Searching for a house could be a satisfying but confusing pursuit at the same time! Yesterday, we went to see a bunch of houses in an attempt to nail down the area that we would like to live in (we plan to buy in a year or so) and let me just say that we are as confused as ever! There’s a house that looks alright. Then there are ones that are 10% more expensive, then there are smaller houses in a better area, and of course there are unaffordable ones that you really would like but can’t buy. So, let me ask you. How did you buy your first house?
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We bought our first and only house about five years ago. We were living in Southern California, but my wife had friends from grad school who had moved back to their home state of Texas.
A few months later we got a call from them telling us they bought a house. Coming from San Diego where the average price on a house was over $600,000, we were in shock that a brand new house in the Dallas suburbs went for around $150,000.
When we visited our friends a few months later, we fell in love with the neighborhood and the metro area. Because my wife was studying for the bar, I flew back out to Texas by myself a few weeks later and picked out a spec home from a few options available. I sent pics back to my wife via e-mail on all the houses, but other than those pics, she agreed to buy a house she had never seen in person!
We miss our home state sometimes but are glad we made the move. We picked this home because it was new, had a great price, was close to our friends, and was available to move into as soon as we packed up and moved.
When you are really interested in buying a house, make sure you get it inspected! Looks can be deceiving especially when the owners have something to hide that they don’t want to tell you. I still haven’t planned on buying a house yet, and I think planning to buy a house within a year or so is not enough time. Too much headache when it comes to buying houses. Good luck to you!
I chose “other” because it wasn’t the house of my “dreams” but it was well built, close to my parents and affordable. So it was sort of a combination of the choices above. We chose the neighborhood based on schools (if you are having children) and then looked for houses we could afford. Definitely get an inspection!! SO many nightmares can be avoided.
I agree with Kai Lo…get the inspection…have it written in the contract as a condition of buying the home. We signed a contract with this provision…we thought this home was great! But after a lengthy report of all the major problems with the home…electrical, cracks in foundation, plumbing, etc. etc. we were so relieved we got out of it! We then, after looking at many dogs, found a super home! Only one problem with a leak in the roof. We have since spent money on a new roof, renovated baths, upgraded electrical, a new carport, etc. but all of this was on our schedule when we could afford it. Do not buy a home with more than one or two must-fix-immediately problems! You will be spending enough with repairs, painting, etc. Hope this doesn’t scare you too much! I guess I should say too that our home was built in 1913 so we expected to put in some work on it.
It took us about 2 yrs and 40 apt viewings before we decided on our current house 5 yrs ago. We had a seperate checklist which we brought along during apartment viewing. Mine was to see whether the room size, usability of items, condition of house , extent of renovation necessary etc, proximity to shops, schools etc. Hubby’s list was more on the fengshui of the house and whether it was facing the “ideal” direction etc.
We went for affordability and with most of the items ticked off on our respective list.
Thanks for the well-wishes. Each day gets better and better for my back, but I think it’ll be another week or two before I can walk, or sleep, without pain.
As for our house, we were going to totally skip even looking at it because it looked small and we thought we already picked our dream house. We were ready to put in an offer on a house on the other end of that street, but the realtor said we should look at other houses first. The 4th, and last, one was the “little house with a pool” on the same street as the one we were going to offer on. We walked in and fell in love. It was so much bigger inside than it looked from the outside, and the warm summer day helped make the pool look so inviting. We dumped the first house and put in an offer on this one and have enjoyed it ever since!
Our first house was a combo of 2 and 3. It was the house we loved at the price we could afford. There were two developments being built by the same builder. One had bigger lots, slightly bigger homes, and had bells and whistles, and of course more expensive. It wasn’t in our budget.
We picked the smaller lot, less bells, and less $. We were able to get a bigger house and it served us well until our family grew and needed more room.
For the second house, we had more options and weren’t in a hurry. We put offers on many that we didn’t love, but they all fell through for some reasn or another. Than we found the house we loved just after it went on the market. We offered full-price the same day and it was ours in a month. Have been there ever since.
It was a combination of gut feeling, a sense of ‘home’, workability,and affordability.
We were careful to keep the payment at 25% of our total monthly incomes.
First time home buyers should especially get the inspections – my first home
in FL needed to be treated for termites, and luckily the inspection brought that up.
About fixer-uppers …. they are some of the best bargains out there! IF you are prepared
to do a lot of the work yourself and can afford to pay cash for the repairs. This little house I am in now was way too small (500 sq ft) and in terrible neglected shape when I bought it. Because it was in SUCH bad shape, I got it basically for the price of the lot, in AS-IS condition. (A free house?) It took me 2 months of weekends just to get the clutter and 60 years accumulation of junk cleared out of it, and then I could finally see the floors and lower walls – it was a mess! I doubled the size with a nice new addition and redid the interior – sheet rock, layout, and paint, and flooring, and put a new roof on the old part when the new part was built. And new electrical also! I now have a very comfy home for myself with pride of accomplishment, and the house is worth more than double the money I put into it in the past 3 years. A VERY nice investment, plus a roof over my head, and a great garden spot!
So don’t totally discard the idea of a fixer upper! Of course, this was not my first rebuild, as I had purchased several older as-is houses before for rentals and had renovated them a little at a time.