"... for a rundown house in Boca Raton, Fla., the couple jumped on the 2,660-square-foot house in Lake Wales, a town of 16,000 about an hour from Orlando.... With their $400,000 budget, their options [had been] restricted to fixer-uppers, with fierce competition.... The farmhouse, set on five acres on a lake, seemed like an ideal alternative: quiet, pastoral, and charming.... Almost immediately, the couple regretted their decision. The property felt eerily quiet and isolated, and maintaining five acres and two cows was more work than they anticipated. 'You see these people on Instagram with their farm life,' Ms. Mohan said. 'Nobody tells you what actual hard work that is and how time consuming it is.'"
How could you not think it would not be hard work to keep 2 cows? Who reads farm life stuff on Instagram and thinks the life feels the way it looks in the pictures?
Anyway... more personal stories at the link, plus the news of WAV Group and Zillow surveys saying that "about three quarters of recent buyers expressed some regret": "About a third of respondents regret buying a house that needed more work than they anticipated, 31 percent wish the home they bought was bigger and 21 percent thought they overpaid."
Is that more than the normal level of regret? I would think just about everyone who buys a house feels some regret about something. But these days a lot of people seem to be buying houses without looking at them in person and under the pressure of competition from other buyers. "Zillow projects that home prices will rise another 16 percent in 2022, on top of the 20 percent rise in 2021."
That sounds awful to me. I've only bought one house in my whole life, and that was back in 1986. We're thinking of selling it, but I advance-regret any transactions.
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Green Acres is the place to be.
Farm livin' is the life for me.
Land spreadin' out so far and wide
Keep Manhattan, just give me that countryside.
New York is where I'd rather stay.
I get allergic smelling hay.
I just adore a penthouse view.
Dah-ling I love you but give me Park Avenue.
...The chores.
...The stores.
...Fresh air.
...Times Square
You are my wife.
Good bye, city life.
Green Acres we are there.
It think Ann’s right about the regret- I’d like to see a baseline of regret.
No doubt leftie flee has made for distorted markets. I own a house that’s a double in two years. An empty lot just down the street is nearly a triple since 2019. That’s not normal. Paying up in that kind of market for a fixer upper in an off area would cause me much regret.
There’s ‘bargains’ in blue cities perhaps…
zip code: EIEIO
My wife has been a realtor since the early nineties and she has never seen a market like the current one, even during the housing boom. It's routine for a house to go on the market on Friday and be under contract by Monday. Multiple offers, many for cash and forgoing house inspections are the norm. My advice is if you don't have to move, don't. You'll be able to sell your house easily, but buying another will be an incredibly miserable experience.
Underlying this story is the fact that there has been a quick, enormous move from the city to the suburbs or further out. It was done hastily in response to lockdowns and defund the police moves in big cities and this haste is showing up afterward as a lot of soul-searching about the condition of the houses and the price paid. But do people in large numbers regret moving to the suburbs or beyond? How many decided to be farmers based on Instagram? Other problems can be imagined. Some will be surprised that winter lasts beyond February in places like Wisconsin. Some will find that Florida is hot in the summer and air-conditioning, which is morally wrong, is a must. Some will trip over a unknown form of diversity, individual diversity rather than group diversity. There's sign many in New Mexico claim to see: "Going back to California." Will we see a lot of that or of "Going Back to New York City" or "Going back to Chicago" or such like signs? I wonder.
Just sold my beautiful 100 year old colonial in a lovely neighborhood close to the St John's river in north east Florida for the exorbitant asking price on the first phone call sight unseen by the new buyers escaping from northern Virginia. My real estate agent was happy to do about three hours of work for the 5% commission. She did ask me where I intended to move as she had nothing to sell me. In our early 70's the long term sig other and I are consolidating into her Brady Bunch split level just down the street. Did I mention our rose gardens blooms all year?
the long term sig other and I are consolidating into her Brady Bunch split level just down the street
Brady Bunch split levels are some of the hottest of the hot. Did you sell the right house?
Anyone selling in pretty much any market these days is going to get the price they want, or more. In many markets the prices are bid up, often from people out of town who have not even seen the house in person. So everyone could sell now and make some good money, but...
what do you do then? Where do you turn around to buy without paying over-inflated prices for a home. Because as we all know, what goes up, must come down. And it will at some point.
I'd love to sell my home right now. Florida is booming as people are streaming out of the Northeast and Midwest trying to figure out why people smile so much down here. But if we sell, then what? Where can we possibly buy that isn't an inflated price?
Answer: We can't. Which is good because we like where we are. It's crazy out there.
I bike through an upscale suburb a few miles from my house. When a house comes up for sale, if it's under $3 million it's usually a tear-down. The joke is that vacant lots go for an average of $3 million with the house, $3.1 million without the house.
They'll be fine. Give 'em a year to adapt. Pretty soon they'll become ruralized and, like the rest of us out here in the sticks, they'll stop caring about keeping the property up, they'll stop brushing their teeth and bathing. They won't care about anything except shootin' at things, going to cross burnings, listening to Joe Rogan, and engaging in non-consensual sex with canoeists when the opportunity presents itself.
How could you not think it would not be hard work to keep 2 cows?
About a week ago, a thread appeared in my twitter stream talking about how all it would take to eliminate evil agribusiness is for everyone to grow their vegetables and keep a couple goats and chickens in the yard. One guy explained using basic math how you could turn a few dollars worth of tomatoes into a multimillion dollar crop in just a couple years.
Who would not realize farming is hard? Environmentalists.
"There's sign many in New Mexico claim to see: "Going back to California." Will we see a lot of that or of "Going Back to New York City" or "Going back to Chicago" or such like signs? I wonder."
Dylan lyric: "I'm going back to New York City/I do believe I've had enough."
https://accordingtohoyt.com/2022/02/04/this-is-the-alarm-bell/
Caliunicornia Uber Alles!
Since the start of the pandemic every empty nest neighbor in our subdivision who has a vacation home sold their house and moved (typically to Lake Lanier or somewhere in the Georgia mountains.
https://www.kristinkimball.com/
The Dirty Life. An really good read that explains exactly this.
I could type forever, one letter at at time, about this topic. I’ll spare you;0) I think…
I’m praying the hasty buyers will sell in a few yrs at a loss so my kids can own something affordable. One daughter is getting into goats and the plan to milk 100 or more w/in 2yrs.
Idk how many hrs my husband worked yesterday. There are at least 8 hrs spent on the daily chores- but, plowing snow and taking care of the 17 animals outside tools hrs longer. As long as cows have shelter, plenty of good feed and water, and are kept clean and dry- they can weather the weather. And pay attention to their condition/weight and overall health for warnings of something off.
The government has all but crawled up our asses in management. So many “rules”. Environmental for land laws- when to spread manure, when and where to plow, what constitutes a wetland- where ditches go… buffers. Now, we won’t be able to tie our calves by the neck- they will have to be penned, two or more to a pen. Or hutches. Ever seen frost bitten ears on a calf- calves suck each other, part of their nature.
This is going to be a shit show. We’ll probably say screw it and sell the cows.
I forgot to mention that in 3yrs time a law will go into effect ruling all new housing structures for cattle to be free-stall. We pasture out cows daily in season. I’ve never worked in a free stall- never wanted to. What a disappointment. By barns are built for many purposes as they are. They used to be attached to the houses.
The character of our cultural ways will be erased. I suppose people will clap.
I’ve bought five houses to live in in my life and four others to renovate (flipped three, sold one to my daughter). I’ve had varying shades of regret on all nine shortly after buying. But none matched the regret of the one I bought 15 miles out of town on 15 acres. It was a half-finished passive-solar, backed-into-a-hill hippie collapsed dream home which I spent several years finishing. We moved our three tiny town kids out into the boonies and became country folk for the next 11 years. My final assessment on that phase of my life is that it was a grand and successful experiment despite the difficulties.
Moral: Buy a house. In the end it’s all good (except for the bad).
The End
We bought our house in February 2020. We moved in the week before St Pat's Day when the lockdowns went into effect. I wish we had purchased a 4-bedroom instead of just three. We hadn't factored in the need for a home office. Missed opportunity, but we just refi'ed this past week to pull out some equity and upgrade some facets of the home (new carpet, new concrete patio, and a backyard kitchen).
"One guy explained using basic math how you could turn a few dollars worth of tomatoes into a multimillion dollar crop in just a couple years."
People like him: Math smart, life stupid.
If you sell your house, do your pocketbook a favor and at least initially try to sell it yourself. 6% of a $500,000 house is $30,000. Isn't it worth a day or two of your time, to at least try and keep that 30K?
@rehajim - the 100 year old colonial was to much to keep up with at 70. Besides it's about quality of lifestyle as opposed to more money. The 1965 Brady Bunch split level is retro modern in a way the old colonial could never be.
Two cows aren't much more work than two dogs, but if you can't handle the commitment take them (or have them taken) to the local butcher/locker and have slaughtered and turned into a big freezer full of meat or sell them to someone.
I feel really bad for the cows.
Those idiots are guaranteed to be mistreating them.
There are a lot of people that shouldn't be allowed to have animals.
The dollar is going to zero.
Buy property and crypto and dollar backed debt.
I'm calling BS. For $400,000 in 2020 and early 2021, before the RE market really took off, you could buy some place really nice in lots of places in Florida. 4BR, 3ba, 2/3 car garage, & in-ground pool. For $365k, we did.
I really identify with the thought of "advance regret."
There was a documentary series about this a while ago. It was called Green Acres. Bless This Mess is basically a contemporary remake of Green Acres. There have also been a number of movies about what a money pit fixer uppers can be.
These people obviously haven't watched enough light comedies. Who doesn't know that buying a fixer-upper is a recipe for ongoing comical catastrophe?
We're building a 3br/2ba house on 6.5-acres just outside of Snoqualmie. The house will sit in about an 1.3 acre clearing with another 3-acre clearing on the other side of the stream that runs diagonally across the property. I'd planned to buy a riding lawn mower, but all the neighbors told me I also need a compact tractor with a scoop that can lift at least 1/2 ton. The favorite brand around us is Kubota, mainly because the Kubota dealer is just a 1/2 hour away and they'll pickup the tractor if it needs service. A subcompact tractor is about $27,000! That's just a little less than I paid for my 2011 RAV4.
Sometimes keeping two cows is sufficient to be taxed as agricultural property rather than residential. Otherwise why do these people still have cows, that are a commodity able to be sold?
How could you not think it would not be hard work to keep 2 cows? Who reads farm life stuff on Instagram and thinks the life feels the way it looks in the pictures?
It's called being "Book Smart" but not "Walking Around Smart".
I left California in 2017 because of the craziness and outrageous home prices. We bought in Tucson for a price that would have gotten us a one bedroom condo in OC. It's on an acre, in the foothills which is safer than downtown. Downtown is almost as crazy as CA with a left wing Mayor but they stay south of the river and we stay mostly north. The house we bought in 2017 is worth about double what we paid. I understand Phoenix is similar but is too much the big city for me. My wife gets the twitch when we go back to CA to see the kids and grand kids. The traffic is amazing. We can't wait to get home, especially with the mask nonsense.
“Nobody tells you what actual hard work that is and how time consuming it is.”.
No manure, Sherlock! Those cows aren’t some animal that is relatively low maintenance like a cat! I am also guessing that these two are first time home owners. Mrs. Scott and I own an 1100 square foot house with a relatively small yard in a city and our property takes a good amount of time and energy to maintain, all the while working full time jobs and raising 2 kids (noww full grown). If Celeste and Zach are willing, I will do a straight up trade of properties. I wouldn’t mind trading Wisconsin for Florida! BTW, if they have troubling taking care of 2 cows, didn’t those two new homeowners realize that they are free to sell those 2 cows? Must be millenials or Gen Zers.
My wife went rural when we retired (early) and moved from a 1/3 acre lot in the LA foothills to 25 acres with a 1/2 acre fishing pond and about 2 acres of woodland in central Texas. It was a working cattle ranch so I spent the first year or more just cleaning things up. I mow about 6 acres and the rest is pastureland. There's a lot of stuff--well pumps etc so it seems like something needs fixing every week. I'm retired so didn't mind the work at first but it's starting to wear on me after 20 years. Values have exploded around here so we could sell, but as everyone says, where would we go? For how much it would cost to move, plus how much higher my property taxes would be, I could pay for a caretaker. That's where I'm leaning.
Harold said what I was thinking. If you don't want the cows, someone else will take them and give you money for them.
Also, I think it's a pretty common theme in film and television that farming and ranching is much harder work than most people think that it is. Remember in the movie, Holiday Inn, how Bing Crosby gave up show business and became a farmer and the hard work sent him to the sanitarium?
Sell the cows and let 4 acres go to seed. Or make a big freakin’ drama of it.
Why are there two cows involved? Hello? Who is dumb enough to buy dirty smelly cows? They are only good for hamburger unless a veterinarian is hired to inseminate and birth some calves. This, of course, doesn't simply mean, roll over Beethoven and voilà ! you get veal.
Ann, what is advance-regret if it's not do-the-wrong-thing-anyway? Instead, just make the choice and move on to your next choice of where to have shelter and a degree of happiness -- hopefully more happiness than before.
Owning a house is always a PITA. Ditto for the land that came with it. RE agents say "Location" thrice. Owners can say "Maintenance" three times thrice. And the larger the parcel or house increases an owner's lament.
"How could you not think it would not be hard work to keep 2 cows?"
Yes but it's not if you can afford to hire people to take care of all that for you. Then you can pretend to be rustics, just living the "country life."
Wait a sec-----didn't World Class GENIUS Michael Bloomberg say farming was easy, that all you had to do is put a seed in the ground, and stand back to watch it grow?
Recently bought a house on one acre near husband's new job. He had been driving 3 hours every day and that was getting old. We lost bids on 9 houses to all cash buyers. But it wasn't the cash competition that was most difficult to compete against. Biggest problem was the closing timeline. Sellers want not just all cash. They want it within 30 days.
My heirs will have to deal with the selling of my house, I'm never selling and buying a house again. The demand for houses must be high in my area too, I found a letter in my mailbox from a realtor telling me the first names of a young couple looking for their first home. They knew my neighborhood was a good one because some of their staff had grown up there.
There've been stressful times in my life when I was unsettled after having bought a house and regretting it. That's not going to happen ever again. Hopefully, my health will not ever require a move.
Someone said, regarding going rural:
"They won't care about anything except shootin' at things, going to cross burnings, listening to Joe Rogan, and engaging in non-consensual sex with canoeists when the opportunity presents itself."
Having gone rural just down the road from where the Deliverance boys canoed in 1972 down the so-called Cahulawassee (actually Chattooga) River, I'm prone to hearing Dueling Banjos in the background, from time to time, which kinda makes you pucker up. I don't think many folks around Rabun County listen to Joe Rogan, though, and while shooting at things is still popular, cross-burning has given way to smoking meth, or so I hear.
Stay in your rental apartment in NY. You'll regret buying a house you have to maintain. Why would the NYT think that's what their readers want to hear? Also the rural areas are spooky.
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