Would you buy/have you bought a house you didn't love?

[WitMom]

As some of you may know from other recent threads I've started, DH and I are house hunting. We found a house in one of our desired areas, and on paper, it's great. Price wise, it is right where we want to be, and it meets many of our requirements (it would probably be next to impossible to find a house that meets them all in our price range). Logically it's the perfect house for us. But I just can't get excited about it. There's nothing I hate about it, but there's nothing I love about it, either. It just seems like such a boring house...nothing makes it stand out. Realistically, I know we probably can't do any better without spending more money, but man, it's hard to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars and not feel at least some excitement! Anyone else BTDT? Do you have to love the house you buy?

[ged]

well, I may be in the minority, but I don't think you have to love the house you buy. I for sure don't love our house. We often wish we didn't buy it (we bought high, and it is now worth well well below that). But otoh, we realize it's just a house and don't expect it to be the source of our happiness.

[maestramommy]

I didn't love our house when we bought it. I liked a lot of things about it. Dh was much more enthusiastic. But love would be too strong of a word. It fit our needs and it fit *us* pretty well. I am warming up to it much more over time. The decor was totally NOT us when we moved in, so we painted it first thing. Now we are slowly doing little things that suit us.

But we're a little like pp too, in that this house isn't really the source of our happiness. Although right now Dh gets a lot of satisfaction every time he ticks off another project

[billysmommy]

We didn't necessarily love any of the houses we've bought but something about each one really "spoke" to us.
Our first house had gorgeous original pumpkin pine floors
The one we're in now has a great 1st floor layout and a huge living room with a gorgeous floor to ceiling window.

[WitMom]

Interesting you say that, billysmommy. I've been trying to explain to my husband what it is about the house, and I guess there's nothing that "speaks" to me. Both our current house and our previous house had at least one interesting feature that I fell for, and that made me want the house in spite of its shortcomings. This one has doesn't have anything like that, that really makes me want it. Does that make any sense?

[billysmommy]

Interesting you say that, billysmommy. I've been trying to explain to my husband what it is about the house, and I guess there's nothing that "speaks" to me. Both our current house and our previous house had at least one interesting feature that I fell for, and that made me want the house in spite of its shortcomings. This one has doesn't have anything like that, that really makes me want it. Does that make any sense?

Totally

[SnuggleBuggles]

I don't think you have to love it. I think that once you and your family are in it then it will feel like home.

Dh and I did feel something inexplicable for our house now. It had some negatives but we knew we really wanted it for some reason. If it were the perfect house but I didn't get that feeling I would still buy it.

Beth

[jgenie]

Yes. We didn't love the house we are in now. When we bought there were very few homes available in our price range. We were moving from a very low COL area to a very high COL area and were in total sticker shock. We had planned to rent for a few years and then head back home but decided to buy. When we were looking, our house was under contract so we were in the process of having another home inspected when this house came back on the market. There had been a bidding war and apparently the winning bidders had gone over their budget and backed out. You can't really see it from the street but it doesn't have that East Coast charm so many other houses have and it was in dire need of updating. Almost 8 years later we're done remodeling the inside and plan to tackle the outside this summer. It's certainly not my dream home but it is a very short commute for DH in a great town with lots of family friendly activities.

[mommysammi]

I agree with PP about location being the deciding factor. Over time, you will love your house. And if you really don't, you can always remodel, redecorate, etc but you can never relocate (well, you can but it is a lot harder than a remodel).

[Jacksmommy2b]

We're in the same boat and settle next month.

It has some negatives but like you said - on paper it is perfect. I'm going with the fact it has most of what we wanted, we can afford it and is in a great school district. I'll fall in love with a home when we don't have to worry about schools and have a bigger budget.

For now it is a hell of a lot better than an apt.