Buying A Home
mckenzie915
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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Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
Waiting to find something good
We've been looking for a house for almost a year. We made one offer and got outbid during the first couple of months. I feel like now that we've seen so many houses, we don't want to settle, but we are still waiting to find something that meets our needs. I feel like maybe we are too picky or the market isn't great. Anyone else having a hard time finding a house that they love?
Re: Waiting to find something good
In some areas it's tough to find a home that's not a major dump.
Why not expand your search radius by 5-10 miles? Would that open things up more?
Is it possible that you are comparing everything you see now to that house you put the offer on long ago?
To be honest, I was not in love with the house we have now and even now that it's where we live, I could take it or leave it. There's a ton I want to change. BUT, it's in a fantastic neighborhood, city, and school district. And, it has a ton of potential to be just the way we want it in years to come. Plus, it has pretty new mechanicals (roof, windows, water heater, appliances, siding, etc.) these are big ticket items that we didn't want to have to replace right away once we moved in.
All I'm saying is if you have a home in a great location with good bones and structure, and it meets your bed and bath needs, maybe consider giving it more thought.
It took us 18 months and it was worth the wait. Our market had very little inventory that met our price, location, lot size, number of bedroom, and number of bathroom needs. Like right now, there are exactly 17 houses on the market that met the basic check list. 17 houses in an entire county. And only 2 of those are the style that we were looking for. When supply is that low, you just have to be patient and wait for something to come on the market, and then pounce when that happens. We ended up offering more than list price, paying all closing costs, waiving some inspections (e.g. seperate chimney inspection. We figured that if something was wrong with the chimney, we just wouldnt use the fireplace. It wasn't a deal breaker, so eliminating that inspection was a way to sweeten the offer for the seller), and writing a heartfelt letter to the seller in order to seal our deal. And this was after having 3 other contracts fall through (1 for inspection results and 2 for short sale failures).
We asked ourselves (and our realtor) many times if we were just being too picky for our budget, which was our biggest constraint. And we kept coming back to the same answer that we were not. We knew we were not being too picky because we had found a few houses that we liked (see the failed contracts). So we knew that there were houses out there that met our criteria, but that they were rare. Like you, I refused to settle. We were dropping $500k on a house, and that was way too much money to spend on a house that I didn't even like. Some markets just suck. Maybe you are in one.
Yes, our market isn't great. We're in Long Beach, CA. It seems like it's picking up again after the holidays. I asked our realtor the same question about being too picky and he said absolutely not. We've seen homes that are in our price range with almost everything we want. The house we bid on was amazing and if we had more of a deposit at the time, we would have won the bid. They selected the other buyer because they had 20% down and told us that even if we offered more, they would go with the other buyer. That was out of our control. I do compare a lot of homes to that home, not necessarily the layout but the feeling I got when I was there. It felt like home. I feel like I'm waiting for that feeling again and haven't felt it. There have been a couple times that we really liked a home but either the kitchen was really too small and no space to expand, or other such problems that couldn't be changed in the long term.
We have 2 kids and renting a condo that has adequate space, so we aren't in a rush, but I just can't wait to start putting some sweat and love into a home. I wish we could reach our boundaries farther out, we have actually already entended them to nearby neighborhoods that also have good schools. But we really love where we live and would be heading for bad neighborhoods.
Thanks for the advice on jumping on it. I'm feeling that way right now. I keep telling my husband, if we find "it", we need to act fast. But I will keep in mind the other inspections and such things that we could possibly forego. I don't want to lose the next one!
My Blog: The Practical Romantic
My Website: LuvTrip
I think the holidays make it hard too! I wanted to be in our new home for Christmas and now I'm thinking of my daughters birthday in a couple of months and having to plan it elsewhere. It would be nice to have the room to throw these events in our home. The waiting continues but I'm sure will be worth it!
My Blog: The Practical Romantic
My Website: LuvTrip
My Blog: The Practical Romantic
My Website: LuvTrip