likes/dislikes

rentaduckie · October 2013

My husband and I are starting to look at houses. I'm working on a list of likes and dislikes so I wanted to get some ideas. So my questions are:
What is your favorite thing about your house?
What are 3 things you like and 3 things you dislike?
What is one dealbreaker to you, if you were looking now?

Sisugal · October 2013

You really want to start with what is affordable

Then what are your NEEDS

Followed by a list of wants

You will need to compromise on a want - not a need.

My best thing is location -nice neighborhood and schools, walkable, close to everything, near bike paths, and outdoor recreation, we can both walk to work.

layout and size as well as style of the house is perfect for our family and lifestyle

quality of construction.

Then we added about 60K worth of renovations/updates and I think I can live here forever.

rentaduckie · October 2013

Yeah, I am starting with what we can afford. I'm Excel-ing like a champ to figure that out.

But in the meantime, I figured I would like to hear from others what was most important to them. Might make me think of something I haven't already.

So far for needs I have at least 3 bed 2 bath, fenced yard, at least a 1 car garage. Good schools, central air, and location.

GeorgiaRiah · October 2013

Likes -

-Location. My location is awesome! I am 2 minutes from the highway and 10 minutes from Midtown Atlanta. It still feels suburban but I am in a neighborhood.

-Size. I love the size of my house. It is not to big and not to small. I have a 3 bedroom 50's ranch. It is 1600 sq ft.

-Privacy. I love the privacy I am afforded by being in a house. I wanted a townhouse or condo and ended up with a house. I cannot imagine living on top of other people now. I love sitting on my back deck and not worrying about everyone hearing me talking on the phone.

Dislikes -

-Lawn work. I am actually growing to like it a bit more but it is a lot of work and you cannot put it off. It has to be done when it has to be done.

-No dishwasher. I keep saying I am going to put one in. I actually do like having the dishes done all of the time but when you have a party it can be a pain.

-Small bathrooms. I bought a 50's ranch because I love the character. That character comes with small but really adorable bathrooms. I have gotten used to it in the last year in a half but I do miss taking a bath! I have a tub but I am 6 ft tall so I simply do not fit in a 50's tub.

I think my likes really outweigh my dislikes. I am even beginning to really like a lot of the dislikes. The lawn work gives me exercise. The hand washing keeps my dishes always clean and put away. The small bathroom can be cleaned in 10 minutes. I was lucky to find a house I just love.

Good luck on your house hunt!

vpine · October 2013

Dislike about our house: no kitchen island, no automatic garage door opener, staircase - I would have liked the iron railing with design that some new houses have - the things I don't like can be easily changed, just need to spend the money at Home Depot for them.

3Girls3xsTheFun · October 2013

Here were the 4 biggest "issues" from our first home that we made sure to avoid with the purchase fo our new home:

- 2 FULL bathrooms are a must with 5 people. That half bath wasn't cutting it.

- We will never have a house with wall-to-wall carpet again. It never looked completely clean and spills with toddlers were a mess.

- I MUST have a dish washer. With 5 people, dishes quickly get out of hand.

- Main floor or 2nd floor laundry is also very important. Taking laundry up & down two flights of stairs from the basement got old FAST.

Things we LOVE about our new house:

- Size. It's more than twice the size of our first home (1200 sq ft to 3000 sq ft)

- Layout. It's a 150 yr old farm house with 13 rooms -- 6 on the main floor, 5 on the 2nd floor and 2 in the finished attic, and each main floor room is seperated and has 2 doorways. I think I'm the only person not on the "open concept" bandagon, lol.

- Kithcen. It's moden, SS appliances, island with tons of storage and has a huge brick fire place in it. Much better than the galley kitchen in my last house.

MissMaeisbeforeJune · October 2013

What is your favorite thing about your house? I am currently renting but my absolute fav things about my current condo are - off street parking (I live in downtown St Paul, MN so this is a big deal!), Neighborhood - I'm right next to a dog park, play ground, and tennis courts. I also love my wood burning fire place. It gets cold up here!

What are 3 things you like and 3 things you dislike? Likes: #1 Security. I never feel unsafe in my building since it's controlled entry and I live on the 2nd floor (no one can climb in my windows). #2. My place is rather udpated. There's new hardwood floors, trendy paint colors, brand spankin' new appliances. #3. Energy Efficiency - our building is equipped with high efficiency appliances and utilities. It makes me feel good about the environment as well as the utility costs. Dislikes: #1 The size is my biggest issue - my condo is a 510sq foot 1 bedroom. NOTHING fits. #2. That I have NO CLOSESTS. None. Seriously. #3. I live on the 2nd floor and our laundry room is in the basement. That's way too many stairs just to wash your clothes.

What is one dealbreaker to you, if you were looking now? I don't know about deal breakers as I think everything besides the location can be fixed for the right price but in my house search I told my realtor the follow things are must haves: Off street parking, at least 1 car garage. Dishwasher, 2 bedrooms, unfinished basement (I'd like to be able to finish it myself, to my liking), and updated electrical systems (circut breakers vs. fuses).

MommyLiberty5013 · October 2013

Dealbreaker: Old mechanical components (roof, window, AC, water heater, furnace, etc.) needing replacement within a few years of moving into the home. Also, near high tension wires, freeways, or other loud, ugly, unsafe things.

sweetie0228 · October 2013

I love my house:

Not too big not too small, 1900 sq ft split level. 4 bd 2 bth (We have 2 teenagers), we have a nice sized yard with a patio. New Windows, New Roof both were must haves for me. Needed to stay in the kids' School district.

Things I compromised on: no central A/C , Oil heat (I had never had that before and now it's a plus), Well and septic. I have these now, just have to be aware.

Dislikes: My neighbors are crazy. The water pump is old, the furnance is not much younger and the kitchen is pink...counter tops PINK, tile floor PEPTO BISMAL PINK. but none of it was obviously a deal breaker.

I will replace what needs to be replaced and renovate when I'm ready and I just smile and wave at the neighbors and let them live thier crazy life b/c I'm sure they think we're crazy too.

SURFERxGIRL · October 2013

rentaduckie said:

My husband and I are starting to look at houses. I'm working on a list of likes and dislikes so I wanted to get some ideas. So my questions are: What is your favorite thing about your house? What are 3 things you like and 3 things you dislike? What is one dealbreaker to you, if you were looking now?

We just moved into a new home a few months ago so here's my list.

Faves-I love our huge back deck! It's 2 levels and has plenty of space to sit and relax, bbq or just hang out. I also love having hardwood throughout the entire house (makes cleaning up after a large dog, 5 cats and a husband who like to track in mud much easier, lol). I also love that we are close to good schools and in one of the best districts in our state even though we don't have kids yet. I also love that our neighborhood has a ton of diversity.

Things I don't like--Location goes here too. Neighborhood is nice, but there is 0 walkability and while there are always kids out playing in the street, there are no sidewalks for you to walk on (I def. overlooked this one) and no stores or restaurants within walking distance. Also, I miss having a community rec. center and pool. I've always lived in an area that had those amenities and vastly underestimated how much I would miss being able to go for a quick swim after work or pop-in for an exercise class. The final thing for me is our kitchen cabinets, which don't fit anything. The doors are really narrow and the shelves are spaced close together so even if I manage to get something to fit I have to tilt things to get them through the door (bowls, tall glasses, pitchers, etc can't really be stored in there).

For us one of the biggest deal breakers is having a home that is along a major road or throughway. We don't want to try and back out of our driveway and make a left turn into traffic or anything. Our REA tried to keep showing us homes like that but we told her we didn't want that at all.

short+sassy · October 2013

rentaduckie said:

Yeah, I am starting with what we can afford. I'm Excel-ing like a champ to figure that out.

But in the meantime, I figured I would like to hear from others what was most important to them. Might make me think of something I haven't already.

So far for needs I have at least 3 bed 2 bath, fenced yard, at least a 1 car garage. Good schools, central air, and location.

I did want to point out that two of your needs...fenced yard and central air...can probably easily be added later if you find the perfect house or a really affordable house, that are missing one or both. They are spendy options but, if House A has everything you want and House B has everything you want except central a/c...but is $30K less, than you'll be financially better off adding the A/C later.

rentaduckie · October 2013

Most houses around here have those two things. I'm in Texas, so central air is almost universal, and any house that doesn't have it around here would also have a lot of other problems that would need fixing.

As for the fence, most houses have them too. We have a dog, so that's something that we'd have to put up right away. But like I said, most houses around here have them, so I'm not too worried.

I'm really excited, we're going to go look at a few house on Thursday!

Beads921 · October 2013

What is your favorite thing about your house?

It's super trivial, but I love how the white trim looks in our bedroom and looking out into the upstairs hallway. It just pops so nicely, and looks so fresh and clean up there.

What are 3 things you like and 3 things you dislike?

I like: The location in that I like our proximity to the city (we actually really hate the specific street we live on though - it's too busy), the separate dining room, the open-but-not-too-open floorplan

I dislike: The size, the basement, the heat source (electric baseboard)

What is one dealbreaker to you, if you were looking now?

We have a bunch (we're semi-looking right now): On a busy road, no garage, single wide driveway, 1 bathroom without the option of adding a second, no forced air

gator26 · October 2013

Favorites: - Large, fenced yard for the dogs. This was my non-negotiable and was surprisingly hard to find. - Big deck. We eat meals outside on the deck most days and love having parties out there. - Jetted bathtub. My favorite place in the house.

Dislikes: - Not much counter space in the kitchen. I love cooking and really wanted a bigger kitchen, but this was my big compromise. - Electric stove. Hate it. But eventually I will get around to replacing it with gas. - HOA. I'm just not a fan of HOAs. Have owned homes with and without them in the past. Although I do appreciate that it keeps my neighbors from painting their house hot pink, or any similarly obnoxious scenarios.

Deal breakers: When we were shopping, bad schools were a deal breaker. No kids yet, but it will matter to us someday. Plus, it has a huge impact on property value.

Belle0720 · October 2013

We just got the keys to our first house (3 bed, 1.5 bath, 1530 sqft) 1.5wks ago and we love it! :-)

We love the space/floorplan, the curb appeal, and location.

We don't love that there isn't a master bathroom, that the floor is wood laminate (it's nice looking but not our favorite), and the fact that the old tenant left the landscaping in shambles.

Location was the biggest dealbreaker for us. A lot of the houses in our price range were super cute updated houses in a less desirable part of town. Looking at the pictures online was tempting but then when we drove by to see them, the neighborhood was just not what we wanted.

chicagobride_07 · October 2013

We just moved into a new house over the summer after 4 months of looking. I was pretty open to different styles of homes while we were looking.

My only requirements were a good school district, and a fairly updated home. I did not want anything which was going to require major renovations. Also wanted a fairly secluded neighborhood where people kept to themselves.

likeanoldtimemovie · October 2013

I've always heard that there are only a few things that should directly affect if you want a home or not. Everything else can be changed!

- number of bathrooms (Yes, you can add more, but that's a lot of money and time)
- layout of house
- size/number of bedrooms (Again, you technically could change these things, but it's not an easy fix like paint or rearranging kitchen cabinets)
- location of home

Janessadawn · October 2013

likeanoldtimemovie said:

I've always heard that there are only a few things that should directly affect if you want a home or not. Everything else can be changed!

Yes, things can be changed, but even something relatively inexpensive like painting a room or rearranging kitchen cabinets can be a dealbreaker for some, particularly if you're a first-time home buyer. When we were looking, move-in ready was one of our musts. We'll make changes to our house over time, but neither of us wanted to have to do anything to it before we felt like we could live there. Moving by itself is enough work.

jtmh2012 · October 2013

Janessadawn said:

likeanoldtimemovie said:

I've always heard that there are only a few things that should directly affect if you want a home or not. Everything else can be changed!

Yes, things can be changed, but even something relatively inexpensive like painting a room or rearranging kitchen cabinets can be a dealbreaker for some, particularly if you're a first-time home buyer. When we were looking, move-in ready was one of our musts. We'll make changes to our house over time, but neither of us wanted to have to do anything to it before we felt like we could live there. Moving by itself is enough work.

Agreed! When you're looking for a house everyone from the realtor to your mother will tell you "oh, that can be changed!" Yeah, it probably could, however, it requires time and money and/or the knowledge of how to do it yourself. Assuming you can do it yourself, it'll still require money and probably more time.

I bought a house 10 yrs ago that I'm now selling. There were things I would have loved to change about the house, but never got around to it or wasn't willing to pay somebody to take care of.

Janessadawn · October 2013

Yep. I refused to even entertain a house that had old windows. H thinks he's going to easily/cheaply expand and partially cover our deck come spring, but we'll see about that. We're in agreement that one day we'd like to upgrade the kitchen cabinets, counters, and flooring, but none of that has any immediacy, nor will it negatively affect our lives if we don't get around to it. Frankly, buying a house that doesn't need stuff done in order to be habitable leaves money free for other things...like that luxury mattress we've been eyeing.

Alissajane · October 2013

storage is a big one, if you feel like you are putting things in other rooms because it doesnt fit it will drive you crazy over time and you will forget what you have. I also like having laundry close to the bedrooms, I am super excited because were building a ranch, I am so sick of colonials and all the stairs!

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