than the market is bearing.

I like the space in option 3 and the potential to split the land later though I’m not sure we ever would do that. The outbuildings are really nice and the street it is on has all larger lots. It’s in much better shape, but it is older. Furnace, a/c and carpet are new. Unknown about the roof.

Any thoughts on situation based on experience?

PS - I have to keep my wife happy too.

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[lak2004]

Option 3, no HOA. I hate people telling me what I can and can't do on a piece of property I own. My 2 cents

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[silverbullet555]

Option 3, no HOA. I hate people telling me what I can and can't do on a piece of property I own. My 2 cents

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I hear you. I do have to say the HOA in the neighborhood is pretty minimal. It’s not as restrictive as typical HOA. Not overly concerned about it, but something to consider.

In the small development there are shops that match the house and steel shops. Some are one story, some look to be two story. Fences vary from house to house as well. And, many of the houses are of different styles.

I’ll be curious what the wife says tomorrow when we both go to the house. The $3000 per year savings to buy option 3 might be enough for her to jump on that band wagon.


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[ohoopee]

I would check taxes and insurance on each if cost of ownership is a consideration. Also, financing on property with acreage may be different.

 

[Scrappy]

I only have one suggestion and that is get rid of the boat. You make that thing sound like a boat anchor around your neck.

 

[silverbullet555]

I would check taxes and insurance on each if cost of ownership is a consideration. Also, financing on property with acreage may be different.

It was interesting to see the taxes being lower on the larger property. Both option 2 and 3 are in the same county. It looks to mostly be a function of appraised value which may not stick as the county evaluates values every year. I will check with the insurance company.

Cost of ownership is always a consideration, but not the driving factor.

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[silverbullet555]

I only have one suggestion and that is get rid of the boat. You make that thing sound like a boat anchor around your neck.

Yeah no! It is part of our family time together. It's and enjoyable thing we do. That being said, if I'm going to buy acreage, a goal is to be able to have enclosed storage for the boat, a ship to work on vehicles, a place to work on other stuff, etc. So yeah, an extra building the accommodates those things is important. There are many ways to accomplish that and some are more expensive than others.

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[KurtR]

Depends what state is this in. Option 3 seems only one I would consider as hoa are completely unacceptable to me.

 

[kparrott]

I agree with everyone saying option 3 because of the HOA. And I don’t care how little or much the HOA does, the fact that there is one is a no for me.


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[Newtosavage]

So I've lived in both main scenarios you describe in the past 18 years. We had a house on the edge of town with 2.5 ac. but on city water, paved streets, etc. That was pretty great. 10 years ago we moved into town in a subdivision because we had kids in all three of the city schools and the drive in and out of town sometimes 2-3 times/day was killing us. When we moved into town, the kids could walk to school and when they had practice or events, we could go home. When we lived outside of town, by the time we went home it was time to turn around and go pick them up again. So it's much more convenient to live in town if you have kids in school.

Having said that, the kids all remember the places we lived outside of town, and those are great memories for them.

The subdivision life can be great and can also suck. Just depends on how good your neighbors are. For 9 of the past 10 years, we have been surrounded by retirees and it was actually quieter in town than it was at either place we lived outside of town Lately a younger couple with dogs moved in and we get to enjoy them screaming at one another in the back yard that backs up to ours, and their dogs keep me up at night with their barking.

The biggest issue I had with living out of town was people seemed to have no respect for anyone else's property (see HOA comment above). So all afternoon and all weekend long it was gunshots, dogs barking, and endless freaking ATV's and UTV's running around on homemade dirt tracks. No thanks. I can't stand that constant noise. So when we move out of town again, there either WILL be HOA restrictions on those things, or we will have to own enough property that we don't have to listen to the constant drone of 2-stroke mufflers and people "exercising their 2nd Amendment rights" as one neighbor always put it. LOL

Regarding the boat, my kids always loved the fact that we had a boat. But when I got kayaks, they liked those even more, we used them more, and they cost a lot less with a lot fewer headaches.

One final thought from someone who is a recent empty-nester w/ 3 kids. Cut down on the "stuff" you have and focus on quality instead of quantity. They won't remember all that stuff. They will remember the time you spent with them doing interesting things in interesting places. You probably know that however.

Best of luck!

 

[Buckman]

I've never understood moving to the country and putting up fences? I thought that was the point to moving to wide open spaces? when i moved to the country my then wife wanted curtains on all the windows, hell no . 20 years later still no curtains, no wife either life is good!!!.

 

[silverbullet555]

Depends what state is this in. Option 3 seems only one I would consider as hoa are completely unacceptable to me.

Idaho.HOA can take on lots of different forms.

I agree with everyone saying option 3 because of the HOA. And I don’t care how little or much the HOA does, the fact that there is one is a no for me.


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Don't get me wrong. I prefer no HOA, but depending on the HOA it may be acceptable. I read any HOA we consider and have eliminated some builders specifically because of theirs. Others, I am skeptical about and value their properties assuming I cant do the things I want like build a shop.

So I've lived in both main scenarios you describe in the past 18 years. We had a house on the edge of town with 2.5 ac. but on city water, paved streets, etc. That was pretty great. 10 years ago we moved into town in a subdivision because we had kids in all three of the city schools and the drive in and out of town sometimes 2-3 times/day was killing us. When we moved into town, the kids could walk to school and when they had practice or events, we could go home. When we lived outside of town, by the time we went home it was time to turn around and go pick them up again. So it's much more convenient to live in town if you have kids in school.

Having said that, the kids all remember the places we lived outside of town, and those are great memories for them.

The subdivision life can be great and can also suck. Just depends on how good your neighbors are. For 9 of the past 10 years, we have been surrounded by retirees and it was actually quieter in town than it was at either place we lived outside of town Lately a younger couple with dogs moved in and we get to enjoy them screaming at one another in the back yard that backs up to ours, and their dogs keep me up at night with their barking.

The biggest issue I had with living out of town was people seemed to have no respect for anyone else's property (see HOA comment above). So all afternoon and all weekend long it was gunshots, dogs barking, and endless freaking ATV's and UTV's running around on homemade dirt tracks. No thanks. I can't stand that constant noise. So when we move out of town again, there either WILL be HOA restrictions on those things, or we will have to own enough property that we don't have to listen to the constant drone of 2-stroke mufflers and people "exercising their 2nd Amendment rights" as one neighbor always put it. LOL

Regarding the boat, my kids always loved the fact that we had a boat. But when I got kayaks, they liked those even more, we used them more, and they cost a lot less with a lot fewer headaches.

One final thought from someone who is a recent empty-nester w/ 3 kids. Cut down on the "stuff" you have and focus on quality instead of quantity. They won't remember all that stuff. They will remember the time you spent with them doing interesting things in interesting places. You probably know that however.

Best of luck!

Some good insight on both side of the fence and some pluses and minuses to each. I hadn't considered the noise of off road stuff.

As far as stuff. Its equipment to do things with the family. Hunting, fishing, camping, skiing, boating, etc. And tools to work on the vehicles, build things, etc. A meat grinder, grain grinder, smoker, crawdads traps, model rocket stuff, etc.. and a ton of ammo, literally.

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[silverbullet555]

I've never understood moving to the country and putting up fences? I thought that was the point to moving to wide open spaces? when i moved to the country my then wife wanted curtains on all the windows, hell no . 20 years later still no curtains, no wife either life is good!!!.

I prefer to keep my wife. It's about compromise. I wasn't a hunter when we met and married. I am now. We all change and adapting to each other is important. Wasn't able to keep up with my ex wife's multiple personalities so that one didn't last.

Getting out of town would be a win. If I have to build a split rail fence or put in an iron fence around part of the property, so be it. It will also keep dogs and chickens from getting run over. Lastly, we have canals criss crossing the landscape. Even growing up in the country in norcal we didn't have ccanals.kids do drown every year in them so it's a concern.

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[Newtosavage]

Yea, the neighbor at the last place we lived had a grandson that would get on his ATV as soon as he got off the school bus, and ride that thing around the granddad's property, and adjacent to our fence, literally all afternoon. Then on weekends he would ride all day. Not a thing we could do about it but move. It was literally that bad. I went over to talk to the grandpa about it one time, and that was all they needed to make sure it was worse. Even though I was very polite, once they knew it was annoying the neighbors, they made sure he rode right against our fenceline and the other neighbors's fenceline. Basically, that grandpa was one of the first homes built in that area, and he resented anyone else building near him even though we all had several acres around our houses. It only takes one like that to make everyone in the area miserable. And I didn't even mention his canon. Yes, a real, working, canon. It would shake the windows in our living room when he would set it off, without warning.

But these days, people move out of town to have a place to run their ATV's and shoot their guns. And like I said, I have often slept much better and had quieter time on my back porch in town than I did out of town.

I do miss the little barn/workshop I had out there though. That was so nice to have.

 

[Broomd]

...20 years later still no curtains, no wife either....

lol...why was that last part not unexpected!

 

[KurtR]

If you don’t go number 3 that sounds like a place my brother would like he lives in star now. Maybe pm if it’s any where near there and you buy that one.

 

[silverbullet555]

If you don’t go number 3 that sounds like a place my brother would like he lives in star now. Maybe pm if it’s any where near there and you buy that one.

Ok. I'll let u know.

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[Broomd]

Yea, the neighbor at the last place we lived had a grandson that would get on his ATV as soon as he got off the school bus, and ride that thing around the granddad's property, and adjacent to our fence, literally all afternoon. Then on weekends he would ride all day. Not a thing we could do about it but move. It was literally that bad. I went over to talk to the grandpa about it one time, and that was all they needed to make sure it was worse. Even though I was very polite, once they knew it was annoying the neighbors, they made sure he rode right against our fenceline and the other neighbors's fenceline. Basically, that grandpa was one of the first homes built in that area, and he resented anyone else building near him even though we all had several acres around our houses. It only takes one like that to make everyone in the area miserable. And I didn't even mention his canon. Yes, a real, working, canon. It would shake the windows in our living room when he would set it off, without warning...

Felt for you with this posting.
What is it about people that makes them such complete a-holes?
Sometimes moving on is the only answer to find meaningful peace and quiet, even then there are no guarantees.

 

[Buckman]

lol...why was that last part not unexpected!

The curtains didn't cause that, lack of proper choices caused that. Either way win win.

 

[Akwoodchuck]

Sounds to me like #2 is your huckleberry....you can always negotiate with owners to see if they will perform upgrades for full price offer....never hurts to ask. Energy efficiency and long-term value are my biggies....