I have a question for my fellow mustachians! I'm posting this as a poll because as a lurker, I often have an opinion, but rarely post. I'd like a large response group with or without a post and am hoping that a poll will help increase responses.
The Query:
Should we upgrade from our current 3 bed 2 bath home to a 4 bed 4 bath home?
Current home:
Pros
-Inexpensive relative to HHI
-On acreage
-Close to favorite resteraunts, event centers, and work
-Pretty much have it updated to our tastes
Cons
-All bedrooms are on different levels (lots of stairs for kids and they're on different levels)
-Missing a feature we like (mountain access, waterfront access, etc)
-Custom home with a few features that require regular, expensive upkeep ($1-2k/year over a similar sized home)
Hedonistic home:
Pros
-Specialty property (think mountain,waterfront access)
-Multiple bedrooms on the same floor
-Extraordinarily close to our favorite trail and state park
--This is a *big* bonus; I've ran over 2k miles on this trail, so being closer would be great
Cons
-Expensive relative to current house
-Property taxes would double ($3-6k)
-Smaller lot (still a *big* lot by most standards, but my dog would have neighbors)
-Any illusion of stealth wealth would be gone
-300ish sq.ft. larger than our current place (more cleaning/maintenance indoors)
Good job if you've made it this far!
The financials:
Current home value ~$280k, hedonistic home asking is $570k. ( I wouldn't buy for more than $550k)
HHI ~$250k ( 5 year average, low of $225k, high of $270k)
Net worth excluding current residence: ~$400k
Very little cash on hand (all in retirement accounts), probably $50-60k in home equity. We are ~30 with 1 toddler; would like at least 1, maybe 2-3 more children. The big drive for looking is the desire to move into this property type-we live in an area where we can afford it (at least at some point in time) and want to try it. My wife grew up with this property type and loved it. Basically, we can afford to buy a "vacation" type home and still have a reasonable 15 minute commute and feel like it would be crazy to not take advantage. We live in a very LCOL; our current home is larger and nicer than average.
I feel like we will be able to do this in the future and lean to postponing, but I know I can sometimes be too conservative. We have basically brute forced our net worth up by $100k/year since joining the workforce. ($145k in debt pay off and building a $400k+ portfolio in that time) Let me know your thoughts!
Go for it!
So, I'm a bit of a terrible OP, since it's been weeks and I haven't given any of the posters who were gracious enough to weigh in an update. I've just been super busy closing on our new place.
Hah, just kidding. So, like I said originally, I was leaning towards staying at our current place and this did help affirm that is probably the best plan. A couple very good points did come up that I hadn't considered: what if future child had disabilities and needed handicapped accessible home, future child costs being more than anticipated, etc.
AirBNB wouldn't be the worst idea, but my wife would be 100% against it and our local hotel union/guild was able to get a city ordinance passed that they are technically outlawed. How they would enforce that, I'm not sure.
I tried to really drill down to *why* this property was appealing to us and I think that it is that desire of freedom that most (everyone?) on this board is chasing. The freedom to easily go for a boat ride pretty much any time of the day or jump on our favorite trail. Which, typed out, sounds dumb (higher debt, higher payments=/freedom), but also makes moving forward at our current place easier.
I think there is a bit of restlessness right now for us; a desire for change. Thank you for your thoughts and insight!