Anyhow, we are thinking, thinking, thinking and it's doing my poor head in a bit as you can tell.
So, in the midst of all this - I'm curious - what made you buy your home eg. was it:
1. mostly practical stuff like the location/floorplan/number of bedrooms etc.?
2. how much did your emotional response factor eg. did you fall in love with a particular room or the house in general because it felt homely? Did you start picture yourself living there and did that make you bid/offer a bit more than you'd originally intended because you then couldn't imagine living somewhere else and didn't want to miss out?
We were looking because we had a horrible landlord, but what made us buy this particular house was the size of the block - 1024 sqm for $287k. We've just signed contracts to subdivide and build our own house out the back, and then rent out the one we're currently in.
Also, I fell in love with the deep purple colour on the walls - I know, not very grown up!!
A combination of factors but the biggest "Selling" point for me was the playroom - that alone sold me the house and as soon as I saw it I feel in love with it. It was a big sunny room with a feature wall of bright yellow (sounds horrible but was actually so cheery), looking out over the back garden with white french doors leading into the playroom from the main living area.
It is still my fave room of the house altho now we have painted it a slighly more muted lemony colour. It is right near my kitchen/living area so I can keep an eye on the kids and I love opening all the blinds and looking outside.
In relation to the rest of the house, size wise it worked for us on a good sized block backing onto bushland. Location wasnt our "top" suburb intitially but realistically we couldnt afford that suburb! It is still a great suburb, 20 mins from CBD of Perth, 5 mins from the beaches and 10 mins from Fremantle which we love. Also within 10 mins of all our folks too.
So I suppose in the end it was our ideal location when I look at the above factors!
But in answer to the original question, I fell in love with the playroom first and then the rest of the house.
a) Location ie. 5 minutes walk from the train and b) I have to have a house that "feels" light and bright. I inspected it on a frosty winter morning but it still felt warm and bright. so very much a bit of both.
My Dh and I have never rented - we moved straight from my parents place to our own home. It was a perfect size for us and it was a bargain and had since gained 80,000 to its sell price!
But it is now to small with a bub and we are on the hunt for a farm.. so back on the merry-go round!!
Firstly we focused on the suburb so we were looking in an area that was
a) close to the CBD where we both worked
b) on the right side of the city for our families to get to as both are regional
c) close to friends
d) well serviced by infrastructure and lifestyle amenities
We bought our house because mainly when we walked into it, it felt like home. However it had the advantages of being
a) close to a train station
b) close to a park
c) a 3 br house
d) close to childcare
We love our house and think we got a bargain since it has increased in value by about $300K since we bought it so that's also a consideration - finding something that is under-valued when you buy it.
This house was mostly practical reasons. We were renting and I was quite happy to stay put for a year or so, but DH was not. So nearly every weekend we went house hunting. It was costing a fortune in petrol and food, along with taking up time we could have been enjoying ourselves.
The reasons we picked this property:
Price - it was $40k less than everything else DH was looking at. I was comfortable with the mortgage repayment on it
Location - good distance from town, no neighbours (surrounded by farm land), close to bush, quietish back road
Land - minimum size we wanted (1/2 acre), native trees, cleared area for veggie patch. Biggest plus a bore pump
House - was passable, required a lot less work than many others we looked at. Has the minimum 3 bed rooms, good kitchen etc No character at all, which was not a problem as we were planning on a reno job, I just wanted it livable for a few years, rather than it needing reno now!
So overall for my own sanity and bank account, I made do with what we found. Other houses just did not quite fit and some (for no obvious reason) made me want to cry at the mere thought of buying. DH seemed to look at every place like we were buying and it really panicked me, as many we just should have walked out of straight away, but he had to play the agent At the end of the day I am happy with the place we have bought, even though I did not "love" it at first sight.
My reason was price and potential. My house was a deceased estate that needed ALOT of tlc - it only cost me $45000, and is now worth about 5 times that in 7 years. So I am well pleased! It was my first home so suited me as a 'set me up for the future house'. I wasn't fussy about whether it was the biggest or nicest, just a solid home with potential.
The 'feel' of it. My specs were three bedrooms and no work to do- I wanted it ready to move in straight away with no repairs.
This house just felt so peaceful and warm- like a real family home. Having said that, we were'nt planning on having kids straight away like we did, so we are not so fond of the concrete backyard as we were when we bought it (No lawn to mow? Awesome! Scraped knees/hands/head- not so good).
We were mainly practical, we wanted 3 bedrooms and 2 living areas. We only inspected our house for 5 minutes, decided it was too nice for us to be able to afford (we'd been looking at some real "renovator's delights" to suit our budget and this house looked awesome compared to them and in a better location). We went ahead and made an offer we didn't think they would take, walked away and didn't think about it again LOL! We knew we were dreaming and moved our thoughts to an auction we were going to bid on the next day. But we were fortunate that the owner was desperate to sell (the house had already been passed in a month before for $30,000 less than what we offered) and we got a call the next morning saying he would take our offer! Talk about lucky!
We actually had to think about what the house looked like inside, etc LOL. But we've been so happy here and had no regrets .
We bought THIS house because it was about all we could afford in canberra at the time. It is by no means my dream home, but it does the job and has actually been a good investment as property values have now risen significantly in the short time we have actually owned the property (about 25% in two years). It was not an easy decision, I talked DH in and out of buying it several times before we signed contracts.
Actually, when I think about it, I almost didn't even go in to look at the house we bought. I pulled up out the front and my first thought was "Yuck! I'm not living there!! It's purple!" But the purpleness has grown on me and it makes it very easy for people to find
We bought ours in 1999 when the market started to shift. We bought because we had the deposit, we had finally arrived in the town where we intend to remain long-term, and because we were sick of the crummy houses that Defence were offering at the time. Really just wanted a patch of earth to put our roots down in.
Reasons we bought THIS house:
* nicest location we could afford within a practical distance to DH's work
* we made a wish list of all the features/qualities we wanted in a house (everything from an extra room which acts as a study, to fully fenced, has garage, pleasant aspect, etc).
* it was a very good buy considering we were buying at the low end of the market (purchase price $115K).
* we were able to move in and be comfortable without spending any extra $$ on renos (important because there was no room in our budget on one wage at the time)
* the house is modest, but with a small expenditure on landscaping, new pergola, bathroom reno and minor cosmetic improvements it will be worth a lot more
But the main reason - the energy up here is awesome. It is so quiet and peaceful and there is a real 'charge' in the area. I would love to be a bit closer to family but it would have to be a pretty damn awesome house to make me want to move. I just *love* it up here.
The house we were renting was HORRID. Orange bathroom. Green kitchen. (think 1970s colours.) Single glazed windows. Bad area.
Our current home is nice, airy, large (for a 2-bed maisonette), in a great village, near fantastic schools, near a mainline station to London (for selling purposes only as we don't use this!), affordable (as it needed a lot of doing up) and, tbh, DH said that we couldn't have children until we bought and he wanted to buy.
I think the last point had the most to do with it, tbh. The fact we have a nice place to live is good too, but it was all about DH wanting to buy and me wanting a family.
We got our place in a nice new area, brand new home, bargain price and repayments are cheaper than rent. We have worked our butts off (gardens, garage, fences etc) but have also put $80k on top of what we paid for it in 2yrs. It will hopefully set us up for a larger home in years to come.
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What Made You Buy Your Home?
It is still a great suburb, 20 mins from CBD of Perth, 5 mins from the beaches and 10 mins from Fremantle which we love. Also within 10 mins of all our folks too.
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