Well, we bought a house! A townhouse that is. This happened rather fast. Back in December 2016, we decided that with my husband's non traditional work hours, our little rental was not working out anymore. Even with the cheap rent, we still can't sacrifice our sleep for it. I called my up old agent and soon after the new year we were house shopping every weekend.
Our requirements:
It must have an attached garage- I use to bring my daughter to my mother in law to babysit, and it's hard carrying my purse, my lunch bag and a child to the car while fumbling with the keys. And that's just one kid. It would be a struggle every morning to bring an infant and a toddler to the car. Plus, it just makes shopping easier and less likely to have our car broken into if it's safely parked in a garage steps from our house.
2 bed 2 baths-2 bathrooms is essential :)
Private patio- for the kids to safely play outside
Low HOA fees- I think HOA fees are stupid. You get so little for your buck.
A nice kitchen- we love to cook.
Laundry Hookups- we've been doing our laundry at my mother in laws. It's such a hassle.
Guest parking- We want our friends to come and visit. They can't come if they can't find a place to park their car. There were a few places that we had to illegally park just to see the place. Needless to say, we didn't make an offer on those townhouses.
What we bought:
A 1200 sqft 3 bed 1.5 baths 2 story townhouse in a quiet complex. It has a private patio with direct access to the garage. With a HOA fee of $214 a month, it was the lowest we've seen. The house has not been updated and the listing price reflected that. We made an offer $9k over the asking price, I believe it's still a good deal considering it was appraised at $10k more than what we paid for and that's before the renovations. There is a laundry area next to the kitchen which leads to a half bath.
Renovations:
Kitchen: we had the kitchen repainted. The cabinets were old and falling off, I can't fathom putting anything in there until it's covered in several coats of paint. We over paid on this though, I should have negotiated but I was naive :(. This will not happen again.
Repainting the cabinets: $1500
Flooring: Luckily, my brother in law and his friends do flooring as a side hustle and was able to give us a good deal. We decided to get rid of the old and gross carpet and put in laminated wood.
Labor: $1000 ( we might pay more for their good work)
Material: $1800 (nice hookups)
Recess lighting: Please don't be naive like me. When you're shopping for a house, take picture or videos of the house and review it after you get home. Mostly likely you'll be seeing so many houses in one day, you can't remember all of it. Most people only spent 5 mins seeing a house and then make a decision that's worth a few 100ks. I spend more time trying to decided which yogurt I want to buy at the supermarket. I did not know that this house doesn't have ceiling lights. I wasn't paying attention since we were viewing houses during the day. And let me tell you, putting in ceiling lights is not cheap since they have to do wiring. We put in a total of 10 LED recess lights down stairs and 1 regular ceiling light (I'm not sure if that's the correct term) in each of the bedrooms upstairs. With some hookups, the total cost was: $1300.
Electric oven/stove: Another thing I did not pay attention to was the oven. It's electric and I prefer gas. Gas cooks a lot better. ANDDD the stove is located on an island. I hate that. The oven they had was extremely old and we have to replace it. Electric oven $634.
Windows: This has not been done, being part of an HOA, such exterior renovations requires approval. We have a total of 5 large windows and the estimated cost to replace is $2000-$2500.
Bathroom upstairs: The layout of this restroom is rather odd. It has two entrances, one through the hall and another through the master bedroom. We decided to close it off from the master bedroom. It has two large sinks, a shower and a tub. We paid my dad $1000 to close off the entrance from the masters and $550 for one of the counter top and cabinet.
Total:$1500
There are probably more items that my husband bought along that way that didn't get recorded. There is still a lot we need to do. Things like, getting a vanity mirror for the bathroom upstairs, curtains or blinds for the two of the bedrooms, clean out the patio and organize the garage. Our master reach in closet still needs doors, and what would be my daughter's room has an half finished closet system. The coat closet a door, maybe some shelves and also the stuff in it needs to be organized.
Owning a house is not fun, but looking at renting a place like ours would easily be over $2000. If we sign a lease for a year, that's $24000, which is a nice chunk in down payment. We're the kind of people who believe paying this much on rent is throwing away money. But to be honest, this isn't our forever home.The kitchen is far too small and when the AC is running, it's extremely loud. The walls are thin and I don't believe it's very well insulated. The upstairs is always a few degrees hotter than downstairs. We now think of this home as more of an investment. We'll do little upgrades when time and money allows. My hope is to have this home as rental, But realistically, we'll most likely need the profit of this house to put down on our next house, a single family home. It's my husband ultimate dream to own a single family home, I can't deny the appeal of it neither. I've grew up in a single family home and really prefers the convenience of having a yard and not having to keep my voice down. Plus, I can finally have a garden like I've always wanted and maybe even have a dog again.
