Please take my poll on being able to buy your dream home, bought a starter or needed to save a lot.

A realtor that showed us one house said that our standards were very high for the price range we were looking in (we already new that, of course), and we should consider buying a smaller starter home. We found a home that would be good as a starter and has potential for growth if we did want to stay there. I'm just curious if you found exactly what you wanted to spend the rest of your life in and could buy it right away, or if you waited years to save and buy the home you wanted, or you went with a starter home. TIA!

Re: Please take my poll on being able to buy your dream home, bought a starter or needed to save a lot.

When we bought our first home, we definitely needed to um, 'realign' our expectations :) It was disappointing at first, but by the time we found a great home and moved in, we were just so excited to have our first house together, the 'starter' aspect didn't even matter anymore.

Re: Please take my poll on being able to buy your dream home, bought a starter or needed to save a lot.

Totally went with the starter home.
We are going to use the sale of our starter home for the downpayment for a much larger home in a better neighborhood.
We figured & calculated it would be the ONLY way for us to get to the neighborhood we truly want to be in.

Re: Please take my poll on being able to buy your dream home, bought a starter or needed to save a lot.

We bought a starter home. It's absolutely perfect for us right now. Even if we had the money to buy our dream home, we aren't yet ready to settle into a house for the rest of our lives.

Buying a starter doesn't have to mean settling.

Re: Please take my poll on being able to buy your dream home, bought a starter or needed to save a lot.

---

Posted by CherylBooch

We are going to use the sale of our starter home for the downpayment for a much larger home in a better neighborhood.

---

This is what we're in the process of now. Ultimately our mortgage on this new larger/better-area home is going to be smaller than the one we took out on the starter home, due to the proceeds from the sale. I'm glad we 'settled' for the starter home, it really served its purpose in the end!!!

Re: Please take my poll on being able to buy your dream home, bought a starter or needed to save a lot.

Our house isn't a starter by any means and its much more than I expected for our first house, but its not my dream either - my dream house would be on the water

We're in a great neighborhood, in a great location and our house has plenty of room to grow into...we could stay forever, but I don't know that we will.

Re: Please take my poll on being able to buy your dream home, bought a starter or needed to save a lot.

Caution to all of you out there looking. We had the same experiences. We were told we wouldn't find anything for that kind of money. We were also shown A LOT of crap in our price range. I voted that we bought our dream home and I'd like to qualify that because it's not like we have money or anything. It's just a matter of being really patient and creative and looking not settling. So hang in there, it does happen! Our realtor didn't even want to show us the house we ended up buying. Thank God we were persistent!

Re: Please take my poll on being able to buy your dream home, bought a starter or needed to save a lot.

In an age where a 'starter home' that needs work (ie: gut the bathroom(s) and kitchen) and is going for $450k+, it's definitely discouraging (and nauseating ). But that's what we're going to do - buy a 'starter home' in the best neighborhood that we can afford and hope that we'll have a great resale when the time comes.

Don't listen to the realtors either - I'm so tired of them telling me that our range is a 'tough one'. Since when is a half a million dollars 'tough' to work with? These homes going for $450-500k now, were sold for $210-265k just 5 years ago. It's sick! Not to mention absolutely outrageous.

A dream home for me would require acreage and sitting down with an architect - that's not going to happen any time soon. We just want to get in the market and go from there.

Re: Please take my poll on being able to buy your dream home, bought a starter or needed to save a lot.

We were told the same thing by our realtor that our expectations were high for our price range. But, ultimately we found a great house (does need alot of updating) in a great area, with an excellent SD, in our price range. The house has tons of potential. So right now it's not my dream home but if we update and add a little bit to it, it may become our dream home. I don't know at this point. I do know that there is plenty of room if we decide to have a child here. But i think it's fine and probably much more realistic to start with a starter house. Good luck!

Re: Please take my poll on being able to buy your dream home, bought a starter or needed to save a lot.

we knew that without starting small we would never be able to afford our dream house and living on long island i still don't think we will ever get into our dream house but at least now we will have a down payment for something a little more desirable..keep looking you never know

Re: Please take my poll on being able to buy your dream home, bought a starter or needed to save a lot.

---

Posted by LisaT

Our house isn't a starter by any means and its much more than I expected for our first house, but its not my dream either - my dream house would be on the water

We're in a great neighborhood, in a great location and our house has plenty of room to grow into...we could stay forever, but I don't know that we will.

---

Well put, this is our situation as well.

Re: Please take my poll on being able to buy your dream home, bought a starter or needed to save a lot.

starter home and will upgrade in 2+ years

Re: Please take my poll on being able to buy your dream home, bought a starter or needed to save a lot.

Our house is our dream home if we have two children there- we love it and it is in a great school district. If we have three children it will be cramped and we will probably need to move to a bigger home if we can....

Re: Please take my poll on being able to buy your dream home, bought a starter or needed to save a lot.

---

Posted by dkwife

---

Posted by LisaT

Our house isn't a starter by any means and its much more than I expected for our first house, but its not my dream either - my dream house would be on the water

We're in a great neighborhood, in a great location and our house has plenty of room to grow into...we could stay forever, but I don't know that we will.

---

Well put, this is our situation as well.

---

Exactly. There's a LOT of room between a starter home and a dream home, and we bought something right in between. Nice and big enough to stay forever, but by no means a 'dream house'!

Re: Please take my poll on being able to buy your dream home, bought a starter or needed to save a lot.

---

Posted by LisaT

Our house isn't a starter by any means and its much more than I expected for our first house, but its not my dream either - my dream house would be on the water

We're in a great neighborhood, in a great location and our house has plenty of room to grow into...we could stay forever, but I don't know that we will.

---

Same here.

Re: Please take my poll on being able to buy your dream home, bought a starter or needed to save a lot.

We also bought a 'starter' but we love it. It is a townhouse and one day we will upgrade to a larger home but this is perfect for now.

Re: Please take my poll on being able to buy your dream home, bought a starter or needed to save a lot.

---

Posted by LisaT

Our house isn't a starter by any means and its much more than I expected for our first house, but its not my dream either - my dream house would be on the water

We're in a great neighborhood, in a great location and our house has plenty of room to grow into...we could stay forever, but I don't know that we will.

---

What she said!