I bought based on location- 3 blocks from the elementary school in the school district that I wanted, but also on a quiet kid-friendly residential street that is safe for young bicycle riders/roller skaters/baseball players. We also scored a neighborhood that is surrounded by a golf course, but didn’t pay a “golf course price” for the house. That gives us a nice hike and bike trail and green space. The house is nearing 50 years old.
The house is quite comfortable, too, but the other things were more important to me.
Location. We bought our house because it was an excellent deal in the town we wanted our kids to go to school in.
Now we want to move to a new location and are saving up to by the type of property we want. The location will be all important and we’re willing to compromise on the dwelling in order to get the right property in the right area.
Of course, life keeps throwing us curve balls, so we’ll probably be here forever.
For the same amount that we paid for our 2 bedroom apartment we could have purchased a 3-4 bedroom house in a rougher neighbourhood much further out. There was no question for us. A decent-sized house in the neighbourhoods we were looking at would have run us close to a million. I guess part of it is snobbery - we were both lucky enough to grow up in very good neighbourhoods and when I go to the outer neighbourhoods I tend to feel uncomfortable and unsafe.
Now my fiance walks to work instead of driving an hour each way. We have restaurants, cultural events, public transport, parkland, entertainment, festivals and food markets within walking distance. When our friends get together everyone tends to congregate at our apartment because it’s in the centre of everything. We’ve never regretted it for a second.
We chose a core area, then looked for a house based on certain criteria. We ended up about half a mile outside where we wanted to be, but got the kind of house we were looking for, for about $100,000 less than we would have paid had we insisted.
That said, “location” in terms of the city we wanted was a given before we even started looking.
Exactly. I only looked in a couple of cities, and within those cities, only within a handful of neighborhoods. So the location really was non-negotiable.
I did look outside it, once, and was very disappointed – the area was being touted as up and coming, with great views. The views were incredible, primarily because all the houses were built on the side of a mountain. So no yard to speak of, just a series of decks running around the house. And if you needed to borrow a cup of sugar from your neighbor, you could lean off your deck to your neighbor’s deck to pass off the cup. Not for me.
But within the neighborhoods I was serious about, I had a particular type of house in mind. The one I ended up with only vaguely fit my criteria, but I’m very happy with it.
The last house we bought was based on the house itself - square footage, lot size, etc. The neighborhood was marginal and could’ve gone either way. Unfortunately for us, it proved to be on the downswing and I feel lucky that we were able to unload it (just closed on it last Friday). The house served our purpose for the stage we were at, but it was never my “forever” home.
This house is in a great location, mid city established neighborhood with good schools and considered the “heart” of the city and we stumbled upon a fixer upper - right up our alley. We haven’t had to do much, just refinish the wood floors and slap a coat of paint on everything and it already looks great. Next, we’ll tackle the exterior painting and then on to update the kitchen and bath. Just the superficial changes we’ve done have already increased the value $25K, and updating will bring us another $75 with minimal investment of money (new counter tops, tear down a wall, and new appliances). We’re two blocks from a great park and the neighbors are wonderful. From the first night we slept here, it felt like home. That comfortable, peaceful feeling you get when you know you’re where you’re supposed to be. The seven minute commute is hard to beat …
Location. When we moved here we had to settle on one of two houses. The high schools were not all that different, but one was far from everything, and the other, the one we picked, was across the street from the elementary school and close to what passes for a downtown around here. We’ve been happy with our choice, in ways we couldn’t have imagined 10 years ago.
Existing homeowner – but when I was considering moving a few years ago (didn’t happen) I mainly considered location. What put me off was that it seemed I’d be downgrading myself with the move (the quality of houses I was shown wasn’t great in the main), so I nixed the idea.
Location, but the house is exactly what we wanted. My commute to work is now just a twenty-minute subway ride with no transfers, yet we’re in an area that has lots of parks and open space, plus we get a view of Mt. Fuji rising over downtown Tokyo from our balcony.
The house is a newly-built condo with enough space for a three-generation household to live comfortably, which is what we were looking for, but didn’t think we could possibly find inside Tokyo for anywhere near our budget. We were lucky to find a formerly-unfashionable neighborhood that was in the middle of a big renewal project, plus a developer that was coming in ahead of everyone else. Since we moved in two years ago, ten more condo projects have begun, offering the same styles and sizes as ours, but for significantly higher prices.
I had the location narrowed down to one particular neighborhood. There isn’t a lot of turn-over, so we were essentially waiting to pounce if anything became available. The house that did come on the market was not what I was expecting in terms of style, but the price was really right and it was exactly the location we wanted. I figure we can make changes to the style over the years as we like (and can afford). Just about every other house is a darling, whimsical, shingle-style with lots of unique detailing, and that’s what I envisioned. We ended up buying one of the only homes that looks like … a plain box. It is a boon that every change I would make is about preference or aesthetics, structurally there isn’t any work that needs to be done.
While waiting, we did look at some other houses on the market in relatively close areas, and saw some nice things but nothing that made me willing to give up on location.
However, I still plan on moving back to an old suburb I used to live in, because I love the houses there (it’s an older suburb) and it’s more central to town.
But yeah, when we moved here, the house was the primary thing. And I still do love the house.
We had some very specific requirement for the house, and that’s what we looked for. Lucky for us, the perfect house happened to have a wonderful location.
We wanted 3/2, attached garage, unfinished basement, and an acre or so of land. Oh, and NO HOA!
We got what we wanted, except our yard is 3 acres. It sat almost midway between our jobs (my husband has since taken a job with a longer commute - oh well) and it’s in an older, well established, quiet neighborhood in which 3 acres is the minimum lot. The downside is we’re in the boonies - it’s almost 7 miles to the nearest grocery store (convenience stores don’t count) and 17+ miles to the major shopping area, which has been a pain while we are remodeling.
Still, I love where we are and I intend to stay here till they wheel me into The Home.
Mostly location. Our first house was just a “starter” home…so I wasn’t worried about it too much. It was a development that started off really nice, but towards the end was turning into a renters paradise.
The house we’re in now is in a community that I spent a lot of time in when I was a kid. My aunt and uncle live around the corner, and have for 30 years. I spent summers down here with my cousins all the time. So I was familiar with the neighborhood, and what type of community it was. So for about a year we kept an eye on it. We didn’t find exactly what we were looking for, so in the end we bought an older home and totally gutted it. With the re-work done to the existing structure, and the addition we put on the house is exactly what we wanted. About 3000 sq. ft. with a floor plan exactly how I wanted it. My Mother-in-Law lives with us, so her section is almost totally separate from our private spaces…sure the construction cost a bit more than if we had just gotten somthing of that size pre-built…but the floorplans weren’t as flexible for our needs.
