Attached vs SFH...questions

[Velar Fricative]

Aug 6, 2020 8:42:52 GMT -5 lemoncupcake said:

I think that attached house you linked is nice, but coming from the land of SFH with privacy fences, I don’t understand the logistics backyard situation.

What if you wanted to have a kids birthday party or a BBQ with friends - do you have to coordinate ate with your neighbor who can use the yard? What about kid toys/swing sets? And i know you mentioned you have a dog, would you just walk them or get a tie out or fence in a portion of the yard?

Not all attached houses have shared backyards. We have our own fenced yard. Because our house is only 18 feet wide (and therefore that's how wide our yard is, and it's about 45 feet long), we can see our neighbors even with privacy fences, but it still feels private to us. But it helps that we have nice neighbors. Even the loud family on one side (two parents and four kids ages 16-26) doesn't bother us when we're in our yards at the same time. In fact, I think it's been a benefit to be able to have conversations with our neighbors during the height of the pandemic here because it made us feel less lonely. BUT, that is obviously contingent upon who your neighbors are and that's not a guarantee anywhere.

[Jalapeñomel]

Aug 6, 2020 8:42:52 GMT -5 lemoncupcake said:

I think that attached house you linked is nice, but coming from the land of SFH with privacy fences, I don’t understand the logistics backyard situation.

What if you wanted to have a kids birthday party or a BBQ with friends - do you have to coordinate ate with your neighbor who can use the yard? What about kid toys/swing sets? And i know you mentioned you have a dog, would you just walk them or get a tie out or fence in a portion of the yard?

No swing sets or toys (but we don’t have that in our current home), no idea about a BBQ, but all the ones we’ve looked at have their own backyards, it’s not shared.

We’d have to walk the dog, but we’ve never had a fenced in yard, so this is NBD to us now...however it could be in the future especially if we had a second dog (although we’ve had three dogs for years in apartments).

Backyard type:

[wildrice]

Aug 6, 2020 8:42:52 GMT -5 lemoncupcake said:

I think that attached house you linked is nice, but coming from the land of SFH with privacy fences, I don’t understand the logistics backyard situation.

What if you wanted to have a kids birthday party or a BBQ with friends - do you have to coordinate ate with your neighbor who can use the yard? What about kid toys/swing sets? And i know you mentioned you have a dog, would you just walk them or get a tie out or fence in a portion of the yard?

It's not actually a shared backyard, any more than if you had a SFH without a fence. The half that is behind your house is yours, and the half that is behind your neighbor's house is theirs. You both use your own property accordingly and don't go onto your neighbor's property.

Different places have different norms with fencing. Where I live right now, all the townhouses have privacy fences. In the last town where I owned a house (different state) I specifically avoided townhouses because you weren't allowed to put up a fence. In that town I had a duplex, where were allowed to add a fence (and did). 

[lemoncupcake]

Aug 6, 2020 9:16:55 GMT -5 Velar Fricative said:

Aug 6, 2020 8:42:52 GMT -5 lemoncupcake said:

I think that attached house you linked is nice, but coming from the land of SFH with privacy fences, I don’t understand the logistics backyard situation.

What if you wanted to have a kids birthday party or a BBQ with friends - do you have to coordinate ate with your neighbor who can use the yard? What about kid toys/swing sets? And i know you mentioned you have a dog, would you just walk them or get a tie out or fence in a portion of the yard?

Not all attached houses have shared backyards. We have our own fenced yard. Because our house is only 18 feet wide (and therefore that's how wide our yard is, and it's about 45 feet long), we can see our neighbors even with privacy fences, but it still feels private to us. But it helps that we have nice neighbors. Even the loud family on one side (two parents and four kids ages 16-26) doesn't bother us when we're in our yards at the same time. In fact, I think it's been a benefit to be able to have conversations with our neighbors during the height of the pandemic here because it made us feel less lonely. BUT, that is obviously contingent upon who your neighbors are and that's not a guarantee anywhere.

Having a tiny yard that’s fenced in makes total sense to me - we have a decent sized yard for where we live (.2 acre lot) and can talk to the neighbors over the fence too, but it feels like we have privacy.

[msmerymac]

Just throwing out there that attached homes are usually in denser, more walkable neighborhoods if that's important to you. You can also get a bigger bang for your buck in desirable areas.

I currently live in a SFH, but it's in a walkable area with a lot of twins (even on my street) and some row homes not far away. Our backyard is a 1/10th acre, so we're still pretty close to our neighbors. We DO have a detached garage, which not everyone in our town has, and which is possible with an attached house, though more rare. Of course, newer ones might have a garage on the first floor. Most stuff in my town is around 100 years old.

[agnes]

I guess I missed that you were selling your house. What was the reason you were selling? They have their trade offs.

I grew up in a middle townhouse, have owned/lived in sfh, and currently own an end unit townhouse.

I always said I wouldn't own a town house and hate HOAs, but this one's not bad. We have a walkway on one side and share a wall with the neighbors on the other. I rarely hear the neighbors except when their dog barks rarely. Our HOA is pretty low-key, on the lower end of monthly $$ for the area, they handle exterior repairs & the roofs, maintain all common areas and I don't have to deal with yard upkeep except in our patio which is mostly concrete. We have a large green space in the middle of the complex. So it has a nice spacious park feel and the dog can run around in a high density area. We can't use the club house or pool right now because of COVID-19. We're in a great location for my commute and ok for H's.

My aunt's townhouse (which I've lived in for several years) has a very uppity HOA, more expensive monthly fee, and you can hear every time the neighbor flushes the toilet. The walls are thin. But she has a beautiful view and is in a really good location.

I would still prefer to have the privacy of a sfh. I also miss having a private pool and not being so close to everyone. I still browse listings for fixer SFHs in our area. Basically our PITI & HOA combined would be the same as PITI of a house for 100k more than our townhouse. Most of what we would want (including major fixers) are more like 150 - 200k more plus the reno cost.

[ebeth]

Another city dweller in a row home here. We'd have to move to a different neighborhood or the burbs to have a SFH so most of the houses we looked at were row homes. I like having a smaller yard (less yard work) and less exterior maintenance. We're getting quotes to replace the roof right now and it is fraction of what my friends/family with SFH have paid. I also like that there's no HOA/HOA dues. I do hear our neighbors but generally only when our house is completely quiet and they are exceptionally loud (one of my neighbors does some shouting followed by singing every morning when he wakes up). There have also been a couple of flips on our row that have resulted in very loud construction that I probably would not have noticed were it not for the fact that I WFH. The biggest con for me is the lack of light. I feel like it's so dark in here and would like if at least one side of our house was not connected to neighbor to get more light in here.

[sloan]

I’m in a SFH but my in-laws own two attached homes (they snowbird). For them one is only attached along the garage and in the basement, so they never hear their neighbors- biggest issue is parking when both their local kids come over but even that’s not a big deal. The other is a true single story which connects again along the garage but extends past that, it’s not been an issue but they have good/quiet neighbors. In a high density area SFH or not neighbors will impact your experience- we are in a SFH but exterior walls are about 10’-12’ apart, so I hear them outside (currently we have lovely neighbors, the first ones when we moved in were loud at all hours of the night).

All that to say attached wouldn’t be a dealbreaker for me and there are trade offs in every home, but I’d definitely consider how they’re attached and if the shared wall was thin how I planned to use the area. Attached along the garage/kitchen and loft/play space? Ok. Bedrooms where they may wake us or our kids? Only if the sound insulation was good.

[Jalapeñomel]

This is all super helpful, and you’ve given me lots to think of.

We’ve put in bids to two places one is a SFH and the other is attached. With the market being the way it is, we have to Settle in one way or the other.

I think if we get the SFH, we will stick with it, but the likeliness that someone will accept our bid is low since so many bids come on a house without contingencies. But I guess you never know until you try!

[purplepenguin7]

from some of the links and other posts, I gather that I am roughly in your area and looking for homes in a neighboring county. We currently live in an attached townhouse and the shared walls are the least of my problems. Our HOA is annoying, with absurd rules, that are getting worse as times goes by. Because of that I am weary to own another townhouse/condo and would read the rules very carefully before going into another similar structure. If the houses you are looking at are strictly attached but no HOA that wouldn't bother me personally. I've never lived in a SFH with a yard though so my experiences would be different. I feel your pain though, we are crammed into a too small townhouse because we basically can't afford to move anywhere better.

[goldengirlz]

Good luck!

[litskispeciality]

Good luck with your offer! We really wanted SFH, but even with that can basically see in our neighbors windows on all sides because we have to live in a congested area. Not being attached physically and hearing the neighbors, or worrying about playing music or whatever we're doing was a big push for SFH. In my area most attached are either true condos or row houses, or multifamily basically apartments stacked on top or in different parts of a big house, great if you're all the same family, not really otherwise. HOA's aren't appealing because of cost and rules, but not worrying about lawn care and most snow removal is worth the price.

[Jalapeñomel]

The sellers are being douche bags on the attached house, but we looking at another one tomorrow.

The SFH is bank owned, so we won’t know anything until next week.

[namasteak]

Aug 6, 2020 6:50:14 GMT -5 icedcoffee said:

Aug 6, 2020 6:43:24 GMT -5 SusanBAnthony said:

We had a 760 SQ ft ranch for a while (2 bed 1 bath) and it was fine so my perspective on square footage is obviously different than many people.

Square footage is so dependent on layout. We had a 1,000 sq foot condo and the layout was so impractical it felt so much smaller. I have friends with similar sq feet or smaller and they’re fine because of better layout and storage options.

So true! Our house is only 1600 square feet but has a great layout so it works. Ideally we add another bedroom but this is a totally comfortable house.

[wanderingback]

Good luck with your bids! I hope you get something you love.

[laurack]

Good luck! I grew up in a row house in a city and I don’t remember ever hearing anything through the walls. Also where I am from originally small houses are the norm. My sister bought an end unit row house and it is 700 square feet but somehow has 3 bedrooms! It’s all she needs and she loves it.

We are in a sfh and I like being detached. Our neighbors are still pretty close so I’d rather move somewhere with a larger lot. But if you don’t mind being close to people I think attached has a lot of benefits- more for your money less work, hoa usually deals with ploughing.

I actually prefer a house to be older than newer. Newer houses.. I have heard of many anecdotes about issues. Can’t beat the 1950s cape or ranch for a solid and easy house to deal with. We haven’t done a thing to our 1950 cape and we’ve been here 11 years.

Anyway I hope you have good luck with having an offer accepted! We’re in a hot market too with low inventory so we’ve given up on moving for a bit. I hope you find something soon.

[Jalapeñomel]

Aug 7, 2020 18:45:14 GMT -5 namasteak said:

Aug 6, 2020 6:50:14 GMT -5 icedcoffee said:

Square footage is so dependent on layout. We had a 1,000 sq foot condo and the layout was so impractical it felt so much smaller. I have friends with similar sq feet or smaller and they’re fine because of better layout and storage options.

So true! Our house is only 1600 square feet but has a great layout so it works. Ideally we add another bedroom but this is a totally comfortable house.

1600 sq ft isn’t small!

My current house is older, but not old for this area, and there are so many things that had to have been fixed by someone’s grandpa. The risers on our steps were scraps of wood, the windows don’t fit in the frame, half of our kitchen cabinets were cut the wrong size. But the house itself is sturdy...good bones as they say.

[mountaingirl]

. [/quote]Insulation has been a problem in all the houses we’ve looked at here. Our house is cold as hell with crappy windows.

However, we looked a new home that was built, and it was definitely put together fast and really shotty. I’d take my chances in my old ass home than that one. [/quote]


We were hoping for an older home but not too old. Any new ones seem just crappy. This was built in 1951 and seems to be pretty well insulated and is a solid house. Someone replaced the windows so they are newer and that helps as well.
I hope you are able to find what you are looking for. I know most homes are not on the market for long at this point. Are you still looking in your original places?

[litskispeciality]

I know we have 1500 sq ft and it's not small. Our layout is rather clunky, but that's the style of the house. We have 3 formal bedrooms and an office, finished basement etc. I think we have plenty of space unless we had at least 2 kids then maybe I'd want to move as we have 2 bedrooms upstairs and one down and we don't have a master bathroom. Total HGTV complaint lol.

[Jalapeñomel]

Aug 6, 2020 11:58:38 GMT -5 sloan said:

I’m in a SFH but my in-laws own two attached homes (they snowbird). For them one is only attached along the garage and in the basement, so they never hear their neighbors- biggest issue is parking when both their local kids come over but even that’s not a big deal. The other is a true single story which connects again along the garage but extends past that, it’s not been an issue but they have good/quiet neighbors. In a high density area SFH or not neighbors will impact your experience- we are in a SFH but exterior walls are about 10’-12’ apart, so I hear them outside (currently we have lovely neighbors, the first ones when we moved in were loud at all hours of the night).

All that to say attached wouldn’t be a dealbreaker for me and there are trade offs in every home, but I’d definitely consider how they’re attached and if the shared wall was thin how I planned to use the area. Attached along the garage/kitchen and loft/play space? Ok. Bedrooms where they may wake us or our kids? Only if the sound insulation was good.

So we went ahead with the attached house. Pickings are slim here, and it seems the best option.

The shared wall is on the stairs so the other side of the house from the bedrooms.

[neonpink]

I've lived in two townhomes, I rented one and I own the one I currently live in. In both I could only hear my neighbors if they were hanging pictures on the shared wall. One neighbor has a very loud crying baby and I've never heard him.

Pros: I like that I'm in the middle, It saves on heating and electricity. I'm the penguin in the middle of the huddle.
More square footage and a 2-car garage which is rare to have in my city.
If you have good neighbors it can be amazing. My last place was an adult Sesame street. We'd hang out on our front patios and chat. I made some amazing friends while living there. My current place people enter in the garage so I don't really know my neighbors. HOA covers yard maintenance.

Cons: The placed I rented didn't have an HOA. Someone moved into my old place and painted it a horrible color. I feel bad for my friends who still live there. I currently have an HOA that covers exterior maintenance but it takes forever to get a repair. If you are looking at one with an HOA see how financially healthy it is. I stupidly didn't know to ask that question when I moved in and our HOA had just been taken over from the builder and they had us in the red from a water repair. It took us years to get a healthy amount of money in the HOA to cover any repairs.

[starburst604]

I think it’s totally dependent on who your neighbors are and what the HOA situation is. We bought our townhouse 6 years ago and have zero regrets. We are an end unit of 3 and the HOA is made up of just our 3 places. The other 2 units have changed owners since we moved in and we have awesome neighbors both then and now. We don’t ever hear anything through our walls.

The HOA fees cover our water & sewer, master insurance, snow removal and landscaping. But this summer during quarantine we all got ambitious and totally overhauled the landscaping on our own. Figured we’d save cut the spending since we all had more free time. We are all fairly laid back and often hang out socially.

But if we had to do such a small HOA with someone who was a total PITA, it would suck. It’s also tough to avoid people if you don’t like them