House hunters, come on in!

[JillyBean]

I looked around, but I didn't see this thread over here yet. I figured this would be a great place for those of us who are house hunting to meet up. So if you're looking for a house/condo/townhome/etc, come on in and post. Hopefully this will be a great place for us to post our questions and share with others.

A few home buying related threads on CC and other helpful links:
Homebuying 101 (http://www.constantchatter.com/showthread.php?t=484)
House Buying Tips (http://www.housebuyingtips.com/)
Realtor.com (http://www.realtor.com)

Feel free to post your favorite home buying sites/websites/books :)

[BTB]

Oooh, sign me up, even if it's jumping the gun a bit - we're looking to buy ASAP after I get my match result January 27th.

We'll be looking for our first home too. So far our list of requirements is short: 3 bedrooms, all of which must be located on the same story of the house, at least 1.5 baths (would prefer 2), and must have a finished basement/rec room.

[Sabre]

uh, well, I just finished house hunting. I put in a bid and it was accepted and they just received our final approval letter on Monday. But I still feel like everything is up in the air, I find it hard to believe that this is it until closing! eek!

[tgray99]

Howdy all! I'm finally able to join this thread (I followed it on the other site).

Name: Tara
DH's name: Ryan
DD's name: Aidan
Househunting since: just started scoping things out - looking to buy in Aug/Sept
Our area: Houston area
Looking for: Our first home. Would like at least 3bed/2bath, ready to move into

We found a fabulous mortgage company and we're working on our loan committment now. We went in yesterday and signed all the paperwork to put it all into motion. We're guaranteed a 90-95 loan and our loan officer is trying to get us a 100% financed loan. We pay no PMI on either, no realtor commissions, no junk fees. We get in at a slightly higher rate (8.25%) and then after 2 years they automatically refinance at a lower rate. It's totally a God thing that we found this company. The loan officer put a tiny little ad in the classifieds, something she rarely does, and I found it and called. We had spoken with a mortgage broker previously who had told us that all we could get was $50K. Yeah right. So anyway, I should get to start looking at homes this week sometime.

I'd really like a newer home, within 10 years of being built. I like rounded sheetrock corners, art niches, a formal dining room, and a kitchen open to the family room. Older homes around here tend to not have any of these things.

[jude29]

DH and I started scoping things out about a year ago and as soon as we got back from our wedding we started actively looking. We found a house in a great area near town. They were asking $209K and we settled on $205K. We were really excited because it was such a great area and the house was totally redone on the inside. It's only 2 bedrooms and it's 50 years old but the location is a good investment property.

Well we got the inspection done and they found:

Mold in the garage add on
Major Water Damage and Wood Rot in the add on
The Chimney and Fireplace are a hazard and need to be replaced
:eek:

We have put a request in for the sellers to make the repairs but we are getting worried because it's over $10K in repairs. Their real estate agent keeps acting like we are getting such a great deal on the house. It's really annoying me. We are afraid they are going to somehow try and get us to fork over money for the repairs which we REFUSE to do. One thing my real estate agent suggested was they would increase the cost of the house for us. DH and I have decided that we will walk away from the house if that happens. :(

Any Advice??? :confused:

[LRL]

Hi! I'd love to join you ladies!

We are in the process of looking for a new home and are trying to get someone to accept one of our offers (we are up against mutiple offers in our area, typically 15 per home). We currently own a condo which we will be putting on the market as soon as we find a home.

Name: Laura
DH: R
Househunting (serious) since: April 2005
Our Area: San Francisco Bay Area
Looking for: Our first house

Requirements: Our requirements are pretty sad. We would like to maintain around the same area of square footage as we have now (1200) and need 2 bedrooms. We also need a workable backyard, separate dining room, and a garage. Other than that we are looking at homes in all types of conditions (some of the homes we are looking at need major work, and we are still getting outbid). Cross your fingers for us ladies- we are writing offers tonight to submit to the listing agent tomorrow on a house that would be perfect for our expanding family!

[flygirl]

Hey guys! I moved this thread into the ATH Groups forum. Please let me know if you have any questions!

[jude29]

I recently watched "House Hunters" on HGTV and they were in San Francisco. I have always heard the housing is very limited there. These homebuyers were just excited to have a place to park. I liked the houses they looked at but didn't realize how much competition they had on offers! I wish you the best of luck and hope you get something that suits your needs :)

[tgray99]

My realtor emailed me a list of houses. Needless to say, I was pretty underwhelmed. Most were pretty crappy :rolleyes: I went to www.har.com and did some researching of my own. Not too hard and found some stuff that she didn't even send me. I meet with her tomorrow at 1 to go look at properties. It's weird, I want to hurry up and find something but at the same time, I feel like if I wait a bit, something better will come open. Homebuyers Paradox.

Ok, I want y'all's opinion on something. There's an area of town that we like and want to move to. We can live in a smaller, older not as nice house in the upper end (economically) of the area or we can live in a new (never been lived in), nice home in the moderate end of the area (but a new housing area). Understand my predicament? TIA!

[miel]

Hey...I was on this thread in that other place...and we close tomorrow.

I wish I could be like: YIPPEE...But it's more like YIKES! Aaaaaahhhhhhh...I'm scared.

So far I have no evidence that there is anything even remotely bad about this deal...(except when I read that fianance chick's book and she said not to do any of the things we are doing)...so I am just scared for no reason.

Hope if it's OK if I still stay on here a bit because we also have to sell and I just need moral support.

Good luck everyone...this just totally swept us off our feet...we found this sexy French realtor (well my husband found her!) and she was just so charming she talked us into doing all this crazy stuff! Those French women... ;)

Anyway, it can happen fast so be prepared.

[LRL]

Jude29- Umm, yeah, crazy housing is an understatement. Who knows how long it may actually take for us to be successful in our bids. I always watch house hunters too, and I am amazed at the selections that some people have in different areas of the country. I keep my ears open to see if they say the approximate prices of the homes, and sometimes they do. I always look over at DH and say- What are we doing here again? It is absolutely ridiculous. My In-laws could literally sell their home here and we could all move to some of the others areas in the country- they could purchase maybe 6 homes in some of these areas.

Last night we heard back about the bid we placed. Apparently there were only 3 offers (this is the least amount of offers on a property we have ever bid on!) The listing agents called and told our realtor that the sellers were countering every single offer. He thinks that our offer was the highest (over asking price), and they countered us for 30K more. I don't know that we can afford that- that would be the cash we would use to make repairs to the home. We are planning to let our offer stand, which means that we will probably lose the house. Oh well- on to the next property. I am glad that I am not so emotionally involved in the buying process. Our last buying experience has really helped to calm me down.

Congratulations Miel! I have to say that having a good real estate agent is key to being able to make a good decision on a property and will make you feel more comfortable if there are issues with sellers or listing agents. Our agent helped us buy our current property, and is totally competent, amicable, and knows a lot about the area. It helps that he understands our quirkiness as well! We would have never settled on an inexperienced realtor in this area. Our realtor was previously an appraiser and knows a lot about potential problems a property may have and can give a very accurate suggestion on if the pricing is fair. He also is an awesome negotiator- he gets really excited!

[miel]

OK, we closed...we own that house kinda.

I'm in denial.

I don't feel happy...I'm like eeeeekkkk....but maybe that's just the crazy overheated market we are in.

LRL Your agent sounds totally fabulous. Our agent is very charming and very hard working but I don't think she is amazingly knowledgable about houses. She has told us some stuff that isn't right. I think she is very into thinking positive about everything so you don't really hear about problems from her. Still, she did work hard for us and from what I've read has been terrific--arranging things, driving us around...if something really was sucky she would say so...so we were lucky.

She also hooked us up with the guy who gave us the crazy mortgage that Suze Orman says not to get! :rolleyes: Let us hope that Suze Orman is wrong in our case.

Please hope for us? And that the market doesn't bottom up..which apparently would happen if China refuses to buy more U.S. bonds. So here I am worrying about the Chinese economy. Home ownership! Look what it does to you.

As of now, we are renters, landlords and tenants all at once (we still live in our apartment and have a rental unit in the house we bought).

Good luck this week everyone! Remember that if you don't win a bid you might just be lucky. That is often the way it turns out.

[JillyBean]

How did you guys choose your agent? Did you choose based on a friend's recommendation or did you interview several and decide from there?

[LRL]

Gosh, we actually got really lucky with our real estate agent. My sister is a mortgage consultant and worked with our agent through referral. But, she actually met him at a huge dog park we have in the area. Go figure.

I would seriously ask your family and close friends. You will find that as soon as you start asking the questions about realtors that people will start giving you all sorts of buying stories. This is where you can see how the realtor handled various situations- and to make sure that this is your style. You don't want an agent with a nervous personality if you are already nervous, KWIM?

[JillyBean]

You don't want an agent with a nervous personality if you are already nervous, KWIM?
Yeah, I know exactly what you mean. We also want to deal with someone who's very knowledgeable, since this is our first experience with buying a home.

We're fairly new to this area, so that's our problem. We only know a couple of people who've bought new homes recently. One of my friends gave me the name of her agent, but she mainly deals with a specific area. I going to try and find someone close by, but I don't just want to walk in the office and pick someone at random.

[tgray99]

First off, what is the crazy mortgage that Suze says not to get?

Well, we went to look at houses yesterday. The first one was, how shall I say it? Tired looking. It was just rundown and not that impressive. It had purple carpet. Everywhere. :confused:

Second one would be fabulous for a single person. New laminate floors, remodeled kitchen, inground heated pool and spa, etc. But, it was a shoebox. WAY too small. Only about a thousand sq. feet.

Third one was in a nice neighborhood with older (mid to late 70s) homes occupied by a lot of young families. The house is large (to me at least) 1700 sq.ft. with cathedral ceilings in the living room and master bedroom. The kitchen has a pass through/breakfast bar. There is a dining area and breakfast nook. They offer a $2000 flooring allowance. I was really impressed with it. Sure, it's got 70s carpet and linoleum (hence the flooring allowance) and needs some updating and personalization but that's what homeownership is about, right? Making it your own. I brought my mom and stepdad over to check it out (looked in the windows) and they seemed to like it. They felt like it'd be a great starter home for us. Ryan came over today and looked at it with the realtor. I'm thinking that we may make an offer on it. I think there's one or two more that I'm going to look at first.

A pretty productive weekend!

Oh yeah, our mortgage company put us in touch with a realtor. It sorta bothers me that she's not familiar with the area we're looking to buy in but I know the area fairly well, as do my mom and stepdad so I think we're OK.

[tgray99]

I'm starting to think that I really don't want to settle for just "all right." Ideally I want something 10 years old or newer in the area I really like. That's just not available right now so I'm thinking I want to wait and keep looking until something is available. This is so scary and exciting and nervewracking. I think it's giving me heart palpitations. Somebody tell me that you've gone through this too?

[mrs_pell]

I'm starting to think that I really don't want to settle for just "all right." Ideally I want something 10 years old or newer in the area I really like. That's just not available right now so I'm thinking I want to wait and keep looking until something is available. This is so scary and exciting and nervewracking. I think it's giving me heart palpitations. Somebody tell me that you've gone through this too?

What part of Houston are you looking in? I'm in Kingwood and absolutely LOVE it! It's great, and there are a lot of houses for sale right now for really decent prices! I don't know how much of an option this location is for you, though. We have a FABULOUS real estate agent up here, so if you're interested, let me know (send me a PM in case I forget to re-check this thread). :)

[miel]

tgray99 It's a variable APR. For the first 2 mos. it is 2%...then it varies with the LIBOR plus 2.9% for five years...then it goes up...

Suze O is very conservative...she says you shd save 8 months salary up first and then save up for the down payment...in our case that would have been over $100,000 we would have had to save...we just couldnt' do that in less than 20 years...rents are $1,500-2000 a month...I don't think her advice applies in our case, necssarily.

Well, maybe it does. There is method in our madness--we bought 2 condos hoping to flip one (a 2 family house, i.e.)...so maybe it will work.

In any case, it is risky and Suze is not into risk.

[Sabre]

My husband and I went alot on gut instinct. It had to be a house that we could see us living in for a long time, see our furniture there, and picture it being our "home" not just our "house".

We were also looking for either a brand new home or a home that was about 20 years old. A friend pointed this out and she was so right. Most appliances, air conditioners, hot water heaters, etc...seem to have a life span of 15-20 years. So if you get a house that's 10-15 years old, then you have to be prepared to replace major appliances within about 5 years or so. We ended up getting a house that's 24 years old. The roof is 5 years old, the a/c is 3 years old, the hot water heater is brand new, etc...So it's nice to know that we won't have to make any major investments, like a new roof, for a while.

[tgray99]

Our mortgage is probably not one that she would approve of either but I'm not all that concerned! :D

I think last night I got a little freaked out by the whole process of homebuying. I know now that if we get that house we looked at 3 times this weekend that it's not settling for less it's being realistic. We can't afford a newer house and certainly not one with 1700 square feet and a seller willing to give us $2000 to refloor the place! I generally need to sleep on things to feel better and now I do!

[jude29]

What neighborhoods are you looking at in Houston?

[tgray99]

We're looking at Kingwood. I had thought Humble, Atascocita and Kingwood but I checked out the schools in all three areas (they're all in Humble ISD) and the Kingwood schools are head and shoulders above the rest as far as test scores, buildings, percentage of economically disadvantaged and experience of teachers.

I just sent my realtor 5 more listings that are FSBO to check out. Hopefully we'll get to see all or some of those this week and make a decision then. I have pics in my journal of the house we saw Friday if anyone wants to take a peek.

[Atlanta_eBride]

Atlanta_eBride
Name: Laura
FH's name: David
Househunting since: last fall. We have just gone on a month to month lease so I now I'm getting nervous.
Our area: Atlanta, of course. ;)
Looking for: Our first home together (my third, his first). We *want* 3BR/2BA if we can find one that won't make me have heart palputations everytime I look at the price.

I'm really getting tired of looking at houses at this point but we really don't want to settle. We are on realtor #3 and now he's getting anxious. I look at it this way, I'm the one chunking down $350K NOT the realtor and I want it to be what I want and NOT what I am settling for.

Most of the houses in our price range seem to need a lot of work on them. We own our own business and therefore don't really have the time nor the cash flow to do any major renovations.

As far as a loan we are looking at a three year interest only where we will then refinance later. :(

tgray99, I think we are in the same boat as far as looking for something that is right. I'll change realtors yet again if I have to because I;m not going to let them pressure me when I feel I'm still at a loss. I wantto be happy with my decision.

[jude29]

Tgray99-

oh the house is very cute and so is your baby!!

[tgray99]

Thanks, Jude!

I saw 6 more houses today. Two that I really liked (wouldn't take any work but maybe a little paint to get into), one that I liked but seemed a little small (and doesn't have a garage...weird) and one that I REALLY liked but is about $6,000 out of our price range (isn't that always the way it goes?) I'm going to talk to our mortgage lady and have her review our numbers and see precisely the highest amount of money they would comfortably loan us. There is SUCH a huge difference between houses in the $110Ks and the $105Ks. (Sorry to make those of you in VA and CA sick to your stomachs over our cheap home costs in TX.)

[Reenie]

We're house hunting as well...

Name: Maureen (aka Reenie ;) )
DH's name: Eric
Househunting since: Late spring/early summer. Actually, I've been doing "homeowner" self-education for about a year, but as for actual looking IN places, we just started in May. Our current apartment's lease ends on September 30.
Our area: Chicago- has to be in the city limits as per my teaching contract
Looking for: Our first home purchase (we've lived in several apartments, but never owned anything). We can't afford too much- Chicago is expensive (but not as expensive as some places :) ) and DH is in school and will finish, MBA and all, spring 2008 (hopefully). I am a teacher, so I guess you can figure that I don't make a fortune... and hopefully, I will be in grad school starting next fall (2006). So, we are looking for a condo/townhome that can last us at least through then. We are looking for at least 2 bedrooms, preferably 1.5 bath or more, but really, we'd be willing to get a smaller place if it were nicer than other alternatives. Two bedrooms is a must so that when we finish school, we'll have a room to turn into a nursery before moving to a house...

We actually had a contract on a condo, and we ended up having to cancel it (details in the emotional support forum if you so desire). It was the right decision, but house-hunting is a PITA. We are going to see two places tomorrow, one is a 1/2 duplex and one is a condo. I LOVE the 1/2 duplex from the listing and the condo sounds good but I don't have enough info. I am very excited about tomorrow's possibilities...

[miel]

Tgray-- Where in TX do you live? Hey, maybe I can move to Tejas! I love BBQ and I even like Ranchero music!

Reenie Good luck! I hope someone will say what you said about the duplex we are selling!

Question for you buyers: How much do you care about everything being 'new'--like granite countertops, stainless steel appliances, etc. If a house had character (like a pretty little backyard and a nice sitting room) would you accept it if it wasn't all new?

Sorry! I closed so I'll be out of your hair and stand on the sidelines to cheer you on...just need a little moral support for our sale... :)

[tgray99]

Miel, we live in the Houston area. It's really nice here (hot and humid but nice). Ranchero music...never heard of it. Do you mean country or Tejano (Spanish music that is popular with lots of Mexicans in the area)?

Oops, forgot to answer. For me, the new stuff is icing. I would love granite and stainless and wood floors but down here that stuff is not all that common in lower priced houses (ie, under $150) so it comes at a price. Sellers can add a couple thousand to the price of their home if it has those things. And they get it too.

[Reenie]

Thanks, miel! For me, the brand new stuff is not as important as the space itself; I also try to take resale value into consideration when we look, and new stuff doesn't stay new forever. :) Are you selling half of a duplex (like a townhouse)? If so, can I pump you for information, please? :) There are no association fees, so who takes care of the yard? Is it half and half? And what if something major on the outside needs to be fixed (like the roof- it won't on this place because the roof is new, but you know what I mean), do the two owners split it? I am a little confused;I am going to ask our realtor this evening, too! :)

[Atlanta_eBride]

miel, As far as stuff having to be new - I don't think so. The two most important places in a home are always going to be the kitchen and the bathrooms. If you are going to spend any money in trying to "improve" the home for selling those are the places to focus on.

Personally I don't care about granite tops and such because I'm probably going to redo a kitchen anyway with my tastes and colors. However, I do think it's important to have it looking nice. Try painting the cabinets white if they need it and keep the counters clear of as much clutter as you can. Even as ittle as changing out cabinet handles might perk up a space. Also, not sure of the price, you can buy linoleum tiles if the floor is in bad repair. I'm sure yours doesn't need all of that but it's some great areas to know about.

Hope it helps - I've had to sell two of my own homes and one of each of my parent's places.

[miel]

Atlanta Bride --Oops. That is funny. The call it Tejano in Texas, Ranchero in No. Mexico. Maybe I can't get used to Texas.

That DOES help. The kitchen and bathroom are the places I was worried about...they are nice-ish but nothing like the places I see when I go to open houses. Not fancy schmancy. But nice in a way that I personally like. With mable cabinets, a pantry, built in cupboards, etc.

Reenie Yes. It is like a duplex. The doors are side by side.

There are no association fees, so who takes care of the yard?

In our house there are condo fees. But my husband will probably take care of the yard because he likes to garden. There isn't much of a 'yard' and the previous sellers planted this fantastic garden that requires no maintenance!

Is it half and half? Our side will be somewhat bigger and we will pay slightly more in a condo fee, I assume.

And what if something major on the outside needs to be fixed (like the roof- it won't on this place because the roof is new, but you know what I mean), do the two owners split it?

Yup. Split. You hope that the condo fees will add up and the money will be there when you need to fix something. They'll go to water, snow shoveling, etc.

I am a little confused;I am going to ask our realtor this evening, too! GOOD LUCK!

[jude29]

Tgray-

Did you ask your realtor about making an offer on the more expensive house? Maybe you could offer something a little closer to your price range. FH and I were talking about the cost of housing here and we do feel lucky, but don't you agree that our property taxes in Houston are outrageous?? What are the taxes like out in Kingwood? I guess it's better than having to pay state taxes from every paycheck. That would be a huge adjustment if we ever moved out of state.

Last night we were watching that show on HGTV (yes I watch this all the time haha) and they were doing the what can you get for $800K show. We were astounded when we saw that in chicago you could get a 1 bedroom loft!! :eek: In Houston you could get a big house in West University or Bellaire for that price!

[tgray99]

I may ask my realtor if she thinks we could get $6,000 less for the house but I doubt it, it's a pretty nice house. I'll talk to her today.

Oops, forgot the property tax question. In Kingwood (which is part of the City of Houston) it's $3.15 per every $100. I have no basis for comparison so I don't know if that's high or not.

[Atlanta_eBride]

tgray99, that tax sounds awfully high to me. We are looking at houses around $350K and the taxes are roughly $3500 - $4500. At your tax rate I'd be paying over $11,000. Also, FWIW, house here seem to go for about $10K below the asking price. Maybe the realtor will say yes to your $6K less on the house you like.

[tgray99]

Yeah, since TX doesn't do state income tax our property taxes are very high!

[miel]

So now I do have 'new homeowner' issues and not just 'homeseller' issues.

Fixing up this place is just such a hassle! It's tiring! And I haven't even scratched the surface yet. Whew!

If you are renting, I just have to say that it has some advantages.

[tgray99]

Well, I think we have a winner...

http://harpictures.marketlinx.com/MediaDisplay/95/hr1490795-1.jpghttp://harpictures.marketlinx.com/MediaDisplay/95/hr1490795-2.jpg
http://harpictures.marketlinx.com/MediaDisplay/95/hr1490795-3.jpg
http://harpictures.marketlinx.com/MediaDisplay/95/hr1490795-4.jpg
http://harpictures.marketlinx.com/MediaDisplay/95/hr1490795-5.jpg
http://harpictures.marketlinx.com/MediaDisplay/95/hr1490795-6.jpg

General Description
So many nice features and such a great price. Open floorplan on shaded street. Lots of decking in back yard. Updates include furnace, evaporator coil, roof, extensive ceramic tile, & berber carpet. Three bedrooms plus two full baths. Island kitchen. Fireplace. Interior paint just completed.

Living: 15X15
Dining: 11X13
Kitchen: 15X16
1st Bed: 14X13
2nd Bed: 11X10
3rd Bed: 11X10
Utility Room Desc: Utility Rm In House
Alarm System - Leased, Tile, High Ceiling, Island Kitchen
Fireplace: 1 / Wood Burning Fireplace
Dishwasher: Yes
Disposal: Yes
Compactor: No
Microwave: No
Range: Gas Range
Oven: Gas Oven
Connection: Washer, Electric Dryer, Gas Dryer
BedRooms: All Bedrooms Down
Heating: Central Gas
Cooling: Central Electric

We're going to discuss things and hopefully be ready to tell our realtor on Monday that we want to make an offer.

I'm a tad wigged out...this homebuying stuff is scary!

[jude29]

Tgray-
The house is great!!! Good luck I hope it works out! The house we just bought near the heights was priced at $209,900, we offered $195K at first. Our realtor felt that was a comfortable offer since we knew there was going to be some negotiating. In the end we ended up settling at $205K. This was what we thought we'd get the house for. It's not much lower than the asking price but we thought it would be best to try and negotiate. I would at least try to negotiate a price on the house you like. How long has it been on the market? Has it had any other offers? Your realtor should be able to tell you if the offer is too low for that area.

Oh yeah and our property taxes are going to be $5,880 a year!! Thank goodness for homestead exemptions.

[Atlanta_eBride]

tgray99, that house looks wonderful! Good luck to you in deciding over the weekend. BTW, if you get it, can we all come over and play in the treehouse?

[Reenie]

I only posted once (or twice?) in here; you ladies must be good luck because we placed a bid on that 1/2 duplex and it was accepted! The contract was signed by us on Thursday late night and by the seller yesterday! :)


It's the right-hand side.
http://www.mlsni.com/photos/property/305/05169305.jpg

$169,900
2 Bedrooms | 1 Baths

Style: 1/2 DUPLEX; TOWNHSE
County: COOK
Year Built: 1944
Basement: FULL, UNFINISHED

Siding: Brick
Roof Type: Asphalt, Glass Shingle
Heating: Gas, Forced Air
Cooling: Central Air
Water: Lake Michigan
Sewer: Sewer-Public

Living Room Dimensions: 15X11, hardwood, on level 1
Dining Room Dimensions: 10X08, hardwood, on level 1
Kitchen Dimensions: 11X07, vinyl, on level 1
Master Bedroom Dimensions: 12X11, hardwood, on level 2
Bedroom 2 Dimensions: 10X08, carpet, on level 2

Lot Dimensions: 25X125
Garage Space: 1
Garage Detail: Detached; 1.5car Gar; Auto Door Opnr

Taxes: $923.13

School District: 299

Charming, clean with many updates two story townhome (1/2duplex) w/2-bed 1 bath. Ideal location. Features: hardwood fls in bed, living & dining rooms, all windows, garage, roofs, hwh, furnace, a/c under 15 years old newer kitchen cabinets. Nice landscaped yard w/deck off kitchbase w/ext access, no asm fees.

It is small, but it has everything on our list except two things (and we knew we wouldn't get everything on our list because we have a huge list and because we don't have fortune to spend right now); the two things it doesn't have are two things we've never had, anyway, so it's not like we'll be missing them (no extra 1/2 bath, no dishwasher). We absolutely LOVE it. It is positively adorable. We will finish the basement and probably remove the carpet from the second bedroom (there's hardwood underneath). Sorry, I don't have inside pics, but I may take the digi cam when we go to the inspection on Wednesday. The list price was way too high (I did an extensive comparative market analysis), so we bid $155K, never in our wildest dreams guessing that the seller would accept with no counter-offer! Even the selling agent was surprised that she accepted- she turned down an offer of $160K the day before! I guess she didn't want buyers who had to sell a place, and she decided that she really liked us (she was there during the showing) and wanted us to have it!

Now, I know that everything happens for a reason- that condo that we had to cancel the contract on because of the home inspection, etc., was nothing compared to this, and we bid only $7K more on this place than the agreed-upon price for the condo! But we have to knock on wood and cross every part of our bodies we can cross because the women selling the condo for which we cancelled the contract still haven't signed the form acknowledging the cancellation! :eek: :mad: Their lawyer says they are refusing. Our lawyer says they have no legal standing. In addition, they are refusing to release our earnest money (one of the sellers is also the selling agent), which our lawyer again assures is not right. So I have been watching that place on the MLS every day, and so I said to my lawyer, "Well, if SellerName is really expecting us to be held to this contract, then why did she reactivate the listing in the wee hours of the morning the day after Eric and I signed the cancellation form?" Our lawyer said, "What? It's listed as active and not contingent? That actually really helps me." So I hope that means something good. I am just terrified that they are going to eff everything up for us with this place, and we love it soooooo much. Oh Man, I've written a book.... sorry. :o

[LRL]

Reenie! Congratulations! The duplex sounds fabulous- you must post some pictures. :)

My sister is in a similar situation as you are with the condo. In California, the property cannot be put back on the market if there is a dispute regarding the contract, ie. someone backed out for whatever reason. Usually this is enough to make the seller give back the earnest money and move on because they would have to sue for the money... and that would mean it would take them WAY longer to sell.

[jude29]

Reenie-

Congrats on the new duplex!! It's so cute! You'll have to post pictures of the inside when you get them! It sounds like your lawyer is correct and you will be fine. I'll keep my fingers crossed for you! Good luck :D

[Reenie]

Thanks LRL and jude29! I also appreciate your reassurances about the lawyer/other contract! :)

[jeeplover]

DH and I are actually relocating to VA and want to buy a new house. His company expects us there by October 1st. This will be our second home but technically the first we have bought together.

We want to build a new house since the house we currently own is over a 100 years old and all we have done since the beginning is repairs and renovations (and truthfully I am sick of it)!

So our next trip to VA is at the beginning of August and we are planning on checking out a couple of others areas but we are hoping to put money down someplace. Then we will need to find an apartment to rent while the house is being built.

[tgray99]

Ugg, I'm bummed. The house that we wanted to make an offer on just got an option put on it this weekend. :( :rolleyes: I guess we weren't meant to have that house. Back to square one.

No more treehouse, sorry ladies!

[Sabre]

Reenie, that duplex is really cute. Good luck!
Tgray, I'm sorry that the house is no longer avaliable. That just means that you will find something so much better in a better price range. :)

Well, we're supposed to close on our house this Friday! eep! I am a nervous wreck about all this. We should have our clear to close stamp by the bank within 48 hours and then we just wait for Friday. Keeping my fingers crossed that we don't hit any more roadblocks, you wouldn't believe what a battle this has been!

[tgray99]

We put an offer on the "second place" house yesterday and got a counter offer back today. We gave them their asking price and asked them to pay half the closing costs and carry 5% of the downpayment. They countered with an offer of $1000 towards closing and that's it. :rolleyes: They really weren't willing to budge at all. Alas, the search continues. I'm looking at 3 more on Thursday.

[isign]

Add me!! It's finally time :D

Name: Julie
DH's name: Brian
Househunting since: just started scoping things out - lease runs out in December.
Our area: Mississippi Gulf Coast
Looking for: Our first home. Must have 3bed 2 bath and a decent size kitchen. We also want some kind of a porch.

We are thinking about building in a subdivision. Tomorrow we are meeting with a realtor/representative of a specific group near us. If it takes 5-6 months we'll be right on track to where we want to be as far as moving in/starting payments.

[tgray99]

We're out. Things are getting dicey with DH's job. Firm is downsizing and we don't want to get ourselves into a bad situation. It's a good decision, I'm not too upset.

[Reenie]

Sabre Thanks for the compliment! :) Good luck on Friday!

Our inspection is tomorrow, so I'm crossing my fingers. Also received a copy of a very stern letter that our attorney sent to cancelled-contract-sellers' attorney. Crossing my fingers on that, too...I am just a little sick over all of it.

tgray99 Did you mean that you all are stopping your hunt, or that you're not willing to negotiate any further with those other sellers? Sorry for your frustrations, but either way, it sounds like you know what you're doing and it's for the best for you. :)

Hi isign and hbeshore! :)

[Atlanta_eBride]

tgray99, sorry to hear that but things always work out the way they are suppose to. I really live by that rule.

[tgray99]

We're out all together until Ryan gets a better job and things are a little more stable financially. I'm trusting that things will work out! :)

[Sabre]

Just checking in to see how the house hunting is going.

We closed yesterday and the closing costs were so much more than I expected. Wowza!

But the house is ours and we're completely thrilled! We plan to start painting today and we move in on Wed. Hooray!

[Sashi]

I'm posting for the first time in here. We are house hunting now finally with our 1st house on the market. It's been very different from the last time we bought a house, 3 years ago exactly when the market in my area was hotter than hot! Now it's slowing down, less offers and houses are sitting on the market for a while......and more importantly not a lot of homes going up on the market.

Is this what everyone is experiencing?

[Reenie]

Hi Sashi. I don't have any answers to your questions, but I wanted to say hello.

We are all set to close on September 7. Our attorney sent a very stern letter to the sellers' attorney (of the contract we cancelled) last week that demanded the earnest money back. We received our money and the contract is officially cancelled. Everything seems to be working out just great. :) I am super-glad. I am attending a seminar on Thursday night for two hours, and for my two hours of time (and because I am a city school teacher), DH and I will have $3000 towards closing costs/down payment given to us by the city. :) I think that's a pretty darn good deal since we already have a special homeloan for "high-risk" area teachers, and on top of that, on Thursday night I am also supposed to get some information about a TaxSmart Mortgage Credit Certificate which means this TaxSmart is a Mortgage Credit Certificate (MCC) program which entitles first-time home buyers to a federal income tax credit. A tax credit is a direct reduction of taxes due. Under the program, a home buyer would receive an MCC to reduce income taxes by an amount equal to 20% of the interest paid on a mortgage. The tax credit is available each year the home buyer continues to live in a home financed under this program. I guess that's good. I am very excited, and I made moving announcement post cards (but I'm not printing them until we close! ;) ). The only thing is that we are closing on the second day of school, but luckily, my principal is a peach, and when I explained the situation to him, he was so wonderful about it. :) Yea!

[LRL]

Sabre- Have fun tomorrow moving in!

Sashi- Welcome! We are also in the process of trying to find our second property. We will not list our first property until we have bought a new house, but I have noticed some major changes from the last time we did this. I am not sure where you are, but in our area, the housing market is ridiculous. Two years ago, the market was crazy, with upwards of 15-20 offers per home. Up until about 5 months ago it was the same way. All of the homes that we have recently bid on have had few bidders- 11 and then 3 for the last home. I have to say that overbidding is still rampat though. Don't expect to get a house unless you overbid.. sometimes a lot. I am seeing homes stay on the market longer, and it seems that prices are more sensitive now. Hopefully, we will be able to find something in better condition than before, and in a more desireable location. It may have been a blessing that we have not gotten a house yet.

Reenie- Yeah for getting your earnest money back! How nice to get some assistance from the city for your closing costs! That will really help. I am excited for you! :)

[Sashi]

Reenie - thank you for the warm welcome. Congratulations on all this great news you are receiving. Purchasing a home, especially your first one, is always a long process but it usually ends with such a great feeling of accomplishment! It sounds like your area is really nice to it's residents which is always nice. PA, suburbs of Philly, which is where I am from does nothing really as far as tax credits or assistance with closing costs, which are ridiculous! If you live in the city though, you have 10 years of real estate tax payments forgiven. They were trying to persuade people to not move out of the city. I guess it's worked.

LRL - I see you are from San Fran. My cousin actually bought in El Cerrito last year and is now selling and moving to another state. The real estate out there is crazy, even worse than some other parts of CA! Good luck on your house search and subsequent house sale. We put ours on the market because it's a condo and in my area, PA, when the market drops - condo's are the first to go. We are lucky that we do have somewhere we can stay if we don't find a home we like before we sell. The market is crazy around here but there is definitely no overbidding. We are actually looking at a townhome in a Country Club community and we're considering offering $20k below asking price which has already been dropped. I think it might just be the summer, plus the interest rates are on the rise......I'd love for you to keep me/us posted about your search. It's always good to have support during your search!

Thanks again....

[karlatta]

We're somewhat unexpectedly house-hunting again! Dh just got a new job!

Name: Karla
DH's name: Scott
Househunting since: just starting to look... planning to move in December
Our area: Houston
Looking for: 1-story, 3 or 4 bedrooms, 2+ baths, large yard, in Northwest Houston

Edit: I meant to introduce myself more. We bought our current house about two and a half years ago. We planned to be in this house for a long time. But DH got fed up with his job and found a new one 45 minutes away. So rather than making him commute, we decided to just sell this house and move. I'm very excited!

Our must-haves, that were too long to list in the little "introductory" thing:

large yard (we have 2 dogs)
3-4 bedrooms
2 bathrooms
1-story
large kitchen
either a formal dining room or an eat-in kitchen that can hold a table with 6 chairs
2 car garage
separate utility room, not in the garage
no pool


And my one weird thing - I cannot live in a house where you can see any part of the kitchen from the front door. It's always been my thing, and is the biggest reason why we bought the house we're now in. :D

[Sashi]

Welcome Karlatta! We're in different spots of the country, I'm in PA but I'm sure there is plenty of support here for you! Parts of me would love to live in Houston, some of the houses I've seen in some other threads around are magnificent. You can get a much bigger house down there with our budget.......I really wish my fiancee would listen to me and think about moving down south!
Good luck on your search...........my only advice to you is don't settle and it looks as though you are a pro at house hunting already!
Toodles

[Atlanta_eBride]

OK, I'm taking this as a HUGE sign we haven't found the right house yet. We FINALY received the seller's disclosure this past week on this house we had been considering, and that had moved to the top of our list. There is a piece of land adjacent to it that we have been talking to the city to see if we could purchase or lease it should we decide to make an offer. Here is the 100 year old house that was, until today, completely under consideration:

http://www.elephantwedding.com/wc/P7230275.jpg

We drove by it this afternoon and this is what it looks like now:

http://www.elephantwedding.com/wc/purple_house_done.jpg

[Reenie]

OMG! What happened there? It fell in?

[Atlanta_eBride]

Not exactly sure as this is what it looked like when we happened upon it this afternoon. It *looks* as if the tree (pictured to the right in the first pic) went crashing into the house. I'm assuming it's from one of the storms last week. FH says it was Thursday when our realtor was talking with the owner so it had to have happened since then. By chance we had the digital camera with us and I snapped this shot. FH sent it to the realtor to see how cheap we could get it now - he's kidding of course and at the same time letting our realtor know about it. Well, we keep looking.

[Sophia]

*delurking*

OMG, that poor, cute little house! :eek: It does look like the tree fell on it. :(

[kadee_29]

Looks like I am re-joining the househunters. I was the OP of the thread on that other site. I had to take time off because of a new car purchase but we are going to start seriously looking again. Long story short our neighbors just sold their house and lets just say I dont think we are going to like the new neighbors. Our whole neighborhood is just going down the tubes because of how inexpensive the houses here are compared to other areas of the city.

Hopefully we can find something we like soon.

[jojoswife]

I just found this thread and would love to join in! We live in North Carolina and are looking to buy our first home as a married couple. I own a home in Oregon that I rent out. We are currently living in DH's home, but it has become too small. He plans on keeping his house as a rental as well.

Things we are looking for:
Minimum 2000 sq ft
Large Kitchen with plenty of counter space and cabinets-prefer solid surface counters over laminate
3-4 Bedrooms
2.5+ Bathrooms (must have tile)
Location-somewhere between Rocky Mount and Raleigh

So far the homes we have been looking at are $100-$120 per sq. ft. Does this seem unreasonable to anyone?

[kadee_29]

So far the homes we have been looking at are $100-$120 per sq. ft. Does this seem unreasonable to anyone? That seems to be what the average is here. I am not sure about other areas but here thats pretty reasonable.

[jeeplover]

jojoswife Do you find it difficult in managing a rental property so far away from where you live?

We will be moving to VA and keep our house in MA as a rental and I am just worried that it will be a PITA?

[kam]

jojo - depending on the builder/seller/area/land, that is quite reasonable. If you're east of Raleigh, it's on the high side. On the west it's extremely reasonable.

[jojoswife]

jeeplover-renting my house in Oregon has not been a PITA yet. I bought it last December, and hired my brother to manage it. That was probably the best move! He found a renter within 2wks of closing. If anything needs to be taken care of he handles it, then I reimburse him. So far so good :D !

Kam-thanks for your input. We are looking in the Knightdale area, so would you consider that too high?

[Lil' Peach]

Fellow house hunter here! :)

My husband & I were casually looking at homes for quite some time before kicking it up a notch a couple of months ago. We've been looking at almost every new house as it comes on the market, but haven't had any luck. We were *so sure* we'd found our home a few weeks back but it didn't work out. Now we're thinking that maybe we should stay in our apartment until I'm done with school (another couple of years :() because the market in our area really stinks. We're looking at homes around $175,000 and you just don't get much for that amount of money around here. But we'll keep our eyes open and hopefully something will pop up sooner or later. If not, by the time I'm finished with school hopefully we'll have enough saved to buy our dream home. :)

[jeeplover]

Lil Peach-good luck with your house hunting! The prices in MA are outrageous! The prices in the area that we live in has skyrocketed in the past couple of years since DH bought our current house!

[jeeplover]

So just a quick update on our move to VA!

This weekend is our final house hunting weekend! No matter what we will be making an offer on a house-augh!

DH has been there since Wednesday and has been looking at places each night. We have found a couple that we like and I am going to look at them tomorrow.

I hope everyone elses house hunting is going well!

[jojoswife]

Our house hunting is slow right now. Joe is still waiting to hear from the hiring manager in Charleston, SC. Once we hear a yay or nay we will make our next move. We have pretty much narrowed it down to one. It is located in the subdivision that is only 10min from the hosp. where I work:D . Joe on the other hand will have a 45 min drive until he finds a new job.

If he does get the job in SC then I guess we will be doing our house hunting in Charlestion.....fine with me too!

Pics of our potential new home
http://im1.shutterfly.com/procserv/47b5d605b3127cce93f63b3c92ad00000026108AcNmbhu5bOA

http://im1.shutterfly.com/procserv/47b5d605b3127cce93f6253f92a100000026108AcNmbhu5bOA

http://im1.shutterfly.com/procserv/47b5d605b3127cce93f6250e13a000000026108AcNmbhu5bOA

http://im1.shutterfly.com/procserv/47b5d605b3127cce93f63a74d27d00000025108AcNmbhu5bOA

[Lil' Peach]

What a pretty home! I would live to live in the Carolinas. I think that's what we need to do... move before we buy a home. (hmm.. not a bad idea! ;))

[jojoswife]

LilPeach-thanks for the compliments on the house. We went to see it again for the 2nd time yesterday. As of yet we cannot make an offer. Joe has an interview on the 23rd, so we can't jump the gun before we find out what happens wit SC!

Where do you live? NC is very nice, the weather is fabulous. I don't really care for the city I live in, but I love Raleigh....that's why I don't mind commuting everyday!

[Lil' Peach]

I live in western Massachusetts but I grew up in Florida. We have talked extensively about relocating once I am done with school but it just seems so far away. I don't really want to wait to buy a house even though it may be in our best interest. My parents lived in Fayetteville (sp?) NC for a brief period and really loved it. I would love to live down in that area.. so who knows what will happen! :)

[Lil' Peach]

I am so excited to say that we made an offer on a house this morning!!!! :D We offered asking price so hopefully we'll hear back with a YES!!! The anticipation is killing me!

[jojoswife]

Congratulations :D Please post pics!!

[kimthebride]

Sign me up!

Kimthebride
Me: Kim
DH: Tom
Househunting since: I am looking at listings from a realtor now to get an idea of the market and towns we like, won't actively visit potential homes until January (brrrrr...). Want to move in June/July 2006 when DS turns 1.
Our area: Garden State, baby!
Looking for: Nice big home for our growing family and frequent overnight guests. Minimum 3-4 BR, 2 full baths, yard, dining room that fits 12, finished (or easy-to-finish) basement, not-too-terrible commute into Midtown Manhattan for DH.

My problems:
1) Love the look & charm of the Victorian and Colonial houses, but not the old electrical, slow plumbing, weak walls and drafty winters that come with them.
2) Really really do not want a pool, but most of the homes I love have them.

Yikes! This will be interesting...yes we home-hunted before when we bought our condo 4 years ago, but houses are a whooooooole other ballgame.

[jojoswife]

Good luck with your house hunting. Try to enjoy it as much as possible. We started houshunting in June. It has been a bit of a roller coaster....my husband is having heartburn over the cost of the homes we are looking at.

Good luck!

[kimthebride]

Thanks, Jojo!
Luckily DH always has Rolaids in his pockets. ;)

[Aletheia]

DH is a medical student and finds out in mid-March where we'll be moving after he matches to a residency program- it will be somewhere in the West, as we are tired of living on the East Coast. It will be a big move, and our first home purchase. I'm getting really nervous about it already. Starting to do a bit of reading, I wonder if I should have started getting nervous about it a year ago! There is so much to learn!

Name: Aletheia, 28, graduate student
DH: Mr. Ramsey, 28, medical student
Move: May 2006, home or no home! :eek:
Areas: (in order of desirability)

Seattle
Portland
Denver
Salt Lake
San Francisco

Looking for:

At least 2 bedrooms
Lots of natural light (esp. if we end up in Seattle)
Fireplace
Gas range
Small but cozy-- cottage or bungalow style?
Hardwood floors
Built-ins
Porch
Small garden space
Needing very little work.

My chief anxieties right now:

HOW IN THE WORLD DO YOU BUY A HOUSE WHEN YOU DON'T LIVE IN THE AREA?
Having to buy quickly (between March and May)
Not knowing how much of a mortgage we can handle
May be as much as 3-5 months pregnant during all of this stress.
Will be writing my dissertation in the new house; it needs to be comfy and not a pit to facilitate my writing process.


I'm going to look at the websites introduced on the first page; I bet that will help a bit. But I am so nervous about this process! DH's parents both work in real estate, so I know we'll have lots of good help-- but its mainly the apparent arbitrariness of what sort of home we'll end up in that gets to me. I am so influenced by how I feel about my surroundings! I don't want to end up in a hole!

[BonBon06-11-05]

We're house hunting....sorta...

We don't have a lot of money right now, but very much want to buy a house. So I guess we're "house browsing."

Here's our story:

Bonnie, 23, Dispatcher
Jesse, 21, Police officer
Housebrowsing since May 2005. We looking for a nice starter house in the Fox Valley area of WI.

[zarabunny]

I guess it's time i join the threa

Me Lianne 24 Admin Assistant
Fh Chris 24 Software Engineer

We're looking to buy in or around Manassas VA

So far my list is simple, at least two bedrooms and an office space
A kitchen big enough to hold a breakfast table
Seperate dining room (or at least divided enough so you could tell that it's the dining room, and not just by the table and chairs either) And that's all I have. We're hoping to buy at least by December.

[EmilyZA]

We won't be house hunting until the spring, but I figured I'd join b/c I would love to pick up some tips!

Me: Emily, 27, Marketing Support Rep
DH: Dan, 27, Inside Sales Rep

Our area: Boston area

Looking for: Single family, 3+ bedrooms, with yard, possible expansion

We haven't spoken to a mortgage person yet-- we don't think we will until April, when we will probably start looking. We have a decent amount saved for a down payment. My big stress is I'm not sure how much we'll be able to legitamately afford-- I mean, I know how much I think we can afford, but as first time homeowners, I really don't know what to expect as far as those other expenses that creep in.

[Foos6LA]

Hi! I'd like to join this thread. I'm so excited to finally be taking real steps towards purchasing our first home.

Foos6LA
Name: Amy
DH's name: Jim
Househunting since: will start in the spring.
Our area: Austin, TX.
Looking for: Our first home together - probably one story, 3 bedrooms + study, 2 car garage, eat-in kitchen with an island, back patio, nice yard, excellent school district.

Having grown up in NJ and lived in Los Angeles for year, we are ecstatic with the amount of house we can buy for our money. We are so excited to finally take this step - I've been wanting to buy for years.

EmilyZA - "My big stress is I'm not sure how much we'll be able to legitamately afford-- I mean, I know how much I think we can afford, but as first time homeowners, I really don't know what to expect as far as those other expenses that creep in" ITA! Eek! :eek:

[kcjules]

Count me in!

Name: Julie
DH's name: Jason
Househunting since: A couple weeks now
Our area: Akron, OH
Looking for: Well we already found what we want. It's a brand new condo, 3 bedrooms, 2 full baths, 2 car garage, with a ton of options and add-ons.

The thing is, we're both unemployed right now and can't seem to get jobs up where we want to live. We want to know how much of a mortgage we could be approved for so we know if we could even afford the condo. It's so affordable, spacious and I love it :D

So I guess I'm joining this thread to get ideas and advice.

[LeslieandPaul]

I'm joining in!!!

Name:Leslie
DH:Paul
Househunting since: haven't officially started, but we plan on putting our condo up for sale soon (have some work to do, but I'll get to that :))
Our area: Fraser Valley (outside of Vancouver, BC)
Looking for: Our first house, to start a family in. Prefer 1500+ sq ft, 3 bed, 1.5+ baths, with a basement suite, and there must also be a garage or space to build one.

We currently have a mortgage with a 4.65% interest rate (which is really good here), locked in for 5 years, but we need to get preapproved to know what houses we can look at, but we know we want to spend less than $300000 (houses in our area that meet our criteria run at least $285000).
We found a house today on the mls site, but there's an accepted offer on it (the subjects come off Tuesday).

In our condo we need to do some paint touch up, fix the kitchen ceiling, get the living room ceiling fixed (being done next week-that'll be h^!!), clean out the closets, put books and other junk away(we want this place to look like a showhome!).

[jojoswife]

Good luck Leslie! It will be a great relief for you to be pre-approved. Before we began looking we got pre-approved and it was a great feeling to go and look and know that when we found one we could just put an offer without worrying if we could afford it or not.

We live in NC but I foresee us moving to TX.....but don't tell anyone it's our little secret;) !

[EmilyZA]

For those of you who aren't exactly house shopping RIGHT NOW-- have any of you spoken to a mortgage person yet? I'd like to but we probably won't be shopping for another few months-- in the Spring of '06.

[brenda]

I'm joining the hunt, too.

Me: Brenda, Marketing Writer
DH: Sweetie, Police Officer

We're looking for a 3 bedroom, 1.5 bath home. Preferably with an open floorplan, good sized kitchen, living room, & dining room. We be looking at homes tomorrow afternoon. We're flexible on what type of house, either a stand alone or a townhouse, no condos.

EmilyZA - We talked to a mortgage guy to see what kind of mortgage we could get, how much money we could borrow, and learn more about mortgage terms and monthly payments. Also, we wanted to make sure that our credit and credit scores were looking good.

I would suggest you talk to one mortgage pro to get some info, and get a feel for the process. Around here, the first pre-approval is free with no commitment. Just tell him/her that you're looking to start house hunting in a couple of months and you want all your ducks in a row. I'm sure s/he'll be glad to help. Also, if you find a mortgage person that you like, s/he may be able to refer you to a good agent (or vice cersa).

[kanga1622]

Emily - We just stopped in and talked to the mortgage folks at our local bank branch. We gave them basic info on what we bring home a month and our monthly payments for car, student loan, etc. and they gave us an estimate of what we could afford without pulling our credit. It was nice to get a basic idea (although we already knew my score so they based the interest rate off that). That helped us figure out that we'd need to increase our income in order to qualify for anything other than a huge fixer upper. Now DH is looking for a full-time job to increase the income so we can look into a pre-approval for Spring.

In the meantime, we are keeping our eye on the market around here to see what kind of houses are available in our hopeful price range. I check the websites weekly to see what has sold and what comes onto the market. It gives me a better idea of what is overpriced and what we can truly look for when we start the official search.

[kerrykate]

Name: Kerry
DH: Fred
DD: Lauren
House hunting since: April 05.
Area: Dayton, Ohio area
Looking for: 3+ bedrooms, 1.5 bath, 2 car garage, fixer upper.

We've lived in our current house 4 years and are ready to move on. We bought our house dirt cheap did a complete rehab on it and are ready to make our money and move on to something bigger. We currently have a bid on a house and are suppose to hear something back any minute... I really want this house, it would be perfect for us. I'm trying not to get my hopes up, over the last 6 months we've put in several bids on houses but we always seem to get outbid, or by the time our bid goes in we find out there's already a contract.
I'm hoping that posting here will finally bring us some good luck. The house we have a bid on is 3 bedrooms, 1.5 bath, living room, dining room, kitchen, family room, 2 car garage on 1/2 acre.

[jojoswife]

Kerry-I'll keep my fingers crossed for you!

[2 Crazy Pugs]

Hi all, I work in the mortgage industry, if anyone has any questions, I can try to answer them for you.

[kerrykate]

Posting here really brought me good luck because we have contract on the house! The house is a fixer upper and so we're getting inspections to make sure we're not getting in too far over our heads. We put a contingency in the contract so we can get out if things are too bad so I'm trying not to get too excited until those are done...

Good luck to everyone:)

[Etoile]

DH & I are looking to buy to move in when our lease is up, February 1 (so we'd probably be closing in January.) We have an appointment in a week and a half with a mortgage broker that was recommended to me. I have been looking online at houses for almost a year and I have a really good idea of what we want, what is available in our price range and what area we want. There are two houses on the market right now that I really like, that have been on the market for several months, I am hoping that especially one of them will still be available when we're ready in about 6 weeks.

Edited to add what we are looking for:
--There are 4 particular neighborhoods in our town that I feel set on living in.
--3-4 Bedrooms (1 for us, 1 for future kid, 1 guest room, 1 office--but if there's a large basement, I am not set on having that 4th bedroom)
--We like wood floors
--A large enough dining room for our large dining set
--large yard
--No HOA--we want to be able to do whatever we want to the yard, in particular (DH is going to build a greenhouse)
--I'm partial to split-levels--in our price range, it's pretty much ranch or split-levels, and my favorite aunt and uncle have a cute little split-level that I have always loved so much. Nothing fancy, but it's home!

That's basically it! Both the houses I am hoping for meet all that criteria.

[Etoile]

Well today we went with our realtor to look at houses for the first time. The one that I thought would be my favorite, is really on too busy of a street. We saw that one (which I liked, other than the street), 2 houses that we would buy, and 6 no ways. There is one that is my very favorite, just keeping my fingers crossed that it will still be available when we are ready to make an offer.
But, if it's not, then it wasn't meant to be :)

We're going to look again in 1 month and we hope to close mid-january to early february.

[Aletheia]

Hi everyone! I'm giving this thread a well-deserved bump... I thought we were out of the house hunt for a while, but now it appears we're back in the game. We'll most likely be looking to buy in Portland anytime between late March through early June (preferrably before June.)

I'm worried about the mortgage business... I know so little about it.

[GoldEyes]

I really should have looked here, about two weeks ago.

We started house hunting, no lie, about two weeks ago and are already in contract on our first house.

It's perfect. 3 bedrooms, 1 3/4 bath (half has a stand alone shower), 1450 sq ft. We are soooooooo excited and the house doesn't even need any work done to it. All new carpet, new paint, new kitchen cabinets!

I really didn't think it would go this quickly. We looked at 6 houses total, and kept going back to this one. Got our pre-approval letter, the same day we faxed our income info in and BOOM. Put in an offer and two days later, we signed the contract. We should close around Feb 22nd. Im so excited!

[Smiley]

I would love to join the house hunters crew because we will be moving to another city in 6 months. I've been looking and I'm getting kinda down because DH and I are pretty picky, it will be a task to make us both happy.

[LeslieandPaul]

Well, we're back on the hunt again (more just looking right now, but if the right house came up, we'd probably buy it). The resale value of our condo is about 40000 more than what we paid for it, so that will be about a 10% downpayment on whatever we buy. We're looking anywhere from 240000 (for a townhouse) to 350000 (house, with basement suite). We want 3 bedrooms or more, and at least 1.5 baths (only having one toilet really sucks sometimes).
There was a house for sale in December that would have been perfect (our realtor sent us the feature sheet on it-it sold in 9 days!). It was in a VERY nice neighbourhood, and was only 367000 (way below market value for that area), and had low property taxes. What we need is something just like that to be for sale again!

ETA: We haven't been preapproved for a larger mortgage yet. Also, we're both into doing renos, so it would be nice to get a place that needs some renos (mostly aesthetic stuff)

[LeslieandPaul]

We've been checking out houses lately on the internet and we're realizing that maybe we should look in another area-we've only looked in our area, and the next two towns over, all of which are expensive, but good areas close to everything.
The other area we could go to is a good area, but farther from the city (but they've got lots of stuff in town, and there's a train that goes straight downtown), and it's still fairly easy to get back over here to see friends and family. The thing is you can get a house there for cheaper than a townhouse where we currently are, and the lots are huge and the property taxes aren't too bad. We could get a 3 bedroom, 3 bath house for $259,800. Not bad for the lower mainland. The other key thing is that there is a bridge going in near this town that is going in and is expected to cause property values to skyrocket so we would probably only be there a couple years, unless we found that we loved it there.
We're not really sure what to do, but luckily we can't do anything about it quite yet (we'll have to wait until at least the last week of April). Any suggestions? What would you do?

[Katyanne]

WOW! I must've missed this thread previously.

Name: Katie - work for an insurance company
DH: David - managing editor sports marketing firm
House hunting since: Spring 05.
Area: Fenton, Linden, Holly Michigan areas
Looking for: 3+ bedrooms, 1.5 bath, 2 car garage, finished basement, fenced yard with pool a big plus.


Hubby and I have been house hunting since last spring, we had an offer on a house last June but then there was a bidding war. We've been pre-approved and now we're actively looking again. We kind of took the fall and the holidays off to recover because our last attempt was pretty draining for us.

This weekend we did drive by's on 5 houses to get the feel for them and to check out their locations. 2 of them we vetoed right away once we saw them because of the smallish yards and the long drive. The third was in the same area and I told hubby we'd look at it since since it was really nice. Hubby works from home and only has to go into the office once every 2 weeks so he's pretty much given me veto power on how far away. He told me he didn't want to look at it because he didn't want me getting home from work til 7 at night.

Another one was to close to a busy street (we're talking NO front yard) and the 5th we couldn't find because of crappy directions but we're going to set up an appointment for this coming weekend because we really like the raised ranch style and the area was really nice.

wow, sorry so long..

Katie

[PaisleySloan]

I'd love to join you guys if you'll have me! :)

We haven't officially started hunting yet, but we will be within the next few weeks. We also have to sell my parents' house (they both passed away recently) before we buy. Anyone else have to go through something like this?

Unfortunately, we're trying to find something in the Los Angeles, Pasadena, Altadena area. It's tough to find a reasonable price and a good neighborhood, two things that don't seem to go hand in hand in Southern California. We need at least a 3 bedroom, 2 bath. DH works at home and needs a dedicated office.

We were supposed to meet with an agent this past weekend, but hubby got sick and we had to reschedule for this coming Sunday. What should we expect from a first meeting?

[asksmd94]

I want to join.

Me: Guidance Counselor
Looking for: Older bungalow style home, brick or wood (prefer brick), updated to some extent, 3 bedrooms, 1.5 baths

I started actively house hunting in January. I am looking in the Columbia, SC area. Because I am doing it alone, I was a bit disappointed at how much money I could get. I would love to live in one of our more historic areas in the city. I would have loved for this to be a joint venture but BF is years behind me when it comes to financial planning. I'll probably involve my mother alot but I just hope I can come close to what I want.

[njdiva]

Hey,
I also want to join...

Name: njdiva - health educator
DH: I - technical support
House hunting since: Feb '06
Area: expensive a$$ New Jersey
Looking for: 3 bedrooms, 1.5 bath, (preferably) finished basement, fenced
Selling: 2BR condo, 1 bath

We have put it off long enough and the both of us are busting out of this condo. Unfortunately, the property tax & selling price are ridiculous here in NJ. Most decent homes are close to half a million dollars :eek: ! Anything less is a very small older cape cod. The reasonable prices are further in the Southern half of the state ... which would add a crazy commute for DH & I. So hopefully, I have laid out our dilemma :( .

[kimthebride]

Area: expensive a$$ New Jersey
LMAO!
I live in EANJ as well, and me, DH, 8 month old son & 2 cats are busting out of our 2BR condo as well. I am in SUCH denail though, thinking we can find a house with a yard not too far from the Hoboken area for under $1M. :rolleyes: Yes, I think that house would be located on Fantasy Street.

Are you playing with www.gsmls.com ? Its a good tool with current listings...

[WestieMomma]

I'm joining this group!

Name: WestieMomma-healthcare admin
DH: Regional Sales Manager for large auto glass repair/manufacturing company
House hunting since: Feb '06
Area: Dallas, TX suburbs
Looking for: at least 2500 sq feet/4 bedroom/2.5 bath/preferably a formal dining, separate office and gameroom
Selling: 3 bedroom/2 bath 1391 sq feet in Ft Worth, TX

Our house goes on the market officially this Friday. We are most concerned with getting some interest in our house before we start really looking for another house. The market has been slow going in our neighborhood due to so much new construction in our area.

[Sabrina]

Ok, I have to join this thread!

Name: Sabrina, IT specialist
DH: Civil Engineer
House hunting since: Jan '06
Area: central CT
Looking for: 3BR/2BA colonial, approx 1800 sq ft with 2 car garage and at least 1/2 acre
Leaving: 2BR/2BA rental apt

We have seen a few interesting houses so far! The most memorable one has got to be the one we dubbed "Sam Eagle's house." Yes, Sam Eagle from the Muppet Show. It was LITERALLY "A Salute to all Nations, but mostly America." It had so much patriotic wallpaper. One room was a tribute to 1776 and America's independence. The hallway had wallpaper of Monticello. Another room was a tribute to the Westward expansion. Not to mention that one of the bathrooms had the Eagle with the olive branches on its walls. Oh, and they had the Penna Railroad set up in their basement. Insanity!!!

Then there was the house we were going to check out this weekend. Until our agent talked to the seller's agent and found out that "some updating needed" means that the owners let their cats pee all over the carpet and hardwood floors for YEARS. That is not something we want to mess with :eek:

[LeslieandPaul]

We're kind of on the market again (we go to Europe on Mar 29, so we can't list until after we're back). We would ideally like a house, but the market here is out of hand, and we'd really like to stay close to our friends (one option is to buy a house an hour away from where our friends and family live). So we're going to look into some condos that need work, but are in a nice area, and fix it up, live there for a year and then sell it for a profit. It will put off our ttc plans, but hopefully help put us ahead financially.

[lawyerlee]

Hello, everyone! :)

Name: Diana, attorney
DH: Cliff, student
House hunting since: haven't officially started yet
Area: Lawrence, Kansas
Looking for: 3BR/2BA newer construction townhouse or single family home, preferably with a finished basement & fenced yard
Leaving: 1 BR apt rental

Our lease will be up at the end of July, so our goal is buy at that time. I've been spending a good amount of time looking at listings on-line to see what we want and what is available. We'll probably start actively looking over the summer.

I'm pretty nervous about this whole thing. The financial committment really intimidates me. My parents are really supportive of the idea, though, and deep down I do think this is the right time for us to take this step.

[njdiva]

LMAO!
I live in EANJ as well, and me, DH, 8 month old son & 2 cats are busting out of our 2BR condo as well. I am in SUCH denail though, thinking we can find a house with a yard not too far from the Hoboken area for under $1M. :rolleyes: Yes, I think that house would be located on Fantasy Street.

Are you playing with www.gsmls.com ? Its a good tool with current listings...

Hi kimthebride... thanks for letting me knowe that DH & I are not alone. Wow - good luck with you search in/around Hoboken. DH & I would like to find something in Middlexex County but we are willing to go as far south as Mercer (but it's still a hike for both of us to commute for work). Thanks for that weblink b/c I never knew about it.

who knows - maybe we both will end up on Fantasy Street... :confused:

[Blossom]

I've lurked on this thread previously when I was hunting, we just moved in our new place in January...for the NJ gals, I truly feel for you. The market is sooo expensive. We searched for weeks, changed real estate agents and wound up spending waaaay more than we planned and budgeted. $75K more to be exact. And to boot the house needs major remodeling.:rolleyes: From what I've observed, unless you have major, major $$$$ for a house in NJ, something's gotta give on the wish list.

NJDiva, we were originally looking in Union County, but we wound up purchasing in Metuchen in Middlesex. If you need a realtor recc, let me know. Kimthebride, we used to live in Jersey City, and I actually kinda miss the hubub of being in Hudson County. Moving to the suburbs has been a shock to my DH.:)
Good luck to all the househunters. I'll go back to lurking now...

[nektarine]

hi!

me: nektarine
husband: he'll never post here, so we'll just call him DH.
house hunting since: last week! i was in a match for my schooling, but we planned on living in the area where i matched for at least 5 yrs. we would like to be moved in by the end of june! :eek:
area: still figuring this out. obviously, we need to go out there & visit all the possible 'hoods.
looking for: 3 bedrooms, 2 bath, hardwood floors, w/ either a large front porch or deck in back.

we really like older homes with modern, simple interiors. we wouldn't mind doing some renovations, but we can't be re-doing the whole darn house. so if the bathrooms are rough, the kitchen would need to be close to move-in condition and vice versa.

we're also looking at lofts in old buildings (e.g. schools + churches), but restricting the search to those that feature seperate enclosed bedrooms.

this was one of my favorites based on online searching...
http://homepics.realtor.com/image8/http/pittsburghpa/submit/large/065/596431a.jpg

but she's already sold! our agent mentioned that the house faces a commercial parking lot, so we really need to just get out there & look, before i drive myself nuts with online searches.

my homeshopping peeves:

wall-to-wall carpeting - unless there's hardwood underneath.
crazy wallpaper in every room - i can handle re-doing a few rooms.
dropped ceilings!

[msnicolea]

me: Nicole, health educator/researcher
husband: Josh, college professor--WOOHOO!
house hunting since: about 2 weeks ago--once DH accepted a job offer
area: Milwaukee
curently in: 2 br/2 bath apartment--it's really nice and pretty big--I think the house we buy might actually have LESS space!
looking for: 3 bedrooms, 2 bath (negotaible, but barely), preferably a bungalow--I just love bungalows!


So far we have visited 4 homes, with 5 more to visit tomorrow. I am in love with one already, but it has a few drawbacks: only one bath and its proximity to a major street (only about 1 block away). I like older homes but really don't want to do too much fixer-upping, other than decor. Neither of us are at all handy!

We are pre-approved--just gotta find the "one."

[njdiva]

Blossom (aka lurker) - Congrats on your new purchase... Metuchen is nice. But that is also one of my fear that we would be forced to compromise due to our own budget constraints & buy a home that needs alot of work... ugh! Hope all is well with you, chica!

sidenote...
msnicolea - what field of health education are you in??? (i work for a lg. non-profit cancer org.)... also pt. grad student for my MPH.

[msnicolea]

sidenote...
msnicolea - what field of health education are you in??? (i work for a lg. non-profit cancer org.)... also pt. grad student for my MPH.

I have an MPH and my "specialty area" is child and adolescent health. I am particularly interested in reducing risk behaviors such as unsafe sexual activity and violence. I have been doing reserach for the past 5 years--can't wait to get back into practice!

[BTB]

Today marks exactly 8 months since my first post in this thread, and I can "officially" add myself to the list of active househunters! :D DH and I got our pre-approval yesterday (met with the banker on a Sunday!) and attended our first open house yesterday as well. The house sounded too good to be true, for the price, and so of course it was... but we're glad to have gotten our feet wet and will be out in force with our buyers' agent next weekend.

Name: BTB, physician
DH: Mr. BTB, computer geek
House hunting since: officially, yesterday; casually, almost a year ;)
Area: Milwaukee suburbs
Looking for: 3 or 4 BR single family home in a cozy, BBQ-type neighborhood with other young families with children
Leaving: 3 BR apt rental in Chicago

[nektarine]

how is the house-hunting going for everyone?

since we're relocating, we had a rather exhausting experience our first weekend of looking. i would guess that we looked at about 24 houses/condos/lofts in 2 days! :eek:

it sounds worse than it was, considering we didn't spend a long time in some of them and our agent made it a pretty smooth & low-key process. it could have been a real nightmare with the wrong agent! he is our 3rd agent. (we ruled 1 person out just b/c she sounded so annoying on the phone, and the 2nd one bailed on us.)

we now know that we...
want a single-family home
are willing to sacrifice close proximity to shops/bars/restaurants for a nicer lot/yard/privacy
would ideally like a driveway or some form of off-street parking


we saw a few serious possibilities, very exciting! we are going back out again this weekend for a second look, and to check out a few others.

there are just so many factors to take in, it can be overwhelming!

[flygirl]

Congrats, BTB, for officially joining the ranks!

nektarine, we moved 1500 miles when we bought our house & to say it was overwhelming is an understatement! We had all of a month or so to make a decision, and more than a few people counseled us to rent for 6 months first. But given the price of homes vs. the cost of renting (not to mention the hassle of moving twice & storing what didn't fit in a rental), we chose to buy. It was hard going into a large metro area with absolutely no knowledge, but we were comfortable with the idea of commiting 2 years to something we loved off the bat, even if it turned out not to be paradise. Other than wishing we lived closer to the city, our house & neighborhood is pretty close to paradise :). We've been in the house exactly 2 years & 5 days, and we're not moving until DH's job moves us again.

I can't believe you looked at that many places in such a short time! At least it's helping you narrow your choices. DH had to start work before the move, so he went out with the agent one day before I could get there. She showed him a few houses, but it was more about showing him the area. We expected it would take me coming out at least 2-3 times before we found something, but we nailed it on my second day! I came back out the following weekend to put down the contract.

Moving to a new area is daunting, but don't let the feeling of 'permanant' hold you back. Remember that you can move after two years & avoid capital gains, so you can't really make a mistake. Go with your gut about the house itself & don't worry too much about what others are telling you about the "cool" places to be. Good luck!

[nektarine]

flygirl...
THANK YOU. i feel like you must have some psychic connection or something, or else you somehow finagled your way into my friends-only LJ posts! ;) how did you know this was exactly what was buggin' me all day?! it's crazy overwhelming, and i am horrible with really impt decisions. my husband is not much better.

i've been blabbing to my LJ friends all day with my concerns and worries about moving to a new area and buying. my last post was a list of rental apts... :rolleyes:

last weekend we saw a good number of areas for ourselves, and had a good gut feeling about what we liked and didn't like. there was one home in particular that just felt.so.right. for us - so much so that we came close to putting an offer in that weekend. we didn't, and i'm glad we waited...because i do think we need to explore the area a bit more this weekend, and see more properties before reaching a decision.

you're right, i feel like a lot of people keep talking to us as feel as though there are only a few "cool" neighborhoods to live in, and those happen to be the darned most expensive, with yards all crammed on top of one another! we'd rather be in a less luxe place, away from shops and restaurants (and lack of parking!) and have a cute yard to garden in and relax. people assume because we're from NY we have to be in the most bumpin' part of town, and actually we want the opposite!

i can't believe you had just a month! that is wonderful that you've found your little slice of heaven in a home. i can only hope to be as lucky!

thank you for the advice! that really helped. :)

[lawyergirl25]

Hi all!

We've been quietly house-hunting for a few weeks. I've been keeping it pretty low-key since we're only starting to look, and since I just know my mom will question my every move once I tell her we're buying a house. We found a house we really like yesterday. I think we're going to put in an offer tonight!!

http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b315/lawyergirl25/2543437_0.jpg

4 BR, 2-1/2 BA, with a huge backyard. The basement is unfinished, but the rough plumbing is in, so we're thinking we would finish it off so that we can have a rec room and an office down there. There's a loft upstairs that's wired for surround sound, but I've always dreamt of having a loft library, so that's still being negotiated. :) The backyard is huge but not so nice - the owner got married shortly after buying the house and has done nothing with it - so we need to do a lot of landscaping and build the deck we want.

I love it. I'm really excited but SO nervous. Me with a house???

[Katyanne]

Congratulations Lawergirl! The house sounds beautiful!

The last 2 saturdays we've spent looking at houses with our realtor. We hit a bumpy patch with communication with hubby and I but everything is ok.

I'm quietly opptomistic about one of the houses we saw on Saturday. We're actually going back on Wednesday afternoon to look at this house and another one. We only got to peep in windows because the home owner was out of town for the day and didn't want us in her house.
The only pic of the peep house
http://www.garrow-loftis.com/shared/get/lphoto.php?lid=10295465&id=

http://www.garrow-loftis.com/shared/get/lphoto.php?lid=8871600&id=

http://www.garrow-loftis.com/shared/get/lphoto.php?lid=8871600&id=3
http://www.garrow-loftis.com/shared/get/lphoto.php?lid=8871600&id=4
http://www.garrow-loftis.com/shared/get/lphoto.php?lid=8871600&id=6
This home is full of bright colors. At first I wasn't sure how I felt about the paint now I really like the majority of the rooms. Especially the kitchen.
Hubby even said he feels very at home in this house. :D
sorry so many pics

[lawyergirl25]

Wow, the peep house is really nice Katyanne! And I also like the colors in that second house. I would be really comfortable there!

[Katyanne]

Thanks Lawyergirl!!
Yeah, it'll be fun to actually be inside the peep house. The backyard has an inground pool that we were only able to see slivers of through the privacy fence ;) So it should be a very nice house to look at.

The other house was so warm and comfortable, The current owners had soft music playing through out the house and had lights on.. It made the overall feeling of the house very welcoming. Its funny though, they're oldest is probably around 13 and her room is neon green LOL!!! Its got a chair rail halfway up the wall so it cuts it a bit but its definately bright.. They are not afraid of color :)

Keep us posted about your house :D

Katie

[BTB]

We saw 12 houses this weekend, and had a blast!!! We're in a classic dilemma now with two of them: one is as big a house as we'd want at this stage, it's at the top of our price range as well, but it's in a GREAT neighborhood. The other is the perfect house for us (brand-new, perfect size, gorgeous), but in an, ahem, "revitalizing" neighborhood. Driving home last night, DH and I kept waxing poetic over the perfect-er house, but then kept coming back to "location, location, location." Argh. :)

[Katyanne]

BTB - I completely understand! I think if we end up liking the peep house as well as we like the other one we'll be in that predicament.

One piece of advice our realtor (who's also a close friend) gave us is if you find two houses that you both like alot but if one is a bit pricier than the other sit down and figure out what the monthly mortgage payment would be and figure out what the difference is between house A and B. We're having her prepare paperwork like that for these two houses just in case. Just so we can have all the information before hand.

Personally I'm more into location location, but that's just me ;) Good luck with your decision :)

katie

[msnicolea]

Our offer was accepted on what will be our first home last week--inspection is tomorrow and I am seriously going to throw up, worrying something will go wrong!

Here she is, a bungalow built in 1930:
http://photos.mlswis.com/met/20060209002540216179000000.jpg

[Katyanne]

YAY!! Congratulations!!
I'll keep my fingers crossed that everything goes well with the inspection. beautiful home, so much character!

Katie

[msnicolea]

Thanks so much--we are very excited!!!

[lawyergirl25]

Love it msnicolea!

Well, I'm off to the realtor's to put in an offer on the house. Now *I* feel like I'm going to throw up...we're talking about closing in a matter of days! :eek:

[mar5195]

Name: Sara, Exec Assistant & PT RE sales person
DH: David, self-employed
House hunting since: Started in March
Area: Los Angeles, CA - South Bay area (not to be confused with the SF South Bay)
Looking for: 2BR/1BA townhouse or single family home
Leaving: 2 BR apt rental

We think we found the ONE. We're completing all the financing stuff tonight and then we'll find out what we have to deal with. Based on our income we pre-qual'd for more than we need ($150k more!) but once they've seen our banking statements & proof of income I'm guessing they'll approve us for about what we need.

We are putting down 5% to avoid carrying a second mortgage. I'm super scared and nervous wreck. I've had butterflies since Saturday when we found the one and I haven't been able to sleep since. It's going to be a LONG road I can already tell.

[nettreefrog]

I'll join too!

Name: Jules - Sr. Tech. Analyst
DH's name: Fabe - MIS Director
DD's name: "Cheese"
DD's future name: Gabriel (due in ~7 weeks)
Househunting since: It feels like forever...
Area: New York City (Brooklyn - Park Slope, Brooklyn Heights, Carroll Gardens, etc.)
Looking for: (most likely) 2BR/1BA condo with ~900 square feet for ~$500K
Leaving: 2 BR apt rental

We saw a place on Sunday--really our first place that we actually toured. My DH went back today to take measurements... We are hoping to go in with an inspector on Friday. Most places are horribly overpriced (we rent a condo, but the woman across the hall put her 790 square foot "two bedroom" condo on the market for $660K), have ridiculous maintenance charges (you buy a place for $500K, but pay over $1,000 a month to maintenance?), or have insane coop boards (who just randomly deny people for unknown reasons). Ahh--that's NYC real estate though! Our main problem is not having much of a down payment.

mar5195 - I totally understand about the butterflies... I couldn't sleep the night before we toured the condo!

msnicolea - Congrats!

[nektarine]

good luck with the inspection msnicolea! *LOVE* the house, bungalows are great! :)

lots of luck to you too Katyanne! those houses look great!

nettreefrog...
love park slope! we have friends who own condos in williamsburg, but park slope is where i would want to be! one of our bookcases is from artesana on 7th ave. hope the inspection goes well!


welcome mar5195!


******

we're realizing that THE house we're looking for, in the kind of neighborhood/community we want is probably going to cost a bit more than we originally thought. we had been looking in urban neighborhoods that are great, but sorta sandwiched between "rougher" areas.

we fell totally in love with this Victorian-->
http://img.nrtwebservices.com/Pittsburgh/properties/b04/32243f8e-dd0f-4a3f-b7bc-5f1050122b04.jpg

...but turns out that the school district is not so great, and homes of the same size are significantly lower in value just a few blocks away. ok for us - since we don't have kids & could probably go low on the price a good bit - but not good in terms of re-sale purposes.

we went out again last weekend and looked at more homes, but nothing really grabbed us.

[lawyergirl25]

Offer accepted! Inspection is Friday and we may close as soon as the 31st.

Holy crap.

[msnicolea]

Offer accepted! Inspection is Friday and we may close as soon as the 31st.

Holy crap.


WOOHOO!!!!!!

[Sophia]

Nicole, that house is too cute! How exciting!

[msnicolea]

Nicole, that house is too cute! How exciting!

Thank you, Sophia! Josh is at the inspection right now--I am dying to know the outcome!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[lawyergirl25]

Any word yet Nicole? Hope it's going well!

[msnicolea]

DH just called--all is well except for one heating vent problem--hopefully, the owners won't balk at fixing it (we'll hear from them tomorrow) and it will be al ours!

[Sophia]

Yay! That's great news! I can't wait to see more pix.

[BTB]

Yay!! Congrats Nicole and Melinda!! :D

Melinda - I'm dying to know how you're closing so fast, with any luck we'll follow in your footsteps once we find "the" house.

[nettreefrog]

Nektarine: We currently live in the Cobble Hill/Carroll Gardens area... but really like Park Slope too! I hope the inspection goes well too... The guy who owns the place is in Israel for the next 60 days, and the guy he placed in charge is a college student who seems not to care a great deal... Oy!

lawyergirl25 - Congrats!

msnicolea - Good luck with the owners and that vent!

[EmilyZA]

Congrats to all of you girls who have had offers accepted!

I'm so jealous of so many of you-- the houses in your area/price range are so cute! We're in Boston, and the houses that we're going to be looking at are in major need of updating, no land, etc. Makes me depressed! :rolleyes:

[endymion411]

Congrats to all of you girls who have had offers accepted!

I'm so jealous of so many of you-- the houses in your area/price range are so cute! We're in Boston, and the houses that we're going to be looking at are in major need of updating, no land, etc. Makes me depressed! :rolleyes:

we just started house hunting (i mean teeny-tiny apartment hunting) in boston/cambridge this weekend. i want a house! :(

[lawyergirl25]

Great news on the inspection msnicolea. When do you think you'll close?

Melinda - I'm dying to know how you're closing so fast, with any luck we'll follow in your footsteps once we find "the" house.
The seller met his wife shortly after buying the house and has only lived in it 6 months out of the last 3 years. They bought another house about an hour away and he put our house on the market in Sept (for about $18K more than what we're paying). He finally dropped the price about 2 weeks ago, as he's anxious to get out of the house and stop paying two mortgages. When he said he was willing to pay our down payment, closing costs, and some other fees to close by the end of the month, we couldn't resist. :)

[bevvied]

I'll join as well

Name: Bevvie D - Financial Analyst
DH's name: W - Med Student
Househunting since: casually Aug 05...hope to become serious soon
Area: Birmingham, AL and surrounding areas (Hoover, Homewood, Pelham, Vestavia)
Looking for: 2BR/2BA condo or townhouse
Leaving: apt rental

Just looking around at various condos in the area thus far. Hopefully when we are ready to make a move and get our place it will not be too hard.

Good luck everyone

[msnicolea]

Our closing date in may 15th. We have a lease through June, so we tried to push it back as far as we could. Of course, that just makes me more paranoid that something will happen in the interim!

We are submitting our "conditions" today: they need to add a vent and fix the water pressure in the upstairs BR--if they don't agree, we are prepared to walk away, though I will be so upset!!!

[PaisleySloan]

Congrats to those of you that have found homes and are in the process of closing. How exciting!!! msnicolea - good luck with your conditions list, hopefully the sellers will be reasonable. Your request seems to be! :)

We're just getting started. Listing our house tonight (wow!), and we've been pre-approved for an amount of money that scares the daylights out of us!!

I wish the market were different in Southern California. It's amazing what a $599k will buy out here - NOTHING!!!! Well, that's not true - we could continue to live in the desert, or some crime-ridden areas of the city, live in a single family home, and sacrifice location for house, but we're not willing to do that. My commute is killing me, and I am not a desert dweller, and I want to feel safe in my home. So, we're now looking at townhomes in desirable areas, even then, they're ridiculously expensive.

We found one front-runner, but it seems a bit small, and my husband's 14 y/o son is coming to live with us, so we need extra room, but I have a feeling it will be a bit tight. He looked at a townhome with us the other day and he was like 'it seems a bit small for us, we need a house' and we had to just tell him this is how it is for us right now. If he wants to continue to live with his mom, in a house with a pool in the desert, he can. He likes the areas we're shooting for, but he needs to understand what we're working with. This is our first foray into the housing market (we're living in my parents' house, they passed away), so we consider it to be a stepping stone to our dream home. I'm happy for him to come along for the ride, but he needs to chill out!! :)

We're looking at more townhomes this weekend in West LA, and hopefully we find something that works for us.

[nektarine]

good luck with those conditions msnicolea!


****

i think that we are officially ending the house-hunting, and renting for a year instead.

we've spent the last 2 days weighing the pros and cons, and this seems to be the best option for us as relocators. this way we will get to know all the areas better before investing in a home, and it gives us more time to save up more for a nicer home! as it turns out, we can rent in the city for much cheaper than we expected.

i hope to be back here this time next year! :)

good luck to you all!

[Katyanne]

Congratulations msnicolea, I hope you get all your conditions!

We have it narrowed down to two houses, The one that I previously posted all the bright pictures on and another, that's just plain huge. Its basically twice the size as the other house. But there was something that just didn't seem right with the neighborhood. So I called one of my old bosses who happens to be assistant fire chief for that city.. He's been a great resource. He told us the status of each of those neighborhoods..

What an eye opening experience.. Turns out the brightly colored house is in a great neighborhood, active neighborhood watch and close to schools.

The other neighborhood is "challenged" The police are also active but because its a higher crime area. Its close to "hot spots" and other things that could be difficult to get used to. We have alot of thinking to do but I think this is great information to have.

locationlocation location!!

Katie

[lawyergirl25]

That's great information that you've got to work with there, Katie. That's awesome that you have such a great resource. I hope it makes your decision easier. :)

[Katyanne]

Thanks, yeah I was really suprised by all the information. I'm so glad I thought to call him. It was funny because currently hubby's best friend is living in that city temporarily so he told me he thought that one neighbor