I Wouldn't Even Consider Buying a House in This One Situation

Buying a house under these circumstances wouldn't make sense.

Over the course of my adult life, I've bought multiple houses. I really like real estate and becoming a homeowner was a huge priority for me. Once I made sure I had my financial ducks in a row, including a good credit score to enable me to qualify for an affordable mortgage loan, I bought a house as soon as I could.

Despite my love of buying houses, though, there is one situation when I absolutely would not purchase a home. 

I wouldn't buy under these circumstances 

The one situation where I absolutely would not even consider buying a house is when I knew I wasn't able to commit to staying in the property for at least two years. 

There are a few big reasons for that. First and foremost, if I wasn't going to stay put for at least that long, I would be really afraid of losing money on the transaction. 

Now, I know homes typically increase in value over time. But it can sometimes take many years for the value of a property to go up. Unfortunately, there are tons of costs associated with both the purchase of a home and the sale of one. Between transfer taxes and real estate agent fees for sellers, and title insurance, and mortgage origination fees, and a long list of other required expenditures, the process of buying and selling can cost tens of thousands of dollars. 

If I bought a property with the plan to move in a year or so, my assumption would be that any property appreciation would likely not provide me with enough to break even after paying all these fees, let alone make a profit. I don't have any interest in having to take a big loss when selling a house, so I wouldn't consider buying unless I knew that I would be there for long enough that the appreciation on the property would likely cover these costs (and hopefully even net me a little profit). 

Holding a property for two years or more would also come with the benefit of being able to reduce or avoid taxes if I do make a profit. You can exempt up to $500,000 in profits from capital gains taxes as a married couple if you meet certain requirements like owning the house for at least two years and living in the house as a primary residence for at least two of the five years before the sale. 

If I didn't live in the home for that two year period, then I could get hit with capital gains tax and lose a good chunk of any money I happened to make. 

Buying a house for the short term really doesn't make sense

If you're considering buying a house but don't know where you want to live in two years, in most cases, you really shouldn't move forward. There are, of course, exceptions to every rule. And sometimes you could end up making a lot of money on a quick home sale. But, this isn't going to happen in most situations, so you should generally stick to purchasing a property only if you want to set down roots there for a while.