How much work is it owning your own car? If it's a brand-new Honda, not a lot. You still have to take it to the dealership every now and then but by and large you're a passenger with autonomy. If it's a '74 E-jag V-12, on the other hand, you're talking about advanced ownership. British electrical systems are not only poorly designed, they're poorly constructed. Weatherproofing wasn't great new and hasn't improved with age. The carburetors dislike being synchronized and what gaskets they started life with have been replaced a dozen times. BUT I mean, that's pretty dope. b_b hates lawns. I also hate lawns, but I bought a push mower and I hate them less. I also know my kid loves them. I also know it's tough to grow potatoes in a condo. I also love being able to rock the fuck out when my wife isn't home and goddamn it, I love that I planted hostas last year. Newer houses have fewer problems than older houses. Tract houses have fewer problems than custom architecturals. I'll say this: most basic home maintenance can be accomplished with very little training and it's empowering to do it yourself. I'll also say that it sucks eating a hot water heater but then, you get that with a condo too. And hey - older condos have higher repair costs, too. Really, the difference is you have to figure out what to do and how to do it rather than just writing a bigger check one month to the HOA.
The skills you learn when taking care of yourself are often worth the time and energy put in. When you put in the work to repair your home while under stress, you bond with it. You begin to know your home very intimately. You learn not just how your own home works, but how every building works. You get a better appreciation for the world around you, and the work that others put in to maintaining it. It can be time consuming, but whether you bond with a car, home, or computer, it's worth doing it with something once. The more things you understand on this level, the more diverse your skillset becomes and the better you become at problem solving. And the more aware you become of the world around you. Blue collar intuition and awareness. It's a trip.
I think I can manage eating an occasional hot water heater. And basic maintenance doesn't sound too bad. Mowing lawns does, but b_b's point about making the landscaping simple is a good one. There are electric lawn mowers. That doesn't seem so bad.I'll say this: most basic home maintenance can be accomplished with very little training and it's empowering to do it yourself. I'll also say that it sucks eating a hot water heater
How old is your house? The area I like, both for location and price, has a lot of homes built in the '30s through the '50s. That doesn't necessarily turn me off, but it's one more thing to gauge.
We have a good'n'proper mid-century modern built in '59. Teak ceiling, mahogany trim, oak floors, whole nine yards. I can fault nothing about its construction; the idiosyncrasies of the house are wholly related to relocating the hot water heater to where the furnace lives so that we could have a dishwasher (it used to be under the counter next to the stove) and then converting that furnace from fuel oil to natural gas. Having been an architectural consultant for half a decade, having contractors in the family and having a sister who used to be a buyer for Quadrant Homes, I can say that I would happily buy anything built from 1900 to about '93. '94 or so they started cutting corners like crazy. New-built tract homes are junk. Buddy of mine rehabbed through the '90s and quit about '06; he said back in '09 that it was silly to worry about all the excess inventory created prior to the last bust because if you don't maintain all those modern houses they'll sink back into the mud within six months.