Need help with choosing the RIGHT house.

[somethingshiny]

Please help me analyze these houses. I feel like I could be at home in either of them.

I''m having a hard time moving from a giant 3 bedroom/4 car garage/huge yard to something that is a quarter of the size.

First, my priorities in a home are :
Space to play (kids and s)
Kitchen (nice and functional)
Cozy living area
nice garage
bedrooms, We only NEED 2, but I''d like to have 3 for future babies.

the first house is:
Ranch style 2 bed/1 bath attached garage
Large eat in kitchen, but you''re not on top of the cabinets.
Small to Avg. living room with only one window (the window is big)
2 Small bedrooms (12 x 12)
Small yard next to a busy road (no fence)
NICE garage
HUGE basement with lots of possibilities. Currently being used as a family room/bar/utility area/playroom (Possible 3rd bedroom but I don''t know if I''d want my kid(s) sleeping on a separate floor from me)

the second house is:
1.5 story 3 bed/1 bath unattached tiny garage
Small kitchen but with new oak cabinets and countertops
Living room and dining room share a long room.
2 Small bedrooms (12 x 12)
upstairs (with gabled ceilings) is open (no door at top of open staircase)
Upstairs could be used as a bedroom/playroom/tv room
Utility room on main level
Nice wood deck
Decent yard, no busy roads (no fence)

My concerns on the first house is only 2 bedrooms, small yard, busy road. Possibly hard to resell because of this.

My concerns on the second house is mostly unusable basement, small kitchen, crappy garage that could make that house hard to resell.

Any thoughts???

 

[MonkeyPie]

I''d go with the first one - you can always put up a fence, and have the kids share a room until they get old enough to live downstairs on their own.

 

[sap483]

It doesn''t sound to me like you really love either of these choices. Is there a reason why you need to pick one of those two homes? If you don''t have to move urgently, and neither of those two homes have won you over, my vote would be to keep looking.

 

[Kismet]

Since you can generally change everything about a house except for its location (I suppose you could pick it up and move it but that''s not really practical), I''d go with the one that has the best location. On house 2, why isn''t the basement usable and could it be made usable? Do you have room to put on an addition and if so, would it price your house out of the neighborhood? Could you put in a bigger garage?

 

[somethingshiny]

Thanks for the responses.

Monkey~ We''ve thought about putting the kids downstairs, but that would mean WE would always have a tiny bedroom. And, I would be uncomfortable with the kids downstairs off the kitchen in case of fire. (my parents'' house burned down, now I''m really aware of fire situations)

Sap~ I think you''ve hit the nail on the head. Neither home is THE ONE. We have a huge house that we rent and pay really high utilities so we were hoping to be out of this house by winter. (which by the way is THE ONE, but our landlady won''t sell) But, we do not have to move urgently.

Kismet~ I agree about the location. Yes there would be room to add-on but then the house would never sell in this area. The basement is an old dirt and brick basement (house was built in the 20''s) so it would never be usable except for minimal storage.

Actually, you have all really helped me to see that we need to keep looking. If we have a second child (which is in the plans), neither house would be great. One house wouldn''t have enough bedrooms, the other wouldn''t have enough living space. There''s not much for sale in our price range now, but there may be in the net few months or even a year from now. We certainly don''t want to jump into a house and end up needing to sell in 2 years.

Thanks again. Sometimes it just takes other people''s perspectives to show you your own.

 

[Elmorton]

Somethingshiny, I feel like I might pass on both? This said by someone who has YET to find the house that meets all of her priorities in the right price range

, so I don't know how helpful that is, but both houses seem to have the same cons which are pretty major when I look over your preferences...

House 1

-Doesn't sound like it's too great for your plans with kids. We'd like a 3 bedroom for the same reasons, and we've found 3 bedrooms that were great, but with the master on a different level - I could never handle having a child on a different floor. In a 2 with a possible 3, that really isn't going to meet your needs. Also, if you don't remodel it, a 2 bedroom might be difficult to sell, especially if the two bedrooms are small (though we've looked at sooo many older homes where bedrooms can be TINY - 12x12 doesn't seem ALL that bad).

-Busy road, again hard to re-sell and fences are expensive, but apparently would be necessary

House 2

-Sounds exactly like a everything that is in our price range here. First, I hate how those 1.5 level houses are marketed as a 3 bedroom - that is soooo not a bedroom if it's open and doesn't have closets (most of the ones we've looked at don't). It's a bonus room. So for all intents and purposes, it's a 2 bedroom with a large playroom or office, and the situation is nearly identical to house #1.

-I don't know if others are like DH and me, but garages aren't really all that expensive to level and tear down, so we don't really worry about that when we're looking. Also, in the neighborhoods we want to be in (older), detached garages are the norm, which is fine for us. So that's not an issue - but the kitchen IS. Even remodeled, a tiny kitchen might be hard to sell. It sounds like this house has a better location, but would be just as difficult to resell as the first.

Both -

I really don't think I'd buy a 1 bathroom, unless I knew I could put a second one in relatively easily (do either have basement plumbing? Even in an unfinished basement, it could be helpful/add value to just have a toliet and sink). I hate having one bathroom where we live now (having guests is SUCH a PITA and I grew up in a house with one bath, so it's a big NEVER AGAIN for me), and I notice around where we are, 1 bath houses sit on the market forever.

The house thing is so frustrating, isn't it? We've been half-heartedly looking since April and have yet to find anything that we'd really consider...thought it was supposed to be a buyer's market, yanno??


ETA: I see you reached the same concl...best of luck with your hunt though! It's so hard.

 

[Tacori E-ring]

I am glad you are taking a pass. This is a buyers market so you can afford to be picky. Good luck!

 

[VegasAngel]

I agree that you arent sold on either & that you should keep looking. When you find the right home you will know, it will feel right.