Buying A Home
ZooCrewMom
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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Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
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.
If you have questions about this, please email help@theknot.com.
Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
Touring homes - what to look for?
Hello,
My husband and I started touring homes today and we went in trying to pay attention to all the things that seem to haunt people later on home inspection shows. My question for those who have purchased before is -
What did you wish you had noticed while touring homes that you didn't? Any special areas we should pay attention too?
Thank you!
Re: Touring homes - what to look for?
Before we ever looked at a house we made 2 lists. One for must haves and the other for would like to have. Then prioritized.
Location, style of home, # bedrooms/baths, layout, age of home, quality of construction, and price. Look at energy efficiency (inculation, windows, doors and appliances). roof, electrical and heating system as well as plumbing.
Exterior, driveway, and landscaping.
Hire a good home inspector and be there during the inspection - ask questions and learn about your home.
Take stock of what repairs, renovations, decorating you would want to do - how much it would cost and whether or not you can afford those changes/repairs.
The thing I feel most often missed is being really financially prepared to buy a house.
Pay off consumer debt, have a 6 month's expenses in an emergency fund, downpayment and closing costs in hand along with repair/renovation costs, moving costs, start up deposits, decorating/furniture/appliances as well as yard items. Keep housing costs to no more than 25-28% of your TAKEHOME pay (30-35% in a HCOL area). Buying a house is so much more than the mortgage payment.
My REA is a saint - we started off with a ridiculous list that was completely unreasonable (she didn't tell us it was unreasonable, but helped us figure it out) and has been really helpful in helping us hone in on what our priorities are. These are the things we look for:
- Age of major systems (roof, windows, hvac, water heater, siding, electrical etc). New doesn't mean good and the inspector could tell you that they're crap, but if the roof is 20 years old, you want to know about it.
- I second the above comment about quality of neighbor home maintenance. We look for neighbors with too many cars, unkept lawns, etc. The foreclosure rate is very low in our market, but I would stay away from areas with too many of them.
- Closet space. Our current apartment has an enormous walk in closet and it's bursting at the seams with my clothing. We have not seen a house that rivals it, but we're considering homes where we could expand or add clothing storage down the road. We're looking at four bedrooms and we don't have kids yet, so it won't be an issue for a few years.
- Evidence of young children in the area. We're looking at doing the bump thing in three years and want our kids to have playmates.
- Call the utility company and get the average utility bill for the property. They asked me my name, but gave out the info pretty easily.
- I don't mind houses with ugly walls and flooring, but we place a high priority on nice bathrooms and kitchens because of how expensive they are to remodel.
- When you decide on a house, think about where you're going to put all of your furniture. I recently pulled out of a contract on a house that wasn't right, and I think that if I had thought about that in advance I never would have made an offer. When I went over it after the fact, I realized there was no man cave area where my husband can play video games and that I didn't want it in the living or family room.
- Number of outlets in kitchens and bathrooms - I need at least four in the bathroom.
Good luck!