Almost Bought A House, But Didn't

[Aloysius_Poutine]

This is my brag: I avoided a huge money pit.

Small but growing family living in a low cost condo ($1100/month) close to work and all amenities.

We've been casually house shopping for the last 6 months. Fell in love with a FSBO 1914 character house.

Made an offer, it got accepted. Did the inspection, got the financing. We were about to sign everything when I facepunched myself.

We were going to buy the house ($525,000 - a good deal for my area) with 5% down.
Monthly payments on the mortgage alone (not to mention utilities and maintenance) would be $2300/mo.

With property tax, utilities, repairs & mtce, etc, I would've been paying over $3000/mo for housing for the next 25 years.

I was so close to signing the deal because I fell in love with the house.

So now, I have totally stepped back. We'll stay in the condo and keep saving 50% of our incomes. I really like feeling rich - even though I'm not yet. When I buy a house it will be a much smarter option - with a 2 bedroom suite in the basement probably. And I'll have more to put down on it. If I do it strategically in this expensive market (west coast canada), I can own a house and pay less per month than I do in my condo.

Today I am celebrating the big bullet I just dodged.

[imustachemystash]

Wow!  Your story is my story last year.  Our family of 4 lives in a condo for 1200/mo (including HOA dues and tax).  Last summer we looked at a gorgeous home on 1 acre of land for $535,000.  We didn't get it though because of the money plus all the time we would have to spend on the yard, and the house was so big we would have to buy more stuff to fill it!  Since we didn't go through with it we were able to save $70,000 last year.
Here's what we plan to do in the future...  Since we have 2 boys sharing a room we figured it would be cheaper to rent out our condo and our family will rent out a house with an extra room for a few years when they are teenagers so they will have their own room.  Then when they are in college, we can either move back into our condo, or buy a small place somewhere else.

P.S. Since we didn't buy the house I was able to talk my husband into going to Costa Rica for a whole month in July!

Thanks for sharing your story.  It's nice to know there are others out there like us.

[arebelspy]

Congrats to both of you for avoiding that!

I know that can be a big draw that is really tempting. I firmly believe remaining in smaller housing was a big contributor to my wife and my early FI.

So many people have stories of getting trapped into a large house payments and not being able to save that much. You guys investing the difference will be quite ahead of the game.

Also a month in Costa Rica?  I'm jealous!  :)

[Mrs.LC]

The mistake people make is thinking a "house" will make a "home"  If the house stretches your budget and causes stress it will never become that home. Good decision to not buy!

[Aloysius_Poutine]

^too true! I'll share that thought with my wife.

^^ I'm glad to hear you are better off financially a year later. We both dodged a huge bullet!

Big thanks to MMM for his "how to buy a house" article and the philosophy of Mustachianism in general! I treated myself to Tim Hortons this morning as a reward for saving half a million bucks plus interest. Hahaha!

[EllieStan]

This is my brag: I avoided a huge money pit.

Small but growing family living in a low cost condo ($1100/month) close to work and all amenities.

We've been casually house shopping for the last 6 months. Fell in love with a FSBO 1914 character house.

Made an offer, it got accepted. Did the inspection, got the financing. We were about to sign everything when I facepunched myself.

We were going to buy the house ($525,000 - a good deal for my area) with 5% down.
Monthly payments on the mortgage alone (not to mention utilities and maintenance) would be $2300/mo.

With property tax, utilities, repairs & mtce, etc, I would've been paying over $3000/mo for housing for the next 25 years.

I was so close to signing the deal because I fell in love with the house.

So now, I have totally stepped back. We'll stay in the condo and keep saving 50% of our incomes. I really like feeling rich - even though I'm not yet. When I buy a house it will be a much smarter option - with a 2 bedroom suite in the basement probably. And I'll have more to put down on it. If I do it strategically in this expensive market (west coast canada), I can own a house and pay less per month than I do in my condo.

Today I am celebrating the big bullet I just dodged.

Wow! I'm curious, did you have any trouble convincing your spouse, while you were so close to signing the final papers? Or you were the one who initially fell in love with the house and wanted to stretch your budget in order to purchase it?

Congratulations to both of you for this wise decision!

[Aloysius_Poutine]

^Both my spouse and I (frugal savers) fell in love with the place. It was perfect for us - it even had a small rentable bachelor suite. It backed onto a 40 acre park and had a protected salmon-bearing stream in the backyard. It was a quarter acre lot and only 2.5 miles to work and all shopping. It was almost PERFECT, except for one fact: we can't afford it! It's the plain and simple truth.

I still want a house one day, but I'm a firm believer in abundance. There is always a perfect house out there when the timing is right for you.

[dess1313]

Good reflexes!  It would have have been a beautiful rock firmly attached to both feet like cement shoes

Keep up your 50% savings and another opportunity will come along at a better time.  With prices like that its hard to get into the housing market