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If you had to do it over again...
We just purchased our first home the week before we got married. It wasn't supposed to pan out that way but interest rates were amazing and it was about the 40th house we looked at and we just KNEW. Looking back we landed a great price, interest rate and we really enjoy our new home. Although, hind sight is 20/20. There are things I wish I would have investigated further and my goal with this post is actually to help other home buyers...
The previous owners had pets: Not a big deal, we have pets. I wish I would have lifted up rugs and looked at the floors in more detail. Their dogs on a regular basis peed in all of the doorways...gross
I wish I would have crawled in the attic with the inspector: I didn't go up because their attic hole had their pantry under it and I was avoiding stepping on all of their food. My good friend went up the first time she came over when the house was empty... we noticed old insulation, disorganized wiring, and a few other oddities that I wish I would have pondered BEFORE buying.
Electrical. The previous owner was an electrician. The house was built in 1965 and he did some amazing lighting changes. I trusted all of the electrical was top notch. I was somewhat disappointed to find many of our outlets weren't grounded still (never mentioned by the inspector) I wonder what else he was willing to overlook...
Traffic. We knew were were buying a home with a high traffic road ajacent. I wasn't concerned because it isn't really an issue from the inside... However, I wasn't considering the bedroom which has enormous windows facing the road... the sound comes in like a freight train when one is trying to sleep (thankfully only till 9pm (small town)).
Overall, I'm happy with our purchase but there are things I wish I would have looked into more. Right after we bought this one, another one we really loved dropped by 20K. I don't think we would have been able to make that one work as well for us. I still think this house is a better fit for who we are but the other house is def. a better value. Owning a home is rewarding but hard work too. I'm glad we made the leap. What about everyone else?
Re: If you had to do it over again...
I love our place as an investment and having been build in 1926 it's got great charm but I HATE HATE HATE the neighborhood. 3 foreclosures on our block turned our 3-5 year house into a 10-15 meaning we are looking to rent it out and move.
If I had it to do over, I would have saved more for a DP and gotten the house that I wanted - not just the one we could afford at the time. You get what you pay for.
If I had it to do over again...
...I would have waited another four months and got an amazing interest rate.
...I would have saved up a little bit more so we could have comfortably paid cash for furniture and decor and furnished this large (empty) home
"The House We Built."
A journey of building the dream.
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I'd have gone with a different agent.
'd change nothing about when or what we bought.
We bought in 2006 at the worst time possible. I would change that!
We bought a fixer-upper, which was great when it was just the 2 of us. We did a ton of work before we had a kid, but after we had the baby it was really hard for us to get things done. I would change it so that we didn't have AS much to do. We like working on projects, but we just didn't have the time for it.
Traffic. We live right next to a major road. I hate it and I'm not exactly sure what we were thinking at the time.
We are about to change a lot of this, so I've come to terms with it!
The biggest thing is that in our agreement I would have stated that the seller had to clean up the garbage, cigarette butts, and dog poo. The outside was a mess when we moved in, and there was some garbage inside as well. I also would have stipulated that the house be professionally cleaned top to bottom - it was gross.
I wish we had visited the house a couple more times than we did. We discovered the day we moved in that the eavestrough was plugged and also falling down a bit and we had a huge waterfall down the side of our house.
I also wish we'd looked more closely at a few other things. We discovered a paint stain that had been hidden under a rug in the basement, our living room floor is surprisingly scratched, none of our outlets match (some are beige, some are white, and most of the faceplates don't match) nor do we have any GFIs, our chimney needs work. There's a whole bunch of little things that can be fixed but that we weren't really expecting.
I don't love that we're on a main road, but it's OK for now since we don't have kids or outdoor pets. There's an auto mechanic across the street which can be noisey, but I don't really notice anymore.
Overall, I'm happy with our house even though we have a long way to go (it was officially 'move in ready', but there really is a lot of work that we've already done and more to do). There were some unexpected expenses that came along with moving, but we were able to handle it.
Sometimes I think that if we had known how much we'd love getting out of the city and how much work it would be to see our friends (even as close as we are) we would have moved farther out since it seems like it would take the same amount of effort to see people. Overall though I love the area we are in and its a good fit for us.
Not directly related to buying the home, but I would have done some of the work we wanted to do before moving in. I was so anxious to move that I figured it wouldn't be a big deal to do later but now I can't imagine going through the hassle.
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