Housing preferences

[Crimson2v]

We are thinking of selling our house again, our two kids are growing and to my wife and I it feels a little cramped. The house we have now is 1600 square ft and is sitting on a .15 lot. So you can imagine there isn’t much room to play outside or spread out inside.

We are torn between getting a house in another neighborhood or getting a house that is on a bigger piece of land. I can’t stand dealing with the hoa, but we haven’t been in a house that wasn’t in a hoa community.

The one house I found is sitting on nearly 2 acres of land, which sits right off the road. It’s set back pretty far from the road. The other is a new neighborhood, supposedly going to be .5 and up acres. Also one of the houses the kids would be upstairs and the other is a ranch.

So what do you all think?

 

[lOOKnGO]

How old are you and your wife. Do you think this would be your last house? Asking because of stairs. They may not be in your mind set now, but age or disabilities can matter. Get as much land as you can afford. Kids have many more options of outside entertainment with more area.

 

[PC03GT]

God isn't going to make more land. Take the land the kids will figure out the friend situation

 

[gimmie11s]

We just made this move. Went from 1700 sq ft 3/2 to a 2500 sq ft 5bed 3 bath with a detached 1200 sq ft garage for me that has it's own bathroom. New place sits on .63 acre.

We are absolutely in heaven and im pissed I waited this long to pull the trigger. Our kids are 15, 13, and 10.

Do it!!

 

[Blk04L]

My first two homes were in hoa communities. Will try to never live in one again. Especially in Florida.

Land is finite. With kids I wish I could buy the lots around me to get more space. At 0.5 acres that's not a bad size.

Guess it'll just come down to the features of each house and if you want a new home or an older one.

 

[*Jay*]

God isn't going to make more land. Take the land the kids will figure out the friend situation

This, and if you end up in the .5 acre place start saving for the future homestead/hunt camp now.

 

[Crimson2v]

How old are you and your wife. Do you think this would be your last house? Asking because of stairs. They may not be in your mind set now, but age or disabilities can matter. Get as much land as you can afford. Kids have many more options of outside entertainment with more area.

We are in our 40’s so the stairs thing is already on our radar. I am not sure if it would be the last house, because when they eventually move out we may downsize at that point in our life. That’s why if we do a two story the main bedroom would have to be downstairs.

 

[Crimson2v]

God isn't going to make more land. Take the land the kids will figure out the friend situation

You’re right about that one. We homeschool them so we have them in social groups, so friends aren’t an issue.

 

[Crimson2v]

We just made this move. Went from 1700 sq ft 3/2 to a 2500 sq ft 5bed 3 bath with a detached 1200 sq ft garage for me that has it's own bathroom. New place sits on .63 acre.

We are absolutely in heaven and im pissed I waited this long to pull the trigger. Our kids are 15, 13, and 10.

Do it!!

Only thing holding us back is the interest rates and waiting for the one location to release the types of houses and lots. We really screwed up by not selling at the peak, when I wanted to sell, but at that time we needed to do a lot of work to update the house. We keep going back and forth on living in a community again or a stand alone home with more land. I always worry about being off of a road front that it’s an easy target for criminals. At least in a neighborhood you are tucked back away from traffic.

 

[2003RedfireVert]

Land. Always chose land. I regret the house we are in now. We built it. HOA, just under .5 acre yard. We’ll move in turned 5-7 years onto 3-10 acres. I really want land.

 

[PC03GT]

Only thing holding us back is the interest rates and waiting for the one location to release the types of houses and lots. We really screwed up by not selling at the peak, when I wanted to sell, but at that time we needed to do a lot of work to update the house. We keep going back and forth on living in a community again or a stand alone home with more land. I always worry about being off of a road front that it’s an easy target for criminals. At least in a neighborhood you are tucked back away from traffic.

Shit....out here the house's in neighborhood get hit

 

[LS WUT]

Always buy the land. As stated above land is skyrocketing and if you buy now you’ll own it and won’t have to worry about idiots neighbors. Buying a house is always a risky move because if you’ve got a dick head neighbor it’s not as easy as wanting.

 

[Blkkbgt]

We were in a similar predicament about 4 years ago. But ours centered more around the area we were living in.

No HOA but we had some crazy shit happening in our neighborhood. Looking at the perfectly manicured lawns, nice cars and well kept homes you'd never know we had grow houses and psychotic neighbors.

We decided to get the hell out and traded a large house for a smaller one and about 1 acre of land.

We don't regret it one bit. Now the house is not what I wanted but we aren't dealing with assholes all the time nor are we worried about our children's safety.

I can now go outside and it's relatively quiet even though we are off a main artery. I am not hearing assholes yelling at each other, **** heads coming home from the club a 3 am blasting their shitty music. Not to mention I can see tons of stars at night.

If your house feels cramped because of to much stuff buying a house with a little property allows you to build storage like a shed. If you get a house with a raised foundation storage under the house is often an option a well.

Go get some land/space and you'll never want to live 8ft from another house again. I sure as hell don't, I told my wife unless I am forced I'll never live in a track home again.

Being a car guy make sure you get something with enough space to build a shop if you can't find a house with one.

 

[Crimson2v]

We were in a similar predicament about 4 years ago. But ours centered more around the area we were living in.

No HOA but we had some crazy shit happening in our neighborhood. Looking at the perfectly manicured lawns, nice cars and well kept homes you'd never know we had grow houses and psychotic neighbors.

We decided to get the hell out and traded a large house for a smaller one and about 1 acre of land.

We don't regret it one bit. Now the house is not what I wanted but we aren't dealing with assholes all the time nor are we worried about our children's safety.

I can now go outside and it's relatively quiet even though we are off a main artery. I am not hearing assholes yelling at each other, **** heads coming home from the club a 3 am blasting their shitty music. Not to mention I can see tons of stars at night.

If your house feels cramped because of to much stuff buying a house with a little property allows you to build storage like a shed. If you get a house with a raised foundation storage under the house is often an option a well.

Go get some land/space and you'll never want to live 8ft from another house again. I sure as hell don't, I told my wife unless I am forced I'll never live in a track home again.

Being a car guy make sure you get something with enough space to build a shop if you can't find a house with one.

This one house I found has almost 2 acres and the septic is in the front yard. So I believe the backyard is free and clear to do such things as a shop or pool. I really think that’s the way to go.

 

[DriftwoodSVT]

We have a 2800 one story on 5.2 acres of heavily wooded tree coverage. It also came with a 1200 sq ft detached workshop. We can't see any neighbors from our house, unless we walk out to the street.

Small town, about 1700 people. We left a big area to come here for privacy, small school and community which has been fantastic. My kids are now 15 and 12, they love the small town life.

My biggest gripe is Internet. We live so far out, our only choice is Satellite internet and it only gives us 30 MB. We had a 300 MB connection previously, so that takes some getting used to.

We have 6 chickens, and my wife is wanting to build a barn or run-in and get a horse next.

While we don't have an HOA, there is a POA, which is mostly for architectural committee stuff, and to ensure someone doesn't paint their house bright yellow or something stupid.

 

[OX1]

I'm on 4.5 acres, last house on dead end. Still not enough to be completely isolated from one asshole neighbor and their kids. At least I have some buffer though, being completely surrounded by some "forest"........

I picked my town as they have/had tons of larger lots and monstrous pole barns were almost a requirement it seemed. Took one day to get 3200 SQ ft pole barn permit. Only true limiting factor was height, had to be under 25 feet.

Anyway, I would also consider how town reacts to additions/garages in your search, as land and house size may not be near as important as what they "let" you do after you get the place. I will never live with an HOA.

 

[93Cobra#2771]

Choose land. How old are you kids? The older they are, the less house you really need. In our case (I'm 51) we are choosing for the future as this next house will be our final house. Planning on building late March/early April. Our kids are 23 and almost 21. Oldest is still with us, but we know his time will be limited. Youngest is working on her bachelors and then on to dental school, so she will be with us at least 5.5 more years.

We are building 1742sf, farmhouse style. Only stairs are a bonus room above the garage that will likely be exercise/storage room.

We've made it all these years with current house that is 1400sf. But, I also have a 36x20 garage, sitting on two acres out in the country. Closest neighbor is 1/8 mile, rest is farmland.

What I'm getting at is always choose land. Being not close to other people is awesome. There is absolutely no way I'd ever choose to live in an HOA situation. With land, those kids will have plenty of room to do stuff outside, mine have had an awesome time just being in the yard with the dog and such.

 

[tistan]

First off, land is not limited. The federal government has taken 30% of that land in the US, most of it being valuable resource land.

Secondly, HOAs have consumed most of the remaining residential land in America. Getting a non HOA property will not only be better for your life now, but the value is going to keep skyrocketing as there will be more people looking to get out of expensive nanny state HOAs.

 

[PhoenixM3]

We are thinking of selling our house again, our two kids are growing and to my wife and I it feels a little cramped. The house we have now is 1600 square ft and is sitting on a .15 lot. So you can imagine there isn’t much room to play outside or spread out inside.

We are torn between getting a house in another neighborhood or getting a house that is on a bigger piece of land. I can’t stand dealing with the hoa, but we haven’t been in a house that wasn’t in a hoa community.

The one house I found is sitting on nearly 2 acres of land, which sits right off the road. It’s set back pretty far from the road. The other is a new neighborhood, supposedly going to be .5 and up acres. Also one of the houses the kids would be upstairs and the other is a ranch.

So what do you all think?

Get the land and improve upon the existing house if needed. HOAs suck so we've never had to worry about them, other than dealing with that BS for our rental properties.

 

[Crimson2v]

Choose land. How old are you kids? The older they are, the less house you really need. In our case (I'm 51) we are choosing for the future as this next house will be our final house. Planning on building late March/early April. Our kids are 23 and almost 21. Oldest is still with us, but we know his time will be limited. Youngest is working on her bachelors and then on to dental school, so she will be with us at least 5.5 more years.

We are building 1742sf, farmhouse style. Only stairs are a bonus room above the garage that will likely be exercise/storage room.

We've made it all these years with current house that is 1400sf. But, I also have a 36x20 garage, sitting on two acres out in the country. Closest neighbor is 1/8 mile, rest is farmland.

What I'm getting at is always choose land. Being not close to other people is awesome. There is absolutely no way I'd ever choose to live in an HOA situation. With land, those kids will have plenty of room to do stuff outside, mine have had an awesome time just being in the yard with the dog and such.

Our two are 8 and 10 years old. Our backyard is ridiculously small so when we have them go outside they can only do so much. The bedrooms are around 100 square foot for each kid so those are tiny too. We feel like where this is at the prices are only going to keep rising so it would be good to get in now while they are still young and want to go outside and play. Later on in life we can always downsize or get a condo on the beach.