How long did you/will you spend in your first home?

Mortgage_Moog

x-caitlin-x wrote: »

We haven't bought yet so maybe I shouldn't be answering, but my plan when we do buy (later 2017/early 2018 is the target) is to find somewhere that we could be happy in for 10+ years. We've got 2 kids already so we'll be looking for a family home rather than a typical starter home, and I've no interest in moving about every few years. I'm looking forward to finally feeling settled and getting some stability!

That's how I felt when I was planning but within days of moving in I started thinking of when I'd be moving next. Not because I don't like it but because the whole process was a lot easier than everyone made out and I realised it's not such a massive deal to move home so long as you're prepared.

Mortgage_Moog

Quizzical_Squirrel wrote: »

I think it all boils down to the fact that renting, in the short term anyway, is cheaper than buying.

My home and its immediate setting, not just the location, are incredibly important to me since I'm at home so much.

When I rent, I can afford my perfect house with a land setting ideal for me.

When I buy, I can only afford one or the other. The perfect house or the perfect immediate setting.
I can't afford both without taking on a money pit and I'm not comfortable with that in this economic climate.

But I can rent that money pit, house and land, and it doesn't matter to me that it will soon need a new 50K roof or there's some other issue whose expensive remediation is keeping the landlord up at night. Not my problem.

When I have bought, I've had no choice but to compromise on either house or land. I've always chosen the house as the priority but have come to learn that no matter how spectacular it is, a cage is never going to feel like home to me. Outside the cage matters more.

That's what I'm trying to apply to my next home purchase as I hunt.
I'm finding it very hard to turn my back on fabulous houses with compromised settings but I've learned the hard way where my priority should lie.
I hope I get it right this time. This time it really matters.

This sounds like the position I'm in. I could either have rented where I really wanted or bought 5 miles down the road and be paying half as much each month on a mortgage than I would have on rent. I decided to buy because although I sometimes have to drive 10 to 20 minutes further home than is ideal, it'll be worth it in as little as 8 months from now when I'll be in a position to start moving back to the area I was living before.

Next time I'll be buying there and not renting so I see this next 8 to 12 months as a kind of holiday that I'll look back on in years to come and be glad that I made the sacrifice. I may rent again in the short term (6 months) to avoid being in a chain.

I've struck lucky with my first place. I couldn't have asked for a better seller, estate agent or anything. It was all done up just 3 years back so nothing needs doing while I'm here and even if it did then it's leasehold so the cost is shared between 6 flats with the option of paying over 3 years if any work that needs doing costs more than £1000.

casper_g

When we bought our first place (about 5 years ago) we waited until we could afford a newly-refurbished three bedroom house that we wouldn't outgrow in a hurry - e.g. as the family grew. Waiting wasn't a problem as our rent was relatively low and we were able to save good money every month. We looked at places that needed work, but when we found somewhere that was already done to our taste it made sense to buy it. As we both work hard in jobs with decent pay it wouldn't make sense to spend our time doing work that could more conveniently be done by others prior to moving in!

In the end we sold and bought a new place after three years due to relocating. The house sold easily as it was still in shiny "newly refurbished" condition. We were lucky that the price had risen about 40% in three years, partly due to the general market conditions and partly due to a significant improvement in local transport links in the time we'd been there.

cloo

I stayed in my first home for 4 years, then let it for over 8 years because my (then future) husband didn't want to live in the area. Would have happily remained in that house and area the whole time personally, as it would have been much less expensive and we could have moved to somewhere larger sooner, but neither do I regret moving to the next property.

DanceOrDino

We've just bought a house way better than we thought we could afford. We borrowed a bit from the Hubby's parents to fund it, but not much. So we're aiming to stay there for as long as we can!

AylesburyDuck

22 years and counting...

*BigBird*

9.5 years, until the addition of 2 kids and me working from home meant we were getting a bit snug in our 3 bed house. We moved to a 4 bed with study at the end of last year and that's us done unless we want to downsize in the future.

clockworks_2

Bought my first place in Sept 2009 2 bed flat ( got married ) and then moved into our current place in March 2013 a very big 3 bed 2 bathroom bungalow.

2 kids later we're looking to move now into a 5 bedroom house. Hope to stay here a minimum of 5 years.

MobileSaver

Quizzical_Squirrel wrote: »

When you buy or let historic grade II* listed houses

Ah, so not a normal residential property then; it almost goes without saying that you'll be out of pocket if you buy a listing building.

Starchaser

I bought my first place just over a year ago. It's a 2-bed semi-detached starter home in a modern-ish village just outside of the nearest town. Planning to live here a total of 5 to 10 years then get something bigger.

I could've got a larger mortgage and bought a bigger place straight away but financially this house makes so much sense. Bills are pretty low, area is nice with a good balance of peace and quiet and plenty of social life in easy reach. It is a 20-minute drive to work but I don't mind that at all (gives me time to wake up :rotfl:). The only real downside, if I wanted to be really picky, is that the house doesn't have much character as it's reasonably modern.

All in all my current place is a great bachelor pad whilst I'm single but if I ever do the whole marriage and kids thing it'd definitely be too small (in fact their growing family was the only reason the previous owners sold).

In any case I certainly don't view this as my forever home - in a perfect world that'd be a rural farm house with a small bit of land . Maybe one day...