Talk me out of: Buying a riverfront dream home ;-/

[Jacob F]

Hi there!

we're having a legit Mustachian problem. My wife (32) and I (29) are looking for a house that we would like to spend a long long time living in. My wife currently owns a house that would normally satisfy all our needs (1600 Square Feet) but it has a very small yard and we both love being near a body of water and have more land to roam around. I enjoy gardening and fishing and we both love the outdoors. We're looking to have (eventually 2) kids starting about one year from now.
Now, we're looking into buying a house that would be our dream house, but would also cost slightly north of 300k in our LCOL. It's directly located on a nice river and has some good land around, 2700 sf, good school district. The new house is likely further away from work for me (45 Minutes commute instead of 25 minutes now) and a little closer for her (15 minutes then and 25 now). I think that's still doable and I have a fairly economical car already. Plus I don't want to work forever :D

Our current house would become our first rental property as a consequence (market Value 135k) - hope to rent out for around 1000 a month / returning 550 Dollars after mortgage interest.
The fundamentals: We're both enjoying good employers, good salaries (Total Gross around 170k/a, me 100 and her 70), high savings rate of around 75-80% after taxes. Net Worth of 650k USD at this point.
We've set the goal to retire with around 1 mio in invested assets and a paid off house so that we would have 40k to live off of.
What's your opinion? Anyone made experiences with riverfront properties? What should I pay attention to? Should we put it off and wait till we hit FI first?  Please talk us out of this :D Facepunches welcome, words of affirmation as well.

Thanks,
Jacob

[JLee]

2700sq ft is a lot of house.  How long of a trip is it to visit the river from where you currently live?

[AZDude]

Pay cash and enjoy. Make sure you negotiate hard since you are a cash customer.

[Gone Fishing]

When you have children, you will have an ever present drowning hazard in your yard.

Research previous flood history.  Does it require flood insurance?  If so, be sure to add that your expenses.

[Sibley]

You are not going to be able relax any time the kids are outside. Ever. "They're good swimmers" won't cut it, neither will "they're old enough to know better or not do something stupid", because that doesn't happen until after they've moved out. And that's aside from getting flooded out plus having to pay flood insurance.

Stick with the house you have and make use of parks, etc.

[soupcxan]

Pay cash and enjoy. Make sure you negotiate hard since you are a cash customer.

Unless you are in a super-hot market, sellers don't care that you are paying cash.

[crispy]

We just ditched our 2700 sf house because we wasted a ton of space, and it was expensive to maintain.  It was a burden and not a blessing to us.  We also bought before having kids so we just knew we would need the space, but we were wrong.  Our girls share a room by choice, and we ended up with rooms that were empty about 90% of the time. We downsized to a little over 1500 sf a few months back and feel so much better.

You know your situation better than anyone, but I would definitely think hard about what you actually need before pulling the trigger.

[Bearded Man]

Sounds like a clear case of lifestyle inflation. I say no. You are looking at it as an emotional, pleasure decision, not an investment decision.

[WorkingToUnwind]

You are not going to be able relax any time the kids are outside. Ever. "They're good swimmers" won't cut it, neither will "they're old enough to know better or not do something stupid", because that doesn't happen until after they've moved out. And that's aside from getting flooded out plus having to pay flood insurance.

Stick with the house you have and make use of parks, etc.

I live on a pond and the neighbors have kids aged 5+. They spend all day in the summer playing in kayaks, fishing, paddleboarding, etc. They wear life jackets and the parents keep an eye on them from the yard and the kids have a blast. It looks like an awesome childhood. Talk to anyone who grew up on the water. It's the best.

[Tjat]

I agree that growing up on the water is great. How's it any more dangerous than kids playing in the street?

From a financial perspective, decide if needing to work longer is worth the luxury of the house. If it would really provide you a ton of happiness, and you can afford it, why not? This is especially true if you can reasonably expect your income to continue to rise. On the other hand, if your goal is to be a minimalist in a small house and stop working once you've accumulated the minimum to exist in this lifestyle, then no, it's probably not the best idea.

[The_path_less_taken]

I mean you no disrespect, but I always open these "talk me out of it" threads already frowning.

Because...just the working title indicates that you wanna.

Because you're here means you probably have the $$$ to do it.

So it really boils down to what priorities are most important to you, deep down.

How the heck am I gonna know that? I personally am a devout hedonist. My philosophy doesn't jive 100% with MMM in that if it is important enough to me, I will find the money to make it work.

Example: I could save a shit ton of money living in town. Ain't gonna happen until I'm too old and decrepit to play with livestock....I love having a horse out back. I love that the coyotes are in my yard calling to me. That wild mustangs rub up against the back fence. I love that I can pick fruit from my own trees and eat eggs from my own chickens.

So it is worth it, to me. No one could talk me out of it.

If I were into fishing and wanted the land I'd buy the house. Sorry if I'm no help but I think that life is short and things that really 'matter' to you should be factored in high up on your to do list.

The kid safety thing: when they're small, fence. But I'd teach them to swim at a few months....I've seen babies swimming in pools. I'd force them to wear life jackets if the river is any kind of current.

People die falling in the bath tub. I'd follow my heart.