We are on our 5th house, three were brand new, one was old, and our current house was three years old. There are trade offs in every decision. Brand new houses have no maintenance, but they do involve expenses to put in a water softener, window coverings, landscaping. A brand new house can have some mistakes. Our second house didn't have duct work to one of the bedrooms. They forgot! The nice thing was, with a brand new build, it came with a warranty and all that little stuff was fixed for the first year. While I disagree that all new builds are shoddily built, that one was, but it was priced as such, and what we could afford at the time. With the old house, we had had problems with plumbing and electric, it had an old furnace that had oil heat when every other house had natural gas, and wasn't in the best neighborhood. It didn't have a lot of amenities, not even a dishwasher. It also came with costs to update decor as well as infrastructure, and even with the money we put into it, it was a beast to sell. Older homes generally don't have the features we like. Both Mr. Hammer and I enjoy having a master bath. I don't want to go down the hall to the bathroom in the middle of the night. Master suites are more common in new builds than old. I also like first floor laundry and a mud room, and Mr. Hammer insists on not only an attached garage, but a three car attached garage, other things that are unlikely in old builds around here. I want to add that we are in a time in our lives when we are very busy with family life with kids growing up. Someone said 10 years go by quickly and you need maintenance on a new build, but if you are putting braces on your kid and paying doctor bills for those 10 years, that grace period is a blessing! I am the happiest with our current house, which was 3 years old when we bought it (family was relocating). They already did all the initial costs of putting in landscaping, window coverings, the water softener and upgraded the appliances. They even put in a raised garden bed and storm doors on both the front door and the door leading to the garage. We also have the newest thing around here, a covered patio. It is wonderful! Although frankly, I think we have more things we love in our home because we paid for it. We are in a much different financial place than we were when we bought that shoddy new build with a blacktop driveway and no heat to the baby's room. What amenities I have now, I paid for them!

There are a lot of things that make doing what you are talking about less than optimal. Having had partners, even in real estate, a few times before I can tell you that it never quite works out the way you expect it to. First, I find that my partners never seem to live up to my expectations, nor me to theirs. There is no faster way to spoil a good relationship with someone than giving them some of your stuff to take care of. Or try making a decision or repairing versus replacing components, or try writing a big check for a big ticket item for a house you aren't living in or getting money from. Next, there is the problem of someone needing their money out. Assume one of the families invested in this home needs money, what mechanism are you going to have to get them out? You are going to have fun with the liability issue on the property. Multiple owners will give you joint and several liability which means if anyone gets hurt they can sue whoever they want. Not only that, if one of the other owners gets hurt because of any known maintenance issue, then that person could sue the other two to pony up their share of his/her damages. Then we have insurance, which insurance alone is going to make you pay attention. A communal property with no full time resident and a pool. You will not be eligible for homeowner's insurance as the house isn't anyone's home, so you are going to have to get some kind of commercial insurance that will probably cost you close to what the actual house payment is. Next, you have house and pool maintenance. A huge number of pools end up as nothing more than mosquito pools because no one expects that pool maintenance is that much work. Pool maintenance is neither cheap nor easy. House maintenance isn't going to be a walk in the park either. There are ways to make it work, however, I think you are looking at all the upsides and none of the downsides.

We've lived in our house for almost 30 years; it was a move-up for us and over time I did everything I wanted to do: new bathrooms, new kitchen, flooring, paint, etc. In the early years I put in enormous quantities of sweat equity and as we had the funds I eventually paid to do the big jobs I wanted done. The only yearning I never fulfilled was to have a pool--in Miami it's almost standard, especially in a neighborhood like ours with large yards and family houses. Alas my husband wouldn't budge on that one; we're boaters and he simply could not go along with the expense and maintenance when we were out in nature's pool all the time :). He built a much-loved stand alone garage workshop in the backyard and the oak trees he planted as little saplings are now enormous and shade the entire house and yard. I moved a lot as a child (Army brat) and being rooted in this house was something that gave me enormous comfort and quiet joy. The neighborhood has always been solid and over the decades has steadily increased in desirability and value so homes sell for what seem eye-popping prices. That's a factor of having well built houses on large lots closer in to the metropolitan core than anything being built now. Although it seemed somewhat cramped while the kids lived at home, with just the two of us the size is fine. It is located 3 blocks from where we both work, so we got the priceless value of never having a commute other than a 2 minute bike ride to the office. And it's long since paid off so our carrying costs are less than what it would take to rent a studio in a trendy part of Miami. As we got closer to retirement, we had some idle conversations about any other places we would want to live but nothing seemed appealing. I always assumed I'd be carried out feet first as the saying goes. And then about a year and a half ago my husband popped out of the shower one night and said the fateful words 'What about the Florida Keys?' 3 months later we closed on our new house down there! It's been an incredible year+ since then. It had been fully remodeled by the previous owner so there's nothing that desperately needed work. We've done new paint inside and out and one big upgrade of installing impact windows. We've already spent almost every holiday down there and hosted lots of family gatherings. It's on a canal, on the Atlantic side (vs Gulf of Mexico) with what's known down here as deep water access, so my husband can now hop into the boat docked literally behind our house and be on the open water in 2 1/2 minutes. Icing on the new home cake: PO had also put in a swimming pool so I finally got my wish. Turns out my hunch was right- having a pool is WONDERFUL. We spent a heavenly summer floating lazily about, or chatting poolside. We go down every Friday and come back, sadly and reluctantly, every Sunday to the real world of jobs and duties around the house. Which is now no longer the one I'm attached to! I would never have predicted that I would ever feel so ready, willing and able to leave my much loved home. And yet, as time goes by we feel so at peace and so comfortable in our new place. Every week now I come back to a house that feels so dark and so cluttered after the calm, clean bright place that we love so much. It's been a change I never saw coming but one that has brought us as a couple closer together as we embark on this new adventure. And it's our future, one we didn't predict but one we are embracing. This new house even solidified retirement plans. What was once a vague someday-we'll-retire dream is now firmly in place since we've got this house and neighborhood we dearly want to call home 24/7, not just on weekends and holidays. A little over a year from now that should be a reality. So as others have said, I guess the message is that you just never know where life will take you, and the journey can be enlightening and so joyful.

If you're happy with the number, then go ahead. But I'd still want to know the info about the easement and I don't like that the developer seems to be trying to rush this. Sure ... it could just be because they want to move on with the project and tie up this potentially unexpected loose end but it could also be so that you don't have time to research and think about things. Speed is in their favour. They seem to be jumping their numbers up quite quickly and without much push from you. That gives me pause. I can't see them lowering their offer if you take a few more days, but it's you that is taking the risk and not me. Did they give a timeline that their offer is valid for? They must have, right? Did your real estate attorney look into the easement issue at all? Or have any thoughts or opinions on it? Or did you even mention it to him?