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How did you know?
How did you know the house you purchased was "yours". My realtor tells me we should walk in and love it and want it immediately. I don't think that's realistic, or maybe I'm just not a believer because it hasn't happened yet.
So I'm just curious did you know immediately that you loved your house and you wanted to buy it, or were there things that maybe weren't perfect but you could see it working?
H and I have been very actively looking since October, and have found a few things we are happy with but aren't perfect homes. We looked at another one this week in our ideal location, but the house is a little smaller than what I wanted (2,600 sq. ft, 3 beds) and needs a little updating. I could definitely see us living here, but I don't necessarily feel like I NEED it.
Re: How did you know?
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Thinking of doing cosmetic updates to a dated home? These were our costs.
I think it depends on your situation. For us, that has not and will not be the case.
We're looking in a competitive market in a HCOL area. In our price range ($400K to $450K -- so not chump change) there will not be a "perfect" house. Each house we see, we have to carefully evaluate what will need to be fixed/updated/replaced and it's hard to swoon over a house when you're trying to determine if it's going to be a money pit. Not that they're complete dumps, but some need new kitchens or bathrooms or haven't been well maintained.
There have been several houses that we've really liked and wanted to love, but there were always deal breakers that came with them. It's really frustrating.
DH doesn't even know if he likes the house until he's been in it for 30 minutes. He takes longer to warm up and really looks at things objectively.
I could deal with the updating, but I wouldn't sacrifice on the bedrooms. I think your best bet is to hold firm on your must haves and go from there. Updating isn't so bad because you can do it over time and the way you want, but it's going to be hard and expensive to change the number of bedrooms.
It was the first house we visited where the person was still living there - his furniture, his stuff, and he was even walking out the door when we arrived. I thought it would be awkward. But I knew where to go in the house like it was my own. I knew every part of it, as weird as that sounds.
I sat on his couch and looked out the window and said, "this is it."
Now, if only the second bank would give us the approval to go ahead and live there happily every after. The waiting is killing me and we are definitely annoying our real estate agent
With the first house we bought I didn't get that feeling. We had only been looking for a month or so and it was DH who said "I think we should make an offer." It was definetly the best from what we had seen so far so I agreed. I went through the typical buyers remorse but, in the end, I loved our house for what it was... a starter home.
Our second house, we had been looking for almost one year. I knew pretty quickly I wanted it after walking through the major rooms. I did get that "I want this house" feeling. It had so much more from our "wish" list than I could have ever hoped for. I am still amazed that we're getting so many of our wants in this house. It's not perfect (no house really is) but I think it's the closest we could ever come without building one ourselves. I also did not get buyers remorse this time around.
During the process, there were two homes we looked at where I kept thinking 'maybe we should just buy one of those' but neither had a yard which I always said was a dealbreaker for me. Let me say, I'm so glad we waited it out. This house is larger and has a finished basement (the other two didn't have that) and it has a yard!
This is almost our situation exactly, our budget is 420 - 450 and in order to get a house we LOVE we have to go up to about 600k lol.
As far as bedrooms, it's only H and I, so we don't need more, but I do want a Library, office and guest room. The house we saw this week has an extra "bonus" room off the living room that would make a great office, leaving the 3 beds upstairs for office, master, and guest.
We would also plan on being in the house for about 5 - 7 years then moving into a monster of a house!
Yeah, $600k looks like the cost of love for us as well. I keep saying we have caviar taste and a salmon roe budget, but in our area half a mil just isn't that much! We're looking for four bedrooms, at least 2400 sq feet, good kitchen layout and a basement.
It just the two of us as well, but I want to make sure that we can stay in anything we buy for a long time if we need to. We're planning on two kids and I definitely want a guest room. DH is expected to get a career boost (fingers crossed) in the next few years, so eventually we'll probably get a custom build that would be bigger and better. For now we're looking for something practical that isn't likely to lose us money.
I'm totally jealous of everyone who has that "the one" feeling. UGH! That would make this whole process a lot easier.
We knew immediately. I mean, literally as soon as I walked in the front door I felt it, and I hadn't seen any of the house. It felt right for both of us, and as we walked around and saw the house it just solidified what we were feeling. We did need to do some painting and replace some carpeting but nothing major.
We had seen plenty prior to that that we thought were OK but didn't feel strong enough to make the offer. We actually increased our price range too, but "only" by $50K but it got us our forever house.
Good luck!
The first house that we offered on we just liked but we never had an "ah ha!" moment. I'm so glad it ended up falling through. When we found our house we loved it immediately, had no interest in seeing any other houses, and we offered on it the same day. We had our parents come to see it later on on the day that we saw it the first time and everyone had the same feeling, that it was perfect.
Prior to that, the closest we had gotten was walking into a house and thinking "we could live here" but we kept looking and weren't set on offering. When we found ours we knew we needed to act fast because we didn't want anyone else ending up with it.
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We had looked at many houses (probably close to 100). Everyday I looked online for new houses on the market and saw this one and I KNEW right then. We went and looked at it that night and as soon as we opened the door we knew it was the one and put an offer in 20 mins later.
With the 2nd house we bought last week, we had more of an idea of what we wanted and had been looking at houses on weekends, but not looking hardcore. We happened to stumble upon this new development one day and we really liked the house. We continued to look at other houses, but DH and I kept thinking about the other one. We went back to it and knew it was the one.
We knew when we could agree on one. By the time we moved, neither of us loved our starter home, but we were looking for different things in a forever home. And since we were hunting with the idea of finding a place we plan on staying in until the mortgage is paid off, it was more than location and price point.
Before we even looked, we made a list of what each of us wasn't willing to negotiate on vs. what we would like vs. what would be nice to have, but didn't really sway us one way or the other. When we found the perfect mix of what we were looking for (large yard, kitchen with an island, 3-car garage, etc.) that hit every "must have" and was in our price range, we knew we had the perfect house.
Mine is probably not helpful, but I fell in love with the house years ago. Then when I noticed it was on the market (around the time DH was suggesting we move) I told him about it. When I saw the photos of the interior in the listing I knew. The entry has historic leaded stained glass windows, stained woodwork (not painted), the original light fixture, and fretwork. A nerd's paradise!!
That said, there are a ton of things that need to be re-done, but we were expecting some fixing up.
We loved the house within 5 minutes. We already liked the area and once we saw the backyard I was sold on the house. Even with the horrible 70's shag carpet and awful brown panelling I could see that the layout was good and the house had potential. We had placed offers on two other houses and are very glad neither offer was accepted!
I'm struggling with this. We've been looking for like a year, and have yet to find anything we love. Honestly, I've never thought that I am the kind of person who could fall in love with a house in the first place, but I'm having trouble with the idea of putting in an offer on a house I don't completely love. Our real estate agent has been putting pressure on us to make an offer on something already, and we even had her draw up the paperwork for an offer last weekend, but I can't bring myself to sign it.
The thing is, this house is probably our best option even though it has some flaws. I'm sure if I was willing to move further out in the suburbs, it would be easy to find a house I just loved, but I wouldn't love it so much when I was commuting. Or if I was willing to give up my plan to be a SAHM, we could increase our price range and maybe then there would be something that I loved in the area where I want to live, but that's a pretty steep price to pay (especially since, at this point, work means being on the road 4 days per week). I don't know that a house I completely love is worth sacrificing so much for when there are nice enough houses out there. And I'm not convinced that we should rent forever just because we can't find anything we love, can afford, and meets our needs to buy (it's not like we love the home we are renting either). On the other hand, it's always possible that a better house will come on the market in the area we want and we will somehow be able to afford it, I'd we haven't bought the one we are currently thinking about.
Also, for all the desire I have to be completely sure and completely in love with a house, I'm really not convinced I work that was. The only major decision I was ever completely sure about was where to attend college, and in hindsight, I think that was a huge waste of my parents' money (though I did get a great education, it probably wasn't $100K better than I could have gotten elsewhere). I wasn't at all sure about marrying DH even, though in hindsight I'm very happy with that decision going on 7 years later.