Advice on buying a first home

In My Humble Opinion
21

If you are planning to sell this house if a few years think about resale value and ease of resale. If you are the type of person who enjoys working with their hands buying an older house in a good area and painting it inside and out as well as tidying the garden can increse the value considerably. There are people who move from house to house doing this as a way to generate extra income.

Make sure you pick a house that is easy to sell. Living near a major intersecton or near an semi-industial area might not bother you but it will mean your house will take longer to sell and you may have to accept a lower offer that what you wanted.

22

Do not buy a two bedroom house. Yes I know, you are just a couple with no kids, but that extra room will make the house a lot easier to sell when the time comes.

23

Well, this has been interesting. Sunday we hit several open houses (as we don’t have an agent just yet, that is the best way for us to see the inside and outside of a house). The main problem we’re having is that the houses in this area are mostly very old, built anywhere from 1915 (a few) to the 1950’s (most). These 1950’s-era homes are all quaint, with a decent yard, and an itty bitty bathroom. We really want two bathrooms; ideally, one for a master suite and one for guests (we’re looking for at least two bedrooms and two baths). One particular house had three bedrooms–and one bathroom. And it wasn’t even a full bath–just three quarter! …Not to mention it was teeny. And I mean teeny. Yar!

So, we’ve fallen in love with a house. Actually, a townhouse. Hillside location, by a park, stunningly quiet, great view, repo’d (and so cheaper)…and when we called about getting a walk through, we learned it had four offers made on it in the past weekend. Doh.

So, we drove around and looked at other townhouses (this is what looks like we’ll be getting for a first home), and well…yeah, we’ve fallen for another. Very quiet gated community, large recreation room, streams running throughout the landscape, nice little yard, etc. We actually are going to be doing a walk-through of it tonight, but I’m nervous about getting any hopes up. This is so emotionally exhausting!

A couple of things…number one, homeowner’s assn. fees. BLECH! They are high in this area, averaging $200/mo. That certainly increases the overall cost of the house! …The other thing I don’t get is the mortgage rate. The lady at the bank quoted one number to me, but the “mortgage calculators” available online at virtually any real estate site all calculate much lower monthly costs, even when I alter the figures to match what will be our interest rate, down payment, and total loan amount. How can the difference be over $400/month?

And finally–how do I go about finding out the property taxes for my area?

(And thanks for all the great advice, folks!)

24

IMHO, I don’t think thats the best strategy. Equity is KING!!! I understand that it’s important to live today, and that means not being saddled to a high mortgage payment. However, the more you pay off before you sell, the better off you are.

We have a very low mortgage payment…but we have a 2nd mortgage as well…(the vendor had to carry us for a portion). In 18 months, when the 2nd is paid off, we’ll have paid off nearly 40% of the TOTAL purchase price.

We want to move in 4-5 yrs time, so when that happens, we’ll be in fine shape for a hefty downpayment on our new place, which in turn, will lower our next mortgage payment.
Well…it looks good on paper anyways. Good luck house hunting!!

25

I just bought a house and I can tell you that nothing is going to be more important than getting an independent inspection from a good company. It does not matter what kind of loan you’re going for- FHA or conventional- pay the money for the inspection. We went FHA and got the obligatory FHA inspeciton, but it wasn’t enough for my husband and he hired another guy for $350 (and I could have used that money for other things, believe me). The FHA inspector “overlooked” the structural damage done to the entire back half of the house: a slow water leak rotted out the supports and we sure as heck weren’t buying a house like that, contract be damned. The sellers had to pay over $5000 to fix this problem (disclosure prevented them from not telling the next buyers) and they lost a good chunk of their investment because of this. My house is so sturdy now that the reinspection by the no-good FHA man and the independent guy both resulted in similar comments: “An earthquake will not move this house.”

Location is vital. Also, get a very good attorney who will return your phone calls promptly; we lucked out since mom-in-law is one. Look for Neighborhood Watch groups. Call the local police department and ask them to print out for you the crime statistics for the area you’re interested in - they can do this very easily.

And last but not least, if you can afford it, go with a higher grade roof than you are tempted to buy. It won’t mildew or look worn as quickly and the results have more curb appeal. If you can help it, try not to buy a house with siding. I don’t care what anyone says, siding on a house many times means that someone is trying to cover something up (like rotten wood).