AHHH!!!! Which house would you buy?

[SouthPaW1227]

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Cliff notes: if you're not planning on living in this house forever, choose #2 and save yourself some money. :thumbsup:

He has an absolutely great piece of advice here.

 

[xgsound]

Don't forget that you are comparing an existing house to the promise of a house.

The older home's value can be scutinized more accurately since it and your neigbors already exists.

A new home , even if built correctly and on time, also has expences. Some would be ; 1. established lawn 2. landscaping 3. driveway 4. sidewalks 5. front and back cement pad 6. deck .

If I had to make the decision and commitment now, I would choose a house I could move into now.

Jim

 

[jread]

Thanks to all who have replied!

After a night of not getting any sleep and a very drawn-our war of emotion vs. practicality, we went with the new house. We figure that this would be best for the time being since we don't have a lot of money to fix things that break on the older home, plus we will save money in insurance, electricity and (found out this morning) the mortgage is actually a little cheaper. The plan is to buy the newer home, save our money, get married, finish school, get better jobs and make more money, then seek out our dream home in the old neighborhoods of the city. Although we are drawn to the older house, it could very well break us if something goes wrong with it. Our option period ends today so we had to decide one way or the other.

The new home will be a "stepping stone"... it's not the kind of place we'd want to spend the rest of our lives, but we do have the rest of our lives to find that ideal home.

Again, thanks for replying. This probably ranks in the top 2 or 3 hardest decisions I've ever made in my life.

 

[DrPizza]

Originally posted by: SouthPaW1227

[

Cliff notes: if you're not planning on living in this house forever, choose #2 and save yourself some money. :thumbsup:

He has an absolutely great piece of advice here.

That is at best an over-generalization. One of the suburbs of Buffalo, NY is having a HUGE problem with houses settling... this is mostly with newer construction. Code is being changed to prevent the problem from continuing to happen, but there are people looking at repair bills which are greater than the value of the homes. Home #1 has stood the test of time... it only needs to be updated. If you're going to live in a house for > 40 years, you ARE going to have to replace the roof, at least once. You ARE going to have to update the heating system, at least once. You ARE going to have to update the ...

Everything in a house has a limited lifespan. However, the anticipated lifespan of much of the structure in older homes is generally greater than the lifespan in newer homes due to better construction (in general.) Newer houses are pretty much slapped together as quickly as possible. Nails are replaced with staples, etc.

 

[vi edit]

We figure that this would be best for the time being since we don't have a lot of money to fix things that break on the older home, plus we will save money in insurance, electricity and (found out this morning) the mortgage is actually a little cheaper.

Don't forget that since it's a new construct, you likely won't be responsible for the property taxes on it for 12-18 months. (Depends on state).

That alone could make up several thousand dollars of out of pocket difference between the two.