Reply to Did you buy a house that stretched your budget? Was it worth it?

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]OP, we just moved into a house that was at the tippy top of our budget.  We thought it was in "good condition" and we wouldn't have to do much to it.....

WRONG!  Even houses that seem nice/updated have a lot of warts that you don't notice until everything is cleared out.  And you need to put things in to fit the way you live (i.e shelves, blinds, curtains, art, etc.).  We have to buy new washer/dryer/dishwasher, have the drywall ripped out of the master bath water closet b/c we didn't notice that it stinks of cigar smoke and it's in the drywall, have the wallpaper removed in a bedroom, new updated ceiling fans x3, new blinds in a few rooms, new curtains b/c our old ones don't fit, new barstools b/c we didn't have a pull up island before, new chandelier and foyer light b/c they old gold ones were too outdated and ornate, pulling out and replacing the 20 yr old overgrown bushes, etc., etc.

We are bleeding out financially.  All of this would be kind of fun IF we weren't already at the top of our budget (and beyond b/c of closing costs).  If I had to do it over again, I would have pushed more for the house that cost a lot less (like 200k less) and then I'd feel better about updating the house.

My advice is buy a house that is at least $20k UNDER your max budget and then have a little space to update it b/c it costs a lot.[/quote]

We just bought in a similar position - house really could use entirely new paint, window treatments, some new appliances, has brass fans, we don't have enough furniture, etc. We are doing some ourselves to save money (taking down wallpaper and painting, for example) and will get to the rest after we've built back up some more savings. While I would like to do more right away, none of it is a "need." The house is safe and sound and we got the location, schools, and layout we wanted. For us it was about what we wanted to prioritize- things like location, which we can't change - versus living with some Home Depot paper shades for awhile. I think our choice was the less popular but it has worked for us.[/quote]

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