https://boards.hellobee.com/ Pregnancy, Baby and Parenting blog, by Hellobee en Sat, 23 May 2026 03:19:52 +0000 https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/were-you-ever-tempted-to-buy-a-house-that-was-past-the-top-of-your-budget#post-493903 Thu, 10 Jan 2013 13:06:47 +0000 yin 493903@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>In the beginning we strictly looked at houses within our budget. After a few months of searching we looked into the houses in my ideal neighborhood that I thought was out of reach. Turns out that it wasn't much more and very feasible. We ended up finding our perfect house, and it was only $5k above our original set limit after negotiating. We could have settled for a starter home but ended up with our forever home by being more flexible with our limit. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/were-you-ever-tempted-to-buy-a-house-that-was-past-the-top-of-your-budget#post-493870 Thu, 10 Jan 2013 12:56:57 +0000 Andrea 493870@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@mrs. wagon: i agree w/your dad! We can pay our mortgage and taxes just on one income. I think that's the really important thing. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/were-you-ever-tempted-to-buy-a-house-that-was-past-the-top-of-your-budget#post-493267 Thu, 10 Jan 2013 09:50:49 +0000 Anagram 493267@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>When I bought my house (when I was single), I did end up buying a house "over my price range", by what seemed like a lot. I originally was looking at condos in the $155,000 range and ended up buying a townhouse around $185,000. </p> <p>*however*, after running the numbers, I realized that the condos I liked had monthly HOA/maintenance fees of anywhere from $300-$600, and the townhouse had only a small common front yard mowing fee of $50/month. </p> <p>So, the monthly payments for me were pretty much the same, so I went with the bigger (and more expensive) townhouse with the lower monthly fees.</p> <p>I still miss my Texas house! I thought it was small there, but it's so huge compared to 2 bedrooms here.--1600 sq feet! I'm currently renting it out. I just can't bear to part with it yet. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/were-you-ever-tempted-to-buy-a-house-that-was-past-the-top-of-your-budget#post-493217 Thu, 10 Jan 2013 09:25:25 +0000 blackbird 493217@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>Nope, I think it's crazy what they will approve us for! We would be totally house poor! Plus, a bigger house means you have more rooms to furniture and the like. I'd much rather have a smaller home (we have 2,000 square feet right now) that we can comfortably afford so that we can enjoy life, go on vacations, go to shows, etc (because I feel like that is more fulfilling in the long run) and then make the jump to something bigger/nicer when we can comfortably afford that. I think that's plenty incentive to make more money, but without the anxiety that being house poor brings. </p> <p>I would *LOVE* to build my own home, though. It's not feasible in the area we live in (no land), but it's my dream :) </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/were-you-ever-tempted-to-buy-a-house-that-was-past-the-top-of-your-budget#post-493199 Thu, 10 Jan 2013 09:19:11 +0000 mrs. wagon 493199@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>My dad always says to buy a house at the top of your budget because you'll be happier in it for longer, it'll force you to live frugally (since you will be pouring money into your mortgage, which is a good investment anyway), and it will motivate you to continue to earn more and more money each passing year. It definitely worked for him-- my parents built their dream family home when I was in 3rd grade. They spent about $400k for the land and building it all out. They sold it 18 years later, after I graduated from college for more than double!</p> <p>That being said, I think when we buy our next home (hopefully in the next year) we will either max out our budget or buy within our budget and renovate room by room. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/were-you-ever-tempted-to-buy-a-house-that-was-past-the-top-of-your-budget#post-493194 Thu, 10 Jan 2013 09:14:39 +0000 PurplePumps 493194@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>Yes, we set ourselves a "soft" very low budget that we were really hoping to stick to. But then we found ourselves looking just a bit higher, and then just a little bit higher. Then we got into the mind set of, well it's just asking price, we can probably get it for a little less, so lets just look. Well, at the end of it all, we went 100k over our original target budget. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/were-you-ever-tempted-to-buy-a-house-that-was-past-the-top-of-your-budget#post-493171 Thu, 10 Jan 2013 08:58:56 +0000 MamaMoose 493171@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>Nope. Our max budget was waaaay less than the bank would have approved us for. And we weren't willing to go over it. There are so many people in foreclosure because they wanted more than they could afford. Hubs and I put 20% down and bought a house that gave us a mortgage payment that we could still pay if one of us lost our job. We certainly could have bought a much bigger house but we love our house and a 1900sqft 3/2 is plenty big enough for two adults and a baby. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/were-you-ever-tempted-to-buy-a-house-that-was-past-the-top-of-your-budget#post-493162 Thu, 10 Jan 2013 08:53:41 +0000 yoursilverlining 493162@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>Tempted – sure! Its fun to drool over awesome homes; but we never would have increased our budget past what our original “safe” numbers were. Our rule is to only buy as much home as we can afford on one income; in case I lose my job or we face an unexpected and expensive repair/car issue/whatever. Being “house poor” also sucks, so we wanted to avoid doing that. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/were-you-ever-tempted-to-buy-a-house-that-was-past-the-top-of-your-budget#post-493161 Thu, 10 Jan 2013 08:52:55 +0000 Mrs. Jacks 493161@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@caffeinated: our first agent wasn't very strategic with us. He could have shown us all kind of options, but he acted really constrained by our original wish list. He didn't even want to show us the house we bought (which I loved), because it wasn't a good layout in his opinion. I had to push him to see it.</p> <p>Meanwhile, our new house was on the market at that time too, but was above our budget so he didn't show it. No matter, we eventually found it! </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/were-you-ever-tempted-to-buy-a-house-that-was-past-the-top-of-your-budget#post-493094 Thu, 10 Jan 2013 08:02:39 +0000 sorrycharlie 493094@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>Tempted by dreaming yes. Reality, no way - out budget (and what we asked to be/were approved for) is literally the most money we feel ok paying per month. We can't afford more. So nope, not setting ourselves up for foreclosure! Haha </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/were-you-ever-tempted-to-buy-a-house-that-was-past-the-top-of-your-budget#post-493084 Thu, 10 Jan 2013 07:53:34 +0000 mediagirl 493084@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>Nope. I look at that top of our budget (which is really below what we can actually afford) and then look for houses we think we can get a good deal on. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/were-you-ever-tempted-to-buy-a-house-that-was-past-the-top-of-your-budget#post-493083 Thu, 10 Jan 2013 07:51:55 +0000 Sugar.Biscuit 493083@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>We have a comfy zone that we like to stay in but will look at houses 20k more than that. It is the average in our area that people tend to mark up and will go down when when desperate. We ended up getting ours way cheaper then our comfy zone cause we fell in love with a 113 yr old bungalow that we are fixing up. We will use it as a rental in a few years. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/were-you-ever-tempted-to-buy-a-house-that-was-past-the-top-of-your-budget#post-493070 Thu, 10 Jan 2013 07:05:07 +0000 Andrea 493070@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>We did. We ended up paying $50k more than our "budget" but it wasn't set in the stone. We feel like it was good to max out. We are not strained and will not have to ever move again if that is what we choose. I love our house! </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/were-you-ever-tempted-to-buy-a-house-that-was-past-the-top-of-your-budget#post-493029 Thu, 10 Jan 2013 04:36:59 +0000 shopaholic 493029@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>We definitely did, especially since I always just like to look at houses anyways. But we didn't end up going over budget. If you can be un-emotional about a house, it really helps to see homes in all different price ranges to get a really good perspective of what your money can get for you and what that can be worth to you. For instance, some people think that they can do all sorts of fixing up themselves, but fail to realize that those costs can quickly add up to tens of thousands of dollars, while completely resisting a home that might say, be $10K over their "top budget", etc. I've been looking at homes with my family (business) all my life and I think being able to be really objective about properties helps a lot in the long run in being cost-conscious. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/were-you-ever-tempted-to-buy-a-house-that-was-past-the-top-of-your-budget#post-493024 Thu, 10 Jan 2013 04:22:46 +0000 Bao 493024@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>I love reading these answers, since we are house hunting ourselves! </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/were-you-ever-tempted-to-buy-a-house-that-was-past-the-top-of-your-budget#post-493011 Thu, 10 Jan 2013 03:09:14 +0000 fussygal 493011@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>We just started looking and our town has a very poor selection so we're tempted to go higher just to get something good/fast. We won't actually do it, but looking is nice...and dangerous. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/were-you-ever-tempted-to-buy-a-house-that-was-past-the-top-of-your-budget#post-492990 Thu, 10 Jan 2013 02:22:31 +0000 immabeetoo 492990@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>We did but only within what we thought could be negotiated down to our budget! It worked and were in a great home. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/were-you-ever-tempted-to-buy-a-house-that-was-past-the-top-of-your-budget#post-492944 Thu, 10 Jan 2013 00:23:31 +0000 sunny 492944@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>I love looking at houses above and below our budget. It helps put in perspective what is available out there and at what price. It also was good to know "ok, if we want X in a home... we should save up more". </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/were-you-ever-tempted-to-buy-a-house-that-was-past-the-top-of-your-budget#post-492940 Thu, 10 Jan 2013 00:10:02 +0000 Mrs. Pen 492940@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>thankfully we were only approved for 20k above budget so that would have been the absolute tip-top we could have done! We never really looked over our budget... because of that we didn't end up with a house but looking back I'm glad we didn't settle. I like the "freedom" that renting gives us for now :) </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/were-you-ever-tempted-to-buy-a-house-that-was-past-the-top-of-your-budget#post-492936 Thu, 10 Jan 2013 00:05:32 +0000 Grace 492936@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@caffeinated: Yikes! That's not fair. Our listings were computer generated, so we never got ones that high. Usually I got tempted when I searched MLS on my own. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/were-you-ever-tempted-to-buy-a-house-that-was-past-the-top-of-your-budget#post-492932 Thu, 10 Jan 2013 00:00:56 +0000 lemondrop 492932@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>No! We have had runs of unemployment in the past, so we have been very careful not to go over our budget. It isn't worth the stress to worry about keeping our home if we had hard times again, especially since I'm making half my original income being part-time now. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/were-you-ever-tempted-to-buy-a-house-that-was-past-the-top-of-your-budget#post-492922 Wed, 09 Jan 2013 23:49:45 +0000 Freckles 492922@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@Mrs. Jacks: DH and i were talking about that. When we were looking for a house 2 years ago, our real estate agent only showed us houses under our budget, and we wonder if more (better) options would have opened up if we looked at houses at the top of our budget. I think we would've found something a little bigger and not find ourselves wanting to find a new house so soon.</p> <p>@MungBean: Suddenly in-floor heating becomes a must have. haha, just kidding!</p> <p>@Grace: We get listings from our agent that's 100k above the top of our budget, with the "oh, but the basement can be rental income." Sigh! </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/were-you-ever-tempted-to-buy-a-house-that-was-past-the-top-of-your-budget#post-492902 Wed, 09 Jan 2013 23:39:38 +0000 Mrs. Jacks 492902@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>We wish that we had looked above our top line budget when we first moved here. We might not have needed to move again. Ah well, we didn't know we were always going to call our town home. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/were-you-ever-tempted-to-buy-a-house-that-was-past-the-top-of-your-budget#post-492884 Wed, 09 Jan 2013 23:26:53 +0000 Mrs. Pickle 492884@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>We didn't look at anything over our budget so we wouldn't be tempted. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/were-you-ever-tempted-to-buy-a-house-that-was-past-the-top-of-your-budget#post-492869 Wed, 09 Jan 2013 23:17:18 +0000 Weagle 492869@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>Nope. It's not worth it to me. We set a low max, not determined by the bank, in order to not tempt ourselves. I do enjoy looking at the listings that I can't afford, though :) </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/were-you-ever-tempted-to-buy-a-house-that-was-past-the-top-of-your-budget#post-492865 Wed, 09 Jan 2013 23:15:30 +0000 pinkcupcake 492865@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>For sure! I found that the key is to NOT look past your budget at all... once I saw all the nice homes, I just couldn't get them out of my head and everything I saw that *used* to be within our budget didn't seem as shiny &amp; nice anymore... </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/were-you-ever-tempted-to-buy-a-house-that-was-past-the-top-of-your-budget#post-492853 Wed, 09 Jan 2013 23:10:23 +0000 matador84 492853@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>Definitely. We really want a 4/3 but sooo much more money than a 3/2. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/were-you-ever-tempted-to-buy-a-house-that-was-past-the-top-of-your-budget#post-492849 Wed, 09 Jan 2013 23:08:57 +0000 Grace 492849@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>Oh, for sure. Luckily, our thrifty side prevailed and we backed away. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/were-you-ever-tempted-to-buy-a-house-that-was-past-the-top-of-your-budget#post-492838 Wed, 09 Jan 2013 23:04:56 +0000 Mrs. Lemon-Lime 492838@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>No, don't do it (too much, anyway)! We recently bought a house that we paid just $5k over our original max budget. During house hunting we increased the budget by $100,000 and I was determined to purchase closer to the original max. Buy what you can comfortably afford in case stuff happens. In our case, an unexpected A/C purchase given the way unit passed with flying colors at the inspection. </p> <p>Good luck! </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/were-you-ever-tempted-to-buy-a-house-that-was-past-the-top-of-your-budget#post-492814 Wed, 09 Jan 2013 22:50:19 +0000 Freckles 492814@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@runnerd: we don't want to be house poor, that's for sure. If we stay in our current house, we can pay off the mortgage in 7 years. If we move, we will have a true 25 year mortgage! At least you guys are in a good situation now. </p>