House hunting

**Josephhgoins** · 12-31-2009, 11:25 PM

For me it was cost. pure and simple. I own a home in VA and when I purchased it I had the choice of paying cash for it or paying a down payment on a much larger and much nicer home. The problem is the nicer home also came with a 30 year mortgage.

I can deal with most thinks and change most things that I don't like. If the neigbor hood is bad I will gladly arrange a neighborhood watch and do what I need to do to make it better. If the cabinets are too low I will raise them. If the countops need to be replaced I can do that too.

The awesome part about my house in VA is that if I rent it for 5.5 years I will break even with what I paid for it and the rent money AND still have the property.

So yea for me the cost was the most important factor.

**mikandmari** · 01-01-2010, 10:28 AM

We're in the middle of purchasing a house. The biggest issue to us is location.... we want someplace quiet, where we can hear the birds and the crickets and the leaves rustling on the trees. I'll still work in the noisy city, but I'm moving to the country

As far as picky buyers go, I think the phrase should be "unrealistic buyers" instead. Some people are just unrealistic about what they can afford. Another thing.... NO house is perfect, and all houses will need some amount of work, even the new ones!

**nessarowdy** · 01-01-2010, 12:34 PM

This is our 3rd home, and we were picky with this one. #1. Had to be in a good school district. That will help immensely down the road if you should have to sell, even if YOU don't have school-aged kids. #2. I needed 4 bedrooms on one level. If you have 3 kids, and everybody wants their own bedroom, it's hard to send one down to the basement by themselves. #3. I wanted an open floor plan. My current house is one open space with a kitchen/dining room/living room combo. I love it for being with everybody when I'm cooking, etc. #4. Basement. I'm always nervous of bad winds, etc., so this puts me at ease.

-Vanessa

**geckoace** · 01-01-2010, 02:51 PM

Nice, safe relatively quiet neighborhood, good sized yard and driveway. Sound roof and foundation, the rest I didn't really care about our house was a wreck when we bought it and we live every diy blood swear and tears inch if it .... Except the bathrooms that both need remodeling

**frugalfriend** · 01-02-2010, 07:35 PM

I love my house but I do have a couple things I'd do differently next time . . . more privacy and distance from neighbors, and the doors going into the master bathroom are french doors with almost all glass (see through ~ what were they thinking?!). There is no privacy. There really is no way to put curtains on them either, and I'm not about to buy new doors! At least the shower does have muted glass and the toilet is in its own little "water closet."

**monkeywrangler71** · 01-02-2010, 08:02 PM

I've got a list a mile long for the next one, we will have to build it ourselves because it doesn't exist.

For this house, we had 2 days to find and purchase a home. We basically took the first one that was big enough, under $1/4 million and not located next to a crack house, nuclear power plant, or 16 lane highway.