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      02-22-2020, 09:42 AM   #60
pennsiveguy
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Originally Posted by PoorLurker View Post
Wow that's probably free labor as he built it. Still $85k in appliances, materials, and fixtures isn't too bad.


Buying new seems to be meh - builder spec houses are very unappealing in design. I keep scoping houses for sale in the new divisions around me and from $1mm-2.5mm the design is pretty blah. Pretty shocking to see people buying and living in $2mm houses that look like they bought their fixtures from Home Depot and their tile from the sale bin.

My advice is to always buy the cheapest house in the nicest area you can afford. Live in squalor for a while and establish comfort with your new expense. Then, start to plan a remodel that is exactly what you want. Then, live in a house that is exactly as you want.

(I didn't buy the cheapest house in the nicest area - and sometimes wish I had... but the area I Want to live in is too pricey even for a 1,300 sq foot house haha)
I think that's everywhere, the tendency of people to buy the most sqft. their budget will allow. They end up living in a big, drab, cheap-looking box. Maybe they think they'll upgrade things as their income rises, but I don't think that happens very often because you see the houses back on the market 10 years later and they haven't had any upgrades. Now they're drab and cheap and have 10 years' wear-and-tear on them, so they're even less appealing than they were when they were new.

I've got a couple of big projects going on right now at work that are going to run for about another year. After that, I'm going to start looking again. Probably something small-ish and reasonably priced where I can upgrade/remodel my way to what I want it to look like. I can do all the work myself; "flipping houses" was a family activity when I was a kid. I don't need a lot of space, but I want to live in a nice neighborhood so I'll probably stick close to where I'm at.
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