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Beginning the search for our first home...
Hi, this is my first post over here. I'm normally over on TK.
FI has been looking at houses over the past few months, and tomorrow is our first meeting with our real estate agent to actively start looking at houses. Next Monday we have an appointment with the bank to get pre-approved (we're getting our mortgage through a credit union). Our current lease is up in March, so we're hoping we can find something soon!
There's a really nice house that we love, but the only problem is that the driveway is really steep. And I mean, worried that I'd stall going up it in good weather and worried we can't make it up there in the winter unless it's salted steep. It also has a very small backyard (the "backyard space" is really on the side of the house). The interior is nice enough that, if we can't find anything else, we would be willing to buy for less than what they're offering (which is too much). We could always put in one of those slalom driveways, and we definitely wouldn't have to worry about flooding. We have several other houses we like, I think it's a matter of seeing them in person and seeing how much updating needs to be done with them.
Any advice before we make the plunge?
Re: Beginning the search for our first home...
I do. It's a standard, which is my only concern. FI's current car is an automatic but not AWD. I'm sure it'll be fine, it was just very daunting to look at.
Actually, I think I'm more worried about cutting the grass... both the front and side lawns are very steep.
I'll beat Sisugal to the punch and contribute the MM perspective:
Don't buy anything unless you plan to stay for at least 5-10 years.
Don't buy until you're married.
If you plan on having children, make sure you factor that into your budget now.
Have 6-8 months of expenses saved for an emergency fund.
Principal, interest, taxes and insurance and utilities should not exceed 25-28% of your take home pay (35% if you're HCOL). And keep in mind, you should be contributing at least 10%+ to your 401Ks.
Good luck! As for your specific concerns, I wouldn't buy a house with a severely sloped driveway and a small backyard. If this is a starter house, keep resale value and unchangeable weaknesses like these in mind.
I agree with everything that Simpsongal said except the one piece: wait until you're married.
We closed on our house a month and a half before the wedding and I'm really glad we did because it's our dream house and they had several other offers. We would not have ended up with it if we didn't move then, and we'd been looking for months. The house that we ended up getting is big enough for a growing family (up to 2 kids and we only want 1), has a huge lot, a 2+ car garage, and came in at a price that my H can easily afford on his income alone, so if I decide to be a SAHM we'll be fine. The house is in both of our names and when we asked the mortgage broker pre-purchase if it would benefit us to get married first, she said no. This was something that we were willing to do to get this house.
For us, waiting and losing out on this house was not an option. We plan to be in it forever, barring any huge life changes.
However, everything else I think is 100% dead on.
I wouldn't buy a house with a driveway like that or a side yard. There were two houses like that that we were looking at, and had gone to see and even considered offering on. I'm really, really glad we held out. The house that we got was not only $30k cheaper, but it has a yard behind the house, a larger and nicer kitchen, and is just overall better.
Keep looking! There's no rush
Life and Love at #16 | our married life blog
I like the advice given but also agree with pp that you don't necessarily need to wait until you are married. We bought when we were engaged (a month before our wedding) and it was fine. I can understand not buying a house with someone you just met, but if you have been together a while and have plans to get married, I say go for it. If you break up you would be in the same situation you would be in if you were married--two people as joint owners of a property.
Definitely make sure you have enough saved for emergencies. Definitely factor in the cost of expenses and utilities.
Oh, and to answer your question, I wouldn't buy a house with a small yard but I wouldn't mind a sloped driveway. Of course, we don't have snow or much rain here, so a sloped driveway wouldn't mean much.
I would never buy with someone I'm not married to. BUT, if you're going to buy real estate before you're married, you should have some sort of written agreement, that spells out the rights and responsibilities of each buyer. Unmarried couples are not covered by the same laws as married couples. If for any reason you call off the wedding, and don't have any agreement, the process of dividing the assets will be very messy. Also, god for bid something were to happen to one of you before the wedding and there are no written agreements, probate can also be very messy and take a really long time.
I'd keep looking if I were you. Right now the inventory is pretty high and there are lot of homes out there that you may not know about. Realtors tend to have all foreclosure homes that you will have hard time finding just from the internet. You may find even better home that this house you really like would be nothing in comparison. I'd look at least 30 houses inside and out.
My husband and I started out "search" lightly last year and thought we found our dream home. It was perfect except for a smaller backyard, a newly developed neighborhood, etc. There were some flaws that we felt that we could overlook...and now looking back at it, we laugh and think that we're so fortunate to have found lot more homes that are even nicer and a better fit for us. We, in the end, found the perfect home for us with a huge backyard, a well established neighborhood, and everything fits perfectly with our lifestyle. We just "bought" the house last week and our closing date is in January.
I think the beginnings are exciting...you get to see what kind of house you can afford and so you start dreaming about how you'd live in that house. However, you really should look and see what's really out there. Let your realtor take you inside couple homes. Some homes are not justified by pictures online.