So I've been saving for ages to buy my own home and I finally have enough to buy myself something. Now in Ireland mortgages are tricky.. you have to have a 10% deposit which is great but they'll only give you 3.5x your earnings. As a single person with a job in retail which is quite low income in comparrison to other jobs it's quite hard to get on the property market but it is do-able. So I have a choice of two paths. I can buy a home about 30 ish mins from where I work but the house will be an old house that will need a lot of renovations and with my income it could take quite a while to get it finished. Or I can buy about 50 minutes away from where I work and have a ready to move in house. 

Which would you choose? 

Would driving nearly an hour to get to work every day bug you? If you were off and wanted to go to the city would it annoy you to drive nearly an hour to get there? 

I went to view a property the other day and it was nice but it still needed a bit of love. But it was a 3 bedroom 2 bathroom property with a garden and about 45 mins from work. Then the estate agent asked if I wanted to go and see another property about 10 mins away and I said yes. Oh my goodness I fell in love. It's a 2 bedroom 1 wetroom bungalow with a garden to the left and A PADDOCK to the right. About 0.4 acres of a paddock. The house has a huge stove in the living room, fully fitted kitchen and views of fields and trees out the huge kitchen window.

The second house was 15k less than the first too.

WHAT DO I DO??

Personally I would choose a move in ready house. That's what I did over a fixer-upper. The things that go into fixing up a house either require a lot of money or a lot of time and knowledge, and if you're not super handy (I'm definitely not) then I wouldn't risk it. Even newer houses can be a huge money sink - our furnace and A/C had to be replaced within a year of each other and our roof was destroyed by hail about a year after we bought the house and insurance only covered a small percentage of it (thankfully the roof we didn't end up paying a bunch for out of pocket because we have roofers in the family, but still).

Even if it meant driving 2 hours a day 5 days a week to do an 8 hour shift at work? 

It looks like a great house and i'd much prefer to just have to buy furnature but I'm conscious about the distance. 

I'm also wary about a home needing lots of renovations... I would choose the newer one and hope nothing happens for a few years at least. The driving part might suck, but you'd have more peace of mind, perhaps?

Here in the Oulu region of Finland, lots of people work in the city centre area, and their drive can be up to an hour each way. I would say they do it because houses are cheaper out there, they get more land, it's quieter, etc. However, there's also bus options, so if they don't want to/can't drive every day, they can still get to the city centre. I dunno if that's an option for you, though.

I guess you have to decide what's more important? The drive time or the state of the home.

Where I live in California, it's pretty much a 45 min-1 hr drive to get to any work place, so I personally am already in a place where I drive 2 hours a day 5 days a week to go to school/work. Doing that but going home to my own place and that being a place that I love would be so totally worth it :D 

So I hate to drive,  and both me and my husband are hands on and love doing work around the house. That being said - we never seem to have enough time to do everything we want. 

I would go with the newer house. When we move,  we plan on buying land and building from the ground up (hiring someone, of course). He already drives an hour to work, but we are willing to consider up to an hour and a half away (he works 8-12 hour shifts depending on the day). Mainly cause we want a good bit of land and no nearby neighbors.  

Just wanted to give you a major CONGRATULATIONS on saving up the money for this huge step in your life. It's such an amazing accomplishment. And a gentle reminder that at the end of the day, do what is best for you and what will make you happy. You're the one who will have to live with your choices, and your happiness is the most important thing ever. 

Thanks so much :)

https://www.daft.ie/cork/houses-for-sale/newmarket/lower-road-newmarket-cork-2305914/

This is the advert for the house. It doesn't show you the paddock or the garden really but if you see the main pic there's concrete well next to that up a step is a garden patch and then on the other side of the house is the paddock. 

I agree with renovations being daunting and time/money consuming. I just always thought it was the option i'd have to take. Moving this far away to me has always been a no no but now I think i'm seeing it differently. Also there are two routes you can take to get work so it might be less repetitive. I'd hate to commit to it and then become really unhappy. But I suppose you can always move and take the mortgage with you? 

Being an adult is so hard lol 

My advice is to just be flexible, and find the right house that you just fall in love with. If you LOVE it but it needs a little work, so be it. If the house you LOVE is further out, then you drive a little. A house is a big purchase, don't settle on one. Take your time, and just make sure the house is the right one for you.

also what point are you in life? you also dont want to buy a house thats too small.
are you ever planning on having kids? get married a 2 bedroom shrinks really fast

The house has much room for growth and extensions. I'm 27 and not planning on having children for 5 years anyway. Even still the house can be rented out or sold to move into a family home. The first house I went to look at was nice but I really did fall in love with the other one. Although I have only gone to see two places but places are hard to come by here. They're either derilict and need a builder to save or they're half a million euro.. if you want to buy near the city.

No joke there's an estate being built in the town I work in and people lined up and slept in their cars over night for the plans of a house not even a building.

I've been in both situations when it comes to work. Living 10 min vs 50 min. I'd much rather have that 50 minute drive honestly, because it meant I was going somewhere I liked better than that 10 minute drive. I currently live 2 minutes from work by foot (aka I live on the property lol!) and while Its nice I miss having that "drive" to sort out the day and wind down. The house we are in is OK.. Its a 4 bed 2.5 bath but its a fixer and I hate it some days because its not a well thought out house. Its very long vs square. (its a Modular home). Anywhoo... I'd Get the move in ready house if you love it. Thats what counts! The drive won't seem nearly as bad once you settle in. 

Another thing to consider is how easy it'll be to re-sell. Houses are an investment and a fixer upper might not get you your money back - and generally you have to stay in a house for at least 5 years to not lose money on the closing costs.

Regardless, I think you should go with the newer house that has a longer commute, BUT I would maybe look at all of the things that need to be done on the fixer upper (get your own inspector, don't rely on the one the sellers chose, if they did) and check around online to see how much those things will cost.

Edit to add: What is the average number of bedrooms where you are? Here it's really, really, really hard to sell a 2 bedroom house. Even though we technically only needed 2 (one for us, one for my office), we got a 3 bedroom because when the time comes it'll sell faster.

how much are additions and what not vs the cost of other house. just under 700sqft seems small to this texas girl is why I am being concerned? 110k E roughly is 122k usd also

You can get 3/4 bedroom houses here but they're family homes. I'm just looking for a starter home to get onto the property ladder. I will never be able to afford a 3/4 bedroom house on my wages and as a single applicant. You're right the size is quite small (I actually think a better word is compact haha) but the rooms are generous sizes and living/ kitchen are open plan so the house is spacious. It's basically a home for a couple and one child. Which is why it's hard to sell. Although the price is good (because it's far from the city) it wouldn't suit someone with a growing family unless they wanted to add extensions. I'm 27 and live with my dog lol so for me even if I decided to move in full time with my boyfriend and we had a child the house would still be suitable and then when it's not it's my own financial security to keep. My mortgage deposit is money I have saved up myself and since i'm no closer to getting engaged I've taken the step to get myself a home. Some of you might see that as strange but I've been around too many divorces to see what happens to people who don't have their own security blankets! 

Ireland has a lot of cottages and converted farm houses and that's really what people on my income and my life situation are buying. Ya I could wait until I get married and take out a bigger mortgage with future husband but why wait till then when I can do it on my own. To rent a room in a house share is 500/600 for a double room with a shared bathroom. The mortgage repayments on this house would be 420pm. So renting until I get married is just dead money or that's how I see it anyway!