Buying a unicorn retirement house, before retirement.

[rerod]

For the last three years since my children moved out, Iv been searching for a smaller house with a huge tall garage but haven't found anything even close to what I want within my area. My current 1700 square foot four bedroom home sits on the bus line close to work at the U of I which saves me enough money to pays for the high taxes, not to mention the convenience and safety. So my dream home would have to fulfill all my needs for me to give up my location. Even if I find my dream gear-head house, I probably wouldn't move there and rent it out until retirement because of my convenient location.

This is the type of home I'm looking for.http://www.ialandforsale.com/listings/sl2-49 Its a unicorn, meaning not many people would want it and would also be very hard, or impossible sell for the construction price. The one in the above link has more land than I care to maintain also. And also more garage space than I really need.


Have any of you bought their retirement home years before they retired under the similar circumstances of looking for a unicorn or rare house? Or did you wait until you retired to start searching, because so much could change in 10-13 years?


Thanks!

[Jack FFR1846]

We were looking for a house with a big kitchen and big garage plus a lot of land. Well, we bought our house without the big kitchen and no garage. I later built the garage and bought a shed.

[snowshoes]

So much could change in 10-13 years.
Thanks!

I reworked your intended statement that you made look like a question.

[Driver]

Nice Elise

[Watty]

Something like property with a view or lake frontage could be real hard to replicate so something like that might be a reason to move sooner rather than later.

One risk that you would have with having a house like that as a rental property is that it might attract some renters that are looking for a lot of space and they might trash the garage in a number of different ways, many of them illegal.

Unless you are in some real unusual rental market the rental when you are ready to retire you can just buy a house with enough space to add on your dream garage and then you would be starting with a brand new perfect garage and not something that is due for a new roof.

[rerod]

We were looking for a house with a big kitchen and big garage plus a lot of land. Well, we bought our house without the big kitchen and no garage. I later built the garage and bought a shed.

I like that Jack. I want a two post lift with 14' ceiling for my 4x4

So much could change in 10-13 years.
Thanks!

I reworked your intended statement that you made look like a question.

Thanks. I will wait.. But Im bouncing off the walls this winter wanting that huge garage and Im addicted to zillow.

Something like property with a view or lake frontage could be real hard to replicate so something like that might be a reason to move sooner rather than later.

One risk that you would have with having a house like that as a rental property is that it might attract some renters that are looking for a lot of space and they might trash the garage in a number of different ways, many of them illegal.

Unless you are in some real unusual rental market the rental when you are ready to retire you can just buy a house with enough space to add on your dream garage and then you would be starting with a brand new perfect garage and not something that is due for a new roof.

I don't need lake front or a home owners association telling me what to do. Frankly, I would be happy with a trailer on a acre with a big garage because I wouldn't spend much time in the trailer as I love tinkering, building and fixing things. But having everything under one roof would be better.

Thanks everyone!