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The House Hunters Thread

Lots of great news on this thread!!! JCrow, congrats on the closing date!! SarahlovesJS, WOOHOO for the accepted offer, that is exciting!! Mer, the house looks fabulous and good for you for going through everything with a fine-tooth comb! I completely agree with you--if they need to redo it, too bad for them. This is a very expensive purchase and having water pool RIGHT NEXT to your foundation is NOT going to fly!

We got a call from our agent today. She spoke with the other agent today and let her know that we were interested, but not willing to submit an offer until the price came down since we were going to offer more than 13% below asking. The seller''s agent said that she thinks the owners will come down about 8% (which really means something more like 10% since this was her first stab at throwing a number out). I told our agent that I would talk with D about it tonight and get back to her about putting in an offer.

This is my issue. I like the house, I think it is a good value for 10%+ below asking. Is it perfect? No. But we are working within a budget which means that perfect isn''t an option. I feel like D, despite walking through over 50 homes and even putting offers in on several is still looking for the "perfect" bargain. Either we stay in our budget and get not-so-perfect or we blow the budget and get perfect. The latter is not an option for me :)

So I''m going to talk with him tonight about EXACTLY what imperfections he''s willing to live with. I''m hoping we can sort through this!
 
NEL- Definitely a step in the right direction. I hope your talk goes well this evening.
 
NEL best of luck with everything tonight. We are in the same boat. Its seems we''re always compromising on something and nothing within budget is perfect. We could do higher, but we really dont want to.


Given that we sat down and really made a must have list. And I have to say my must haves have changed a lot of the course of looking at houses. We also came up with a plan. We would go for something under budget right now, even with a few compromises, and work on paying off our student loans, and still saving for our ideal house. Then in 5 or so years reevaluate and see where to go from there.
That being said we put an offer on a townhome last night. DEF not our ideal b/c it only has .14 of an acre, and I never really wanted a townhome. However its only 4 years old, has all the possible upgrades (master suit with whirlpool soaking tub, granite in kitchen, cherry 42 inch cabs, a finished basement with a theater system built in.) But it is WELL under budget. There is another offer in on it, so its a crap shoot. So we will see.
Also visiting a new construction single family home this weekend. Would be a 55 min commute to work, but we will see.
 
Thanks, ladies!!

rhb, we did something similar. We had an accepted offer on a house we liked, but it fell through because the land could not be subdivided (the owners/agent thought it could). We reassessed our situation and decided to use a small portion of the downpayment money to get rid of my last student loan, then replenish the account. It only took us a few months to replenish the money (house fell through in December, it''s now March and we''re back to hunting), but we both agreed that we''d like something a little bit less expensive than that house because we have a more aggressive payoff plan. Starting with one budget, then decreasing it has been challenging, but absolutely worth it.

The talk was a bit shaky last night. I was getting frustrated, so we decided to talk about it again when we were tired from work since we weren''t really getting anywhere last night. I don''t want to get in an argument about it, I just want to be able to logically discuss what areas we''re both willing to compromise.

I should probably stay out of this thread until we have a signed purchase and sales agreement, haha!
 
Nel: Sorry your talk didn''t go just the way you planned. I see that happened w/ DH and I all the time too. There is so much vested in this and its so much money and such a big decision. So there is bound to be contention, especially when you both don''t agree exactly and it can be very frustrating. Best of luck to you!
 
It seems like a good time to join this thread. Just last week, we decided to buy a house. We''d been talking about doing it in a couple of years, but we drove by a house for sale that we both liked so I looked into it. That house turned out to be a no-go, but it was the kick start we needed. We got pre-approved, so now it''s on! I''m a first time home buyer, too, so I feel a little bit of pressure to get it done before the end of April, but not so much that I''m willing to settle for something that we don''t really like. I''m not holding out for love because we''re planning to stay in the house we get for 5 or 6 years and then build.

We realized that it would be best for us to find a house that''s close to my ex-husband. Right now, we live about 1/2 a mile away as the crow flies, and it works well because of the 3 older kids going back and forth. We were looking in another area about 15 minutes away, but I realized how inconvenient it would be to move further out. Yeah, we could work around it, but if we don''t have to, it would be better. Being in the same neighborhood would allow the kids to easily come to our house after school and they could catch the bus nearby instead of needing me to drive them to the bus stop (which stinks at 6:45 a.m.).

So, looking in a very narrow area makes this somewhat harder. However, Sunday morning we''re going to take a look at 2 houses in the neighborhood. I happen to love the one and have said so for months, but everyone else hates it. The other one is kind of ugly on the outside, but the inside is brand new -- new paint, new carpet, all new stainless appliances. It''s in our price range, has 5 bedrooms, 3 baths, and is in a really perfect location on a cul-de-sac.

I''m looking forward to keeping up with this thread because I''m sure it will be a learning experience!
 
NEL- I hope the talks get a bit easier. I know how hard headed my DH and I can both be when it come to what we *want* in a house, so I don''t even want to imagine how we would decide who concedes to what. Stay Strong woman!
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RPS- Welcome! For some reason I love the idea of driving down the street and just deciding that it''s *time*! How exciting. I wish you and your family the best of luck looking!


We had our first walk thru this morning. Luckily, most everything on the inside of the house is looking good. However, the outside, specifically the backyard, is a completely different story.
1- Today, the landscapers are coming out to re-grade the backyard. It is a mud ridden MESS! It rained again yesterday and there are standing puddles everywhere. It is mainly at the front of the yard (closest to the house), the back of the lot is plenty high and it drains as it should... however, once all that water gets to the front, it is just sitting.
2- I have a major issue with a window that is pretty close to the back left corner of the house. The contractors in charge of the siding on the back of the house say that there isn''t enough room to put panels between the window and the corner... and when they tried to put them up with nails, the panels split due to being so small. So they just made the corner panel double the width. Obviously, this is NOT ok. It looks like crap and extremely shoddy.
3- The contractors are coming out to look at the extra slab as well. Lucky for me, there is still standing water sitting on the left side, (the one I indicated with "X''s" in a previous post) which is the area next to the house.

We''ll see how quickly they can come up with some resolutions. The project manager thinks he can get me to back down about the window situation, but this is something that really looks bad to me, and just very sloppy. I will take a picture this afternoon to post, so that I can get your opinions.
 
welcome rps! looking for a new home can be so exciting! especially when it''s your first.
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meresal - glad to hear the inside is looking good. hopefully they fix the outside things that need fixing!

--

today we found out that all the paper work is done for us to close march 29! yipee!!
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i called and scheduled carpet cleaners to come and steam the carpets on wednesday. they are brand new carpets, but with a baby on the way we figured we should have it done. we were going to do it ourselves, but we''ve got enough on our hands. we also decided to hire movers to do a full move. we were going to just have them do the furniture and boxes down three flights of stairs into a u-haul that we''d rent, and then we''d handle the rest. but, we got some quotes and they came back too good to pass up. so that''s one more thing we don''t have to worry about... or should i say hub and his brothers, because this preggo chick isn''t lifting and carrying a thing during this move! i''ve done my share with packing for sure. and lastly, hubs is going to do the priming of 2 bedrooms and the office so that his parents can come and do the painting the following weekend.
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things seem to be falling into place! whew!
 
NEL - wishing you luck that y''all have had or have another talk that works a bit better.
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Rockpaperscissors- Welcome and best of luck!

Mer - Glad the inside is good, but sorry you''re having issues w/ the outside and the standing water still!
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Sending you dust that it works out and they fix it like they''re supposed to (quickly).

Jcrow - Yaaay! That is great news! Things are moving along!


Well today is our inspection. Hoping it goes well and we don''t find anything horribly daunting. I am a bit nervous I must admit since the home is the same age as me.
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Rockpaperscissors, congrats on starting the house hunt!! That's almost exactly how we started looking...we'd previously seen some homes, but none really spoke to us. Then we saw a house we really liked and thought "hmm, I guess we should get preapproval since now we know there are houses we know we love in our price range". As it turns out, that house didn't work out, but it was a catalyst. We've also narrowed our search to a very particular area (about 3 square miles or so). On one hand, it can be frustrating since inventory doesn't pop up too often, but on the other hand it's very easy to weed through listings. I'm glad you know what you want and where you want it! Good luck on Sunday, I can't wait to hear what you think!

Mer, you are going to be so glad when this is all over! I have no doubt the whole yard situation is a huge pain, but it's better to know about it now and fix it. I guess all this rain is a good thing since it's exposing the issues with the yard. I'm very glad to hear that nearly everything inside the house looks great, the fewer battles you have to fight, the better!

Jcrow, you're closing on Monday!! That's fantastic! And even better that you have movers and your DH (and in-laws) are all helping out with the painting!! I can't wait to hear how everything goes!

I'm taking this weekend off from any searching. The house with the legal issues went under contract yesterday (they bought all the acreage) and I'm fine with it, but a bit bummed. DH wants to pass on the other house I like because it's not private enough--however if it were more private it would be out of the budget. I told our agent that if she found a magical updated antique in a private setting in the exact area we want within our budget to give us a call, haha.

ETA: SarahlovesJS, good luck with the inspection!!! If the house is as young as you, I sersiously doubt any large issues will come up! :)
 
Mere: Glad everything is wonderful inside, and best of luck getting outside exactly the way you want. Do not back down - you paid for it to be correct!

Jcrow- wooo hoo for things moving a long! Best of luck with the move!

Sarah - mucho luck with the inspection~!

NEL: I''m sorry about the previous home. What a bummer. But it wasn''t meant to be yours for a reason. Something perfect will come a long!

---

As for us. Remember we found a brand new townhome that we were using as a very nice back up plan? Short sale, priced 60K under appraisal value. We put in an offer on Tues. (We are seeing 3 last homes tomorrow, one a new construction.) Well, they said it would take about two weeks for them to get back to us with an answer. They came back yesterday and accepted our offer - two DAYS after we placed the offer.
I was in the mindset we wouldn''t hear, and we''re still seeing houses tomorrow. So I''m very happy but shell shocked I think!!
 
Thanks for the warm welcome! It''s nice to see some familiar faces here. =)

I''ve been reading through this thread and it''s cool to see people go from starting to look to getting their house. I''m glad we''re not the only ones who are having a little trouble agreeing about what we want. I''ve realized that buying a house with an architect has to be the worst way to go about it. I know at the price point we''re looking at that we''re not going to find a perfect house and I''m ok with that. I really don''t care if the house has the wrong kind of dormers on it!

We drove by a house the other night that had a nightmare of a driveway. The agent had told me that the driveway was steep. She didn''t say it was almost 90 degrees, like the drop off a roller coaster. I got sick just looking down it a little bit. SO and I both said no way...then last night, he told me how he could fix the driveway to make it work.
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I''ve already moved on and found some other houses that are not the steal the roller coaster house is, but I''m fine with that. Sheesh.

There''s another house that would be totally convenient to my ex''s, but there is a mentally handicapped man that lives on the same street and apparently likes to socialize...to the point where he will stand in someone''s driveway for several hours. Yes, this happened to my son''s friend who lives 2 doors down from this house. The man isn''t dangerous or anything like that -- it''s more of an annoyance because he just wants to talk to everyone and it''s hard to get away from him. This is a really big consideration for this house because having *anyone* standing in my driveway at all would make me crazy.

At lunch today, I''m going to look at the house that just came back on the market yesterday. I''m pretty sure the financing fell through for the person that tried to buy it before. It''s a colonial saltbox in dark blue with a red door. The brand new stainless appliances really are enticing. Previously, the house was listed for $20K more so I''m wondering if the seller dropped the price to what they accepted from the last almost-buyer. In that case, I have a feeling they won''t go much lower.

Fingers crossed for everyone to have a good house weekend!
 
rhbgirl24 - wow! i can''t believe how fast that moved! usually short sales are forever and a headache and a half from what i''ve been hearing around here! congrats!
 
RHB! Oh my gosh!! That is FANTASTIC news!!! I think you may have set the world record for the quickest reply to a short-sale offer! Tomorrow when you are looking at houses it will be nice to know you have a very solid backup plan. If you don''t like anything you see tomorrow, then great, you will know what to do. If you end up loving anything tomorrow, that might be a problem :)

RPS, the blue colonial sounds like a frontrunner right now--let us know what you think after the lunch viewing!
 
Date: 3/26/2010 10:31:03 AM
Author: NewEnglandLady
RHB! Oh my gosh!! That is FANTASTIC news!!! I think you may have set the world record for the quickest reply to a short-sale offer! Tomorrow when you are looking at houses it will be nice to know you have a very solid backup plan. If you don''t like anything you see tomorrow, then great, you will know what to do. If you end up loving anything tomorrow, that might be a problem :)


RPS, the blue colonial sounds like a frontrunner right now--let us know what you think after the lunch viewing!
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Thanks NEL and Jcrow. Its a bit overwhelming because THIS time I was prepared for it to take forever.... go figure. Anyway, we aren''t formally signing the contracts until Sat after seeing the other 3 houses, so technically if we like something we will have to make some serious decisions THAT day. But tis life!

RPS - Yes, chime in on how you like the house!
 
Well, I can see that this may be a battle of wills here.

I saw the blue house today and together SO and I saw a little cape near his mom''s. I liked the blue house a lot, but I think SO doesn''t (he has only seen pictures of the inside). It has 5 bedrooms, compared to the other places we''re considering that only have 3 or 4. Plenty of room for the kids (the boys share a room and so do the girls), plus SO could have a room for his office so I don''t have to have this 4'' x 3 1/2'' plotter sitting out in the open.

We''re revisiting the blue house on Sunday so SO can see it and we''re also seeing this little green house that I *love* but everyone else hates. I realized today that I would be quite happy to find a place asap so we can wrap this up and I can go on to thinking about other things. Heck, I''d be happy to find a place that both of us like equally.
 
I''m just dipping my toes into this thread. I''m desperate to get out of apartment living now that we have a 5 month old. My husband is getting on board with the idea if we keep our budget super super tiny. We currectly are paying a lot for our apartment and we know we could go cheaper and actually own a property instead. I just feel like I''m throwing money away and I''m tired of only have one parking spot and having to lug my baby a million miles to my parking space....This morning the car next to me parked too close so I had to load the baby in from the opposite door---not much fun!

Anyways..haha.

Just wanted to introduce myself and I''m off to go read the previous pages and hone up on any skills/information/wisdom you ladies have already discussed.
 
Tao, glad to see you over here!
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I completely understand wanting to get out of an apartment. Our downstairs neighbors are absolutely horrible (they''re loud as anything during the middle of the night) and the apartment manager refuses to do anything about it. They''re the number one reason I want out of here. Close behind that is the feeling of throwing money away each month.

The first things I''d recommend doing are pulling your credit reports to see if there''s anything that needs to be cleaned up, and then get pre-approved. From what I understand from the agents around here, they don''t want to work much with buyers that don''t have pre-approval. I got ours this past week and it helped us narrow our search. It''s nice to know that we don''t have to scramble as much for the financing!

So....we saw a house this morning that we''re going to put an offer on! It was the only one of all the ones we''ve seen while driving around that SO really liked, so I knew that was good, lol.

We went back to look at what I call "the blue house" and he''s going back and forth with his concerns about the cracks in the foundation. While they''re not a deal breaker, they''re not optimal, either.

Next we saw a house that has potential...which is our code for "it needs a LOT of work." I think there were probably renters in there because the place was pretty much trashed. What wasn''t trashed was ugly. For example, the carpet going up the stairs and on the 2nd floor is builder''s beige and has the rust along the edges. The bathrooms have harvest gold tile on the showers! And the kitchen has some really awful wall paper. The whole place would require some significant work before move in, although we could do it all ourselves.

Finally, we got to The One. It''s a colonial, so not very thrilling on the outside. Inside, it''s been completely over-hauled. There are new hardwood floors and carpet, everything''s been painted, and there are brand new appliances in the kitchen. Oh, plus a new deck. It''s very easy to picture our family in there. SO *really* likes it and that''s saying something.

Now I''m just waiting to talk to our agent about how much we should offer. Frankly, if we can''t get it for below list, we''d still be happy.
 
I might have spoke too soon.....

We already did the credit reports almost a year ago...my husband''s credit was not that great....so we''ve been working on his and he is now out of the "NO!! DANGER DANGER" category..woohoo!

We also have contacted one bank just to see how things would be...They have us at having to put a certain amount down (don''t want to say) and at 5.4%..so our interest rate was way better then we thought we would be because of my husband.

But I''m thinking we are going to have to put off on buying a house for quite some time. We don''t have hardly anything in savings but we do have a sizable amount in our 401K....I don''t really want to dip into our 401K (as the bank we contacted suggested) for the full down payment amount...so it looks like I might have to put house buying on the back burner for right now...I mean obviously we will look at other lenders and what options they give us....but I know we need to put more in savings for our down payment.

Oh well...it was a nice dream while it lasted....I''m a bit sad about this.
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I wish we hadn''t been so silly early on in our relationship with the whole taking vacations to New York type of stuff....and I wish he could curb his addiction to video games and start saving more.

Oh well. At least my apartment is nice and I don''t have loud neighbors like you RPS!
 
taovandel - just want to throw another option your way... financing the house just on your credit without using your husband''s. i know some couples that have done that because one or the other doesn''t have enough credit. and you might be surprised how much they will approve you for!
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The problem is more with the down payment they want from us. We just don''t have that much in savings....They approved us fine and said his credit was fine now also (They gave us two proposals...the high one was 5.4% we were also shown one for 4.5% but we would have to put more down)....The monthly payment was only $50.00 more then what we are paying in rent...so that''s not the problem either....it all comes down to the down payment....we would need to look around for someone to need something lower......But in our area---I just don''t see it happening right now.

I might still look into what you are saying jcrow just to see what is offered that way.
 
RPS!!! You''re putting in an offer, that''s so exciting!!This week will be a nail-biter for you--that you''re willing to pay full price is fantastic and hopefully your agent can help go over all of the recent comps so you know the fair market value. Can''t wait to hear how it goes!

taevandel, I definitely think the best decision is to hold off and don''t touch your 401Ks. If buying a house is your biggest priority, I don''t think it would be insane to stop the 401K for 6 months or something and temporarily reroute that money into the house savings. A great plan might be to move to a cheaper apartment for a year, work on DH''s credit score and just save, save, save for that year. On a tight budget, you might surprise yourself and hit the 20% downpayment goal. Anything is possible with a tight enough budget!

No hunting for us this weekend, but we did drive by an antique (built in 1694--the oldest I''ve seen yet!) that came onto the market yesterday. D agreed that the antique I like is much nicer, so we drove by that one again as well. The biggest issue (for D) with the house I like is that he thinks the street is too busy. We agreed that the busiest the street would be is on a Saturday afternoon, so we drove by yesterday afternoon and he said that it wasn''t that bad--plus the house has a complete privacy fence, so the street wouldn''t be an issue for the dogs or future kiddies. We''re going to talk about whether or not we should put in an offer when he gets back from skiing today. I''m betting dollars to donuts that he''s going to want to see it one more time before making a decision, which is fine.
 
taovandel- yes, i would totally shop around. if you''re working with a realtor, or know of one, they can suggest some lending places to check out. we pitted a lender against our bank and our bank was significantly cheaper in the fees alone. also, i''m not sure of your situation, but i''d check out different types of loans to see which would fit your needs best. have you looked into fha loans? i think they require 3% down but i believe you can put more down if you''d like.
 
rps - yay!! on finding a place and putting in an offer
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best of luck!
 
Tao, is there any chance you qualify for the first time homebuy''s tax? If you do, here in VA there are programs that allow you to use that for your downpayment!

If you need more info, I can get it for you...I''m posting 1 handed right now.
 
I just googled it...but any info you can pass along would be helpful also (When you have two hands! lol)....

I''m assuming you are are talking about the $8000. It expires april 30th right? I''d feel really rushed finding a house...but it''s doable. I emailed the lender we are currently in talks with to see if this was an option with them (from what I''ve read it depends on the lender and other factors).

What are the chances of the credit being extended again?
 
Hehe, I have 2 hands now but I''m not sure how long that will last. How is it that infants seem to sense when you need to type??

The info about the tax credit in VA can be found here. I read through the PDF and that''s as far as I''ve gotten. =)

In order to take advantage of the credit, you have to have a contract by April 30 and then close by June 30. It''s still tight, but I think it''s doable for a lot of people. We went from "not going to buy a house for a couple of years" to "omg we''re going to make an offer" in 11 days! I doubt the credit will be extended again, unfortunately. I decided at the beginning that I would NOT let that push me into buying. It''s a nice incentive, but you can''t lose what you don''t have and this is a big purchase that I don''t want to rush. We just got lucky because we had a very small area to concentrate on and there are enough houses for sale to find one that works well.

BTW, that''s awesome that you''ve already started on the financing. We ended up getting pre-approved on me only because SO''s got some issues due to his divorce. I was actually surprised because I thought my credit was in the toilet and his was good!

Thank you all for the good wishes, too! We''re talking to the agent tonight about the comps. I did some sleuthing and this house is owned by a company that buys foreclosures, fixes them up and sells them. I know what the company paid and SO was able to guesstimate how much they put in for renovations, so even if we offer $20K less, they''re turning a $40K profit in 5 months. That offer would be about $10K less than other homes have sold for in the same neighborhood in the past 2 years, but I feel good knowing that if we absolutely had to, we could go to list price and be done with it. Having it in move in condition with all of the appliances is totally worth it to us.

I also realized how perfect this place would be for SO''s office. Right off the downstairs bedroom there''s a door to the deck and a half bath, so if SO needed a client to come there, they could come in the back and go straight into his office rather than traipse through the house. Plus, we can put a sleeper sofa in there and have the room double as a guest room.
My fingers are crossed so hard they''re about to snap. Let the nail biting begin!
 
It''s crazy that it can happen so fast!! Congrats again RPS.


Also, I contacted the lender I was talking to and they said that they don''t do the tax credit as a down payment...in a way his email was almost condescending, like I was dumb for even asking. His response was a one line, (paraphrasing here) "No, that is only for a tax credit for 2009 or 2010." End of email...that''s it. Weird. Definitely won''t be doing anything through that bank. I had problems in the past with them...but they popped up first and figured I would just see what they have to say.
 
Date: 3/28/2010 5:13:24 PM
Author: taovandel
It's crazy that it can happen so fast!! Congrats again RPS.

Also, I contacted the lender I was talking to and they said that they don't do the tax credit as a down payment...in a way his email was almost condescending, like I was dumb for even asking. His response was a one line, (paraphrasing here) 'No, that is only for a tax credit for 2009 or 2010.' End of email...that's it. Weird. Definitely won't be doing anything through that bank. I had problems in the past with them...but they popped up first and figured I would just see what they have to say.
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I bought a house last year but I like to read about everyone else's house hunts so I lurk in here occasionally. I would definitely talk to some other banks, particularly if your mortgage broker is condescending *and* uninformed. Putting the tax credit towards a down payment is definitely an option. (Although it may depend on the state-not sure.)

My husband and I didn't do that for our house, but I'm still on my realtor's email list and he emailed out information about it some time ago. (It was months ago so it's not in my mail anymore, though-sorry!)

Another option is the FHA loan that RPS mentioned. I believe the program may have been changed somewhat recently or is about to change (I read something in the news about them upping the amount you had to put down), but you used to be able to put only 3% down. However, closing costs can add up quickly, so unless you have a seller who is willing to pay those, you'll still need a fair amount of money for closing costs on top of the 3%.

Good luck and I hope you can find a bank who is willing to work with you!

ETA found a link to the FHA website with some info about the loan: http://www.hud.gov/buying/loans.cfm
 
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