If you have buyer's remorse

[Anonymous]

what would you attribute to it?

[Anonymous]

I am going out on a limb here......you regret the decision you made to purchase the property.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:what would you attribute to it?

Need more info... How long ago did you buy? etc.
Following a major decision, reassessment of your choice is normal. Why do you think you made the wrong choice?

[Anonymous]

We bought a house a few months ago and only recently started engaging in 'what if' discussions. We worry we overpaid or that we could have gotten more house if we chose a different area, etc. Most of the second guessing was forgetting how much housing is in this area. We really did get the house we liked the most at our preferred price point.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We bought a house a few months ago and only recently started engaging in 'what if' discussions. We worry we overpaid or that we could have gotten more house if we chose a different area, etc. Most of the second guessing was forgetting how much housing is in this area. We really did get the house we liked the most at our preferred price point.

Several months ago was THE BEST time to buy - you probably bought at the bottom. You were wise to buy then, assuming you didn't greatly overpay.
Of course you could have gone farther out and gotten more house. But you now are probably saving on transportation costs. Noticed how much gasoline costs have risen in the past couple of months? Your new yet smaller than possible house costs less to heat and cool.

Housing costs reflect the capacity of the earning ability of the population. Your investment is sound. Be grateful that you ' really did get the house we liked the most at our preferred price point.' The relative higher value of homes in the area you bought might positively enhance the earning potential of yourselves and your children-neighbors might provide opportunity to you and yours for career advancement that wouldn't be available farther out.
Your case of remorse is mild, and will probably soon fade.

[Anonymous]

NP here. Curious about what buyers remorse OP is talking about?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:NP here. Curious about what buyers remorse OP is talking about?

What things you regret the most?

[Anonymous]

Bought a condo in 2007 and have major remorse. The price has since dropped some, but not a ton, maybe 20-30K and we have put in maybe 10-15K in upgrades. So yes we have lost money. However money loss aside I'd still say that looking back I think buying a condo is the dumbest thing anyone can do. We planned on being there 5 years and we were but when we bought it we didn't look at how financially stupid it is to buy a place you know you won't be in longer than 5 years. You outgrow the space faster than planned, get hit with special assessments, have to deal with the HOA to do anything and so forth. Even if you can sell it for more you still have to pay a realtor fee and in the end walk away with no profit. Yes I would never recommend anyone buy a condo and regret that we didn't think it though the first time around.

[Anonymous]

I don't have buyer's remorse, though I occasionally wonder if I should have bought a house with fewer deferred maintenance issues. We're looking at a LOT of money in necessary upgrades in the next few years, and part of me wishes I could have bought a house with that stuff already done.

That said, we love our house, the neighborhood and the schools and we got a very good price on it. So I pretty much just suck it up.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I don't have buyer's remorse, though I occasionally wonder if I should have bought a house with fewer deferred maintenance issues. We're looking at a LOT of money in necessary upgrades in the next few years, and part of me wishes I could have bought a house with that stuff already done.

That said, we love our house, the neighborhood and the schools and we got a very good price on it. So I pretty much just suck it up.

we're in the same boat. i wonder if we could have bought a home that needed less work (lawn regrading, insulation, electrical, new rook in 3-5 yrs, new windows) have rationalized it by the fact that I beleive we got a very good price for the sq footage. Other homes in our neighborhood may have been better maintained, would have been less work on our part to upgrade things and cost less in out of pocket expenses, but they are also selling for 50-100K more and have less space. Hoping that in the long run we made a good decission.

[Anonymous]

paying too much for the property.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Bought a condo in 2007 and have major remorse. The price has since dropped some, but not a ton, maybe 20-30K and we have put in maybe 10-15K in upgrades. So yes we have lost money. However money loss aside I'd still say that looking back I think buying a condo is the dumbest thing anyone can do. We planned on being there 5 years and we were but when we bought it we didn't look at how financially stupid it is to buy a place you know you won't be in longer than 5 years. You outgrow the space faster than planned, get hit with special assessments, have to deal with the HOA to do anything and so forth. Even if you can sell it for more you still have to pay a realtor fee and in the end walk away with no profit. Yes I would never recommend anyone buy a condo and regret that we didn't think it though the first time around.

Not necessarily true. I bought a condo in '93, sold it in '06 and walked away with $165K. Not bad for a condo! But then again, I did have it for 13 years

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Bought a condo in 2007 and have major remorse. The price has since dropped some, but not a ton, maybe 20-30K and we have put in maybe 10-15K in upgrades. So yes we have lost money. However money loss aside I'd still say that looking back I think buying a condo is the dumbest thing anyone can do. We planned on being there 5 years and we were but when we bought it we didn't look at how financially stupid it is to buy a place you know you won't be in longer than 5 years. You outgrow the space faster than planned, get hit with special assessments, have to deal with the HOA to do anything and so forth. Even if you can sell it for more you still have to pay a realtor fee and in the end walk away with no profit. Yes I would never recommend anyone buy a condo and regret that we didn't think it though the first time around.

ITA. We are in the same position except that we bough in 2006, so we have lost about 50K on the condo.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Bought a condo in 2007 and have major remorse. The price has since dropped some, but not a ton, maybe 20-30K and we have put in maybe 10-15K in upgrades. So yes we have lost money. However money loss aside I'd still say that looking back I think buying a condo is the dumbest thing anyone can do. We planned on being there 5 years and we were but when we bought it we didn't look at how financially stupid it is to buy a place you know you won't be in longer than 5 years. You outgrow the space faster than planned, get hit with special assessments, have to deal with the HOA to do anything and so forth. Even if you can sell it for more you still have to pay a realtor fee and in the end walk away with no profit. Yes I would never recommend anyone buy a condo and regret that we didn't think it though the first time around.

Not necessarily true. I bought a condo in '93, sold it in '06 and walked away with $165K. Not bad for a condo! But then again, I did have it for 13 years

the key point being you sold in '06. A market like that will never happen again.

That said we are holding onto our condo and renting it out in hopes that at some point we can sell and hopefully not lose any money. A profit would be nice, but at this point we are happy with breaking even. Still we have a good chunk of money in the form of the downpayment that is being tied up in the condo and we will be responsible for sinking more money into it if any issues arrise.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Bought a condo in 2007 and have major remorse. The price has since dropped some, but not a ton, maybe 20-30K and we have put in maybe 10-15K in upgrades. So yes we have lost money. However money loss aside I'd still say that looking back I think buying a condo is the dumbest thing anyone can do. We planned on being there 5 years and we were but when we bought it we didn't look at how financially stupid it is to buy a place you know you won't be in longer than 5 years. You outgrow the space faster than planned, get hit with special assessments, have to deal with the HOA to do anything and so forth. Even if you can sell it for more you still have to pay a realtor fee and in the end walk away with no profit. Yes I would never recommend anyone buy a condo and regret that we didn't think it though the first time around.

On the other hand, if you had rented for the entire time, say $1200/month, $14.4K per year, now, you would have spent about $60K on rent over that time, you would have had limitations in what you could do with the home and you'd still be out that $60K (f there were no rent increases for 5 years, and who's had that?) Your out about $40-50K right now if you were to sell today, but you could have been out more in rent alone (and $1200 would not get a place in most parts of the DC metro area). That also does not include any mortgage and tax deductions that you've taken over those years.

I'm in a similar boat, but while I lament the fact that our home has dropped a lot in value, I also like the perks of home ownership and think that owning a home in the declining market is still better than having just thrown that money away in rent for the last 6 years.