If you have a high(ish) budget/income but no desire to maintain a large home

[Anonymous]

What is your housing situation or what do you aspire your housing situation to be. We will send our youngest to college in a couple years and our house just feels like a tiresome obligation to me. It has served us well during the kids childhood and I am so thankful, but it’s going to need updates eventually (kitchen, baths, floors, paint, yardwork beyond normal maintenance) and it just sounds so exhausting to me.

I don’t want a small condo - I still want my kids to have a comfortable space to be when they come home, at least until they are full established/working/done with grad school/etc.

We came from a townhome before this house. I didn’t like the vertical living or the lack of privacy on our deck or the lack of guest parking.

So I think we are stuck with single family but I want smaller but still in a nice area. Does this even exist?

[Anonymous]

Very large condo?

[Anonymous]

Townhome, but we are in one with plenty of "guest parking" that backs to woods/park.

[Anonymous]

Ha! I think a lot of homeowners feel like you. I know I do.

Perhaps the solution is to outsource as much of the regular house chores as possible, so you have some bandwidth left over for the infrequent repairs and renos.

[Anonymous]

It exists, but takes some searching. We recently downsized to a 2k square foot sfh, 2bd, 2bath. The first floor is basically one big room with kitchen/living/dining with lots and lots of windows, and downstairs are the two bedrooms and small den a big bathroom and tiny laundry room. Surrounded by several acres of woods and a big garden (which I’m hoping to learn to grow things in this year).

We love it. But the search was long.

[Anonymous]

We decided to take a break from home owning for that reason and rent a large apartment that we love. We can afford to have the nicest apartment in the building so we have beautiful views and high end service. It has three bedrooms and three and a half baths, so works out fine when kids come home. The lack of any maintenance is a big plus (if something goes wrong just tell them to fix it). We will probably buy something at some point later but it has been a great break and also had the benefit of downsizing our stuff and giving us a fresh perspective.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We decided to take a break from home owning for that reason and rent a large apartment that we love. We can afford to have the nicest apartment in the building so we have beautiful views and high end service. It has three bedrooms and three and a half baths, so works out fine when kids come home. The lack of any maintenance is a big plus (if something goes wrong just tell them to fix it). We will probably buy something at some point later but it has been a great break and also had the benefit of downsizing our stuff and giving us a fresh perspective.

Where are you located? That's a very large apartment. Nice!

[Anonymous]

There are still 2500 ft.² single family homes this area. If money is not an object, you can easily find a three or four bedroom home (colonial, split level, etc.) in Vienna Oakton McLean that are on the smaller sides. Many of them have been added onto over the years and may have a main level living suite, and if they don’t, it sounds like money is no object so you could easily do that.

[Anonymous]

We have a 2500 sq ft all-brick SFH in Rockville that was custom-built by the previous (original) owners. It is a rambler with a partial finished basement but everything is on the main level so I can spend weeks without having to go downstairs. The layout is excellent and makes full use of the space.

[Anonymous]

Penthouse style apartment? You can get very large one floor apartments that are decked out and come with a lot of amenities.

[Anonymous]

Look for new construction with the features you want, a lot which gives you the level of privacy you want, and budget for help with cleaning, maintenance, and yard work so you don't need to deal with those aspects of home ownership.

[Anonymous]

There are smaller older houses in this area OP.

We currently own a 2000 sq ft sfh in Silver Spring. You can find them more easily in the not as good school districts.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:There are smaller older houses in this area OP.

We currently own a 2000 sq ft sfh in Silver Spring. You can find them more easily in the not as good school districts.

+1

Here is one in Annandale

https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/8112-Accotink-Dr-Annandale-VA-22003/51841811_zpid/

[Anonymous]

Move to CA. There are plenty of 3/2 bed/bath 1500-2000 square feet homes with small yards that have really good flow and are in really good areas. They run around 2.5 - 3.5 M.

[Anonymous]

We bought in close-in Bethesda 10 years ago, and completely redid our small(ish) house - 4 BR, 3.5 BR, about 2500 sq feet. Our contractor and realtor pushed us to add another BR and more space, but we didn't need it, and figured that a place like this is perfect for small families or people looking to downsize. But, the catch is that it's also perfect for us when our one child goes to college, so we may end up staying.