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How does the size of this home compare to other houses in that neighborhood. If the same size or smaller (despite it's current monstrous size), then I think you'll be okay. If it's the biggest home in the neighborhood then re-selling it may be more difficult since the comps will work against you.

@youboots: so, we kind of are in the same situation and just bought what feels like a huge house for us (compared to our two bedroom city condo). It is a little bigger than other homes in the neighborhood because the sellers added an addition but all the houses are big. Our biggest fear is the utilities costs for now. But we figure this way we will never have to move again and we will grow into and use the space eventually. Until then we plan to close vents so we aren't heating and cooling the areas we won't be using as much.

Also keep in mind furnishing a big house will cost money. But that can be done over time.

Haven't moved yet so I can't say how t actually is. And as I type this the two LOs and I are all within about three s feet of each other...

@youboots: I'm sorry. It's just so hard to visualize huge when different parts of the country have different views of huge. For me personally, 4000 sq. ft. Would be way too much space. But if you see this being your forever home and it's not a stretch, I would go for it. At least look at it and see if it's as great as the listing appears.

Hahah those both sound massive to me! We are currently in a 2000 sq ft and I just told DH this weekend I would love a powder room for quests but can't imagine having a house much bigger than we do now

I think so much depends on layout and the types of rooms you have and will use. Our house is 2400 and it's almost perfect, I wish the master and living room were each smaller and that we had an extra bedroom. A friend has 3600 and they use it all, they entertain a lot and have overnight house guests frequently. The house is laid out well with the exception of the master suite with I think they will eventually renovate and a good layout makes all the difference.

It depends on the layout. Our house is around 2300 and I wouldn't want more. But my SIL's is 4500 which sounded crazy to me, but it doesn't seem all that crazy now that we've spent a lot of time there. I just would be concerned with the utilities as you mentioned, but also the cleaning and furnishing. Also, depending on the layout, I'd be a little concerned about family togetherness/cohesiveness in a large house. Growing up, I lived for a few years in a house that was 4100 with two stories plus a half-finished basement, and it felt like we were constantly yelling across the house instead of hanging out together. I did love it though, and the neighborhood was amazing.

It sounds huge to me (compared to my 1500 sqft. ). I would be really concerned about maintenance costs, cleaning and furnishing something that big. If this is a forever home with the possibility of your mom moving in, maybe (since it does sound so nice). But I would probably look for something smaller. FWIW, I grew up in a 2500 sqft home that had a good layout (and even then, not all of it was used) and that seems absolutely gigantic to me now. I can't even fathom something more than twice that size.

IDK, I live in 3300 square feet so 4000 doesn't seem unlivable to me. I don't feel like our house is all that gigantic. Some spaces are actually pretty small. We do have a ridiculously large living room that I wish could be redistributed to other rooms in the house, but oh well.

It wouldn't really occur to me that having that much space would be a down side. And $125 extra for utilities seems pretty negligible. Especially considering all the positives.

I mean yeah, I probably wouldn't want to buy a 10 bedroom 15 bath house or anything, but I assume at 4k sq ft it's a 4/5 bedroom with 3 baths - pretty normal to me.

It feels larger than necessary to me. I grew up in a family of 7 in 3600 sq feet, which was plenty of space for all of us. But if it meets your other needs and it's in your budget, it's up to you whether it would be more space to clean and maintain than you'd like. I don't think you'd have trouble reselling down the road, though perhaps your price/sq foot would be lower than some in the area if it's larger than average. Good luck in your decision!

I just moved from 1300 to 2500 sq feet and it's been really great. Each kid has her own room, and I find we use *most* of the space right now, but I know we will as girls get older and want to spread out. We even use the formal living room (as a playroom right now). I've been picking up furniture as I go and fall in love with pieces- I'm in no rush to furnish the entire house right now. However, our electric bill did go up... considerably. I was kind of shocked. But overall, I'm very very very glad we made the move.

@youboots: you should be able to ask the list agent what the previous owners utilities are monthly. The previous owner utilities were actually quite a bit more than we expected, even with the extra size. So we have been able to factor that in when deciding to purchase. Also we will be getting new windows sooner or later which should reduce the heating and cooling bill significantly.

@Modern Daisy: I am r ally hoping I just won't have to clean the parts we don't use? Like how often will I have to clean a formal living room that we don't go in? Just vacuum every couple of weeks? Honestly not sure about that!

I know you called the utility companies, but I would be very suspect that you can move to twice the size and only increase utility costs by $125 a month. We doubled our house size and in both cases both homes were/are energy efficient, new windows, etc and the utility costs are much more than $1500 a year difference. Much more!

Our home is nearly 2700 and it’s big enough and we entertain often and have overnight guests often. We don’t really use all the space we have now. We looked at homes in the 4k+ range and they were just too massive.

I'll be honest. It sounds too good to be true (i.e., free from major issues). 100k difference from other homes in the neighborhood for a place that’s larger and only needs some minor cosmetic upgrades? Sounds way too good to be true.

I am worried about this too, but on a different scale. We are moving and are looking at places twice the size of our current home- from under 1000 sq ft to over 2000. I have definitely been wanting more space- a second bathroom, a room for guests, a dedicated office, a larger kitchen-- but I'm worried about utilities and upkeep/ cleaning on a bigger place. Luckily, we will be renting for a year and will have a better sense of how much square footage we want to buy after that! Ultimately, it's a personal decision and it sounds like you're thinking about all the right considerations. Those plus some of the thoughts people have added on this thread and actually seeing the house will I'm sure help you make the right decision for your family!

Is any of that finished basement or attic space?
We looked at a house that was probably close to 1000 sq ft bigger than the one we moved into. Sometimes I would love, love that extra space. But the layout of that house and the way they had built additions on were really, really odd. a lot of families seemed like they were looking but it took a long time to sell, but I think it was less about the size and more about the poorly designed size.

I understand the pain. I rented from an older, fixer upper before and it was such a headache! Something was always wrong and the owners had to repair something constantly. I hope you find something great soon!