Picking the Perfect Home?

But the one piece of advice I've always heard is to rent for a year, then buy.

If your DH is okay with a bit of a commute (Mapquest says 20 minutes), look into buying a house in Niles Township, Michigan. It's convenient to South Bend, the houses are super-cheap, and the schools are good. The City of Niles is okay too, but a little less convenient, slightly more expensive houses, and the schools aren't quite so good.

I don't know anything about picking the right neighborhood and schools (that's a predetermined factor around here. There aren't many choices. LOL!). But as far as the right house. It really doesn't matter. Pick the number of bedrooms, bathrooms, and square footage that you will require, and the rest doesn't matter. Even in the perfect home, one will always find something they want better. A bigger bathroom, bigger kitchen. Oops, too big! Too much to clean! LOL!

We bought our house site unseen. That is, we saw the outside, but as for the inside, we had not a clue. It was a foreclosure and we actually didn't even get to see the inside for 2 months after we bought it! It was tied up in court stuff. When we got in, it needed some work. There are a TON of things I want to change, but I can live with it the way it is (the kitchen is UGLY. But it's what comes out of it that matters, right?).

As long as their is love and happiness, it doesn't matter. Look for a low crime rate, and if the schools just absolutely suck, you can always home school (or possibly go out of district? We have a TON of out of district kids at our school).

how do they go out of district? That takes an act of God around here - taxes ya know.

Where we are some of the the city/inner-ring suburban schools are experiencing declining enrollment, so that is one factor in the flexibility of moving among districts (which is not uncommon here, though you are lower on the priority list if spots are limited).

I've always heard that you should buy the least-nice house in the best neighborhood you can, and never buy the nicest house on any block unless you are very rich. This gives you the best return on investment, as home prices go up, and it gives you advantages in terms of schools and other intangibles.

I'd also think about whether you like all of you to be together or each in your own room. You can have a 1500 sq. foot house with lots of little rooms or few big rooms. I like all bedrooms on one floor, but some people really like the master to be apart from the others.

Otherwise, I say go with your gut!

Shaun
www.homeschoolblogger.com/shaunms

Oh, I'd love to rent a bit, but it doesn't work too well for us. The rent payments in most places are higher than the mortgage payments will be (about equal after taxes & insurance, but by then, I'm still gaining equity.)

Thanks Jenny, for the insight...We've looked at a few where the neighborhood was better than most, but I was being picky...but really after your comment & a comment in church today (not directed at me, but it helped me) I think I'm changing my tune a bit. (T'was something about my generation trying to start out where our parents are at, realized I was doing that).

Shaun, that's good advice about cheaper in the nicer neighborhood...I took classes to appraise, yet even though that stuff was covered it hadn't crossed my mind to apply it to ME!! D'Oh! Golly I must sound ditzy, but really I'm not...I think the thought of moving is just playing hard with my brain.

you're so right. DH and I have been married 10yrs and have 2 kids, so when we started looking for a house here in the UK we basically started looking at where my parents are at. To be fair when they bought their house they had also been married 10yrs and had also completed their family, but that was 25yrs ago and the ouse prices have gone up by something like 500% since then. More than! We were planning to rent but the rental market was not good at the time we actually came over and we found something which suited us very fast (arrived on the Friday, saw this house on the Saturday, made an offer in less than a week!). I do know now that it isn't our last house, that we won't be here in 25yrs, probably not even 5yrs unless the business grows slower than we anticipate. But it suited our needs mostly (right number of bedrooms, no chain on either buyer or seller, medium garden, nearby school, nice enough neighbourhood, and damn cheap!) and we're happy with that for now. It's been cheaper than renting would have been and far more settled, which is great for kids moving from a different continent and culture. It is also buying us time to think about and look into what our ideal will be. It will definitely be bigger because this house is getting cramped real fast, but we have time to figure ou all the other details whilst earning the money, getting the business moving so we can afford what we really want, something that suits us even better and will hopefully last us the rest of our lives.

If you need urgent, get a stopgap solution, something that suits you now, but be prepared that it may not be right in 20yrs! You can live with anything for a few years if you then have a proper dream at the end of it (this from someone who survived 10yrs in Singapore!! ).

Kerri.

Yeah, we'll only be in South Bend a maximum of five years, so I suppose I should make due with whatever we can afford, then realize I will move on!!