‘Cheaper doesn't mean better': Millennial couple bought their first home in 2021 for $195,500—now they regret it

Robert Giametta, 33, and Christopher Luquer, 31, were living in a two-bedroom apartment in Kingston, New York, and paying $850 a month in rent when the covid-19 pandemic struck.

Interest rates were low and "I thought if we don't buy a house now then we probably won't be able to buy one in the future." Giametta tells CNBC Make It.

The couple started their search in the Summer of 2020. They knew they wanted to stay within 40 minutes of Kingston, where Luquer worked as a revenue cycle specialist. Giametta, a process improvement analyst, worked remotely.

"We wanted to find a house that the mortgage wasn't going to be sky high," Giametta says. "We wanted to renovate."

Giametta and Luquer were also sure that they wanted a three-bedroom house so they could use one as a craft room.

The couple toured four houses, put an offer in on the first one they saw — and were outbid. Eventually, they decided on a three-bedroom one-and-a-half bedroom one-level house in Cairo, New York for $195,500. At a little over 1,000 square feet, the house also has a two-car garage and a back deck and sits on 0.69 acres.

Built in 1970, Giametta says the property was in really good condition, but in a rural area.

"We were a little bit nervous at how rural it was, but we convinced ourselves that it would be fun," he says. "[The home] was only slightly outdated, so when we saw it, we thought it would be really easy to update and wouldn't cost that much money."

"It was the perfect starter home and was a little bit better than the other ones that we saw for the price," he added.

The two closed on the house in January 2021 with a down payment of about $6,000. They secured a monthly mortgage of $1,300 with a total FHA loan of $192,000.

Giametta and Luquer moved in that same month. "I couldn't believe that we owned a house. I'm a millennial, so it's not something that seemed achievable for us, but it happened," Giametta says. "It was really surreal, and it felt really good to know we had overcome this huge hurdle of our generation."

"It was emotional because we lived in apartments and had horrible experiences with neighbors and landlords, so it was nice that we didn't have anyone over us," he adds.

'We started to feel like we're all alone up here'

The couple spent the first year renovating and even bought a chicken coop, which Luquer had always dreamed of having. Giametta estimates the renovations cost between $20,000 to $30,000: "We were very distracted and focused on the house in the beginning."

But by the summer of 2022, the couple started regretting their purchase.

The house's rural location in started to weigh on them. Luquer's situation at work changed and he became fully remote. And their friends stopped making the effort to hang out with them now that they were further away. "We started to feel like we're all alone up here," Giametta says.

This October, Giametta shared his home-buying regret on TikTok, and the clip racked up over 55,000 views.

"There's not really anything to do around here and it's becoming really depressing," he says in the video. "I'm finding out that I am much more of a city person rather than a country person since being here."

Another thing that bugs the pair is Cairo's older population — there aren't many people their age at all.

"I don't think we would have bought this house if we were both remote at the time," he says in the TikTok. "We would have been looking for a bigger city like Boston or New York City or even Seattle."

The low cost of living outside of a major city was a major factor in their decision, but now Giametta says that "just because it's cheaper doesn't mean it's better."

"I would say that not considering location is the biggest regret," he adds.

Moving On

The couple has decided they're not going to stay in the house upstate and are weighing their options.

They were thinking about listing their home on Airbnb or renting it out, but learned from neighbors that the property had a history of being used that way and had been left in bad condition.

Giametta and Luquer say the ultimate goal is to finish renovations and then try to sell the house in two years.

"It's not going to be pleasant but I think if we don't take it slow on the next step, we'll end up with another regret," Giametta says. "I think we kind of have just to bite the bullet and relax with the lower mortgage rate we have now and embrace being a hermit."

Giametta has shared a few more videos about the couple's experience and says the number one question he got was why they didn't think about the location more before buying the house.

"You really don't know until you're there. You can perceive what it's going to be like as much as you want but you're not going to know until you actually do it and see how it feels," he says.

Though they regret buying this home, the couple do have one positive takeaway.

"This is our first house, and we learned a lot that we can use later on," Giametta says. "I guess it's just a learning experience in life."

Want to make extra money outside of your day job? Sign up for CNBC's online course How to Earn Passive Income Online to learn about common passive income streams, tips to get started and real-life success stories.

Plus, sign up for CNBC Make It's newsletter to get tips and tricks for success at work, with money and in life.