if you had to buy a house

[Laney]

if you already purchased a home and had to go back and re-do it, would you do anything differently?

give me all of your could-a, should-a, would-a's....or did you cross all your t's and dot all your i's and wouldn't change a thing

thanks

[HappyMama]

I have bought a few houses and loved each and every one for their individual traits, all have been very different.

My latest is a huge Victorian built by a well to do family in the early 1900's. She is very different , regal to look like a European castle and is bricked.

There is a few I wanted , and almost bought and am so glad I didn't.

I am a researcher and planner and sometimes take forever to make my choice, but that has always worked to our advantage.

Here is what I do:

Look at the area, crime, statistics of neighborhood,drive around the neighborhood day and night, very important.


Insist on seeing many houses in your desired area, and the style you want. Research yourself on line and find many of the homes you want an appointment set up with. Look at the amount of foreclosures in area, stability, crime, work, environmental issues. Make sure there is no environmental hot spots. Check out the quality of the water as well. This information is on line.


Check out the schools in the area, if your kids are in school and if they are not . This is the quality of children you will have around your domain, are they respectful of their school , school pride and involvement ? !
etc.

Check your commute time to and from work and stores. If rural that is fine as long as you factor in those costs to your monthly and yearly budget. If you have longer commutes you will have more car maintenance and will affect your budget. You will be fine if you factor in.

Get comps on the house and area. Don't over pay in these times. Check out the house that needs work, in the best area. You don't want the nicest house in a bad area.

If it needs work, see what you can do yourself, check out prices and get estimates before you commit to purchase.

Once you decide on a home get a home inspection , it will be the best money spent. Find your own with references and certified don't go with the one recommended by the Realtor.

Treat your decision to buy as a professional and business, don't take personally. Don't over pay, or get emotionally involved if it is too much, doesn't match comps or has a falling in foundation....LOL

Also if in some states make sure there has been no insurance claims on house already as can cause a problem. Make sure there is no mold issue and the house is insurable and what it will cost you.


Check utility costs so there is no shock.

If all clear from above then make your bid....


Negotiate, negotiate, negotiate. When putting in bid go lower then you want , they will always come back. If you are working with a bank and foreclosure they will always come back after your first bid , so don't offer your top amount straight away.


Good luck to you and yours.

Hope this helped.

[Laney]

I have bought a few houses and loved each and every one for their individual traits, all have been very different.

My latest is a huge Victorian built by a well to do family in the early 1900's. She is very different , regal to look like a European castle and is bricked.

There is a few I wanted , and almost bought and am so glad I didn't.

I am a researcher and planner and sometimes take forever to make my choice, but that has always worked to our advantage.

Here is what I do:

Look at the area, crime, statistics of neighborhood,drive around the neighborhood day and night, very important.


Insist on seeing many houses in your desired area, and the style you want. Research yourself on line and find many of the homes you want an appointment set up with. Look at the amount of foreclosures in area, stability, crime, work, environmental issues. Make sure there is no environmental hot spots. Check out the quality of the water as well. This information is on line.


Check out the schools in the area, if your kids are in school and if they are not . This is the quality of children you will have around your domain, are they respectful of their school , school pride and involvement ? !
etc.

Check your commute time to and from work and stores. If rural that is fine as long as you factor in those costs to your monthly and yearly budget. If you have longer commutes you will have more car maintenance and will affect your budget. You will be fine if you factor in.

Get comps on the house and area. Don't over pay in these times. Check out the house that needs work, in the best area. You don't want the nicest house in a bad area.

If it needs work, see what you can do yourself, check out prices and get estimates before you commit to purchase.

Once you decide on a home get a home inspection , it will be the best money spent. Find your own with references and certified don't go with the one recommended by the Realtor.

Treat your decision to buy as a professional and business, don't take personally. Don't over pay, or get emotionally involved if it is too much, doesn't match comps or has a falling in foundation....LOL

Also if in some states make sure there has been no insurance claims on house already as can cause a problem. Make sure there is no mold issue and the house is insurable and what it will cost you.


Check utility costs so there is no shock.

If all clear from above then make your bid....


Negotiate, negotiate, negotiate. When putting in bid go lower then you want , they will always come back. If you are working with a bank and foreclosure they will always come back after your first bid , so don't offer your top amount straight away.


Good luck to you and yours.

Hope this helped.

thank you, thank you, thank you!

your post helped alot.

I am a researcher and planner as well. that's probably why it's taking us YEARS to buy a house

[pat in east texas]

Ours is a mobile, about the same size as the stick-and-brick we had in Dallas, but much more open in design. I love it, but if I had it to do over, I'd pick one that has the kitchen on the opposite end from the master bedroom. DH works odd hours, and I have to be very quiet sometimes, (something that does not come naturally).

[madhen]

I think I did the best I could with the finances I had. If I had unlimited income, obviously, things would be different.

I did have reservations when I bought this house, and if I knew then what I know now, I probably would have kept looking. But 80% of the time, I am happy with the location. The house is a funky little 1980's model, and I dream of some day tearing it down and rebuilding it (or, more approriately, having it rebuilt) from the ground up.

If you like to cook, don't settle for a small kitchen. It will make you crazy.

If you have reservations, go with your head and gut, not your heart. Houses are like spouses - once you commit to one, it is not an easy task to rid yourself of your mistakes. Make sure you are in love, and make sure your partner, be it real or realty, will pull ITS share!

[dinah]

if i could do it all over again i would not buy a house on a busy-ish street. now 5 years later it is our motivating factor to move. we can't have our windows open due to car noise. i miss the peace and quiet.

[imagine]

We have always had to buy a house on a time deadline so you can definitely say we had to buy a house

We have bought 4 house and sold 3 one at a time of course

We always figured out what we could afford was generally less then the bank said we could always less then the retalor thought we should. We would not look at house above our limit no matter how much the realator wanted to show it to us

Each house was very very different and we loved/ love each one.

[dancemommy]

I would take your time. Make a list of your musts and then of your would be nice items. For us, we wanted to be in a neighborhood, not on a pond, not on a corner, large yard with trees, 2 stories, basement, 4 bedrooms, 3 baths- those were our musts. Our would be nice items were more than 4 bedrooms, cul de sac, 3 car garage, fenced yard, office space. I like our house, but things I would have changed- I would have taken a little more time to look for a great deal. I think we got a good deal, but I would have loved a great deal. Especially with how the housing market fluctuates. Some of the things I thought I wanted are less important to me now- we tore down the fence- it was falling apart after a few years and we like the yard better without it. We are on a cul de sac, but that means the school bus won't stop in front of our house so that is kind of a bummer. At this point I wish we lived NOT in a neighborhood- the HOA dues are pricey and my kids are over going to the pool every day all summer. I'd rather we lived on some land and built our own pool honestly. Other than that I really like our house. There are some things I'd like to change on it, but don't have the cash at the moment due to a surprise new AC and furnace purchase this summer. Make sure you love the schools if you have kids or will have kids, make sure you like the distance you are from stores/jobs. I live 5 minutes from everything I need including my kids schools- I love that. Best of luck!

[frugal.lass]

I bought my first place this past summer and even though its been a little crazy, I'm still thrilled with it.

My suggestions:
-Know your budget (don't trust the banks suggestion!) and stick to it, buying below your limit if possible. Two banks suggested I could afford up to 270k but a broker I sat with and showed the same income/budget info said anything over 250k would have left me house-poor. We set my range at 190-250k (with pretty much nothing listed in my area below $210k except "handyman specials") and after MUCH searching, I found a suitable place for 215k.

-Have a list of Needs and Wants drawn up but be realistic if you find a home that meets the needs but not all the wants. The place I ended up buying clearly met all my needs when I viewed it the first time but I was disappointed that the yard was a bit smaller than I would have liked. One sleepless night was all it took for me to realize I was moping about saving $25k (very few homes were listed in my area below 240k) because the yard was "a bit small". I'm gone half the month anyways, a larger yard would have been harder for me to maintain!

-Make sure you'll still have several thousand AFTER the purchase of the house and closure costs are dealt with. Stuff WILL come up and you will be thankful you still have money in savings instead of having to acquire more debt.

-Have your financing approved before you shop. You don't want to fall in love with a place only to find that you can't get a mortgage to cover it!

Good luck!

[KeithBC]

I would buy the most modest house I could stand to live in, in an area that was ripe for development. I would avoid getting the cheapest mortgage possible. I would make extra payments at every possible opportunity, as early in the life of the mortgage as I could. The objective is to be living in a house that is paid for. I would sell it for 4x what I paid for it.

I would pay close attention to the kind of community I was moving to. I would check out the organizations and activities in the area. I would subscribe to the local newspaper for a year before moving. I would buy in an area that allows walking access to stores, meeting halls, schools, etc.

Things to avoid:
Buying a house that is 8 miles from anything, and too small. We sold that one and bought one with less land, but bigger and closer to amenities. It was a compromise, but one that we are happy we made.

Be clear on what you want, but be willing to compromise if it will get you something desirable.

[auntie2many]

Our first home was perfect for us. The nicest neighborhood in the town. The downturns were that it was across the street from the high school and students would use our backyard as a short cut, steal the hose from the back yard... Once they even threw eggs at my dh when he confronted some of them in our backyard and the egg shells got into dh's eyes. The builder of the house had a HOA clause and would not let us put barbed wire on top of our brick or concrete wall. I do not remember what type of wall it was now, so after all of our improvements the kids literally made us hate the home and not feel safe so we sold it after two years. Also it was 1 hour commute for us. It was in a pretty remote town, but that was the only town that we could afford to purchase a home in.

Home number two was a manufactured home in a mobile home park. I cannot go into all of the cons about buying a mobile home that is in a park. If I ever were to buy a manufactured home again it would be on my own land that is governed by no one else but maybe city or county laws. Take it from our mistakes. NEVER, NEVER, NEVER live in a mobile home park no matter how nice it is. Ours was nice. The nightmare's of the new owners who bought the park after we moved in and the HOA association and their tricks to squeeze every last dollar out of the tenants was horrid. I do not know how they sleep each night.

Now, we are caretakers for elderly father-in-law and live in his home. It is very old and once you retire you cannot afford all of the upkeep and have to let things go even if you have savings you blow through it fast as did MIL & FIL on repairs. Don't buy a very old house unless you have the money to completely gut it and start a new.

I hope that some of this information has been helpful to you.

A2M

[streamsidegirl]

I agree with checking out the neighborhood at different times day and night for long periods of time. When we moved to our house we knew we were a block away from a busy street, but the couple of times we were here before buying we didn't spend much time outside (stupid, I know). The traffic noise/car stereos/sirens are just crazy. I have to sleep with a fan nearby to mask the noise if we leave windows open, which I love to do. Also, the neighbor's band that practices in the outbuilding behind our house doesn't help - luckily it's only a 1 night a week thing, they're usually finished by 10, and they're actually pretty good. And another neighbor has a dog that barks & barks & barks. Drives me up a tree! If I could pick this house up and move to a quieter neighborhood, it would be perfect.

[Sophia]

We built our house and I drew out the house plans. We lived in a mobile home. I would have made the kitchen bigger, had a laundry room and a play room and basement. I do like my house and I know one day I will be glad that I don't have all the extra space to clean. We are very blessed our house is paid for and we live in the middle of the woods. Can't be seen from the road. I love this. The con's are we live 30 min from town but that is not to bad. TC and Best of luck in your search.

[peanut]

I remember being told the three things to look at when buying a house are: Location, location, location. And I think they are right. We've had two houses now. The first one doubled in value during our sojourn there, and this one has tripled. We bought fixer uppers in middle class/upper middle class neighborhoods. We didn't fix up this one, but we did the last one. Location has been driving up the price on this one.

The things I wouldn't do? I wouldn't buy a two storey house with no main floor bath again. And I won't buy a house without a dishwasher again. I don't like them in general, but they come in handy if you like to entertain a lot...which we do. Odd how guests don't like to do dishes.

[OOwl]

Hire a ruthless housing inspector. We just bought a new home and already have cracking tile, cracks in walls, and a few other issues. We DID have a housing inspector, but he failed to list issues that have come up in just 3 months of owning our new home. We paid cash for our home, so the repairs are all on our shoulders. In Texas, there is no mandatory "new build warranty," so your housing inspector is your safety net. We still LOVE our home, but the cracked tile is a major bummer. Good luck!