Buying a house...How do you know which one??? (long)

[aljdewey]

This is the result of all the hours of hunting.

 

[butterfly 17]

When we bought our first house, we looked at so many (40 at least) and realized that what we wanted was something fairly new, but not necessarily brand new (less than 10 years old), 3 bedrooms, a LR with seperate DR, FR and updated kitchen. We didn''t really care if we had a garage, but it at least had to have a driveway.

We wanted to stay in the five boroughs so we would be close to both of our jobs and the only area that had fairly new homes that were within our budget was Staten Island.

At that time we were really searching for a house to buy, but our budget only allowed us to buy a semi-detached house, so that''s all we looked at. We did look at townhouses as well, which were a little less, but I didn''t like that most of the townhouses in SI had no parking or limited parking and I wanted to live on a big street so that if someone was double parked, at least I could still get by. We looked at houses every weekend and there was always something that we didn''t like about the houses that we saw and then found the ONE and from the moment I saw it from the outside and stepped in, I knew it was the one we would buy. It took us 4 months to find it.

When we bought the house we are currently living in, my main requirements was that it had to be detached with a larger backyard than what we had and it had to be at least as nice inside as our first house, if not better. Also, it had to have a larger yard and the yard had to be longer than 100 feet as per my husband. It''s hard to find new detached houses here in SI bigger than 40 X100 feet as most of the new ones being built are just not built on a lot of land and the ones that are on larger lots were over our budget.

This house we bought was not really planned. We just decided to look at houses because we heard that the RE market was going down and since the prices were already outrageous to begin with, we figured we would look around to see what was out there. We looked at a few open houses and then we found the ONE. It was the 7th house we looked at.

I was really surprised that I found it so fast and quite honestly, I would probably still be living in my other house if this one didn''t come along. I had actually called about it two weeks before the agent called me and completely forgot about it.

In fact, I was not even impressed with the outside of the house (it has that newer pink brick, the actual color is called alaskan pink) when I looked at it, but I had seen it was for sale and since it was in my same neighborhood I thought I would call about it. Also, I knew it was a newer house (it was only a year old) and I wanted to get an idea of what a house in this price range would look like inside.

I think that you know when you walk into a house and start looking around that it is the ONE. I had that feeling about both of the houses that I have bought and it''s just a feeling of happiness, like you''ve finally found your home.

I really think you just know it''s the one for you when you realize that no house is perfect but that even with all the things you see you have to change/fix, etc., the house still makes your heart go pitter-patter when you see it.

I am so glad I made that call and the agent called me back!

 

[robbie3982]

Thanks for the responses everyone!

ALJ, your house is so cute! We looked at more houses today. DH really likes a new construction one. It wasn''t in the area we were originally looking in, but the agent told us it''s being developed more so we figured it couldn''t hurt. The house was nice, but it seemed very cookie cutter to me. The agent took us to a few other homes in the development and while they were bigger, the one DH likes was the nices layout. It just didn''t grab me though. Then when we came home we pulled up the school info (Ohio school report cards) and compared the new township with the other 2 we''d been considering. It wasn''t so good, lol. So, even though it''ll be at least 7 years until we have kids that would be in the school system, I think we''re going to rule it out.

I can''t stop thinking about house #1 (the 3 bedroom, 1.5 bath, 1 car garage) even though we really want a 2 car garage. If it had a 2-car garage I don''t know that the other stuff would really even bother me that much. Since I can''t stop thinking about it, I figured I''d post some pics for you guys. Here''s the outside:

 

[robbie3982]

the huge kitchen

 

[robbie3982]

another kitchen shot

 

[robbie3982]

family room right off the kitchen

 

[robbie3982]

living room

 

[robbie3982]

dining room

 

[robbie3982]

master bedroom

 

[Deelight]

Pandora, #3 is DH''s favorite, or at least it was last night...he changes his mind almost as much as I do ! Our market is very different than yours. A lot of the houses we''ve been looking at have been on the market for over a year.

OMG WOW that is a buyer market *DIES* here at the moment by the time the house is listed on the internet it is sold and agents are not nice

. I did a drive around of my neighborhood nothing is for sale in the past 12 mths houses have risen something like 30% in value on my area. When I bought my house the average house prices were 70-90k (you could buy units for 20k) now they are 380-400k+ (units are 240-280k) and I live nowhere special.
You definitely have the power to negotiate the price people want to sell.

I can''t stop thinking about house #1 (the 3 bedroom, 1.5 bath, 1 car garage) even though we really want a 2 car garage. If it had a 2-car garage I don''t know that the other stuff would really even bother me that much. Since I can''t stop thinking about it, I figured I''d post some pics for you guys

Have you considered building a carport? not as good as a two car garage but you would still have both cars covered from the elements. Carports are usually easily erected and fairly inexpensive

.

I love the pictures of the house you posted looks like a storybook picture house The colour scheme is good and if you don''t like it easy to change (very inviting though) and the kitchen looks a very decent size.

 

[LaurenThePartier]

Robbie, that cute house with the one car garage is just adorable!

In Dallas, the soil moves so much that there are certain cities you HAVE to avoid, because otherwise, you WILL have to repair your foundation. I had already bought and sold a house by the time I met DH, and the foundation issues were enough to keep me from buying anything more than a couple years old ever again.

We ended up building a Ryland home last year, and it took us forever to decide on our location, but once we saw the model, we KNEW we had found what we wanted. We had 3 major requirements - the toilet in the master bathroom had to be in it''s own separate water closet, as large a garage as possible, 3 car preferably, and a large open floor plan. The floorplan settled all of them, and gave us bonuses we didn''t know we needed.

Here''s a link to our house. https://www.pricescope.com/community/threads/a-little-overdue-laurenthepartiers-new-house.63613/

Good luck on your search, Robbie! The search is worth it once you find the house that "fits".

 

[fisherofmengirly]

We''re doing the same thing, too, Robbie. We have finally chosen the area, and now it''s all about popping around in houses, getting a feel for the home, the community.

Mostly, houses don''t speak to us. There have been two or three though, that we both really like. From that point, it becomes a game of weighing the key things for us: school systems, cost, HOA fees (let me tell you, they are crazy ridiculous in some of these "planned communities"), what really matters to us (like one of the top three has hardwood floors. REAL hardwood floors. But, it''s scary to me, thinking of having little babies toddling around on hard floors, or the one that we LOVE the location of, the size of the yard, all that, but really don''t love that the master bathroom has NO bathtub. What were they thinking???) and weighing what will be best down the road.

It''s a fun time, but it''s also stressful. You see this house, this thing that you''ll be paying for the better part of a lifetime, and you get overwhelmed.

Good luck. You''ll find a great home for both of you!!

 

[Blenheim]

Date: 11/2/2007 11:15:56 AM
Author: Tacori E-ring
I think there are three things to look at, location, lot, and lay-out. The rest is SOOOO easy to change. I don't know if I (at least) ever knew our homes were 'the one.' For our first home it was the right price, right size, right location. It is a great house and I was sad to move. Our current home is DH's dream house. Again, great price, location, and size. I am sure we would be happy in many houses. I don't have a romantic view about things like this. If the rooms seem to small now they will only shrink later (like diamonds

). Don't over extend yourselves. Don't buy in a flood zone. And remember this won't be your forever house.

This is basically what we were looking at. We kept in mind that it's relatively easy to things like change paint colors and update the kitchen, but impossible to move the location or increase the lot size. Our realtor didn't even show us anything that was more than a couple of blocks off of a bus line that went directly downtown, for example, because that was one of our non-negotiables. We passed on one house that I loved because there was no dining room and the kitchen was not large enough to eat in, and we didn't feel like immediately adding on or making major modifications to the layout.

Also, since this is not a forever home, we kept in mind resale. We didn't look at houses on roads that get more traffic, for example, since while it wouldn't bother us, they're often harder to sell.

We didn't find "the one" either. After the other house fell through, we looked at more with our realtor and made a list of several that we wanted to make offers on. This one was #1 on the list. If we couldn't get this one, we would have made an offer on #2, etc.

I realize that our house isn't that big, but I feel like it's huge at 1600 sqft. It's larger than the house I grew up in, so the size of bedrooms doesn't bother me at all. I prefer a smaller house in terms of utility bills and the amount of time that we have to spend cleaning it. Especially after seeing the pictures you posted, I'd personally go with the first house.

Especially if you can't get it out of your mind.

ETA: After reading Fishie's post, hardwood floors were important to me but not enough to rule out a house. I'm really glad that we have wood floors though -- I love them.