House Hunters!

Penguin12912 · January 2016

H and I are starting the process of house hunting! His parents and grandparents really want to see us in a house and are going to help us with a down payment. We got Pre-qualified yesterday and are trying to set up appointments to go and see a few houses. If any of you have any tips or tricks about going through this process I would love to heart them. Thanks!!!

TaraW1979 · January 2016

I don't have advice but wanted to say good luck! Are you going to be looking in your same area or a different one?

Penguin12912 · January 2016

TaraW1979 said:

I don't have advice but wanted to say good luck! Are you going to be looking in your same area or a different one?

Thanks! We're looking in the same area.

shellyamf · January 2016

Congratulations. I would make a list of features that are non-negotiable versus negotiable. If there is something you absolutely have to have in your house then I wouldn't waste time considering houses without it.

P had to have a set amount of sqft and a 2 car garage. Our realtor showed us so many places that would have one of them but not both. Both of his requirements were hard to find in our price range. I started getting really frustrated because we were driving around looking at all these places and we'd leave and he'd say no to them because they didn't have the sqft or 2 car garage. So then I felt like we were wasting time. We did find our current place with both requirements but had to settle for a townhome instead of a house.

jtmh2012 · January 2016

Whatever they pre-qualify you for, buy less than that. You don't want to end up house poor.

Try to keep emotions out of it. Yes, you want to love the house, but you also want to buy a sound house and hopefully not lose money when you sell it. So you don't want to overpay for a house and you don't want to get into a bidding war.

Make sure you have an emergency fund. All that stuff your landlord fixes for you is now your problem.

Get an inspection! All houses have problems, but at least know what you're walking into before you're stuck with it.

jjbmstinco · January 2016

Everything that others have said!

Good luck!

Penguin12912 · January 2016

Thanks everyone! We looked at a place today, but it was a manufactured home and in really bad shape. We really loved the 5 acres it was on. Now we are trying to see how much building a home would be if we bought a lot. We want to look at all our option. There aren't many houses for sale in our town in our price range so we may have to wait a while to find a decent one to buy.

jtmh2012 · January 2016

Penguin12912 said:

Thanks everyone! We looked at a place today, but it was a manufactured home and in really bad shape. We really loved the 5 acres it was on. Now we are trying to see how much building a home would be if we bought a lot. We want to look at all our option. There aren't many houses for sale in our town in our price range so we may have to wait a while to find a decent one to buy.

If you buy the lot and need to do away with the house, call the fire department. Sometimes you can get them to use it for fire training.

Penguin12912 · January 2016

We saw an even nicer spot today acreage wise. It was only 2 acres but full of oak trees and a creek running through it. The house itself was a foreclosure and not livable at all and needed to be destroyed.

House # 4 was a 2 bed 1 bathroom that was move in ready. It's right in our price range. We're leaving it on the list (it's the only one there) and seeing if anything else comes up. I have to remind myself we've only been searching since Friday and to calm down. I would totally buy the house though.

Penguin12912 · January 2016

House hunting is keeping me busy. One of the first houses H and I looked at and said needed to much work dropped in price by $11,000 making it $54,900 for a 3 bedroom/2 bathroom. I am putting it on our "check it out" list and contacted our realtor. It would need all kitchen appliances, a new front door, a bathroom door (I think) or it was a back door, 4ish new windows, and new flooring throughout. I'm trying to use Home Depot to estimate how much all that would cost. Here's a pic of the kitchen:

Penguin12912 · January 2016

Never mind about the house. H says it is way too much work for our first house. I know he is right.

ImperiumWife · January 2016

Having been down the building aspect of house searching, it's almost impossible to get a building loan, and if you can, they are super expensive. So I wouldn't recommend going that route, unless you have the access to someone else who can loan you a large amount of cash.

jtmh2012 · January 2016

ImperiumWife said:

Having been down the building aspect of house searching, it's almost impossible to get a building loan, and if you can, they are super expensive. So I wouldn't recommend going that route, unless you have the access to someone else who can loan you a large amount of cash.

I keep swearing my next house will be something I have built.

My first house was built in 1987 (I purchased in 2002). Being an IT guy it drove me nuts how out of date the house was, but I wasn't gutting it to fix that. Most people wouldn't have cared. This house was built in 2002 (I purchased in 2013) and it still drives me nuts. Again, it only bothers me being an IT guy. Joy could care less.

And I will never get the desire to wire light switches to outlets. Drives me nuts. I could also vent about what they call a 2/3-car garage.

Sorry for the mini-rant. :P Feel free to ignore me.

ImperiumWife · January 2016

Hahaha Mark! One of the things I had to have was switches wired to outlets! I guess it's because I grew up with it.

Am12712 · January 2016

My 2 cents would be avoid buying a 2 bedroom house. You will run out of space and honestly trying to sell 2 bedroom would be hard. Don't buy a house because it's cheap and you want a house. Buy a house because it will fit your family and it feels like home. Even if that means waiting and saving up a larger down payment Trust me you will know when you find a house that you really want and it is the right house.

Penguin12912 · January 2016

Thanks for all the advice! You guys are the best! I would prefer to buy a house that is already built. I told H I don't think building our own house is an option for me. Especially not on our small budget.

shellyamf · January 2016

Haha, Mark, that's the kind of stuff that gets to P since he's an IT guy too. And as for switches being wired to outlets, I'm so annoyed by that here in CO. In KS and OK there are light fixtures to the switches. That drives both P and I crazy. Our 3rd bedroom has a switch that is apparently not wired to any outlet. So we are going to have to fix that at some point.

House Hunters!

Re: House Hunters!

Choose Another Board

Search Boards