rockle, your experiences sound a lot like ours when we went house hunting. We were also in a very hot market (west suburbs of Denver, CO) at the peak of the market.
The first thing I thought when I read your post was, “Since August? They ain’t even started yet!”
We began looking for our house in late September, looked at roughly 75 houses, offers on two fell through, and bought our current house after it had been on the market for one hour. We closed at the end of March.
Hot markets demand extraordinary effort. Have your Realtor check listings twice a day or more. And if you find something you like, buy it. Don’t diddle around. Don’t sleep on it. And it may take you a long time. Accept it. The payoff is that you’ll get a great house that you love.
BTW, since it’s your first house, is your mortgage FHA or conventional? Some sellers are less than enthusiastic to sell to FHA loan, for various reasons.
Necros, I was afraid someone would say that. You bought your house in an hour? Yikes! But I completely see where you are coming from, and I agree. Wish I could get my husband to see things the same way! We went to a seminar before we were seriously looking and one of the first things that the real estate guy said was: “Be prepared to make an offer on the spot.” I am, but usually chembug is not, and that is what is killing us, I think. He wants to do “another walkthrough.” If we can even get to that point, another offer is usually in by then.
Questions: When you bought your current house, did you have any second thoughts? And, how did you get in so fast? I’ve been talking to some other people at work who are hunting themselves, and they seem to be having some similar experiences to mine. So, what is your secret? How’d you do it?
If I may offer this: Never fall in love with a house.
There is no “one house” that will make you happy; any one of a number of houses will make you happy and some of them are for sale now. Some will be for sale next week. And the week after and so on. It may end up that the house you close on makes these first three look like crap. Keep looking…don’t give up. Its late in the season to buy a house (Feb-Sept is prime selling period). Don’t be surprised if you find that you buy in the spring, as some homeowners may be holding out til then (a house thats on the market too long tends to garner the “well, what’s wrong with it?” attitude)
Sigh … another problem I have. I do tend to fall in love with houses quickly (although, resilient little bugger that I am, I can fall out of love quickly, too). Oh, well. We are just going to keep on truckin’, dammit, until our house “finds” us, as featherlou said above. I just hope it happens soon.
As to how we got in so fast, we had a very aggressive Realtor who had been in the business for 30 years and really, really knew what she was doing. She checked new listings constantly, and set up lots of showings. It was a strke of luck that the listing came up in Multilist an hour before she checked, but it wasn’t luck that we were will to drop everything and go over to the house RIGHT NOW, nor that we were willing to pounce on the house as soon as we saw it. we had an offer in befpre anyone else had even been shown the house. But we couldn’t have done it without our Realtor, who, I think, badgered the poor seller’s Realtor to set up the showing immediately. The owners didn’t even have time to get out of the house before we swept in.
Wow, that’s really cool. I think our realtor is pretty assertive, although I don’t know if he’s that assertive - but maybe I ought to work on him some.
Tonight we are doing some drive-bys and hopefully tomorrow we can actually get inside. I already have the checkbook in my lunchbox. Here’s hoping they’re not already gone …
If you’re not in a rush, did you think of building?
A new home goes for virtually the same as a used home in my area (IE - A new 1300 FT[sup]2[/sup] cost about the same as a 10 year old 1300 FT[sup]2[/sup] although the landcaping, fence is done.
If thats not important to you, maybe check into that? You’ll have the bonus of getting exactly (or at least, as close as possible!) what you want.
My husband and I just moved away from what is possibly the hottest real estate market in the nation, the SF Bay Area (incidentally I went to high school out your way - ever heard of a little Quaker school called Westtown?).
We probably looked at 50 houses over the space of a year in the bay area, and it was a miserable experience. We only bid on a few places, and got outbid on most of them and had one deal fall through. Because we couldn’t afford much, things were even harder, especially when your $400,000 can only get you a 50 year old 1000 sq. ft. crapshack…but I digress.
We finally realized that we didn’t want to live in the bay area anyway and moved away to a small town where the market is much more reasonable and bought a house at half of what we were looking at around SF. But even so, we put an offer in on our house the same afternoon we saw it, which was the first day it was on the market.
I think probably the biggest change you need to make is being prepared to move fast. Taking the time to look at a place twice is a mistake in a really hot market - you gotta jump and jump quick.
And don’t give up hope, it’ll happen for you too. I know how you feel with the “everyone else can do this, so why can’t we” feeling.
Unfortunately, it wouldn’t work out that way around where we are. Land is the expensive part, let alone the house. Plus, right now all the “available land” (read: former open space) in our area is being snagged to build $500,000 houses for the over-55 set, or else to build new CVS’s. A lot of younger people such as ourselves are being priced right out of the new home market.
We’re pretty sure we don’t want a new home anyway. Most of the houses we have been looking at are in the 50- to 100-year-old range. I like “vintage” houses that remind me of my grandmothers. We don’t mind putting some money into fixing up a house, but we are finding that the houses are either in terrible shape and would need more repairs than we can afford, or else they are in great shape and therefore - GONE!
Still and all, we’re hanging in as best we can. Stick-to-it-ive-ness has always been one of my better (or more annoying) qualities, I think. Everyone’s feedback has been very helpful and I have made chembug read this thread. One major change that we are making in our approach is that we will always take our checkbook with us when we do a walkthrough, so the we can put in an offer right away, that day. No more pussyfooting around for us!
BTW: There is another woman at work who is having this same problem, I found out. Yesterday she was supposed to have two showings and both houses went under contract before she could see them. So, we are starting a “club,” although we haven’t decided what to call it yet. Further bulletins on that as events warrant.
Call it “Green Eggs and Hamlet”. Green, 'cause you’re jealous of those who have snapped up the houses; hamlet because there are two of you–enough to make a small village; and eggs because it wouldn’t work without eggs. Plus, hey, it’s eggs. I like eggs.
Just out of curiosity, rockle, where in the Philly area are you looking?
I’m looking in the Conshy - Plymouth area, and I have a co-worker who’s looking in the direction of Phoenixville - Paoli. We could join your club, or start a second chapter of it.
If you haven’t read it yet, pick up a copy of Dave Barry’s “Homes and Other Black Holes.” It’s a truly hilarious look at selling, buying, and/or building a home.
Might give you some much-needed laughs as you go through this.
Oh, I know! “Eggs” because you’re both women! Although, you’d have to figure out how to work tadpoles in should any men join, but that’s not important now. What’s important is that I figured out what do with the eggs.
At this point, pretty much Montgomery and Chester counties. chembug and I both work in Wayne, and we started looking in Phoenixville, Royersford, and Spring City. Last night we did some drive-bys in Pottstown, which is further than we wanted to go, but it looks like you get a bit more bang for your buck there. We haven’t really looked in Conshy/Plymouth/N’town yet, but we might expand to there soon.
You’re welcome to join or start your own chapter of the club. Hell, anyone can join! If there are enough of us around, we can invite each other to housewarmings … if we ever get houses, of course, which is looking less and less likely every day, but I’m a Red Sox* fan and I don’t give up. How do you feel about “Green Eggs and Hamlet” for a club name? I was thinking of a slight variation … “Green Eggs and Homeless.” Although, I like eggs too, and now I’m all hungry. Maybe I’ll have to order in a breakfast special from somewhere, with scrapple. Mmm.
Sauron - I have every single one of Dave’s books, and HAOBH might be one of my favorites. We have been pulling it out from time to time, just to help us maintain perspective. We’re both going a little wacko (and let’s face it, I’m most of the way there already anyway), and this is really starting to get to us. I am beginning to see why people get divorced over this kind of crap.
OK, when I typed this, I originally put “Rod Sex” instead of “Red Sox” - dear Lord, the stress is getting to me!
Oh, I just remembered my other piece of “advice” I wanted to offer - don’t cave on things like leaky roofs just to get the house. That you will regret. It is much, much better to wait a little longer and buy a house on which you won’t be spending tens of thousands of dollars on repairs. The lady who said “It was good enough for me when I lived there.” is an ass. Run away from people with an attitude like that, no matter how much you like the house.
I feel your pain, rockle. No, wait, that’s my own househunting pain I’m feeling.
My SO and I are looking for a house in or around Boston, and the market is just as you described in your area—the good stuff gets snatched up really quickly, and everything is incredibly expensive.
One thing which scares me is all those people who say that the looking part is the “fun” part. I have to think that these are the same jokers who say that adolescence is the best time in a person’s life. Although, come to think of it, this is a lot like adolescence, what with all the hopes and expectations, the highs and the crushing lows, and the feeling that there’s some secret that everyone but me is in on.
I disagree. You’re much better off spending $15k less on a house that needs $10k in roof repairs and hiring your own guy to do the repairs. You get the added benefit that you can use a roofer who you know and will use top-quality materials rather than some fly-by-nighter.
In general, you can get a much nicer house for your money by buying a house that needs some fixing up. Just stay away from houses that need MAJOR work – i.e. serious structural, electrical, or plumbing problems.
Actually, if it were a buyers market and you had lots of choice I could see it as not being a horrific experience… and maybe slightly enjoyable.
However, when you have little to chose from, not a ton of money to play with and assholish realtors and home owners to deal with, it’d be about as funny as getting a circumcision with a blowtorch and no anesthetic.
Hmm … I’ll take your word for it on that one. The other day I likened this experience to giving myself an appendectomy with a spork. Sounds like they’re more or less the same.
