Frequent Homeowners?

[kme]

We’re looking at buying a new home. A house we’re interested in is 25 years old and has 4 previous owners. Duration of 10, 6,6, and 3 years. It’s not a starter home and compared to other homes, it’s seems like a high homeowner turnover. The house is nice but nothing amazing or nothing terrible in the surface. It makes me feel like something is wrong why people don’t stay- maybe heating ot is too high?

Do you take into account how many previous owners? I do take into consideration the market - like if the market increases a lot I understand why someone would sell. That’s the case for another house we’re looking into in another town but not this one; the market is pretty stagnant.

[isabel]

Well, we’ve moved 3 times in 5 years, so no. Lol

There was nothing wrong with either of our two previous houses. The first we outgrew quickly and the second we decided was not in a location we wanted to be in, but lots of other people love living there.

I don’t worry about the turnover of a house except when it’s been on the market for awhile and has seen multiple offers fall through. That indicates some sort of issue with the house. People moving does not necessarily, in my opinion.

[annieh22]

Those are totally normally time ranges and would not concern me at all. I work for a realtor and people move for varying reasons all the time (jobs, family, sickness, divorce, for more space, for less space, to get a pool, etc). Those time ranges are very normal for many people.
Get a good inspection, drive/walk the neighborhood at different times of day to help your decision making process.

[knx9211]

I would never ever have even considered this. People move for all sorts of reasons. I think you're overthinking it. I can't imagine any heating bill would be so high that someone would move for that sole reason.

[wanderingback]

This wouldn’t even crossed my mind to be a concern.
I guess since I’m a military brat and even in adulthood have moved a lot, so staying 1 place for a few years seems normal to me. It seems like people these days are more transient and staying in a home for 40 years is not necessarily the norm.

[dock]

Dec 5, 2019 21:25:25 GMT -5 knx9211 said:

I would never ever have even considered this. People move for all sorts of reasons. I think you're overthinking it. I can't imagine any heating bill would be so high that someone would move for that sole reason.

I can’t even imagine how high a heating bill would have to be for me to choose instead the hell that is moving.

[aprilsails]

Our previous house had a similar turnover rate. Most other houses on the street did not, but it seemed as though our house cycled more often. We were happy to snap it up since so few houses go up and it is a very desirable neighbourhood in terms of transit access and parks, etc. The only problem with the house (other than the same age related issues the original also owner neighbours experienced), was the paint on the walls kind of sucked because there were so many layers so it was bumpy and sometimes problematic (one owner had painted a bedroom with high gloss paint and it didn’t matter what primer we used the paint on top would come off easily. It had been painted by someone else before too.. ugh.

So, no deal breakers really.

[knx9211]

We're moving out of our house after 6 years and I never thought that was a short stay. There's a brand new neighborhood across from us where at least 2-3 went up for sale within 2 years of being built. Never thought it was because of the house.

[imojoebunny]

The average person lives in home for 7 years, so I don't think these times are weird. I lived in my first house for about 5.5 years because I got married. My brother lived in his 2nd house for 3 years because they wanted to move closer to his job. We lived in rentals we own for around 1-3 years each, but had the money to keep them to rent, as we moved on, otherwise we would have sold them. People move for all kinds of reasons. My friend just built an amazing house last year, but will likely need to sell, since she ditched her DH. Life happens, not the houses fault.

You can sometimes ask the seller or even the power/gas company, for average annual bills for a property. I know I have done this for some places before, but it has been a while, so privacy laws may be different now. It is not that expensive to add insulation to attics and basements, and helps a great deal. Walls and windows are more of a challenge, but a 25 year old house, in most areas should have decent wall insulation by code. Windows, those are price point items, and are what they are. Storm windows can be a good option.

[goldengirlz]

Upper-income professionals* (*since you mentioned this isn’t a “starter” home, whatever that means nowadays) are more mobile than they used to be in the past. It was normal for our parents’ generation to buy one home and stay in it for 50 years, but less so for ours. So I assume you see that in the real estate market.

The longest I’ve lived at one any one address in my adult life was 3.5 years. We’ve bounced around the country for career reasons and many of our friends have done the same. (Sometimes we buy, other times we’ve rented.)

[shopgirl07]

Totally normal. There is a house in my city that has sold like 5 times in 6 years. That one I wonder about. But yours is just par for the course.

[dottyblue]

Ditto all the others. I wouldn’t be concerned about a house unless if it had turned over in under two years multiple times (capital gains taxes come in to play with selling a house for a profit in less than 2 year post-purchase). That to me would indicate that it had been flipped several times and I would be concerned about shoddy workmanship at a bare minimum

[wise_rita]

Dec 5, 2019 21:56:42 GMT -5 shopgirl07 said:

Totally normal. There is a house in my city that has sold like 5 times in 6 years. That one I wonder about. But yours is just par for the course.

I think we both know the answer to that is poltergeist...

[sstephensid]

I’ve successfully called the electric and gas companies to find out how much previous bills are for houses I’m looking at. They have been able to give me the last years average and I think specifics per month for 12 months. I just say I’m looking to buy a house and want to get an estimate of the costs and give them the address. At least around where I live, there are only a few choices and the realtor can give me the names. Some large, inefficient, poorly insulated homes can cost $500/month to heat compared to maybe $200 in my area. That’s a big difference. Of course you won’t know if someone keeps the temperature at a freezing or burning temp but it’ll give you an idea.

[ECB]

I also would never think to even look at this, TBH. I mean, if the turnover was many people staying there for a year at a time then moving, o.k. - yes, I might be concerned. But those length of years? I don't see the issue. There are SO MANY REASONS why people don't stay in one home/ one area for years on top of years.

I'll share this one anecdote. A friend bought a house about 11 years ago with her first DH. They bought the house from friends who were getting divorced. Those friends had bought the house from another couple who got a divorce! Well.... about a year after buying the house, guess what? My friend left her DH and they got a divorce. She actually asked DH and I (who were house hunting at the time) if we might want to look at the house. NOPE!!! 3 couples in a row all bought the house then got divorced. We weren't going to buy Divorce House.

In the end, her ex bought her out of the house and still lives there w/ his 2nd wife.

BUT - the point being - there was a pretty active turn over for that house of couples buying it then divorcing. That's ALL that it was about. It had nothing to do with the house itself.

[atarianna]

We’ve moved 10 times, so.....

I worry about quick turnover but don’t feel any of those were terribly quick. Life is messy. Work transfers, divorce, financial hardship or possibly a windfall. Lives change and people move. I don’t think it necessarily has anything to do with the house.

If you’re concerned with utilities, you can ask for that information from the sellers.

[msmerymac]

I'm my house's 4th owner in 100 years, and the last one lived there for 71 years, so... I would say the opposite can also be a problem.

Anyway, that seems totally average, since most people stay in a home 5-7 years.

[downtoearth]

I haven't moved often, but I have moved to three different homes (one a rental when we couldn't find a place to buy) in the last 14 years - so we stayed 7 years, 1 year, and now I've been in my current house for 6 years. So that seems normal for a middle-of-life duration. I anticipate I'll be in this house until kids are out of school (about 10 more years to make it about 16-17 years in one house), so longer than typical, but you never know and I wouldn't take time in a house into consideration really.

I'm more into location and if the house is laid out well for the years that I anticipate being there (i.e. larger bedrooms during tween/teen years for each kids or nice backyard for kid playing and dog, or more garden space for post-kids if gardening is your hobby etc.).

[flex]

Maybe the neighbors are icky?

[waverly]

If I really loved the house, that fact would not deter me.

However, the house across the street from us goes up for sale at least every 5 years. It is a 3 bedroom, so not super small. I've never been inside but the pictures look nice not cramped. Young couples always buy it, and once they have the second kid they are out of there, so it must be smaller than it looks or feels small or the layout or something.  We are casually friendly with our neighbors, so they typically tell us they moved because of the size. 


Do you due diligence, and make sure you won't outgrow the house and you should be fine. 

[sunflower17]

Dec 5, 2019 21:27:58 GMT -5 dock said:

Dec 5, 2019 21:25:25 GMT -5 knx9211 said:

I would never ever have even considered this. People move for all sorts of reasons. I think you're overthinking it. I can't imagine any heating bill would be so high that someone would move for that sole reason.

I can’t even imagine how high a heating bill would have to be for me to choose instead the hell that is moving.

This.
I actually asked my RE agent if the owners could give me an estimate of their heating/cooling bills when I was looking at my home. The reason is because I moved here from NYC where utilities are pretty expensive so I was concerned about owning a much larger home than I was used to.

[Eagles]

Dec 6, 2019 12:33:30 GMT -5 msmerymac said:

I'm my house's 4th owner in 100 years, and the last one lived there for 71 years, so... I would say the opposite can also be a problem.

Anyway, that seems totally average, since most people stay in a home 5-7 years.

So much fixing and updating.

Signed,

This house is 100 years old and it shows

[macmars45]

I moved three times between 2009 and 2015. I was renting the first two places, but still. I'd move in a heartbeat if the housing market were better in my area. I'm priced out of my city and we don't want to move further away from H's job; it's already 1+ hours each way.

[sloan]

Not an issue at all. In my neighborhood some people are original owners (construction was early 90’s) and other homes have gone up for sale 3-4 times in the 7 years we’ve been here. The ones we’ve known that have been for sale multiple times* have been professionals moving- our direct next door neighbors actually bought their house from the person promoted out of the position they moved here for.

*we also have a lot of one time sales from original owners who are ready to downsize, which is exactly the demographic we bought from as the more updated ones were beyond our budget.

[fivechickens]

I would never consider this an issue.

When our house was built 6 years ago we were only one of 4 new homes built at the time (all other homes were 10-15 years old). One of the homes is on it’s 3rd owner. The first moved within 6 months of building because they found their dream home in a neighboring town and the previous owners moved out of state after 5ish years of living there.

There are all sorts of reasons a home might have a high homeowner turnover that have nothing to do with the home.

[kkfeb04]

Dec 8, 2019 13:44:52 GMT -5 Eagles said:

Dec 6, 2019 12:33:30 GMT -5 msmerymac said:

I'm my house's 4th owner in 100 years, and the last one lived there for 71 years, so... I would say the opposite can also be a problem.

Anyway, that seems totally average, since most people stay in a home 5-7 years.

So much fixing and updating.

Signed,

This house is 100 years old and it shows

Yes. We are 2nd owners of an 83 year old house. We bought it 13 years ago from the estate of the builder who lived here for 70 years. Our kitchen was remodeled in 1952, complete with teal Formica and chrome countertops and no dishwasher. So yeah, that's uhh great. The only cool thing is since he built our house (and many in our town), we have the original blueprints of our house. Oh and we still use the original boiler because that thing is a beast.

OP there are two houses (ironically across from each other) on my block that have had 3 owners each in our 13 years here.

[turnipthebeet]

My agent mentioned the frequent turnover when we looked at our last house, and I was concerned for sure. We moved in intending to live there for the long haul. 1.5 years later my H got a job offer in the town that most of our family lived in, and so we sold it. It was a total fluke. I love the house though and I hope that the current owners stay awhile. I like to think that it brings good luck to its families.

[onomatopoeia]

That does seem like a lot of turnover to me, but not necessarily alarming. It may be similar to our area where there is really limited (and expensive) rental inventory. So when people are looking to move in but not necessarily for the long term (young families, someone getting divorced and needing to stay in the school district, job transplants, etc) they are forced to buy instead of rent.

We just moved after 16 years in the same house and I cannot imagine going through that again in another 3 years lol. Everything went fairly smoothly and it was still hell.

OP did you make an offer?

[sadlebred]

There are a few houses in my neighborhood that seem to go up for sale every few years, but most people here stay in their homes 10 years or more. We still have quite a few of the original homeowners in the neighborhood. If a house does go up for sale, it's usually it's the owners moving for their job, buying a bigger/newer house, divorce/marriage, or the normal things.

[Eagles]

Dec 8, 2019 23:33:44 GMT -5 spearmintleaf said:

Dec 8, 2019 22:06:44 GMT -5 kkfeb04 said:

Yes. We are 2nd owners of an 83 year old house. We bought it 13 years ago from the estate of the builder who lived here for 70 years. Our kitchen was remodeled in 1952, complete with teal Formica and chrome countertops and no dishwasher. So yeah, that's uhh great. The only cool thing is since he built our house (and many in our town), we have the original blueprints of our house. Oh and we still use the original boiler because that thing is a beast.

OP there are two houses (ironically across from each other) on my block that have had 3 owners each in our 13 years here.

Ohhh yes, we have a very old house, 116 years, that was owned by one family from when they had kids to when they died in their 90’s. Our bathroom was the original bathroom, from the 1920’s when the house got indoor plumbing, and not in the cute way. A home owned by a homeowner on a fixed income for 40 years is not a good look. Lots of corners cut and disrepair.

Ours was used as a rental previously. So. Many. Cut. Corners.