Housing decisions, this is gonna sound petty, so forgive me

[Twoboos]

OK, this is going to be rambling, prepare yourself!

We have been looking to move on and off for years now. Our house is nice enough, but I feel our location is really far from the center of town and hard to get anywhere. (Ex: Need milk? You're in for a 25min round trip.) Plus there are certain things I hate about our house, and after last winter's ice dams I am DONE here.

A house just came on in THE nhood in our town. It's at the top of our preferred price range, but definitely doable. The owners have done a ton of gorgeous top of the line updates, ones we'd have to do to this house if we stay. We'd be left w/updating the ma bath (pink 80's tiles, 'nough said) and to put in a pool if we wanted to (more a nice to have).

But I am so nervous about everything!! First, getting our house ready to sell, and selling in this market. Then MOVING for crying out loud, what a nightmare. Then having this big, gorgeous house in a high end nhood. I mean, we are talking some of the neighbors on adjoining streets have gated long driveways, helipads, tennis courts, pools (all on the same property). The Pres/CEO of a national company lived here until he passed away - and I found out his son is building a $20M house on the next street. :47: (Note, our price doesn't have an M in it, lol.) I am the daughter of a blue collar worker, and DH is not. :) He's used to higher end, while I feel like I'm pretending.

I know, this is petty whining. We are lucky to be able to move b/c we want to. But I am not sure what to do. The grounds are spectacular, the house is lovely, the nhood top notch, it has 95+% of what we are looking for in a house. (Schools not an issue as everyone goes to the same, we're not districted.) It's an investment house, it will always be a desirable nhood/location. Sooooo why am I struggling here??

[mackmama]

It's not petty. I think change is always scary. It also sounds like the new neighborhood brings up some deeper feelings around worthiness and $$ issues. It sounds like a great investment area. Do you feel like you can be yourself in this new neighborhood? If so, I say go for it.

[Twoboos]

Well, I think we could be ourselves. There isn't really any keeping up w/the Joneses, we don't make enough to keep up! :rotflmao:

We made the offer. When I picked a closing date, I couldn't figure why the date sounded familiar - it's my mom's 3 year anniversary. Yah, I think that's the sign I was looking for. ;)

Of course, we made the offer, our agent called it into the listing agent, and then we watched the news about the stock market plummeting. GREAT. :eek:

We'll see what happens! Now the horror of getting our house ready for the market. OH MY GAWD.

[amldaley]

Keep us posted on this grand adventure! Change, even good change, can be scary. But it sounds like you are ready to go full steam ahead!

[mackmama]

How exciting! Today's market was definitely tough, but it sounds like you feel overall positive about things. Please keep us posted! In terms of moving... wardrobe boxes are your friend! :)

[Twoboos]

Small update. We made the offer then spent the night in a panic. I literally couldn't sleep and was up watching the news at 3:30am. (Side note, did you know the news was on then? Like not a rerun of the nightly news, and not cable news? I was watching ABC and their tag line for the show was something like, "ABC News, the station more insomniacs trust!" Really.)

Anyway. They countered with their pricing. While we were discussing what to do, another house came on, in the 2nd best n'hood in town. (Or tied for 1st, depends on who you talk to.) Price is slightly higher but not crazy. Has a REAL laundry room, and a pool, and a flat yard, and more things we really wanted. The style of it is more us.

We withdrew the offer from House 1 and are waiting to see House 2 which starts showings on Monday. I feel bad for the House 1 people, but their place is gorgeous and they will have no problem selling it, and whoever gets it will be thrilled.

And we just saw that S&P lowered the US credit rating from AAA to AA. Greeaaattt. Don't know what happens now! :shrug: But at least we have time to see.

[WatchingThemGrow]

Ooh, it sounds exciting to me!!! Actually it sounds similar to me. We made an offer on a house in one of the high end n'hoods in town - walking distance to his parent's new swanky place. We didn't even get a counter. Like you, I was thinking, "Hmmm...would I be the only one in a $$$ home dressing my DC in mostly consignment clothes?" We're hoping to move there next year now, since school is starting and it would mean a change of schools.

[wellyes]

How exciting! Sounds like the counteroffer delay was very fortuitous :)

[twowhat?]

I know the feeling. We just bought a home at the VERY top of our price range that has almost everything we wanted in a forever home. It scares the crap out of me because while we can afford it (if we are very careful with our spending), it means neither of us can lose our jobs (or at least if it happened, finding another job would have to happen within a few months). But we got in at a low interest rate, and home values in this neighborhood have been slowly climbing. When our offer was accepted I felt like I had a pit in my stomach. The whole buyer's remorse (which is totally normal): did we just make the dumbest decision of our lives? LOL.

Plus like you we had to get our current home on the market asap and cross fingers that we'd be able to sell it (and if not, rent it). Change is definitely scary.

But now I'm excited to move into our new house. The same will happen for you!