Hello,
I'm not quite ready to buy a home, but I may when my lease ends if I'm confident I'll be here for a while (though that's not for a long while).
I don't really need to do all the planning now for this, but I figure, I'm here right now, why not ask. So:
1. How big of a house? There's not really 1 bedroom 1 bathroom houses around. So 2 bedroom 2 bath? 3 bedroom 2 bath? 3 and 3? The additional bedrooms would mean I'm renting them out. I could do something like include utilities and charge $500 or so for a bedroom and bathroom. Maybe even $550 depending on how much prices inflate by then. Or maybe even more if it's a newer home.
2. Take a mortgage or not? There's a good chance I'd be able to put 100% down by then, but is that the smart move? Should I take the mortgage and put 20% down? Keep the other money in investments?
3. Where exactly? I live in a small town (one grocery store, one liquor store, a few bars, and one church), but there's a bigger city (with a hospital, a pretty big library, normal stores like Walmart and Target, several restaurants, normal city stuff) about 20 miles away. Prices are slightly cheaper in the city, but with the commute it pretty much kills any difference and then some. There's also another town about 25 miles in the other direction, which is similar to here (except even more remote because it's even farther from the city), that could be an option, but it has no apparent advantages.
4. Will the market be strong enough? It seems to me that women are more likely to want to have the house, men are less likely to care. This town is mostly single men in their 20s and 30s.
5. How old a place? Pretty much everything in this town will either be more than 100 years old or less than 15 years old. Nothing much inbetween that. There's more of a range in the city.
My big concerns are that I live in one of those towns where everyone works for the same employer. If they don't they're related to someone who does. There no market for housing here except for employees of one company. If my company cuts jobs then I'm stuck with a house in the middle of no where with no jobs around where no one wants to live. The other thing, I don't like living here. I'm here because the company pays very well, but if I could find similar pay elsewhere I'd be gone. And if I wasn't working here (so when I retire, hopefully young), I wouldn't live here.
For prices, right now in this town I can see:
110K for a 2 bed 2 bath condo built in 2002
130K for a 5 bed 1 bath house built in 1909 (looks well maintained, but considering the pay here I'm thinking very few will be inclined to share a bathroom with 5 people, so it will be hard to rent out those rooms, and 105 years old is pretty old)
140K for a 3 bed 2.5 bath condo built in 1998 (looks like of like a dump though)
170K for a 2 bed 2.5 bath condo built in 2008 (and absolutely beautiful, looks VERY nice - this could definitely rent for more than other places)
180K for a 3 bed 2.5 bath house built in 2000
In the city:
95K for a 2 bed 2 bath condo built in 1987
115K for a 2 bed 2 bath condo built in 2001 (much nicer than the 95K one, and in a better location)
Literally dozens of 3 bed 2.5-3 bath houses built in 2000-something for 165-185K.
205K for a 4 bed 2.5 bath house built 2005
205K for a 3 bed 3 bath house with some land (like 1/3 of an acre) and beautiful, built in 1998 but with all new appliances
225K for a 6 bed 4 bath multi-family house, built 1988, 2800 sqft. Location is good and house is big but looks kind of dumpy.
Just to give an idea of the prices I'm looking at.
Any advice? Again though, this won't be for a while.
