I’m about to be stepping into the real estate market so just curious, if you can jump on a Time Machine and talk to yourself before you bought (or rented) a home, what would you have told yourself? What would you have done differently? What should you have looked out for?
I’m not that deep in the market but at face value… my current takeaway from what I’m seeing is “Everything always sucks more than it’d seem at first glance, you won’t get away with everything you hoped for, and that’s ok.”
Just make sure you get a fixed interest rate. You don’t want that bad boy ballooning on you down the road.
I’ve got a few. Here are my three most important:
a) The adage of 'you can change everything except the location; is 100% true. I’ve owned a button-cute house in a shitty location (claustrophobic, water drainage issues, food desert), and I’ve owned a severely-outdated house in a spectacular location (low traffic, great yard, no water drainage issue, access to amenities). Location matters more than you realize. How is the school district, regardless of if you want kids? What is the relationship to water and flooding? How far away is the house from the road, and how busy is the road?
b) However, renovations cost way more money than you think and take way longer than you think. If you’re buying a house and you find yourself saying “I would love this house once I do A,B,C” make sure you can picture yourself tolerating the house for at least 3 years AS-IS. Note that this does not apply if you’re loaded, but I am only now getting cabinets in an old farmhouse. The first 2 and a half years our countertops were 6ft folding tables.
c) I don’t regret buying. In fact, buying a house when I did will go down as one of the luckiest decisions I ever made. However, that pithy response of “renting means your monthly payment is the most you’ll ever pay; buying means the mortgage is the least you’ll ever pay” is 100% true. Most folks will need to stretch to get into a home right now with the affordability crisis, but be careful of pushing yourself too far. The property assessment will raise your escrow, which will raise your bill. Random shit will break in the middle of the night and take a $750 chunk out of your monthly budget that you didn’t expect.
I’m in my first house now with real privacy and now that I have it, I could never go back. Get some acreage with trees! If that’s not your thing, a back yard with some serious privacy at least! So great to go outside and not have neighbors spying on you.
