Smaller home good/bad first step on the ladder?

Yorkie1

Sounds nice

jake_jones99

Herzlos said:

That sounds like a great house, so I certainly wouldn't wait around in case something better comes along. 

Plus, 70m^2 isn't exactly tiny. My first house was 50. 

Thanks. Thinking retrospectively, do you think it would have been better in your case to not get the smaller house first? 

Herzlos

jake_jones99 said:

Herzlos said:

That sounds like a great house, so I certainly wouldn't wait around in case something better comes along. 

Plus, 70m^2 isn't exactly tiny. My first house was 50. 

Thanks. Thinking retrospectively, do you think it would have been better in your case to not get the smaller house first? 

My case I don't think entirely applies here, but at the time I paid about 20% more to take 2 bed house over a 1 bed flat. But that's a bit of comparing apples to oranges and mostly to get stuff your house has. 

If I'd bought smaller I'd have had more money and moved into a bigger place sooner, but the 2nd room also meant we weren't forced to buy bigger when my girlfriend moved in and we had kids. 

I will add though that no matter what size house you get, if you're not careful you'll expand and fill it with stuff anyway. 

I can't see you have any problems with the 'small' house; its bigger than a lot of people have. Would a bigger one be a better investment? Maybe, but I don't think it'll give you a better quality of life given that you seem to really like the first one and the location is great. 

jake_jones99

Herzlos said:

jake_jones99 said:

Herzlos said:

That sounds like a great house, so I certainly wouldn't wait around in case something better comes along. 

Plus, 70m^2 isn't exactly tiny. My first house was 50. 

Thanks. Thinking retrospectively, do you think it would have been better in your case to not get the smaller house first? 

My case I don't think entirely applies here, but at the time I paid about 20% more to take 2 bed house over a 1 bed flat. But that's a bit of comparing apples to oranges and mostly to get stuff your house has. 

If I'd bought smaller I'd have had more money and moved into a bigger place sooner, but the 2nd room also meant we weren't forced to buy bigger when my girlfriend moved in and we had kids. 

I will add though that no matter what size house you get, if you're not careful you'll expand and fill it with stuff anyway. 

I can't see you have any problems with the 'small' house; its bigger than a lot of people have. Would a bigger one be a better investment? Maybe, but I don't think it'll give you a better quality of life given that you seem to really like the first one and the location is great. 

"If I'd bought smaller I'd have had more money and moved into a bigger place sooner" I guess that logic applies to anyone at any time. If you live in a one-bed flat until retirement, you'd probably then move in a palace because you saved more. But then again you will have lived most of your life in a flat. 
Thanks for sharing your thoughts!

Herzlos

Yeah it's very much a "how long is a piece of string?" question, where there's no real answer. 

I guess the bigger question is, which do you think you'll regret more in the future:

A. Buying this place and needing to move at some point or

B. Passing up on this place for a sightly bigger one.

To put mine in a bit more perspective, I bought the 2 bed when I was single, about 5 years later my now-wife moved in and we've had 2 kids, only moving to a bigger house as the oldest is 10 and needs more space.
If I bought the 1- bed, I'd have likely had to move when my wife moved in. After those 5 years I probaby wouldn't have the equity to have bought a house as big as this one so we'd have likely moved again 10 years after that. 

But that doesn't really apply to you as the house you're looking at is slightly bigger than the 2 bed I upgraded to.

Myci85

No one knows what will happen tomorrow. It sounds like you really like this place and it ticks all your boxes so I'd go for it. There's no knowing what the future may bring, yes you may end up with a partner/kids, but what if they don't want to move in with you and want you to move in with them, or you both decide to relocate somewhere mutual?
 
It seems silly to miss out on a house that sounds perfect for now, just in case something else you've not yet seen might be better for a hypothetical future that may not happen.