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#1
02-10-2009, 02:41 PM
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Tell me about buying your first home
I guess this will be a poll of sorts, but I'm leaving you room for whatever commentary you want to add. My questions are below. If any is too personal, I apologize, and please feel free to skip it.
1. What year did you buy your first home? (and which month, if it was recent enough to be affected by current market conditions?) 2. What type of home was it? (condo/townhome/detached house/other) 3. How big was the living space, and how big was the lot? 4. What was the purchase price you paid? 5. How much money (or what percentage of the sale price, if you prefer) did you save for a downpayment? 6. From the time you "officially" began the shopping process, how long did it take before escrow closed on your home? 7. Similar to the last question: from the time your offer was accepted on the home you ultimately choose, how long was it until escrow closed? 8. If you hired an agent, how essential do you feel he or she was to the process? Please feel free to elaborate. 9. What would you recommend to others about their first homebuying experience? 10. What would you do differently if you had to do it all over again? If there are any other pertinent questions you can think of, please feel free to add them. Thank you. 
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#2
02-10-2009, 03:03 PM
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1. What year did you buy your first home? (and which month, if it was recent enough to be affected by current market conditions?)
My real first home purchase was in 2000, but we sold it and I lived in apartments after the divorce. But I just recently bought my second "first home" last August. 2. What type of home was it? (condo/townhome/detached house/other) Both my houses have been single family residences. 3. How big was the living space, and how big was the lot? First house was 900 sq ft, current house is 1330 sq ft. The lot is about a quarter of an acre. 4. What was the purchase price you paid? Just under $150k 5. How much money (or what percentage of the sale price, if you prefer) did you save for a downpayment? I think about 10% 6. From the time you "officially" began the shopping process, how long did it take before escrow closed on your home? We started looking online in about February, started going out to look at houses with a Realtor in May, put in an offer in June and closed in August. 7. Similar to the last question: from the time your offer was accepted on the home you ultimately choose, how long was it until escrow closed? Over a month. The owner had renters in the house and we had to finish out the lease on our apartment. 8. If you hired an agent, how essential do you feel he or she was to the process? Please feel free to elaborate. My husband's mom is a Realtor and we got a recommendation from her company. I think our Realtor was absolutely vital to the process. She helped advise us about neighborhoods and things to look for, and actually saved us several thousand on the purchase price by working like a bulldog to get the owner to cover expenses he probably otherwise would not have. 9. What would you recommend to others about their first homebuying experience? Don't get your hopes up. There is no such thing as a dream home. Do not underestimate the amount of work required on a given home. That said, don't overestimate it either. Cosmetic things like flooring and paint color can be changed. Find a house that has good bones, and is in a good location. That's about all you really need. Everything else is a want and is negotiable. 10. What would you do differently if you had to do it all over again? Not stressed out as much over the little things. We had a number of things that showed up in the inspection that had to be fixed (another bit of advice - ALWAYS get an inspection, and do not freak out because there will always be tons of things on it) and I spent an inordinate amount of time worrying about getting them all taken care of. In the grand scheme of things, the worrying didn't do me any good and everything was taken care of before we moved in. But that's what a good Realtor is for. They make sure that all of those things are coordinated and taken care of so you have time to sit around and freak out :g:
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#3
02-10-2009, 03:33 PM
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1. What year did you buy your first home? (and which month, if it was recent enough to be affected by current market conditions?)
Bought our first home in June 1999. 2. What type of home was it? (condo/townhome/detached house/other) Single family detached home, split level. 3. How big was the living space, and how big was the lot? I honestly have no idea in square footage; it wasn't on any of the paperwork- it was a 3 bedroom, 2.5 bath home; LR, DR, Kit, Foyer, FamRm, unfinished basement. Lot was 60'x120'. 4. What was the purchase price you paid? We paid $190k even. 5. How much money (or what percentage of the sale price, if you prefer) did you save for a downpayment? We put down 10% cash and paid the other 10% with a home equity loan, and a mortgage on the balance. 6. From the time you "officially" began the shopping process, how long did it take before escrow closed on your home? I think we began looking casually in the fall of 1998, found the house in February 1999, offer was accepted late Feb but we negotiated for months over minutiae. The two RE agents stepped in and contributed a portion of their commissions to cover the delta between what we were willing to pay and what the seller was willing to accept. We closed in June but rented the house back to the seller for a month so he could find an apartment for himself and his daughter, and moved in in July '99. 7. Similar to the last question: from the time your offer was accepted on the home you ultimately choose, how long was it until escrow closed? See #6. 8. If you hired an agent, how essential do you feel he or she was to the process? Please feel free to elaborate. Further to #6, I feel the agent was critical. She advised us on neighborhoods, what to look for & avoid, why a "great" house wasn't something we'd want & vice versa. 9. What would you recommend to others about their first homebuying experience? Buy less house than you can afford. Set aside an additional 10-20% of your monthly payment for home expenses- renovations, repairs, yard tools, maintenance, appliance repair, etc. 10. What would you do differently if you had to do it all over again? Nothing. We loved everything about the process, the location of our home, the price we paid, our neighbors, the agent- everything. The only thing we didn't like was something we had no control over- the seller was a prick.
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#4
02-10-2009, 03:38 PM
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1. What year did you buy your first home? (and which month, if it was recent enough to be affected by current market conditions?)
We bought our first home in October of 2000. 2. What type of home was it? (condo/townhome/detached house/other) Single family cape cod style. 3. How big was the living space, and how big was the lot? ~1100 sq ft on a standard suburban 1/4 acre. 4. What was the purchase price you paid? $75,000 5. How much money (or what percentage of the sale price, if you prefer) did you save for a downpayment? We put 3% down, got 2% kicked in by the seller, got a home equity for 15%, and did a conventional 80/20 30yr fixed mortgage. 6. From the time you "officially" began the shopping process, how long did it take before escrow closed on your home? I believe it was about six months. 7. Similar to the last question: from the time your offer was accepted on the home you ultimately choose, how long was it until escrow closed? One month. 8. If you hired an agent, how essential do you feel he or she was to the process? Please feel free to elaborate. We hired an agent to start with. She was less than useless, if such a thing is possible. She failed to show us properties that were what we were looking for, that were in our price range, and we missed out on several because she'd only "run the list" once a month. We were assigned a different agent who wouldn't return our phone calls. We bought a property that was FSBO and used no agents. We were able to negotiate a better price because of this. 9. What would you recommend to others about their first homebuying experience? If you're going to use an agent, don't settle. Get one that works for/with you, via personal recommendation if at all possible. Make sure you have enough money for the house purchase and ALSO for all the expensive miscellaneous things (furniture, decor, tools, etc.) that come with first time home buying. They add up. 10. What would you do differently if you had to do it all over again? I would have canned the first agent sooner. Had we continued looking, we probably would have sought out a third agent. As it was, we found the house before that became an issue. Last edited by Solfy; 02-10-2009 at 03:40 PM.
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#5
02-10-2009, 03:40 PM
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1. What year did you buy your first home? September 2001
2. What type of home was it? Townhouse 3. How big was the living space, and how big was the lot? 3 stories (incl. a fully finished basement), about 2200 sq. ft. The lot was about .2 acre 4. What was the purchase price you paid? $175,000 5. How much money (or what percentage of the sale price, if you prefer) did you save for a downpayment? I think I put $7,500 down. 6. From the time you "officially" began the shopping process, how long did it take before escrow closed on your home? Don't remember exactly, but it was quick. 7. Similar to the last question: from the time your offer was accepted on the home you ultimately choose, how long was it until escrow closed? Don't remember exactly, but it was quick. Expanding on the above 2 questions--I had been looking a couple of days. My agent knew of a contract that had fallen through and the couple was eager to sell. Before the house could be relisted on the MLS, I made an offer. Full asking price about 3 hours after I had seen it. This was during the time that a house would go on the market for, say, $200,000 and within two days it had been bid up to $250,000. If I had not made the offer the day I saw it, I never would have gotten it for $175,000 (which was my max). 8. If you hired an agent, how essential do you feel he or she was to the process? Please feel free to elaborate. Absolutely essential. I lurved my buyer's agent.. (I used him to sell the house in 2007 and buy my current house)
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#6
02-10-2009, 03:47 PM
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1. What year did you buy your first home? (and which month, if it was recent enough to be affected by current market conditions?)
I closed in August 2006. New Jersey, btw 2. What type of home was it? (condo/townhome/detached house/other) Detached single family 3. How big was the living space, and how big was the lot? It’s a 3 bedroom colonial with a finished basement and finished attic. It’s not a big lot – I forgot the actual size. I have a little backyard, but its big enough for 2 dogs to run around. 4. What was the purchase price you paid? $225,000 5. How much money (or what percentage of the sale price, if you prefer) did you save for a downpayment? I put down nothing. It was part of a 1st time affordable mortgage program. No down payment required, and no PMI. That did it for me. Time to buy! Also, fixed interest rate 1% below the market rate. Instead of putting any money down, I used what I had to pay off all my credit card debt. 6. From the time you "officially" began the shopping process, how long did it take before escrow closed on your home? I took a home buying class in January 2006. (Required for the mortgage I wanted. Good to take in any case.) I saw a lot of houses. I saw the one I bought in May, closed in August as the previous owner wanted to wait until her daughter went off to college. It gave me time to prepare. 7. Similar to the last question: from the time your offer was accepted on the home you ultimately choose, how long was it until escrow closed? May – offer accepted. August – closing. (I also actually got PAID at closing. The program covered $1500 of my closing costs.) 8. If you hired an agent, how essential do you feel he or she was to the process? Please feel free to elaborate. I’d say essential for me. She made all the offers. We made one prior offer that was accepted but we pulled out after the home inspection. What a disaster THAT would have been. Always do a home inspection. As for the realtor, I never let myself forget that she was a salesperson and would say anything to sell. I took what she said with a grain or 2 of salt. 9. What would you recommend to others about their first homebuying experience? Take a homebuying class. Take some DIY home depot classes. Follow that home inspection guy around your prospective home and ask him questions about it. 10. What would you do differently if you had to do it all over again? No – it was the right time for me. (I may never be able to SELL my house as things are now. At least I wasn’t planning on leaving the area and my job is secure). Good luck!
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#7
02-10-2009, 03:49 PM
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1. What year did you buy your first home? (and which month, if it was recent enough to be affected by current market conditions?) - 15 years ago.
2. What type of home was it? (condo/townhome/detached house/other) - Detached home. 3. How big was the living space, and how big was the lot? - 1024 sq ft, 1 acre lot. 4. What was the purchase price you paid? - $56K 5. How much money (or what percentage of the sale price, if you prefer) did you save for a downpayment? - $0 down 6. From the time you "officially" began the shopping process, how long did it take before escrow closed on your home? - 6 months 7. Similar to the last question: from the time your offer was accepted on the home you ultimately choose, how long was it until escrow closed? - 30 days 8. If you hired an agent, how essential do you feel he or she was to the process? Please feel free to elaborate. - Absolutely essential. We were driving around the neighborhood and I liked the location (last house on a dead end street with a big pasture next door). The house wasn't for sale, and she knocked on the door and asked if they'd be interested in selling. The seller asked for 10 minutes to straighten up, and invited us in. We wrote up the offer that night. 9. What would you recommend to others about their first homebuying experience? - Know what you want, be realistic about what you need. If you don't get the house you think you've just got to have, there'll be another one around the corner. 10. What would you do differently if you had to do it all over again? - I wouldn't've taken care of the seller's chickens for a month until he got around to moving them. StG
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#8
02-10-2009, 03:53 PM
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1. What year did you buy your first home? November 2001
2. What type of home was it? Detached single-family house 3. How big was the living space, and how big was the lot? 1,800 sqft on a 32,000 sqft lot 4. What was the purchase price you paid? $400,000 5. How much money (or what percentage of the sale price, if you prefer) did you save for a downpayment? $160,000 (40%) 6. From the time you "officially" began the shopping process, how long did it take before escrow closed on your home? About 5 months 7. Similar to the last question: from the time your offer was accepted on the home you ultimately choose, how long was it until escrow closed? About 30 days 8. If you hired an agent, how essential do you feel he or she was to the process? Please feel free to elaborate. Useless. We found the house ourselves and he got a commission for doing nothing. He never showed us a house we would even have considered buying, but he got a cut because once they get their hooks in you can't get rid of them. 9. What would you recommend to others about their first homebuying experience? Don't do it if you can't put 20% down and still have a lot of money left over. 10. What would you do differently if you had to do it all over again? I wouldn't have bought that house. It was nice enough but I should have held out until I found the house I really wanted. We ended up selling after 5 years and lost money after subtracting all of the improvements we did.
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#9
02-10-2009, 04:02 PM
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1. What year did you buy your first home? (and which month, if it was recent enough to be affected by current market conditions?)
Dec 2005 2. What type of home was it? (condo/townhome/detached house/other) Detached house 3. How big was the living space, and how big was the lot? ~1600 sqft, 3br 1.5ba 50x100 lot 5. How much money (or what percentage of the sale price, if you prefer) did you save for a downpayment? 10% 6. From the time you "officially" began the shopping process, how long did it take before escrow closed on your home? 2.5 months mo 7. Similar to the last question: from the time your offer was accepted on the home you ultimately choose, how long was it until escrow closed? 2 months 8. If you hired an agent, how essential do you feel he or she was to the process? Please feel free to elaborate. Ours was very helpful. She spent a nice amount of time with us to find out what we wanted, and didnt suggest homes that werent our style. 9. What would you recommend to others about their first homebuying experience? Take detailed notes and pictures of the houses you visit. 10. What would you do differently if you had to do it all over again? Not too much, we are very happy with the house we bought, and the process was mostly painless. We did get the price reduced slightly after the inspection, it may have been smarter to get the money back as cash to do repairs instead of reducing the purchase price.
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#10
02-10-2009, 04:12 PM
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1. What year did you buy your first home? (and which month, if it was recent enough to be affected by current market conditions?)
December 2003, when home prices here were still realistic and affordable. 2. What type of home was it? (condo/townhome/detached house/other) Apartment-style condo 3. How big was the living space, and how big was the lot? 900 square feet living space 4. What was the purchase price you paid? $144K 5. How much money (or what percentage of the sale price, if you prefer) did you save for a downpayment? 25%. 6. From the time you "officially" began the shopping process, how long did it take before escrow closed on your home? Shopped for a couple of weeks, paperwork took about a month. 7. Similar to the last question: from the time your offer was accepted on the home you ultimately choose, how long was it until escrow closed? Same deal. Bought it brand new, my building was only a foundation when I bought the condo. It was ready six months later. 8. If you hired an agent, how essential do you feel he or she was to the process? Please feel free to elaborate. No agent, just dealt directly with the builder's agent. 9. What would you recommend to others about their first homebuying experience? Look around at LOTS of properties. Make a wish list, but be willing to compromise. Don't be picky about color...paint is cheap and works wonders. Make sure you can afford what you're shopping for. Being house poor is a lousy way to live. (Thankfully it wasn't an issue for me, but I could see how it could very easily happen.) 10. What would you do differently if you had to do it all over again? Nothing! It was very exciting getting a brand new place, picking colors for walls, flooring, tile, counter tops, etc. I got the place I wanted from a great builder in a fantastic neighborhood with endless amenities already in place, and I could easily afford it. The whole process of getting a mortgage was actually less stressful than when I financed my first new car when I was 22. That was a serious hassle.
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#11
02-10-2009, 04:19 PM
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Mine was in England...
1. What year did you buy your first home? (and which month, if it was recent enough to be affected by current market conditions?)
1986 2. What type of home was it? (condo/townhome/detached house/other) 2 bedroom flat (I think you chaps call it an apartment) 3. How big was the living space, and how big was the lot? Sorry, don't remember the square footage. It was on 2 floors of a 5 floor building. 4. What was the purchase price you paid? £31,000 (about $45,000 at today's rate) 5. How much money (or what percentage of the sale price, if you prefer) did you save for a downpayment? 50% (I saved for a long time!) 6. From the time you "officially" began the shopping process, how long did it take before escrow closed on your home? About a month (I was lucky) 7. Similar to the last question: from the time your offer was accepted on the home you ultimately choose, how long was it until escrow closed? About a week (it was a buyer's market) 8. If you hired an agent, how essential do you feel he or she was to the process? Please feel free to elaborate. I used an estate agent to find properties and a lawyer to finalise the deal. Since I was moving over 100 miles, the first was essential. To me, the second always is. 9. What would you recommend to others about their first homebuying experience? Pace yourself. Get a friend to look at properties with you. Don't make offers when you're tired at the end of a long day. 10. What would you do differently if you had to do it all over again? Nothing - I was lucky.
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#12
02-10-2009, 04:20 PM
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1. What year did you buy your first home? (and which month, if it was recent enough to be affected by current market conditions?) April of '04 2. What type of home was it? (condo/townhome/detached house/other) Ranch w/ garage 3. How big was the living space, and how big was the lot? 1300 sq. ft. with a 1/2 acre yard. 4. What was the purchase price you paid? $140,000 with an additional $24,000 for rehab 5. How much money (or what percentage of the sale price, if you prefer) did you save for a downpayment? A little over 10 grand 6. From the time you "officially" began the shopping process, how long did it take before escrow closed on your home? Two months 7. Similar to the last question: from the time your offer was accepted on the home you ultimately choose, how long was it until escrow closed? Two weeks (I think. And it only took that long because of our schedule) 8. If you hired an agent, how essential do you feel he or she was to the process? Please feel free to elaborate. Extremely essential. 9. What would you recommend to others about their first home-buying experience? Know exactly what you are getting yourself into, and don't be afraid to ask what seem to be stupid questions. Budget not only known bills, but extra maintenance cost. It will seem like random shit will keep breaking (sump pump, garbage disposal, dish-washer, garage door, roofing repairs, or broken windows). Renting a place didn't prepare us for the actual cost of general repairs. Be ready to spend the better part of an afternoon at the title company. The whole process (applying, buying, fixing-up, moving, and settling) was definitely harder on my GF (wife now). By the end of it all she was pretty emotionally spent. Ill also repeat the don't settle sentiment. 10. What would you do differently if you had to do it all over again? nothing really. Last edited by RetroVertigo; 02-10-2009 at 04:23 PM.
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#13
02-10-2009, 04:22 PM
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1. What year did you buy your first home? (and which month, if it was recent enough to be affected by current market conditions?) December, 1986
2. What type of home was it? (condo/townhome/detached house/other) Detached single-family home 3. How big was the living space, and how big was the lot? About 1800 sq. ft., about 1/5 acre. 4. What was the purchase price you paid? $68,000 5. How much money (or what percentage of the sale price, if you prefer) did you save for a downpayment? None. It was a deal between my husband and his employer, who was selling the house. 6. From the time you "officially" began the shopping process, how long did it take before escrow closed on your home? Maybe 6 months. Obviously, there wasn't a lot of shopping involved, since we only had a choice of one house, but it took a while to work out the details of the deal. 7. Similar to the last question: from the time your offer was accepted on the home you ultimately choose, how long was it until escrow closed? No idea. 8. If you hired an agent, how essential do you feel he or she was to the process? Please feel free to elaborate. No agent 9. What would you recommend to others about their first homebuying experience? Can't help much there. 10. What would you do differently if you had to do it all over again? Nothing. It turned out great for us.
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#14
02-10-2009, 04:24 PM
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1. What year did you buy your first home? (and which month, if it was recent enough to be affected by current market conditions?)
May 2008 2. What type of home was it? (condo/townhome/detached house/other) Single-family detached home. 3. How big was the living space, and how big was the lot? 1950 sq. ft, 17000 sq. ft lot. 4. What was the purchase price you paid? $405,000 5. How much money (or what percentage of the sale price, if you prefer) did you save for a downpayment? 5% 6. From the time you "officially" began the shopping process, how long did it take before escrow closed on your home? 120 days 7. Similar to the last question: from the time your offer was accepted on the home you ultimately choose, how long was it until escrow closed? 45 days 8. If you hired an agent, how essential do you feel he or she was to the process? Please feel free to elaborate. N/A 9. What would you recommend to others about their first homebuying experience? Stay away from buyer's agents. Do your own homework. Get an inspection. 10. What would you do differently if you had to do it all over again? I'd negotiate harder...
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#15
02-10-2009, 04:29 PM
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[quote=Asimovian;10809483]
1. What year did you buy your first home? (and which month, if it was recent enough to be affected by current market conditions?) 1979. In Lafayette Louisiana, location is kind of critical in these things. 2. What type of home was it? (condo/townhome/detached house/other) Detached. 3. How big was the living space, and how big was the lot? 3 bedrooms, one bath with a door from the master bedroom and the hall. I'd estimate 1300 sq feet, though I could be wrong. We had a big lot, and it looked bigger because the land behind us wasn't built on yet. It was also next to a coulee, and so the land was not up against the neighbor on that side. 4. What was the purchase price you paid? $40,000. Those were the days. 5. How much money (or what percentage of the sale price, if you prefer) did you save for a downpayment? My father had some spare money, so he financed us. We probably paid 6% easily to him. We never missed a payment - we treated it like a real loan. 6. From the time you "officially" began the shopping process, how long did it take before escrow closed on your home? Hard to remember - maybe 6-8 weeks? We were local, and weren't in a rush. 7. Similar to the last question: from the time your offer was accepted on the home you ultimately choose, how long was it until escrow closed? Maybe 4 weeks, if not less. 8. If you hired an agent, how essential do you feel he or she was to the process? Please feel free to elaborate. Agents are good. We've bought 3 houses, and sold 2, and have always found agents valuable. 9. What would you recommend to others about their first homebuying experience? Pay attention to the details of the home. It rains a lot in Louisiana, and the water often came up the coulee. It only got to our slab, since we were a bit higher, but got right to the walls of our neighbor. (This happened several times a summer.) When we bought in NJ, we visited right after a big rain to check the basement. It was dry, and stayed that way for the 10 years we were in the house. Go back after you are interested, take pictures, check where your furniture would go, and check things like water pressure, the quality of the hanging of the doors and workmanship, and stuff like that. It is very easy to miss minor annoying things. 10. What would you do differently if you had to do it all over again? Buying was fine. Selling was another matter!
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#16
02-10-2009, 04:58 PM
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1. What year did you buy your first home? (and which month, if it was recent enough to be affected by current market conditions?)
August 2008 2. What type of home was it? (condo/townhome/detached house/other) Detached two-storey terrace 3. How big was the living space, and how big was the lot? The lot's 6.1m x 24.6m. I don't know what's defined as "living space", though. 4. What was the purchase price you paid? AUD655,000 when the AUD/USD exchange rate was 0.98/1. 5. How much money (or what percentage of the sale price, if you prefer) did you save for a downpayment? $250,000 - which worked out to $170K after fees, duties and necessary, urgent repairs. 6. From the time you "officially" began the shopping process, how long did it take before escrow closed on your home? Shopping in total? 14 months. First viewing to settlement? Three weeks. First offer to settlement? 9 days. 7. Similar to the last question: from the time your offer was accepted on the home you ultimately choose, how long was it until escrow closed? 8 days. 8. If you hired an agent, how essential do you feel he or she was to the process? Please feel free to elaborate. Buyers' agents aren't common in Australia - but I don't think that one would have helped. 9. What would you recommend to others about their first homebuying experience? Don't get frustrated and buy a place just because you've been looking for three months and are thoroughly sick of going to inspections. Get a building inspection done, and assume that the builder has missed at least a couple of expensive things. Keep at least $20,000 aside (even in a "perfect" house) for bits and pieces you'll need to fix or change immediately. Decide what your long-term plan with the place is and price accordingly (I bought my place to live in for 40 years or more. I paid about $20-30,000 more to do so than I would have paid if I'd planned to flip it in seven to ten years). Assume that the estate agent is lying to you, but as soon as you catch them in a lie - no matter how minor - STOP ALL NEGOTIATIONS ON THAT PROPERTY AND DON'T BUY ANYTHING ELSE THAT AGENT IS HANDLING. Never, never, never go back on a final offer. If you say that $x is how much you're willing to pay and no more, the estate agent will see if you'll increase it to $x+5,000 and - if you accept - you'll find that surprise increases keep jumping out at you. Delay putting cash down on a place until the last minute, drop the least cash possible and never be afraid to walk away. I had a cheque for a deposit in hand for one place when I discovered that the bathroom was an illegal build-on - the person who bought that place later had to tear down the bathroom and didn't get permission to rebuild, costing her a bedroom and the price of the conversion. 10. What would you do differently if you had to do it all over again? Scrimped a bit harder beforehand to have more deposit. The first few years of a mortgage you're paying almost entirely interest, and a small amount more upfront makes a big saving in those years. Oh, and held out for a place with an indoor toilet and bathroom.
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#17
02-10-2009, 05:19 PM
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1. 1991.
2. House. 3. 1300 finished square feet, 3 bedrooms, 1 bathroom. 40x126 city lot. 4. $65,000 5. $3,000 6. About a year. I looked at over 60 houses. 7. About two months. 8. First agent was fired after about six months because she kept showing me houses above my price range even after repeated loud complaints. Second agent merely sealed the deal for me - and in retrospect was not necessary - after I'd found the house on my own. 9. Bear in mind my oft-repeated advice regarding ANY professional. Professionals work for you. If they don't work for you, find another. 10. I would have fired my first agent a LOT FASTER, and not bothered with the second agent after finding the house I wanted. Last edited by Chimera; 02-10-2009 at 05:20 PM.
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#18
02-10-2009, 08:00 PM
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1. What year did you buy your first home? (and which month, if it was recent enough to be affected by current market conditions?)
October 2005 2. What type of home was it? (condo/townhome/detached house/other) Ranch with basement 3. How big was the living space, and how big was the lot? 1040 sq ft (doesn't include unfinished basement) on .5 acres 4. What was the purchase price you paid? $150k (all closing costs paid by previous owner) 5. How much money (or what percentage of the sale price, if you prefer) did you save for a downpayment? I saved up $5k and borrowed $10k from my grandpa, to put down 10%. I paid off grandpa in exactly 3 years. 6. From the time you "officially" began the shopping process, how long did it take before escrow closed on your home? My situation was kind of weird. I was like "There's a house for sale in my neighborhood. I want it. I will buy it." and I think it was like 3 months between considering it, gathering up the money and owning it. It was literally 3 weeks between talking to the Realtor and owning it. 7. Similar to the last question: from the time your offer was accepted on the home you ultimately choose, how long was it until escrow closed? I do not recall. Probably a week? 8. If you hired an agent, how essential do you feel he or she was to the process? Please feel free to elaborate. I didn't need my agent to find me a place but she was essential to answer every single question I had and assay any fear I had. She was up front with me about the pros and cons of my particular house and did not pull any punches. She did not lead me wrong. She also kicked ass and took names in the negotiation. Saved me like $7k in closing costs and whatnot. 9. What would you recommend to others about their first homebuying experience? Personally, I think having a Realtor was a boon. Lots of people aren't into it (oooh, it costs too much!) but my Realtor totally worked for me. If I didn't like her I'd be quick to find a new one. See if you can get their costs paid by the seller. Also, contact a bunch of mortgage brokers and let them fight over you. I got 7 recommendations from friends, met with them all, and the phone frenzy began. They were all dying to get me a mortgage and I ended up with a great deal and a broker I really trusted. 10. What would you do differently if you had to do it all over again? I believe my situation was pretty unique - I knew the place I wanted, I had perfect credit, I had the downpayment, had a Realtor that I knew and trusted...and, sort of importantly, was doing it alone. So there was no looking around and no one to compromise with. So I wouldn't have done it any other way - but I also don't think that I am good with advice on the nuances of home buying.
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#19
02-10-2009, 08:53 PM
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1. What year did you buy your first home? (and which month, if it was recent enough to be affected by current market conditions?) June 2007.
2. What type of home was it? (condo/townhome/detached house/other) Single-family home 3. How big was the living space, and how big was the lot? 1800 sq ft, the lot is like 6500 sf, I think. 4. What was the purchase price you paid? $147,000 5. How much money (or what percentage of the sale price, if you prefer) did you save for a downpayment? 10%, though we could have done it with zero down. 6. From the time you "officially" began the shopping process, how long did it take before escrow closed on your home? About 2.5 months. We spent about a month looking until we found our house. 7. Similar to the last question: from the time your offer was accepted on the home you ultimately choose, how long was it until escrow closed? about 3 weeks. 8. If you hired an agent, how essential do you feel he or she was to the process? Please feel free to elaborate. We worked with one and she showed us homes but didn't suggest any we liked. We found this one on our own but she did the paperwork, etc. 9. What would you recommend to others about their first homebuying experience? Get a home inspection. ALWAYS. We saved a lot of potential heartbreak by finding out the furnace was on its last legs. 10. What would you do differently if you had to do it all over again? Nothing, really. We love our house and are happy in it.
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#20
02-10-2009, 10:01 PM
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The top line will be for my first line. Under it will about a investment home I am in contract for now or advice.
1. What year did you buy your first home? (and which month, if it was recent enough to be affected by current market conditions?) 1975 March 2009 2. What type of home was it? (condo/townhome/detached house/other) 3 bedroom 1 bath 2 car garage 3 bedroom 1 bath 2 car garage 3. How big was the living space, and how big was the lot? 990 sq feet 978 sq feet 4. What was the purchase price you paid? $27,000 $250,000 5. How much money (or what percentage of the sale price, if you prefer) did you save for a downpayment? $1400, it was a VA reposetion. Borrowed down from parents 20 % $50,000 6. From the time you "officially" began the shopping process, how long did it take before escrow closed on your home? Probably 30 days If escrow closes the end of this month 4 months 7. Similar to the last question: from the time your offer was accepted on the home you ultimately choose, how long was it until escrow closed? Under 30 days Still waiting for response after inspections. 8. If you hired an agent, how essential do you feel he or she was to the process? Please feel free to elaborate. 1st house had to use agent to deal with VA. Could not have found or done this deal with out the agents help. They have been giving us guidance to keep from making mistakes. Side line story. When I sold my part of the ranch. When I told the agent what I thought I could get for the property her responce was "No! you are wrong!!!" And then she said we will ask $150,000 more. And she got it 2 days later. She got 6% for two days work. And I think she was cheap because I was left with a lot more and I did not have to do anything to the property. So yes get an agent and use their advice. 9. What would you recommend to others about their first homebuying experience? Sit down now and look at all your present bills. Make a budget out 12 months. That will let you see what kind of wiggle room you have and wha kind of payment you can make. Remember some of your bill will increase or be new. Example a large house will use mor power than a studio apartment. 10. What would you do differently if you had to do it all over again? I would have bought sooner. And when we moved into our second home in 1976 I would work harder at getting the finances so we could have kept the first house. Sold it in 1976 for $40,000, last year it would have sold for $700,000 + today probably $400,000
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#21
02-11-2009, 08:08 AM
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1. What year did you buy your first home? (and which month, if it was recent enough to be affected by current market conditions?)
12/2001. It's probably worth about as much as I paid for it now but hopefully that will change eventually. 2. What type of home was it? (condo/townhome/detached house/other) It's a single family house with a second cabin unit and a bunch of outbuildings. 3. How big was the living space, and how big was the lot? The main house is about 2000' square feet and the cabin is about 900. The parcel is about 5 acres. 4. What was the purchase price you paid? $420,000 (I live in California so just think of it as foreign currency) 5. How much money (or what percentage of the sale price, if you prefer) did you save for a downpayment? 5% 6. From the time you "officially" began the shopping process, how long did it take before escrow closed on your home? About 3 months but there were some problems with the existing tenants that held things up. 7. Similar to the last question: from the time your offer was accepted on the home you ultimately choose, how long was it until escrow closed? About 2 months because it was delayed for the same reason. 8. If you hired an agent, how essential do you feel he or she was to the process? Please feel free to elaborate. She was absolutely essential because I had no idea what I was doing. She was also an old friend who didn't take a commission and made up the difference by selling the place that we had been renting. 9. What would you recommend to others about their first homebuying experience? Take your time to find what you want and if it's an older home make sure that you have an independent inspector go over it very carefully to make sure that there are no hidden problems that could be expensive to fix. And of course, don't buy a house than you can't afford. 10. What would you do differently if you had to do it all over again?[/b] Nothing that I can think of. If there are any other pertinent questions you can think of, please feel free to add them. Thank you.[/quote] Last edited by Karyn; 02-11-2009 at 08:09 AM.
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#22
02-11-2009, 08:23 AM
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1. What year did you buy your first home? (and which month, if it was recent enough to be affected by current market conditions?)
Just closed on it in January 2009. 2. What type of home was it? (condo/townhome/detached house/other) Detached house. I'm going to skip the cost questions. 6. From the time you "officially" began the shopping process, how long did it take before escrow closed on your home? 7. Similar to the last question: from the time your offer was accepted on the home you ultimately choose, how long was it until escrow closed? I started shopping in September 2008 but did not make an offer until November. It was accepted. However, I was the one who requested to close in mid-January because my lease was up March 1; I could have closed earlier. 8. If you hired an agent, how essential do you feel he or she was to the process? Please feel free to elaborate. I did not hire an agent in the sense that I did not pay anyone, but I did work with an agent. Two, actually. The first guy was pretty useless and I realized I was doing all of the work, so I asked around and got a reference for another one. She was more helpful and had genuine feedback. Didn't cost me anything and she ended up giving me some small gifts. 9. What would you recommend to others about their first homebuying experience? Remember that the real estate agent is not your friend. Do not tell them what you really think and do not take their advice about making an offer - instead, ask friends and family who've purchased a home. In my case, the agent insisted my offer was too low and it would scare off the family. I thought that the house being an estate and being past the end of the buying season (it was snowing) meant I could lowball. I did, and my counteroffer from them was equal to what the agent wanted to make my first offer. It worked out great. 10. What would you do differently if you had to do it all over again? Well, I'm bummed I won't qualify for the new housing credit from the government, otherwise not much. I looked at a ton of houses in more areas than I wanted to live in, and I really worked hard. In the end I bought a house that lacked cosmetic appeal but that I believed was the best investment. We're fixing it up now (updates mostly) and it's looking great, plus the inspector told me it's one of the few houses he's inspected that he would want to live in. It's structurally sound and in a desirable neighborhood. Look past shag carpeting and old paint - they're cheap to replace - and go for the house with the best "bones". Oh, and avoid foreclosure houses unless you're really handy. Every one I saw, and I live in an affluent suburb, was awful and I couldn't have lived in them without substantial repairs (tubs ripped out, all carpeting and paint destroyed, etc.).
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#23
02-11-2009, 11:01 AM
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1. What year did you buy your first home? (and which month, if it was recent enough to be affected by current marketconditions?
Nov. 1974 2. What type of home was it? (condo/townhome/detached house/other) Single-family detached 3. How big was the living space, and how big was the lot? Two-story, 1100 s.f. but not all usable (sloping ceilings), long narrow lot 4. What was the purchase price you paid? $24,900 (3X my annual income at the time) 5. How much money (or what percentage of the sale price, if you prefer) did you save for a downpayment? $2500 6. From the time you "officially" began the shopping process, how long did it take before escrow closed on your home? About 3 months. Looked at something like 40 homes. 7. Similar to the last question: from the time your offer was accepted on the home you ultimately choose, how long was it until escrow closed? About 6 weeks 8. If you hired an agent, how essential do you feel he or she was to the process? Please feel free to elaborate. Had an agent, did not hire her. She got her commish from the seller. But I had a RE license at the time. Please note: THE AGENT WORKS FOR THE SELLER, unless you hire a buyer's agent. In Colorado your agent must make that clear. I don't know about elsewhere. Under most circumstances, you will need an agent to get inside the homes. 9. What would you recommend to others about their first homebuying experience? Get an inspection; get a good inspector who knows what s/he's looking for. Know what you want. Know what's expensive to fix. If you don't have enough electrical outlets in a room, for instance--that's expensive. Unless you're an electrician. If you don't have enough water pressure to wash the shampoo out of your hair--that's expensive (unless you're a plumber). In some areas termites are a a problem. Expensive. A good inspector can tell you these things, and many others. 10. What would you do differently if you had to do it all over again? WRT buying, nothing. I unfortunately sold it at the bottom of the market, which if I'd waited ten more months...but who knew? Last edited by Hilarity N. Suze; 02-11-2009 at 11:01 AM.
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#24
02-11-2009, 11:06 AM
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Often both realtors will offer you a free inspection but their motivation is to make the sale happen and not to make sure that you don't get screwed. Make sure you get your own. I'm not sure what it costs because my partner was qualified to do ours but whatever it is, it's worth it.
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#25
02-11-2009, 12:42 PM
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1. What year did you buy your first home? (and which month, if it was recent enough to be affected by current market conditions?)
We bough our first home in September of 2002, before the housing market went nuts. 2. What type of home was it? (condo/town home/detached house/other) It was a town home. 3. How big was the living space, and how big was the lot? The house itself was 1291 square feet of living space (2 bed, 2 bath with a great room, dining room and kitchen with "eat in" nook). The "lot was the ground that the house sat on plus the rear patio that was fully enclosed. Everything else was community property of the HOA. We sat on a corner so we had a big cornet lot yard- but it just didn't actually belong to us 4. What was the purchase price you paid? $130,000 5. How much money (or what percentage of the sale price, if you prefer) did you save for a down payment? We got a FHA first time home buyers program, that allowed us to get in with almost nothing down. We even rolled the closing costs into the loan. We both had really good credit and decent jobs, just no money saved up. IIRC we might have paid 2K upfront, not including the home inspection. 6. From the time you "officially" began the shopping process, how long did it take before escrow closed on your home? We just sort of fell into the home purchase. The town home was down the street in the same neighborhood as my husbands brother. We went to go look at it (at my husbands parents request) and we really liked it. So we decided to put an offer on it. I think in all, from offer to close was maybe a month and a half. We had been looking at houses, but not really seriously. We saw this one and said- why not? 7. Similar to the last question: from the time your offer was accepted on the home you ultimately choose, how long was it until escrow closed? About 4 weeks. There was some screw up at the title company, and with the mortgage people. They kept forgetting that there were additional forms that needed to be filled out. Morons. 8. If you hired an agent, how essential do you feel he or she was to the process? Please feel free to elaborate. We didn't have an agent on our end. My FIL did real estate with his dad in the 70's in the Sacramento area, so he really helped us out with everything. (Our second home purchase, we did use an agent- and I'm glad we did) 9. What would you recommend to others about their first home buying experience? Don't buy a house your just "meh" about just so you can buy a house. There has to be something there that makes you say I love this house or I really like the house but this, this and this could be better. It something needs to be remodeled or updated think about the costs that that will involve. Don't be afraid to ask a lot of questions to anybody and everybody. Make sure your credit report is in order (so you don't come across any "surprises"). Make sure you can really afford what your buying- think of utility costs (how much to heat and cool, is there a water bill? etc). Can you handle everything with salary if one of you gets laid off? 10. What would you do differently if you had to do it all over again? I think I would have wanted to be more enthusiastic about the house. I didn't love it, but then again we saw it as something we could work with and make it our own. My biggest problem with that is, we have a lot of vision but when it come to actually *doing* it there is a huge disconnect (time, money, abilties etc). In the end, it all worked out for the best. Now we have 2 houses. we use our first home as a rental property.
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#26
02-11-2009, 10:21 PM
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1. What year did you buy your first home? (and which month, if it was recent enough to be affected by current market conditions?)
2003. Moved in around the start of 2005. 2. What type of home was it? (condo/townhome/detached house/other) Condo 3. How big was the living space, and how big was the lot? 4 bedroom, 95m2 4. What was the purchase price you paid? About US$320,000 at the exchange rate at the time. 5. How much money (or what percentage of the sale price, if you prefer) did you save for a downpayment? There are two sources of housing loans in Japan, government lending agencies and private banks, and most people use a combination of both. The government turned me down because I wasn't a permanent resident at the time, and the private banks turned me down because I had just undergone cancer treatment that year and was considered a death risk. After several rounds of trying to work out payment terms that they would accept, we finally noticed that we had enough saved to just buy the place outright. So we have our home in the clear and the banks can go fuck themselves. 6. From the time you "officially" began the shopping process, how long did it take before escrow closed on your home? We signed preliminary papers on the place about 8 months after we started looking. The condo was still in the process of being built (it was finished about 18 months after that preliminary signing), so there was no real rush on either side. The final payment and signing was made about a month before moving in. 8. If you hired an agent, how essential do you feel he or she was to the process? Please feel free to elaborate. Didn't use one. Back when I was renting, the majority (about 80%) of realtors I encountered were either utterly useless slugs or racist sacks of shit. Looking for a new condo, we went to the condo developers directly, and every last one of them was falling over themselves to help us out and get our business. 9. What would you recommend to others about their first homebuying experience? Don't wait until you absolutely need to find a place, take your time to look at a lot of different places and don't be afraid to say no. Also, spell out exactly what it is you want and prioritize what factors are important to you; even just doing this for yourself can make things a lot less confusing. Also, think about how neighborhoods will change in the future; when we went to look at our current home, the neighborhood was known to most people as Tokyo's ghetto (ours was the first of the private condos to go up). Just two years later it was a thriving suburb that condo developers were fighting to get into. Basically, people suddenly noticed that land on the east side of the city, just 15 minutes from Tokyo Station, was available for a fraction of what the more fashionable neighborhoods waaaay out to the west were going for (seriously, I'm a 20 minute train ride from my downtown office. The same size condos 60 minutes to the west were going for over $600,000) 10. What would you do differently if you had to do it all over again? Not have cancer.
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#27
02-11-2009, 10:38 PM
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1. What year did you buy your first home? (and which month, if it was recent enough to be affected by current market conditions?)
June 2007, when the Toronto market was still red hot. 2. What type of home was it? (condo/townhome/detached house/other) 3 bedroom semi-detached. 3. How big was the living space, and how big was the lot? The house isn't huge but has plenty of room for both of us, and the lot is larger than most in the area because we're on a corner (but still fairly small, since we're in the city). 4. What was the purchase price you paid? Mid-$400K range. 5. How much money (or what percentage of the sale price, if you prefer) did you save for a downpayment? We put down 30%. 6. From the time you "officially" began the shopping process, how long did it take before escrow closed on your home? About 2.5 months. 7. Similar to the last question: from the time your offer was accepted on the home you ultimately choose, how long was it until escrow closed? A little under a month. 8. If you hired an agent, how essential do you feel he or she was to the process? Please feel free to elaborate. The agent was good, though for what he made on his fee, the level of service we got was pretty disappointing. We found the listings and planned itineraries for our visits, but we still felt more comfortable knowing that we could count on his experience in terms of all the paperwork and any pitfalls we might run into. 9. What would you recommend to others about their first homebuying experience? Get pre-approved for your mortgage, so that you know exactly what you can afford. Get an inspection up front, or make your offer conditional on a pass from the inspector. Make sure you like the house, but avoid falling in love... you're setting yourself up for disappointment (or desperation) if the deal ends up falling through. Set aside $5000 for surprises the inspector won't catch (there's always at least one). 10. What would you do differently if you had to do it all over again? I'd have waited another six months. In that time, it went from seller's market to buyer's market, and the interest rates dropped by over 2%. Hindsight is 20/20, though.
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#28
02-11-2009, 11:03 PM
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1. What year did you buy your first home? (and which month, if it was recent enough to be affected by current market conditions?)
Last June. 2. What type of home was it? (condo/townhome/detached house/other) Condo 3. How big was the living space, and how big was the lot? 936sq ft, ground floor with some green-space outside 4. What was the purchase price you paid? $244 000 CDN 5. How much money (or what percentage of the sale price, if you prefer) did you save for a downpayment? Almost 25% 6. From the time you "officially" began the shopping process, how long did it take before escrow closed on your home? Contacted a realtor to begin looking in late Feb, took possession in late June 7. Similar to the last question: from the time your offer was accepted on the home you ultimately choose, how long was it until escrow closed? Made the offer in mid-April, closed late June. The owners were extremely reluctant to drop the price, allowing an extended period for them to find & close on their own place was my biggest bargaining chip in that regard. 8. If you hired an agent, how essential do you feel he or she was to the process? Please feel free to elaborate. Very. About 10 years ago there was an incredible amount of problems with 'leaky condos' being built in the Vancouver area. This often led to expensive or even prohibitive assessments being made to cover the costs of repair to rain-damaged exteriors. We would spend quite a bit of time viewing the exteriors of the buildings, to judge whether the building was a 'leaky condo' risk, whether repairs had already been done & to what extent, etc etc. 9. What would you recommend to others about their first homebuying experience? Trust your instincts. Within a minute or two of being in a place, I knew if it was right for me. The condo I bought was one of the first ones I viewed, and continued to stand out in my mind after I'd viewed 50 other places. 10. What would you do differently if you had to do it all over again? I wouldn't wait so long to get my act together to buy. If I'd been in a position to buy 5 years ago I'd have saved a bundle on the purchase price.
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#29
02-11-2009, 11:20 PM
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#30
02-12-2009, 12:10 AM
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#31
02-12-2009, 02:41 AM
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1. What year did you buy your first home? (and which month, if it was recent enough to be affected by current market conditions?)
2005 2. What type of home was it? (condo/townhome/detached house/other) Apartment 3. How big was the living space, and how big was the lot? 85 sq. m. 4. What was the purchase price you paid? About $240,000 using the exchange rate at the time. 5. How much money (or what percentage of the sale price, if you prefer) did you save for a downpayment? 30% 6. From the time you "officially" began the shopping process, how long did it take before escrow closed on your home? 8 months. 7. Similar to the last question: from the time your offer was accepted on the home you ultimately choose, how long was it until escrow closed? 6 months. 8. If you hired an agent, how essential do you feel he or she was to the process? Please feel free to elaborate. No agent. Bought directly from the developer. 9. What would you recommend to others about their first homebuying experience? If it is in a different country from your citizenship, have a good local lawyer. 10. What would you do differently if you had to do it all over again? Pick a different country. Last edited by Desert Nomad; 02-12-2009 at 02:41 AM.
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#32
02-12-2009, 04:49 PM
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In the end, it allowed me to get the place I wanted a bit cheaper than I should have because the owners had already bought somewhere and I was the only one who could settle by the necessary time.
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