So, as many of you know, DeathLlama and I are getting married in six (!) months. Among the umpteen-million things left to plan, we need to start scouting out our first home together. We’ve been preapproved for a very decent loan, and now get to start shopping around (well, first comes finding a real estate agent, but there’s no harm in perusing RealEstate.com).
Anyway, a friend of ours, who recently bought his first home, brought up some interesting things to consider. We know the very basics of what we’re looking for; single-family, at least 2BR, 2BA, attached 2-car garage, forced air…but after that, um…maybe a preference for a cul-de-sac location? Our friend asked the kind of roof we might want (he regrets that his house has a flat roof) and that got us thinking–what other things do we need to take into consideration that we may not have thought of before? The kind of stuff you just don’t think about if you don’t already own a home?
Please, pass on that Wise Sage advice to the two young newlyweds-to-be!
There is one big thing to think about, and although people told us before we bought our first house, we went straight ahead and ignored them. The message is - buy in the nicest place you can afford. You can always do up the house, but not the area.
This comes from hindsight, unfortunately. We fell in love with our house, bought it after the first viewing etc. Even at the time, we knew it wasn’t in the nicest street, or the nicest area, but the house was stunning - it just felt right. Now we are trying to move out, and we’re trying to find someone else who will see past the ugly street, to the beautiful home we have - and it’s taking a while.
I think, hard as it may sound, you have to imagine trying to sell a property yourself, before you buy it. It will be your home, but it’s also going to be an investment, with any luck. I never thought I’d want to move, but things always change.
Oh, and storage space - you can never have too many cupboards!
Good luck with it Ruffian, I hope you have a lot of fun looking, and even more when you move in!
Get your OWN lawyer, don’t share a lawyer with the seller. While I haven’t had any unpleasant experiences in this area, I’ve heard plenty of horror stories.
And, similar to what Charley said, don’t buy the most expensive home in the area.
First, get pre-qualified from the mortgage company you are going to use. Most real estate offices want a pre-qual with a contract, and it will give you a better idea of what you can afford. And ask them about points (one point is one percentage of the mortgage and you pay it), interest and closing costs. Find out if they required mortgage insurance and for how long. And also how long before you can re-finance the mortgage, or if you can pay it off early without penalties.
Get an independant home inspection from a good company.
Check with the tax office for the assessed value. This can help you avoid some nasty surprises later on (if the assessed value is much lower than your contract price, the tax assessor will be at your door before the ink is dry on your deed).
Check with the local police about the neighborhood. You can also check with the neighbors about the neighborhood. And check out the average response time for any emergency calls. This could save a life.
Old house or new house, when you find one you like, I’d hire an independent, professional house inspector. A good one will alert you to any existing problems or potential ones.
I have a flat roof on an extension. (it was there when I bought the place).
It needs replacing every 7-8 years (water keeps seeping through).
I agree that it’s better to be the cheapest house in a good street than vice versa.
Here in England, we can get our own house survey before signing anything. My surveyor found a damp-proofing problem (it was a 30 year old treatment), and the first signs of rot in the wooden window frames. The seller knocked off £4,000 (roughly $6,000) immediately.
Work out what you can afford to pay. This is probably the biggest financial decision of your life (wait till you have kids :rolleyes: ), so check everything thoroughly.
Good luck! (it feels great to be typing this in MY house )
I can’t remember - are you guys planning on having kids? Check into school districts if you are - it can affect the resale value if you’re in a good (or really bad) area.
I second the independant home inspection. Had we done that, we might have avoided the nasty surprise that our neighbors were illegally hooked onto our sewer system. We did correct this, at a cost of $3K, but it was one long, nasty hassle that could have been avoided.
If you can at all afford it, go for a 15 yr mortgage as opposed to a 30 yr.
Don’t be in too big of a hurry to pick one. Go to open houses. Lots of them. Over a long period of time. This is important for two reasons:
#1: When you first start looking you’ll fall in love with almost every house you see. After you’ve looked at enough houses, you start to become more objective.
#1: (Both reasons are equally important) At an open house it’s easier to look around without being given a sales spiel by the real estate agent.
When doing your initial looking, don’t limit yourself to what you can afford or to what you think of as desirable locations. Look at dumps, look at mansions, look at everything in between. The idea is to get to a point that you’re not overwhelmed by your first impression. You’ll know what’s important to you and what’s not. You’re ready to make a decision when you’re almost sick of looking at houses.
If we had done that when we bought our first house we wouldn’t have felt the need to buy our second house.
School districts are important. Looking at it objectively, that is, trying to sell the home to someone else, important. Independent home inspection: mandatory. DO NOT buy a home without it. In our home, the inspector turned up a termite problem, a potentially dangerous problem with the placement of the water heater and its installation, and a big problem with the heating system.
And, check out, if you can, the neighbors. Keep in mind that, unlike in a rental, you are going to have to live with these people for a LONG time. I have a next door neighbor who is so fanatical about keeping her lawn neat that, well, it defies human understanding. As with a mate, compatibility is key. A bad neighbor can turn a good house into a nightmare. I speak from sad experience…
Look for railroad tracks and crossings. FIrst there’s the matter of the noise. Second there’s the potential blockage enroute to and from work. THAT’S what “wrong side of the tracks” means!
And do your best to look past the furnishings and decorating of the current owners. One home we looked at was full of hunting trophies - EEEEESH!! But we saw the house where others saw stuffed animals. We got a great deal on the place, then sold it 3 years later for $14K more than we bought it for!
And when you write a contract on a house, ask for everything you want. We always got window treatments and bar stools, and almost always got all the appliances and painting allowances. All they can say is no…
I’ll say it again 'cause it’s real important and can save you a lot of money, worry and hassle. GET A PROFFESIONAL INSPECTION DONE BEFORE THE SALE IS FINAL. Because of this we negotiated the price of our house down by an additional $6,000 from the previously agreed price. Not a bad return on the $250 the inspection cost us. It also gave us a list of small maintence jobs that needed to be done in order to save some big maintence jobs in the future.
Another good idea is to go talk to your lawyer before you find the house. He or She can give you some good advice and help you from falling into too many traps.
Also decide what you want from your house. Is it an investment you want to sell in a couple of years or is this the house you want to grow old in. The answer to this question can have a lot of bearing on the house you choose.
This will not be the house we grow old in. We might have a child or two while living there, but it is not going to be a truly permanent residence. Because of that we’ll be going for a 30-year mortgage–cheaper monthly rate, and we won’t be there for the duration of it to worry about paying the extra fees.
There are other places in the state that DeathLlama and I would like to live in some day, so this is just a starter home–not the end product.
My advice to all new homeowners is to never take out a loan for the maximum that you qualify for. The bank makes all sorts of assumptions, one apparently being that you never have to EAT, when they figure out how much they will lend you.
Instead, figure out yourself how much you can realistically borrow. Do an item by item budget on how much things will cost in the area you are looking at. If you know someone in the area, ask them for hidden costs you may not think of (Homeowners’ fees for instance). Don’t figure “oh, about $200 a month” when figuring insurance rates; Call your agent and ASK! Pay close attention to things like property taxes and local income taxes, which can swing widely from location to location. Call the local utility company and ask for an average of the utility bills for an address in the area. Look at your last year’s credit card statements and determine how often you eat out. Finally, determine how much you’ll need to spend (e.g. furniture, new furnace) on the home initially in order to get it in the condition you want to live there.
In other words, figure out what YOU can comfortably afford; don’t let the bank do it for you.
When we bought our house, we bought at the top end of what WE thought we could realistically afford and it was still a struggle sometimes. Still, we were very glad that we didn’t take out all that we were QUALIFIED to borrow, which was $50,000 more than we actually borrowed.
What's the difference? And does that difference exist in every state?"
Yeah. I was going to complain about a real estate agent lying but was told that the national real estate licensing board would probably never do anything about it.
Then I talked to our local Realtor board. They have a local ethics committee that handles complaints right away! But only about Realtors! If you get a lot of complaints, I guess you can’t be a Realtor. So if you find a Realtor, they must be ethical, right?
Think of it a “semi-permanent” anyway. If you go in with the idea that “this is just temporary/for a little while” you may settle for things that drive you crazy after a year or two. Decide on some minimums/must haves, and stick to them.
If you find a house you like, do the “everyday” things from the house several times - driving to/from work at your usual times on workdays; grocery shopping - go to the stores at the times and on the days you actually usually do shopping. Think of things you like to do, and see how convenient it is from this house (Love movies? How close is a theater? That kind of thing). Walk around the neighborhood several times at different times - evenings, weekends; get a feel for it. You’ll be living in, commuting from, shopping from this house. Spend some time to see what life will be like doing everything from there.
Ditto what people have said about setting your own budget. We have never been “house poor”, but have friends who are, and it sucks, and is a source of stress for many of them. Ditto the inspection. Get recommendations, and don’t discount your realtor’s recommendation. Our first inspection, recommended by friends, seemed very good - until the inspection on our second house, by the guy the realtor recommended. He spent about 4 and a half hours, crawled all over the house, and inspected (not just looked at) everything. He had “cracks in walkway” listed as a “trip hazard”. Anal yes, but that’s what you want.
On the mundane day-to day level (this is all my own experience, YMMV, etc)(Since I’m from Seattle, you may notice a certain emphasis on, um, water control and drainage):
No mopped-in gutters. This is where the roofing material (tar paper or sheet rubber) is bent up at the lower edges of the roof to form a trough which is your gutter. The roof material deteriorates at the bottom of the trough, water leaks through to your roof decking, and it’s rot time.
You want separate gutters, preferably aluminum or plastic (not wood).
Forced-air heat, preferably oil or gas. Not hot-water baseboard heat; it’s just another fluid being pumped around, and eventually it’s going to leak.
Electric is going to cost you an arm and a leg in heating bills.
Oil means a storage tank, regular visits from your local oil company, possible underground leaks and liability.
Gas was definitely no-contest the best and cheapest way until the recent surge in gas prices.
No cinder-block foundation. Too porous, too subject to weather deterioration; poured concrete is better.
No cinder-block chimneys, either; soaks up water, holds it next to your wood, rot time.
Downspouts not routed into the footing drains. Better to have the downspouts have their own underground piping. Running your downspouts into the footing drains puts all that water from your roof right next to your basement wall, an invitation to a wet basement.
No hot-tar or torch-down roofs. Shingles, shakes, tile, best of all, metal, are all better, 30-year or better life. Torch-down and hot tar have a ten-year life (or so).
Plenty of roof slope, 3 in 12 or even more; flat roofs are an invitation to leaks.
Walk around the property in the rainy season, notice what’s soggy and what’s dry. Think about mud being tracked into the house. Think about a mudhole in the center of your driveway. Think about water flowing toward your foundation.
Ask about water; City? Private well? Local mini-district? Remember, if it’s a well, you get to maintain it.
Get as much storage space as you can. The American lifestyle is to pile up lots of stuff; make sure you have a place to put it. This probably means a basement, which in turn probably means an older house, since basements seem to be missing from most new construction.
A good inspection is a HUGE plus. Even if the inspector turns up stuff you don’t really care about it gives you leverage at the table. Love that leverage…NEED that leverage.
Hire a pro. Get yourself a buyers agent. Most realtors will operate this way for you. We told ours what we wanted and she kept her database hopping and showed us appropriate places (difficult as we wanted an older, not-like-all-the-others home) until we found one we liked. Trust me, the realtors have access to better data than you do. And they’ll show you stuff that never gets to the ‘open house’ stage. Best thing about a buyers agent: they earn money from the seller, not you. They split the 6% (here in VA, at least) with the selling agent.
Screw being cheap. Make sure you get a place you LIKE and can afford. The best advice I got came from my boss when I was buying my first home. I was complaining that the mortgage was expensive. Fred just told me, “Remember, it will never again be as difficult as it is right now.” If you’re young and your career is just beginning your pay will go up (possibly sharply depending on your industry). The sting of that high mortgage goes down every time you’re up for a salary review. So it’s worth it to eat dishrag soup and the like for the first year or so to get a place you really like.
And if it’s a well, is it hard water? My folks have a well with hard water, and even after running the water through a softener and a Brita faucet filter, it still tastes nasty, so they have to buy water to drink and cook with. It’s ok to wash with (though they have to use anti-rust treatments on about every other load of whites) and bathe with, but you wouldn’t want to drink it. It takes a lot more work to clean up as well since stains form readily.
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