house compromises

**Thrif-t** · 10-11-2016, 03:43 PM

We've only had one house. We bought before we had kids and wanted one big enough to raise a family in and not a starter house. We wanted a front porch and a big basement, but got neither of those things :-(. We bought a 2400 sq ft 4 bedroom split level so the basement is just a half basement and the porch is a little more than a stoop. But we have a lot of living space for us so we gave up our big basement and porch. Plus we got a good deal on this house because the owners needed to sell to move. Everything is great, great neighborhood, great schools, great town. I love it here.

Not sure if this is the kind of response you are looking for, but good luck in your decision.

P.S. I thought of something else we gave up for this house a private back yard. We live on the inside of a circle, no not a culd-e-sac, a circle 50 houses around it, and we are on the inside so our backyards all come together. That's been fine too, didn't think I'd like it but we are great friends with our neighbors.

**rennigade** · 10-11-2016, 04:24 PM

Our primary concern was privacy. Living in a one bedroom apartment for 10 years...will be 11 years before we actually move into our home...thats all we cared about. Bought my inlaws home on 30 acres and no neighbors. I will have nothing to complain about when we move.

**disneysteve** · 10-11-2016, 05:24 PM

We had a distinct list of "musts" when we were house hunting.

1. Must not be a busy street.
2. Must have a traffic light to enter and exit the development.
3. 3 bedrooms
4. 2 or more bathrooms
5. Good school district
6. Sidewalks
7. No homeowners association

There might have been a couple of other items on the list but it's been 22 years so there may be something I'm forgetting.

We got everything on our list.

Where did we compromise? Nowhere that I can think of, but again, it's been 22 years.

**Singuy** · 10-11-2016, 05:49 PM

Interesting, no HOA. I am very pro HOA. All though there are rules to follow, the environment is vastly better than some random house on the side of a road or out in the boonies. That's just my opinion though. I know a lot of people wants that huge yard and less houses. We just find that a little too lonely.

**DaveInPgh** · 10-11-2016, 06:14 PM

In regards to our home search, I would not use the word compromise. Instead, I would say we made a trade off. Rather than compromise any of our must haves, we knew we would not end up in a newly updated home. That scenario simply did not exist in the neighborhoods we were interested in AT the price we could afford.

**kork13** · 10-11-2016, 06:29 PM

Compromises abound in buying a house. I've bought 2 so far, and sacrificed totally opposite things... As in, the things I love about my first house, I compromised on the second. What I was disappointed about in my first house, I sacrificed somewhat in the second.

1st house: 3bd/2ba, 1790 sq.ft. ranch
- Slightly small 2nd/3rd bedrooms, but we had a huge master suite & WIC's in every room
- Very little storage space (except for the WIC's), but a very open floor plan
- Not great natural lighting
+ Fantastic kitchen (very nice upgrades throughout the house) & a large backyard

2nd house: 4bd/3ba, 2084 sq.ft split
- Small-ish yard, but a built in fire pit (apparently the neighbors often come join the fun too!)
- Smaller master suite than before (average size), but all other rooms are bigger than average, and there are 2 living rooms (up & down stairs)
- Bathrooms all need updates/upgrades, and the kitchen is just average (Bathrooms are one of my primary home improvement plans)
- Lower balcony/patio is tiny, and too high from the ground with no steps or railing. (This is my other big home improvement project)
+ Storage is phenomenal, and the garage is enormous. Previous owner built in alot of storage, including a large, very nice work bench
+ Great natural lighting, and it's in one of the nicest neighborhoods in town.
+ This house is on the lower-end scale of this top class neighborhood, so between my planned improvements & excellent comps, this home will do well for us whenever we eventually sell/rent it. To demonstrate.... Or house appraised for almost $15k higher than our purchase price.

I know there are other little things that bother me about each house.... But you can fix/change alot of things, and as I said, everything involves compromise.

**feh** · 10-12-2016, 04:53 AM

Compromise with whom? Your SO, or the market?

Assuming the latter, we wanted a 3 car garage, but the house we bought is a 2 stall.

**Snydley** · 10-12-2016, 05:10 AM

We looked at many houses prior to our purchase, and we realized we absolutely must have (1) a house on a side street (not a busy road) and (2) a decent amount of distance from our neighbors.

Now that we have lived in the house for 5 years, we find that prioritizing those aspects of the home was very important. To get them, we gave up having a garage and a newer home (ours was built in 1961). I don't feel a need for a garage to this day, but I do wish my house was newer construction because I had no idea how much $$ updates/renovations were and how annoying crumbling ceilings, etc. can be.

**bigdaddybus** · 10-12-2016, 05:38 AM

We just built a new home (moved in the beginning of October) and there were tons of compromises.
1. I started with a self imposed construction budget of 2X my gross annual income. I ended up 2.1X due to a few overages and upgrades.
2. Did quite a bit of work myself. 1500sqft of tile for example (ended up losing about 20 lbs too!)
3. We have 99% of what we were looking for our family of 6. 1.5 story with 4 bedrooms/3.5 baths with unfinished walkout basement that I am going to finish most myself, oversized 3 car garage, bonus room/playroom for the kids, I can sit on the back deck and see no houses, hear no sirens, and no airport/traffic noise, excellent schools, west facing front yard.
4. Our new community is the size of my daughters previous high school. My wife and I love small town living as that is what we grew up with and so far the kids really love it too. (we were in a rental in the new town for 6 months) Our biggest adjustment was going from a 12 minute commute to a 40 minute commute to live close to family, have our kids go to school with their cousins, and get away from in town living.
5. Any compromises we have are really pathetic first world problems. I don't have the pole barn I would like yet, we don't have a pool, I am doing the landscaping/growing grass myself, custom window treatments are going to have to wait, etc.

**Fishindude77** · 10-12-2016, 05:53 AM

We moved into a crappy old farm house to be at the location and on the land that we wanted. Six months of evenings and weekends remodeling to make the place livable for family. Twenty five plus years later after extensive renovations, it's a pretty nice home in a sweet location. Location is #1.

**bigdaddybus** · 10-12-2016, 06:06 AM

Originally posted by rennigade View Post

Our primary concern was privacy. Living in a one bedroom apartment for 10 years...will be 11 years before we actually move into our home...thats all we cared about. Bought my inlaws home on 30 acres and no neighbors. I will have nothing to complain about when we move.

That sounds awesome! My wife and I went round and round about buying 10-15 acres with no neighbors or buying where we ended up (in a subdivision with 1-2 acre lots. We have the no backyard/sideyard neighbors that I was looking for and the convenience of neighborhood kids for my kids to have friends close by.
Deep down I still want acreage!

**bigdaddybus** · 10-12-2016, 06:08 AM

Originally posted by Fishindude77 View Post

We moved into a crappy old farm house to be at the location and on the land that we wanted. Six months of evenings and weekends remodeling to make the place livable for family. Twenty five plus years later after extensive renovations, it's a pretty nice home in a sweet location. Location is #1.

We spent 2 years nailing down the location for our house. I agree location is very important

**bjl584** · 10-12-2016, 06:09 AM

We compromised on condition.

Location was great. Nice large piece of property. Perfect size house. But, it needed a lot of TLC. The former owner let the place go pretty bad. Slowly but surely the place is coming together. This winter I'm going to redo the one bathroom and redo the kitchen cabinets.

**LivingAlmostLarge** · 10-12-2016, 07:47 AM

Yep these are exactly what I was hoping for. Reading about what people "traded off" things for. We're still negotiating with each other (over condition) and what is on the market.

house compromises