Could you/have you moved from a gorgeous house to a 2 bedroom unit?

We rent a gorgeous 3 bedroom cedar house atm with a nice outdoor area with beautiful gardens, it also backs onto the bush with a view of all of the valley below and surrounding us. Its peaceful, quiet, not crammed up against the neighbours, we have tons of birds and even a wallaby that drinks from a stream that runs down the side of our property. But, we don't own it, are terrified of scratching the floorboards, worried that its going to fall to bits because we don't know how to take care of it, it takes forever to clean and the outdoor area seems to be an absolutely mammoth task for DH to keep looking nice.

The owners are working in new york for a couple of years, and one of our neighbours told us today that he saw on their Facebook page that they are returning to Australia soon (didn't tell us when though). DF then decided that we should move into a cheap unit until we buy somewhere in the next 9-12 months. I can see some positives, but also some big negatives, such as having to live in a small unit with 2 small children!! We all sleep in the same room, so i am not too worried about it only being 2 bedrooms and i would be quite happy to downsize my life and get rid of all of the 'stuff' we have hanging around. One of the places we are looking at has an outdoor pool with BBQ area which could be great for summer, and i would love to be able to clean the whole apartment in an hour or two! So could you/have you done it? I figure its the short term only, DF says to look at it like its a holiday... I would say yes absolutely if we were able to buy it and keep it as an investment to rent out after 6-12 months of living there, but with not quite 10% deposit i don't think we could get anyone to lend us the money, and i am not back at work till the end of Feb so we really couldn't boost our deposit until then.

Also, we aren't sure if we are under a lease, can anyone help us out? When our 12 month lease ran out in June the real estate sent us an email asking if we were going to sign another lease. We replied that we would think about it and get back to them, and then when the real estate changed to a new agency (the old one sold their business) we emailed the new agency with a list of outstanding requests including that we wished to sign a lease for another 12 months. They followed up one item on the email, but nothing else, or acknowledged our request to sign a new lease. We are a bit worried that as we haven't done anything formal the owners can return to australia and kick us out at any time with minimal notice? Or, that if we do find somewhere we want to move to that we are actually under a lease with our current house.

We live in a 2 bed unit at the moment and are moving to a house, it's just DH, DD1 and myself. Living in a unit is actually great, IF you have space to get away from it all. You might also not have a dining room in the unit, and much smaller bathroom and kitchens (potentially / likely no bath, just a shower). All things to consider when you have two kids. Will the unit have a courtyard for them to run around in, or are there grassed areas in the complex? If not, prepare for cabin fever. It's also a real pain having to go down to the laundry in the garage, instead of how it usually is with a house. Just some thoughts from a unit dweller...

It sounds like you are on a 'periodic lease', which means you and your lardlords can give two weeks (minimum) notice. Well, it might be longer in other states but I'm in QLD.

As for moving into a unit. I'd love to. Except we have a Labrador and we'd have to rehome her because she needs much more than a unit yard, which I don't know if I could do. Oh, plus my partner, who gets very irritated with neighbours and noise and pretty much any human behaviour outside of the house. :rolleyes: (make that an EXAGERATED EYE ROLL!)
I'd love the opportunity to save money, or to buy as a stepping stone and keep as an investment when we decide to move on a buy a house.

Thanks Maruschke, i will put them on my list of must haves! My favourite unit atm is across the road from a great park, and looks onto an oval, so i think that is looking good when you put in the swimming pool as well. I am ok with a smaller bathroom/kitchen, we only use one of our bathrooms at the moment and i feel like we only use a small section of our kitchen, the rest just gets constantly covered with stuff like DF's multitude of vitamins or the mail! I would love to get rid of our big dining set and get a much smaller table. I have been wondering where on earth you hang your washing though?

Oh ****e Indadhanu! I hope that is different for NSW, i might give them a call on Monday and check... There is no way we could move with 2 weeks notice! LOL at your DH, really doesn't sound like you could do it! We don't have any pets to worry about thanks to my mum instilling a deep fear of anything that can move on its own into me from an early age :)

A year ago, we moved from a 5 bedroom, two storey house (which was pretty big and had a reasonable sized yard) to a 3 bedroom apartment. It's not tiny, but obviously way smaller than the house!! I thought it would be really hard living in an apartment with 2 kids, but actually it's really good. We are lucky though that they still have plenty of room to play outside and we have two huge parks nearby too.

The big thing that I love is less cleaning. Seriously, vacuuming takes no time at all. Same with mopping. I love that!! We have next to no yard maintenance and we still have a yard and also a pool (which we also don't have to maintain). It's also secure, so we don't have to worry about being broken into, and I feel so much better here when I'm alone with the kids at night.

For us it has worked well. We found the right place I guess, but really, downsizing isn't that much of a problem. And if it's going to save you money so that you can get the place you really want sooner then what have you got to lose?

could i move into a 2 bed unit with 2 kids...hell no!! lol i enjoy having space around me!
if the house is causing u stress though i would move.
not an easy decision hun, best of luck making it
xxx

If you haven't signed a lease it actually works out better I think, as you will just be in a continuing lease agreement, therefore I believe they have to give you 60 days notice to vacate unless you are behind in rent etc. But check over your old lease......for that particular clause.....( the old lease still applies here)

We live in a three bedroom townhouse and we could definitely fit in a beautiful apartment with a pool. But dh and I need more space.... And he needs a yard for when I kick him out ;)

When we came back to Australia we had to give our tenants 60 days notice, because they were on a periodic lease (had not signed another 12 month lease after the original period) and the notice we had to give them was dictated by the tenancy board of Victoria. They could have left the lease with 2 weeks notice to us, but we had to give them more. It would have been even longer if we had not wanted to move back in ourselves. Your state's tenancy board will be able to tell you how much notice you will get.

As for moving from a large house to a small one, I have done it and it is not fantastic fun, but in the short term it is definitely do-able. Consider hiring a storage unit for your excess furniture and it will make the unit much more comfortable.

Washing is a real pain, we use a dryer for that very reason. Many unit complexes, especially the upmarket ones, have rules against having washing hung on the balcony or anywhere that can been seen from the road. Including my complex, doh! It makes it more expensive to use the dryer but the clothes just don't dry on an indoor line. You could have one of those folding metal things in your garage?

If you will be at home with the kids the whole time you live in a unit, it will work out fine to walk across the street to the park for an hour or so each day. Sounds like a nifty plan :D.

Have you considered putting stuff in storage for a while? And how big is the lounge room in the unit? We have family meals together each night, DH and I sit on the couch with our stable table thingies, and DD1 in her highchair, works great. So perhaps just a mini table and chairs for your eldest child?

Thanks for the advice everyone, traveller I hope it is two months, that's a bit more reasonable!

I don't think we would consider storage, I would rather get rid if heaps of stuff, I am kind of at the point of being ready to upgrade all of our student cheap buys and hand me downs and finally invest in some decent items.

But, to be really honest I woke up this morning thinking - screw you DF, I am not moving into a tiny unit because you can't be arsed mowing the lawn once a fortnight! Could have something to do with the way I was woken up though, he dumped the baby in bed screaming next to me and grunted that he was going out...

Moving is rather expensive, costs us about $1500 each way. If this is temporary, you will move twice in a year, so around $3k. A cleaner costs us $60/fn and only $40/month to get our lawns mowed. That's $160 a month for all cleaning and lawn maintenance, just under $2k a year, much cheaper to do that than to move :).

Wow, I am LOVING this argument! Will definately talk to DF about this!

I couldn't live in a unit - I like my house too much and the room.

We live in an apartment and have enjoyed it. It is very low maintenance and easy to clean. We have a big park nearby and that is key. We spend heaps of time in the park.

Nope, I could not go back to a 2br unit after living in our huge 5br house. We have only been living here for 6mths, but I just can't fathom going back toour little 2br unit! Though it wasn't too bad while we were there, now it just seems like we were nuts for living there with kids. Mind you we were on the 3rd floor with no lift. So bringing up two kids from down stairs or groceries was a nightmare. Also think about where you will store the pram and things like that. I would often leave our baby carrier down in the car and have to drag the kids down to get it, put them both in their carseats, put the carrier on, get the pram out of the car, strap DD into the pram and weave myself into wonderful positions to get DS into the baby carrier without any help or support of the bed or lounge (which is how I did it in the house!). Noise can also be an issue. Ther were many times I was trying to put one or theother of the kids to bed ans someone would start drilling or listening to some sort of dodgy music! As someone mentioned washing can be an issue, we were allowed one air dryer to be inconspicuously placed on our verandah, as long as it didn't detract from the appearance of the unit. So we used a dryer alot of the time too. Plus being on the top floor of our units, it got SOOO hot and we HAD to use an air con through summer, sometimes it was on 24/7. For me the common spaced were also an issue, as they weren't kept very clean (or up to my standards!) and the smells from other units wasn't too great either sometimes. People who smoked or were just not very clean, you could often smell, when I was pg with DS, I would have to hold my breath to get past some of the other units without puking! We had security door and a security gate on the garage too, but people who rented didn't give a toss and wouldoften damage things without thought or care and wouldn't tell anyone who or when they did it. Also there was almost always someone moving in or out of the place too, with trucks blocking our driveways. As well as tennant visitors blocking our garage or the driveway.

Positives though are, yes generally it's cheaper. It is alot easier to keep clean because the space is smaller and generally you wouldn't have as much stuff. I used to take my kids to the shops or a play centre or my mums to play and get out because we didn't have many nice parks close by. Our unit did have a fenced in yard to play in which was nice for a while, but then we got a different gardener and it just wasn't nicely kept or mown any more. You can hear the kids no matter where they are so don't have to be hunting them down every 5mins to make sure they're ok!

Maybe you could look at a town house or duplex? While it's a little cheaper in rent, there is more space, you'd have a little yard and you're not as on top of other people as you are in a unit!

I currently rent a really lovely 3 bedroom house with a huge nice backyard, gorgeous neighbours, a street away from the CBD, but I can barely afford food cause the rent is to expensive for me as a single studying mum. In January we are moving into a tiny 2 bedroom flat. This means I am going to be culling stuff before the move so we can fit in the flat, but thats ok, cause really, how much 'stuff' do we really need? I will be saving $170 each fortnight just in rent and lawn mowing!

I personally love living in units cause there is only a tiny space to clean and no yard to maintain LOL, yep I'm lazy

Well, i actually went and looked at one today and it was TINY! I can't believe how small the rooms were! Wow, i don't think there is any way we could possibly do this, the one i looked at was only $20 a week less in rent than our lovely house! DF is in a snot with me because i didn't think it was big enough, he hasn't actually been inside though. The main bedroom didn't even look like it would fit a queen size bed in it, it was so narrow it looked like a single room! It did have a walk in robe plus a bigger bathroom than the main one, but you wouldn't have been able to even walk around the bed once it was in place. I will go and check out another one on the weekend with DF, but i really don't see this happening.

We are currently living in a very small 3x1 unit/flat in a complex for 5 after living in houses...and after I had grown up in massive places with all the mod-cons.

It was a shock initially...but we very quickly realised that we own too much stuff and we don't need a lot of it to live happily, even in a small place.

We DO have a lot of parks near by, and P is in full time daycare, so that helps...she does go stir crazy in here.