When you bought your house--what did you compromise on?

[Anonymous]

You compromise on the things you can change.

You cannot change the location or the type of lot (18 steps up from the street, steep grade, down a hill so basement floods).

Most other things-- even curb appeal with a creative architect who knows how to do front entrances/embellishments-- can be changed, eventually.

We went for location location location first and foremost, which meant both easy commute and great school. We got curb appeal too (pretty rowhouse in old neighborhood).

We compromised on the interior cosmetics. The kitchen countertops, appliances, and floors are not really to our taste and tough to clean. The wiring could use a makeover because all of the lightbulbs blow far too soon; our bathroom is in the hallway instead of "en suite," and we'll put $$ into changing that in a couple of years, the outlets aren't in the right places, some of the light fixtures are dated, and the basement is configured sort of weirdly. All of these things are largely cosmetic. We also sacrificed a main floor powder room, which many people would find unacceptable. But the house is 80 years old and that's how it used to be. We'll build it when we have the money, which is not right now.

We got our non-negotiable location and school, huge MBR with lots of light, nice BR for daughter, and some bonus items too. We got close to the cheapest house in our neighborhood because we really wanted to live there. That meant accepting that our back windows are going to have to be replaced,

Long story long, you can change almost anything about your house whether with interior re-modeling, an addition, paint, whatever. You can't change where it is. I would choose your favorite location and get whatever you can there as long as you get enough bathrooms and bedrooms. Also don't commit to an unliveable fixer upper, or a place that you find absolutely ugly now, because you have to like wher eyou are.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You compromise on the things you can change.

You cannot change the location or the type of lot (18 steps up from the street, steep grade, down a hill so basement floods).

Most other things-- even curb appeal with a creative architect who knows how to do front entrances/embellishments-- can be changed, eventually.

We went for location location location first and foremost, which meant both easy commute and great school. We got curb appeal too (pretty rowhouse in old neighborhood).

We compromised on the interior cosmetics. The kitchen countertops, appliances, and floors are not really to our taste and tough to clean. The wiring could use a makeover because all of the lightbulbs blow far too soon; our bathroom is in the hallway instead of "en suite," and we'll put $$ into changing that in a couple of years, the outlets aren't in the right places, some of the light fixtures are dated, and the basement is configured sort of weirdly. All of these things are largely cosmetic. We also sacrificed a main floor powder room, which many people would find unacceptable. But the house is 80 years old and that's how it used to be. We'll build it when we have the money, which is not right now.

We got our non-negotiable location and school, huge MBR with lots of light, nice BR for daughter, and some bonus items too. We got close to the cheapest house in our neighborhood because we really wanted to live there. That meant accepting that our back windows are going to have to be replaced,

Long story long, you can change almost anything about your house whether with interior re-modeling, an addition, paint, whatever. You can't change where it is. I would choose your favorite location and get whatever you can there as long as you get enough bathrooms and bedrooms. Also don't commit to an unliveable fixer upper, or a place that you find absolutely ugly now, because you have to like wher eyou are.

In general I would agree with this, but sometimes buying a house does require compromising on things that cannot be changed. In our case, for example, I can honestly say that we love everything about our house and neighborhood except we compromised on one thing: the house doesn't have a garage. (It does have a paved driveway.) We bought in a close-in neighborhood where about half the houses have a one-car garage and half have either driveways or no off-street parking at all. We liked the house itself, plus it is close to metro, good schools, etc.--basically everything we wanted except for the garage issue. I really really wish I had a garage , but I can easily live with our decision with no regrets nonetheless because it was the only thing on our wish-list we didn't get.

[Anonymous]

We gave up our old neighbors Can't BUY that!

[Anonymous]

We bought a 3BR/2BA in Arlington and compromised on closet space. But most of the houses in our price range had no closet space, so we came to the conclusion that if we kept looking for a few more months, we probably still wouldn't be able to find anything with that much more storage space. So, ultimately, we made an offer on our house because we liked everything else and it was in our price range. Some days the lack of closet space still bugs me, although I do find that it makes me think twice before buying new clothes that I don't really need.

[Anonymous]

I bought a townhouse instead of a single-family house. No garage. No fireplace. I'm in Fairfax, when I'd rather be in Arlington, though I'm still walking distance to metro. There's 2.5 baths, but only one of those is on the bedroom level, so I have to share with my kid. And the kitchen is large, but has very limited counter space and storage. The community doesn't have amenities like a pool. And it's needed some work over the years, as it's 30+ years old.

I can live with that stuff 'cause I bought early enough that the mortgage is low. That said, I'll have to move in a few years because the high school district we're in is *not* very good! (I didn't know this, going in.)

[Anonymous]

It is really funny that most of these responses appear to be from people who live inside the Beltway.

We also live inside the Beltway b/c we were not willing to compromise on location - needed to be within a reasonable commute for both of us.

A surprise that we did not expect from moving into a more established community VS going into a newer community which many of our friends / family did. Our observation is that older communities have greater diversity in age of families/neighbors. We have found this to be really nice as it eliminates some of the "keeping up with the Jones'" . When your neighbor has kids in college, you are not comparing your pre-school kids. rather you are having interesting conversations about other things. In contrast, when everyone on the block has kids the same age range there is this wierd thing that takes over - and everyone gets the same car, same swing set, etc etc.

[Anonymous]

Things we compromised on:
- 3 bedrooms instead of our preferred 4
- Kitchen is not eat-in
- 1 car garage instead of 2
- house style (split colonial instead of traditional colonial)

However, we love our older, established neighborhood right outside the beltway, in excellent school district (Walter Johnson). Our must-haves were some kind of garage, master bedroom with its own bath and walk-in closet, decent backyard, powder room on first floor, and first floor family room.

Now that we've been in the house a few years and have had a couple kids, not having the eat-in kitchen is my biggest issue. We currently eat in the dining room, but we are thinking that in a couple years we might bump out the back or reconfigure the family room (which is somewhat open to the kitchen) to create a table space.

[Anonymous]

I actually like the fact that our kitchen is too small for family dinner and we don't have a family room. It means we use every inch of the house. We eat in the dining room and live in the living room. In our previous house, those rooms stood empty most of the time.

[Anonymous]

Our non-negotiables included: a less than 15-minute walk to metro, 3BR, single-family. We were willing to take a place that we simply liked, not loved in order to meet these requirements in our price range. We ended up getting more than we originally thought we would be able to (we happened upon a weird 3-month market slump a few years back). We don't have a garage, our basement is a bit damp, but we were able to get a lovely bungalow with good-sized rooms, a fabulous front porch, and a great neighborhood. Almost 6 years and one child later, we still are happy with our decision.

[Anonymous]

No powder room on main floor, den in basement because we wanted to keep the formal living room, 1 car garage, lot way smaller than we wanted. We got bathroom in the master (3 BR,2 BA up), which was important to us, a formal dining room, great close-in neighborhood and old house charm. We had to do a lot of relandscaping and did some exterior upgrades.

Many years and 2 kids later, we added a large addition on the back with a large MBR and bath, large family room with powder room on main floor, and a playroom for the kids below. Still have a one car garage and the basement den (with its own full bath that it always had) is now the guest room. Now that my list of what I don't have is an upstairs guest room, a large kitchen (so I can unpack my take out - HA), and a segregated home office that isn't in the basement, I figure I should shut up and be happy. If I were to move now, I could not afford a house that would have the things we wanted that we bought originally or built for ourselves. While the renovations are not fun, I am really glad we did them and think there is nothing wrong with buying a house "for now" with the idea that maybe sometime later you can add the things from your wish list.