Buying A Home
shaina925
member
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Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
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Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
What was on your wish list?
We are first time home buyers and have gotten in touch with a real estate agent. She asked us to get her our wish list. I have of course seen a bunch of HGTV shows and they always talk about the wish list. Our is this:
Location is extremely important. Husband wants to be within no more than 20 min commute to his work.
We are ok with a town house, we are also ok with slight remodeling.
At least 3 bed, 2 bath
Good neighborhood, near good schools and a playground would be nice
some back yard space
close to restaurants, walking distance if possible
willing to do a short sale
Am I missing anything?? Thanks!
Re: What was on your wish list?
mine:
Will only do a pool/spa if it's in a community where they take care of it. If in a single family home, don't want it because I don't want the expense.
Must either have pantry or lots of cabinet space. I have a lot of cooking gear and love food.
Prefer walk in laundry, but closet laundry is acceptable. Not into walking to the laundramat on site.
Location (mine due to my work moving possibly, but they don't know where)
Must allow pets (some HOAs do not in this area, or have restrictions on the size)
Must be turn key, I am not handy
Cannot have steps in the home where there are no backs to the stairs because my dog will not climb them. She's a dachshund and it just looks like there are holes in the stairs.
Prefer ranch styled houses but 2 story town homes. (Funny cuz I ended up with a 1 story condo)
Bedroom size was an issue for me because I have a lot of pieces in my bedroom set that I am not willing to part with.
Garage was a plus, but not mandatory.
Must have a lot of guest parking. My current place has 2 spots and no others for each unit. One community I visited had all their sidewalks painted in red so they were all fire zones. The property seller (new homes) actually encouraged people to park in the fire zones. (Not cool since I work in the 9.11 field and he knew it.)
HOA fee had to be under $250 per month if in a condo/town home. If in a house it was dependant on the price of the house.
.... And that's all I can thik of off the top of my head.
my read shelf:
Our wish list.....
location #1
Colonial
Big kitchen
at least 1/2 acre
low deck
basement
two car garage (ideally with one big door and not 2 bays)
Cathedral ceiling in the family room
fireplace
master suite
4 bedrooms*
2 - 2 1/2 baths
front porch
decent closet space
*We close on our house in less than 3 weeks and we got everything but the 4th bedroom, but we did get a bonus of a playroom in the 1/2 of the basement, which was professionally done.
Private master bathroom
Walk-in closet
Separate dining room
Off busy road
Cul-de-sacs are always nice
We had our list divided into 2 parts - Needs: location, # of bedrooms and bathrooms, min sq ft, yard, layout and price
Then there was a second part that had the "nice to have, but not necessary - would compromise on items"
Either 4 bedrooms or an extra living room for the playroom
2 Bathrooms
2 Car Garage
Backyard big enough for the kiddos to play safely
We didn't want a tiny kitchen
Safe neighborhood
And, we really wanted it to be move in ready
Ours is:
Location in between both work places
NO oil heat (the yearly expensive to fill it up is just awful and getting higher)
Decent amount of counter space in kitchen
at least 1.5 bathroom
Central A/C or the ability to have it installed easily
Would like appliances included (we are currently renting and do not own our own)
Non dungeon laundry/basement (LOL, hubs came up with that one)
Our's is:
4 bedroom
2+ baths
large kitchen (we have a galley kitchen in our condo that we're selling now and I hate it! I can't wait to have some space to cook!)
large back yard space
upstairs laundry
garage
Single family home .. The condo that we own now is beautiful and in a great location but with the baby and the dog, I don't like being attached to someone anymore.
We have a condo right now but our wish list is:
Location
Central air
Natural gas
2 car garage
2-3 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms
Nice, small, low maintenance yard
Master bath w/ separate sinks
attached 2 car garage
family room
hardwood floors
fireplace
laundry room on same level as bedrooms
central A/C
open floor plan
formal dining room
2 ovens
full basement
When we were looking we couldn't find something with all these. So we built it
Our wishlist:
We are now buying a Colonial with:
wishlist -
2 bedrooms
2 bathrooms
garage
townhouse or condo with attached garage
laundry
what I ended up with -
3 bedrooms
2 bathrooms
house
no garage
I really wanted low maintenance but a found a 50's ranch and fell in love. It has been perfect for me so far. I find the yard work that I thought I would hate to be really good exercise.
The biggest thing on my wish list was it had to be a multi-family property (ie duplex), so I could collect rental income. Unfortunately, this and the fact that I live in a city where (I swear) all the houses are 100+ years old meant I had to say "good-bye" to most of my wish list, lol. But it taught me to be creative and think outside the box.
For example, I REALLY wanted a walk-in closet. But they just don't exist in 90% of the houses where I live. That wasn't done 100 years ago, lol. So I am going to repurpose a small bedroom into my dream closet
.
Really wanted a kitchen island...no, kitchen not big enough.
Really wanted a Jacuzzi tub in the bathroom. Big laugh! I think I have the smallest full bathroom that is physically possible and still be a full bath.
But having a rental income that pays my whole mortgage and then some is SO worth it!
I commend you for making a wish list. We sort of new what we wanted but after we closed and settled a bit (only closed June 14th), we really started to realize what we wish we had or didn't have. We looked at a home being constructed in one neighborhood and decided it wasn't for us. We actually ended up buying only the 2nd home (new construction) we looked at. We do love our house, but we should have taken more time. Although Dh wanted a low maintenance yard, he also wanted a backyard to relax in. Our back yard is pretty small and we don't yet have a fence. Even adding a fence won't give us the privacy we would like to have as there are houses directly behind us. Dh wants to put shrubs up so that could possibly help if our HOA doesn't frown upon it! I think there are pros and cons to every house and neighborhood though. It's only a mile from my work so I am loving coming home for lunch every day. One thing our house has that I absolutely love is the drop zone/mudroom! It never even crossed my mind to have one but we're so glad we do! Technically speaking we got everything on our wish list so I guess we shouldn't complain! I'm also glad we bought a modern craftsman style home.
We knew we wanted:
good schools
nice neighborhood
3 bed/2 bath
2 car carage
low maintenance yard
updated since we didn't want to have to remodel after buying
open layout
inside utility room
1500-1800 sqft; Although we weren't necessarily opposed to bigger houses, we just didn't feel we needed the extra space as a family of 3 (possibly 4 in the future). Our open layout of 1618 sqft home lives very well and feels larger than what it is IMO.
I don't actually remember what we officially told our realtor as our wish list but I do remember he had us fill out a pretty extensive one. The big things were 3 bed/2 bath, 2 car garage, and in a good neighborhood in our town-preferably within biking distance to downtown. We all of that except that it's a 1.5 bath :-( Once we move in we're going to meet with a contractor and see what we can do about renovating though!
We had a decent list of "must haves"
Location (the western half of our county because this guaranteed excellent schools and very low crime)
Lot size (at least an acre)
View (wow factor)
Privacy
4 bedroom (or 3 and an office)
2.5 bath
2 levels and a basement
2 car garage
attached master bath
formal dining room that could seat at least 10 (preferred 12)
good size kitchen
central air (unless it was a historic property)
plenty of parking
good main floor flow for entertaining
It took us 18 months to finally close on a deal that met all of our requirements at out price point.
Our wish list is still in the works, but here it goes:
at least 3 bed/2 bath ( I will take 1.5 bath depending on the size of the bath)
small backyard to fence, enough for children and our dog
nice kitchen with lots of cabinet space
basement (does not have to be finished)
at least 1 garage, attached
lots of closet space
location in between our jobs, but with a great school system
in the end, we may actually build our home instead of buying since my H is not really a handyman, unlike me who would love to fix a house from scratch.
Tile floor (the whole 1st floor which we found)
4 bedrooms
Master downstairs
Big backyard
Pool in subdivison
We will be closing next Monday on a 4 bedroom 2 bath with yard in a good school district. The yard is partially fenced but it is nearly falling down in spots so that is on our redo project list. The kitchen is also smaller then I'd prefer but we did get a full finished basement and an attic both so lots of space.