Today we’ve just bought our third house. Out with the old, and in with the new, literally. The ‘new’ house was built in 1989 — I’ve never lived in anything built in my lifetime.
Last night as we were contemplating this purchase, I was thinking back to our first house.
After law school, and living in Cleveland for two years — we needed to decide to stay or go. It was a difficult decision, but ultimately we decided to stay — for a few years, anyway. The next decision was whether to buy a house.
I’ve always been a huge fan of real estate. Rather than one’s own labor, I’ve always perceived it as the true path to wealth. So, off we went, house and condo hunting.
It was a difficult ordeal. I saw dozens of houses in varying levels of condition. From some, with no working plumbing, to absolute jewels I could never afford. The condos were another story. Sure, they were affordable — but the condo association fees were almost as much as our mortgage would be — and not at all deductible.
Our decision, ultimately rested on a bizarre factor. We bought the only house we saw in Shaker Heights with a dry basement — because I think there’s nothing worse than water damage.
Adam and I were both nervous — quaking in our boots as we made that first offer — knowing that we didn’t really have much money — but desperately wanting to get into a house. Our offer was accepted — and now, it’s much easier. This time around, I hardly lost any sleep.
The first house wasn’t our dream house — but it served us well. We put in a lot of sweat equity and turned it into a pretty nice place. Most of all — we learned a lot about home ownership. Brick is good (except in California where earthquakes tear it apart). Dry basements are great. And it’s always better when the previous owner has put on that new roof.
Although I hated the layout of our first house and could barely tolerate those 50’s style pink tile bathrooms — home ownership taught me a lot of lessons that have made life easier: mortgage interest is a great deduction, real estate ownership can build wealth, and houses are home.
