Skip to main content

This post may contain affiliate links which may compensate us based on your interaction. Please read the disclosures for more information.

When I bought my current home, I overlooked one factor that made the house unlivable and caused me to move after a year and a half. Read on for a mistake you can learn from. 

Image source: Getty Images

Almost two years ago, my husband and I bought a home. We intended for the property to be a temporary house for us to stay in for a few years while we decided whether to get a mortgage to build or buy a more permanent place.

But, after just over a year, we’ve decided we can’t stay here any longer and must sell and buy a new house as soon as possible. That’s because we made a decision I really regretted when purchasing the place.

Our big mistake when we bought our current home

The biggest mistake that we made when we made our home purchase was that we looked at how far we were from the locations that we wanted to go to — but we did not look in-depth into how long it would actually take to get there.

The result of this was that while we were around eight to 15 miles from places we go often, it ended up taking us 45 minutes (or sometimes more) to get to these locations. And, unlike other places where we have lived where there was traffic only at certain times, like during rush hour, we end up hitting this terrible traffic pretty much every single time we want to go anywhere no matter the time of day.

Since this home is a vacation house, we really wanted to be able to go out and enjoy doing things while we were living in it. But the traffic became such a nightmare that we were reluctant to even go out — and when we did, even if we had a fun time, we had to deal with a miserable commute home that ended the day on a bad note.

We decided that it wasn’t worth living with the stress, so we’re selling our home after less than two years. While we know this isn’t great for our personal finances, we really regret not paying attention to this issue and we want to undo our mistake ASAP.

Be sure to consider all the details about how your house will affect your life

Before purchasing this property, I thought I was a seasoned home buyer who knew what to look for. And I feel like I tried to do the right things by checking how far away the house was from our common destinations.

But, the reality is, if you aren’t familiar with an area, you can’t know what living there will be like unless you really focus on the day-to-day details that will affect your life — like the traffic, level of noise, and interactions with neighbors. We should have visited the area more and driven during high traffic times to our preferred destinations so we could have seen just how bad things were. We’ll be doing that for all future homes.

Ultimately, while this was an annoying lesson to learn, the experience reaffirmed how important it is to do your due diligence before buying a home so you don’t end up with regrets.

Our picks for the best credit cards

Our experts vetted the most popular offers to land on the select picks that are worthy of a spot in your wallet. These best-in-class cards pack in rich perks, such as big sign-up bonuses, long 0% intro APR offers, and robust rewards. Get started today with our recommended credit cards.

We’re firm believers in the Golden Rule, which is why editorial opinions are ours alone and have not been previously reviewed, approved, or endorsed by included advertisers.
The Ascent does not cover all offers on the market. Editorial content from The Ascent is separate from The Motley Fool editorial content and is created by a different analyst team.The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

 Read More 

Leave a Reply