I could really use your opinions on our housing dilemma !

R

random

Hi people .
I could really use some input on our housing dilemma , it's turning into a nightmare , what would you do ?

We've been in renting limbo with our own home situation for 21/2 yrs . I've got some cheapo investment properties but we've been between houses since we sold our last one and stuck renting , I hate it and it's really stuffed up our lives being unable to live normally as we would in our own place.
But I live on the coast , and the whole district is a bit dear for us so when something's come up it's either just plain not right or it's too dear anyway, as we suffered major setbacks a couple of yrs back and still financially recovering.
I'm late 40's now and we have two young daughters , we all just really need a home again , they've been in limbo , me and wifey have been too but still nothing that we like or else just can't afford .
And yet another place has just fallen through last week now . You wouldn't believe the scenario - nother story .
Seems I have no trouble finding investment deals but a new place of our own , for some reason has ran the other direction.
Anyway , yet another investment place has popped up , it's got tons of potential and it's got a great house on it , I could really do well with this place and there's still nothing around locally at home for ourselves .
So we're thinking if we could finance this new investment place , we just could go and live there for a few yrs. My kids can still use the same school , wifey actually makes more in her job because it's more traveling for her, I could go on with my stuff and do really well with this property at the same time and , we'd all have a home again.
The thing is , it's 20mins away from the coast and our area here and it'd be 2 yrs or so before we could afford to come back to this area as it'd tie us up financially for atleast a yr or two.

Given our ages , wifeys 11 yrs younger than me , the kids and having to leave our area here , at this stage , but being unable to find something here and are still in limbo after all this time - would you just say stuff it, buy the investment place, go live there for the time being , set up a great investment and atleast have a home again while your at it - save what's left of your borrowing capacity , stay here, keep looking and waiting for your permanent place to come up - one day - in your area ?

Bloody dilemmas , had enough for this yr , just want a home again but !
Well , sorry it went long , but all opinions welcome so don't be bashful as I'm buggered if I know . Wifey reckons bugger it grab the investment one, go there for now ,atleastst we'll all have a home again , the kids can be secure and have a place to call home again , have all their pets and we'll be setting ourselves up again while we're at it . Me , I'm thinking, well one , we've been in thsi area 6 yrs now and really like it but also, as soon as we pack the car and move , somem perfect will pop up here the next week but eh who knows the way it's been going !

Thanks people
Cheers
 
Gday Aaron , do you mean build our own house or build up.
Can't build our own as we want a few ac's so they're usually rural zoning and hard enough to finance alone let alone a build on top of it unfortunately.

cheers
 
maybe aaron meant build your house, but i'm going to say that you need to build up.

reading your post there is one factor only in play: you can't afford to live in the area you desire.

it is no-bodies fault. not the sellers or the buyers - them's just the facts of life.

so, your choices are to either forgo living in the area altogether and find somewhere else that is cheaper but equally desirable, or build up your equity/income so that you can afford to buy in the area, or continue to rent and invest elsewhere.

quite simple when you boil it down. the choice of which path to take belongs to you.
 
You handy? The best way to make fast bucks in property is to take something shockingly undervalued and fix it yourself, or build ... knockdown and build 2 or 3 townhouses or something. Do that a couple times and you'd have the cash for that coastal spread.
 
RumpledElf said:
You handy? The best way to make fast bucks in property is to take something shockingly undervalued and fix it yourself, or build ... knockdown and build 2 or 3 townhouses or something. Do that a couple times and you'd have the cash for that coastal spread.
Click to expand...

Hey Rumpled .

Yep really handy , am doing renos as we speak but they need to be finished and sold off yet , ones on market now but things have gone pretty quiet .
Don't really have the financial resources to take on any others .
So do I buy the other one and move there while I'm sorting the others out or stay renting here [ hate it ] for who knows how long until or ?

I know , it's our decision , hate that too but that doesn't mean people can't say what they would do though !
Cheers
 
random said:
... but we've been between houses since we sold our last one and stuck renting , I hate it and it's really stuffed up our lives being unable to live normally as we would in our own place.

If you hate it, why not try to find something local, but perhaps you have to compromise and buy something that is not exactly what you are after. Can you put your reno skills to work on something that is a fixer-upper, make some profit, and do it again, without moving your kids from the school and without having to move away from an area you love?

I'm late 40's now and we have two young daughters , we all just really need a home again , they've been in limbo , me and wifey have been too but still nothing that we like or else just can't afford .

Buy something you can afford, make it better and either you will decide it is okay, or sell and do it again. You may have to compromise and that comes down to compromising on the area, the size of the place or the type of place. If you cannot afford "the exact thing", then which compromise are you prepared to make?

Anyway , yet another investment place has popped up , it's got tons of potential and it's got a great house on it , I could really do well with this place and there's still nothing around locally at home for ourselves .
So we're thinking if we could finance this new investment place , we just could go and live there for a few yrs. My kids can still use the same school , wifey actually makes more in her job because it's more traveling for her, I could go on with my stuff and do really well with this property at the same time and , we'd all have a home again.
The thing is , it's 20mins away from the coast and our area here and it'd be 2 yrs or so before we could afford to come back to this area as it'd tie us up financially for atleast a yr or two.

If you could make enough profit from this potential new investment place, and your kids can still go the same school, that could work. Plenty of people travel 20 minutes, but it is not a trip I would want to make to drop kids to school morning and afternoon. Could you and your wife do a secret ballot (maybe the kids too, depending on their ages) about what is most important to you all?

Bloody dilemmas , had enough for this yr , just want a home again but !
Well , sorry it went long , but all opinions welcome so don't be bashful as I'm buggered if I know . Wifey reckons bugger it grab the investment one, go there for now ,atleastst we'll all have a home again , the kids can be secure and have a place to call home again , have all their pets and we'll be setting ourselves up again while we're at it . Me , I'm thinking, well one , we've been in thsi area 6 yrs now and really like it but also, as soon as we pack the car and move , somem perfect will pop up here the next week but eh who knows the way it's been going !
Click to expand...

Each time we have moved, the "perfect" house has become available only weeks afterwards, so I know what you mean. Ultimately, the perfect place is only a place to live, and if the family is unhappy it doesn't matter how perfect the house is.

Are you renting now, with the pets? Is there no wriggle room to buy the new place, do it up quickly and sell quickly? Can you sell something else? It really sounds like you (maybe more than anyone else) wants a place to call home. I feel for you, and hope you can decide which direction to take.
 
Thanks for the input people muchly appreciated.
Yeah the place over 20mins would easily get us in over here later but that would take a couple of yrs of living in it .
None of us really mind the idea as it's a pretty cool place on 6 ac. Would have to run the kids every day though , miss the beach , I know poor didems !
I'm am just trying to make my focus stability for the family though that's all and that place would mean another move to come back but the girls have had too many moves already so.

There is one other place locally , it's not acreage , just 1000mt block up the back of the township , nice spot. It's just one of those places you just like even though it wasn't really what you were looking for . Great reno number too so I can get it cheap.
We have been thinking about it as another option and means of staying put but we're worried we might regret not going acreage .
 
random said:
that place would mean another move to come back but the girls have had too many moves already so.
Click to expand...

what is "too many moves"? i've moved 8 times in 12 years - not including 4 months living with the inlaws - going from a little 3/1/0 flood prone weatherboard cottage and ending with a 5/3/2/pool/ocean views brick house. each time we traded up (except for the one work transfer).

my 7yr old has moved 4 times (not including time with inlaws) and is in no way unsettled.

as long as you and your wife are positive, the kids will be fine.
 
I think moving and its repercussions very much depends on the child/children involved.

We attended a primary school that was not our local one, and I really envied the other kids who could have friends walk to their houses to play. All our play arrangements involved a parent and a vehicle, so we didn't do much with our school friends. Luckily we had other kids in our street, or it would have been pretty grim.

A good friend who is the daughter of a bank manager moved plenty of times through her childhood and into the teenage years. She coped very well, but her brother didn't cope at all, and even as a 50 year old, he still has issues that she believes stem from the nomadic life, and from being sent to different schools every couple of years or sooner.

She has friends she made during her school years, but he has none.

One thing I was sure to do was send our kids to a school where they can walk to the houses of friends, because it is something I really felt was missing from my life as a youngster.
 
I think I'd go for the 1000sqm block in town as against the acreage out of town. You've already said that you like the lifestyle this town offers you, so why would you give that up? And seriously do you think the 20min drive in to town twice a day wouldn't get to you? I think it would very quickly (but that's just me).
 
wylie said:
I think moving and its repercussions very much depends on the child/children involved.
Click to expand...

ah - that makes sense. except for the interstate work transfer for 6 months, i've always kept her at the same school with her friends. even when we lived with the inlaws between houses and had to drive 1hr each way for a term.

her first house she was in preschool, and when we move from the area i'd drive 30mins each way to keep her there until she started the local primary - since then we've only bought in the local primary area for the very reason of keeping her in the same school - also happens to be middle ring cbd near the beach so pretty good spot to live too.

back on topic - unless you want a horse or cow, i'd go the 1000m. big enough for chooks and veges and pool and cricket lawn and sprawling house etc
 
Thanks a lot everyone I think we're making progress.
Nice to hear I'm not the only one that's had all those moves, we've had about the same. My daughters 9 , 3 states and 5 homes but she was born while we were traveling so . 3 reno's too so we're trying our hardest to stay put now . We have managed to keep her in the one and batch of friends since she started school though. She doesn't cope well with moves.
The other one isn't ours , poor things had a hard life, we're caring for her and have her another 2 yrs .
I'm a big believer in a stable and caring upbringing, foundation, life long benefits for kids I reckon , even though I'm not exactly excelling on the stabilty front.
But Wylie you sort of hit the nail on the head there also and the idea of being able to walk to friends places,come and go, that's a great thing for them isn't it. We have the drive & drop off scenario here so they only see friends in some bs arranged time/drive thing.
But at one of our reno's , the area was full of kids and they'd all roamed to and from everyone else's places safely, the kids had it all there built in. Mind you , the buggers were turning up at 6 and 7 am to so there were times!

Yeah the 1000 mtr place would be great really for kids . There's a lot in that area and it's sort of a safe and a spaced out spot for them. Township and beach are walking distance too, school bus so no driving in 20 ea way daily.
It does have real benefits that one and as Lizzie was saying being a 1000m , big enough for veggies, chooks, daughters pets , extend.
Great house , 5 b/r's , it's not huge , 17 sq , but it's just somehow got 5, I can't even work it out . Huge kitchen too, wopping laundry , heaps of character .
Yeah, might have to go take another lookie before we do anything else I think .
 
Sounds like a plan....... ;).

Let us know how things pan out. You sound like you are doing something wonderful for everyone, including the one that "isn't yours".
 
I have a 1350sqm and 1850sqm block and they are a pain in the butt to maintain, far too big. 1000sqm would be about the outside of what I want. Acreage sounds nice until you have to mow it.

We inadvertantly bought a little house on a big block with oodles of potential 2 years back with no intent of living in it. But the area sold us, and we squeezed into it. Now we're building one that IS 'perfect' (while the kids are little anyway) next door, so it is a win-win situation.

Don't rule out building new!
 
Thanks Wylie , yeah gotta have a plan I spose eh , although this years seems hellbent on blowing every plan I've had so far clean out of the water , it's been mad but anyway.
Yeah it's funny isn't Rumbled , 1300 or like one of mine 2000m , it's pretty big once you've been on it awhile .
Our last place was 7ac because I use to want Alpacas and a few horses and just like the space but the Alpacas you have to get them sheared once or twice a yr , a bit of a pain and I've sort of lost interest in the horses for now too so that meant I did nothing useful with the place and we were mowing nonstop.
Eventually I asked a farmer bloke if he wanted to get some hay of 5 ac of it which he did so at least that stayed down and was on auto for a few mth of the yr. The rest of the time it was still 3 ft high though .

NSW is great for small acreage lifestyle properties. They have a lot of national parks and crown land patches . So you can find plenty of small blocks like even only a 1000m or so, 1/2 ac whatever but joining some crown land and you have it made .
Acreage lifestyle with nothing to look after .

Ahwell , if any news will add , going over today to take another look at the 1000m place , will take it from there. Hu, it's probably sold anyway the way this yrs been going .

Cheers
 
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