In case you’re wondering what’s been going on in our lives over the past couple of months, well, I have a surprise for you. We bought a cedar contemporary house! For years, I have flipped and flopped between staying in our small but beautiful home in an okay but not ideal neighborhood or biting the bullet and buying the style of house I always wanted. Read on to get the juicy scoop on our house-buying adventure.
The Backstory
I’ll try to keep this short and sweet. Ever since I was a little kid growing up in an 8′ x 50′ trailer I have had a fascination with houses because all I ever wanted was a real house. I would constantly take mental notes of different house styles and decor. I’m forever thankful to my mom for keeping our tiny trailer immaculate and beautifully decorated. Her excellent homemaking skills certainly fueled my inherent interest.
Even as a kid I can remember loving modern houses. I grew up in the 80s and 90s so I really loved cedar contemporary homes that sporadically populated our local area. As I got older and broadened my horizons, I discovered midcentury modern homes and fell in love all over again – thank you, Mad Men.
Despite loving these two home styles, I allowed a few not-so-great decisions to derail me over the years. Hence, obtaining a stylish home just wasn’t a priority. I finally got my emotional life together when I had my daughter and made it a point to make sure her life was full of emotional and financial stability. I bought a small, new ranch house shortly after she was born and we started our life together.
Even though the small rancher was a cookie-cutter, it was new and it had a big, beautiful backyard for my daughter to run around in. I even made sure we adopted a dog to make it feel complete. Sure, it wasn’t midcentury or a cedar contemporary, but I really turned it into something very special by adding my custom touches and upgrades over the last 10 years.
There was a moment in 2015 where Mr. MMM and I nearly purchased a cedar contemporary home that we couldn’t comfortably afford. Thankfully the inspector found a ton of mold in the attic and we were able to pull the plug on the contract and re-group. After that near-catastrophic miss, we decided to get our financial act together and a blog was born. You’re reading it!
For the past 4 years, Mr. MMM and I have been focusing on our finances and building our net worth. We finished the basement in our small house to create more living space and loved living in our home – for the most part. What we didn’t love was the location. It wasn’t a bad location, it just wasn’t an ideal location.
Our home was on a dead-end street with several other small homes and had eclectic surroundings. Out the back, past our yard, is an industrial park. Up the street on the side of our house is a new-home development. In front of our house, across the street, is a senior apartment building with a huge parking lot and right next to that is an apartment complex. And, it’s not unusual for the people living in that apartment complex to cut through our yard on their way to the bus stop or the grocery store or Wendy’s.
I must say, living in our house in that location wasn’t really an issue for me until Mr. MMM moved in and started pointing out these flaws. Only then did I realize it wasn’t the best location for a family home. On top of it not being a great location, there weren’t any other kids for our daughter to play with. That meant we were her playmates. We, of course, love being her playmates, but sometimes it’s nice to have a break and for her to play with people (read: kids) her own age.
If Not Now, When?
Our daughter just turned 10 years old this summer and, although that is still super young, I felt like we were running out of time to move her to another house. She already hated the idea of moving and giving up her memories in the small house. I certainly can’t judge or blame her for feeling that way. I, too, was having a very difficult time coming to grips with giving up the home we built together.
Our solution: We turned it into a second rental. I bought my first rental property 14 years ago and originally bought the small house with the intent of turning into another rental property. So, that’s what we did. This lessened the emotional blow for both my daughter and me. And, since the rental market has been exploding around these parts, we were able to get a great price.
Emotions And Buyer’s Remorse
So does all this mean I didn’t feel like this could all be a mistake or that I didn’t experience buyer’s remorse? Of course not. At times, I had to fend off feelings of self-doubt before settlement.
And, yes, I also had to deal with that awful feeling of buyer’s remorse after we got the keys. But, I understand that these are normal feeling that many people experience when making big purchases and creating major lifestyle upheaval – even when it’s for the better good of the entire family.
Related:
- Rightsize Your House If You Want To Increase Your Wealth
- Resisting The Temptation To Buy A Bigger House: The Struggle Is Real
- We Made Our Dream Home A Reality
- How We Saved Over $2,000 On These Simple DIY Home Tasks
- Starter Home: Killer Reasons To Keep Yours
- Episode 16: How We Saved Money Buying A House
The Scoop On Our New Home
Our new home is a cedar contemporary with plenty of character and charm. It’s located on a wooded lot at the end of a cul-de-sac and in a mature neighborhood in our school district. Yay!
It’s also not much bigger than our old house. Our old house had 3 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms with 2100sf of living space after we finished the basement. Our new house has 3 bedrooms and 2.5 bathrooms with 2240sf of living space without a finished basement. In essence, the footprint of our new house is almost the same as our old house.
It’s on a large lot so both Mad Money Pups enjoy chasing each other around the property and exploring. There are also tons of big windows that both Mad Money Cats are utilizing to the fullest for their bird-viewing pleasure.
Oh, we also have a huge deck and a beautiful pond with a few resident frogs!
The Financial Impact Of Our Decision
Okay, here we go. Since our small house rented for a great price, the 15-year, 2.7% mortgage we have on it is being covered, along with expenses. Our first rental is also being covered by the rent, just as it has been for years now.
Those two houses aside, we now have our new cedar contemporary house, which, by the way, isn’t new at all. It was built in 1988 and needs a ton of upgrades. That’s why we got it for a STEAL! I swear, this is the first real estate deal I ever got in my life. The first house I bought was in 2007 and at the top of the bubble. The value has only exceeded what I paid for it less than 2 years ago. Although it wasn’t a terrible deal, I believe also overpaid for the second house I bought in 2010 – the house we’re emotionally attached to and just recently moved out of and rented. But the new house, that house is a different story.
The house was listed for approximately $20k below market value in early June. We saw it within 2 days of it hitting the market and decided it was a no-go. Mostly because we were leaving for our Yellowstone vacation in 48 hours and didn’t want to deal with putting in an offer on a house and all that jazz. We had vacation brain and wanted to keep it that way.
I was really good at unplugging while we were admiring the views and wildlife in Yellowstone, but I fell off the wagon when we boarded the plane to come home. During the flight I found myself opening up Realtor.com and checking out the current real estate situation in our area. Much to my surprise (and delight), I noticed a $20k price drop on the house that was already $20k below market value. That meant it was now $40k under market value. I convinced Mr. MMM to go to the open house the following day so we could see it again without the vacation hanging over our heads and without our daughter who didn’t want to move and was crabby the first time we went to see the house.
The next day we went, we saw, and we were way more impressed the second time around. The open house was hosted by the listing agent who had a ton of experience and knew how to show a house. It was open and airy and bright. The open house was a revolving door with interested parties traipsing through the home for hours.
We struck up a conversation with the listing agent and informed her that we had seen the house before leaving for vacation a week prior. Turns out, we were really starting to like the house we refused to even consider the first time we walked through. It also helped that it was listed $40k below market value. Before we knew it, we were walking around the neighborhood to see how we felt and telling the listing agent she would be hearing from our agent later that evening.
We made good on our word and put in a full price offer a few hours later, bumping another offer that had a home sale contingency attached to it. After the negotiations were done we got the house and even snagged $10k toward closing costs.
Granted, the house needs work. A lot of work. After a lifelong fascination with home design and decor, I have become a bit of a real estate snob. That means everything must be as close to perfect as I can get it. No mismatched light switches, outlets, or faceplates here. No 10 different floor types throughout the house or outdated light fixtures. I guess you could say I watched one too many episodes on HGTV and it’s turned me into a monster. 🙂
Back to the money bit, basically, our living expenses will be pretty comparable to what we were paying in the smaller house. The mortgage is about the same and the taxes are only a few hundred more each year. Sure, the utilities will be a bit more expensive and there will be more money funneled toward maintenance, but, in our opinions, it’s worth it to get a home we both absolutely LOVE pulling up to every single day.
