How many did you see...?

Tabbie11 · February 2013

I am wondering how many houses people see on average before making a decision? My husband and I are hunting, we've only seen 1 so far but have appointments for tomorrow. The market for our location is tight, especially for our budget, so if we love a place I think we ought to jump on it, but on another sense is putting an offer in on the second or third place we see too hasty? I feel that's not a lot, and having more to compare will be good but if we wait for more to come on the market to see that we could miss out.

Jashley05 · February 2013

We saw at least one house per weekend for 9 months... With that said, do your research, look at properties that you may not think at first you would like and be patient. You will know which one is right for you. By looking at all the houses we did, we learned what was important and what we could do without. When we first stared, my husband thought he wanted land. We realized that it wasn't in our budget and we didn't really have the time to maintain it. Good luck!

LarissaB · February 2013

I completely know where you are coming from. Before starting the house hunt, I expected that we are were going to see lots of houses 20+. We had a realtor we had been talking to but he told us to wait a few more months for the timeline for moving we had. In the mean time we searched online and started going to a few open houses. It was giving us an idea of what we liked and didn't like. Well it so happened that we walked into our 4th open house and fell in love with the floor plan. In my area, in our price range most of the houses have very similar bi-level or raised ranch floor plan and most houses are in developments with basically 4 or 5 different type houses. While we loved this floor plan, this house didn't have the yard we wanted but there was another house with the same floor plan a few streets over. Since we really liked it, we thought it was time to bring our realtor into it. He arranged a showing of both houses and we ended up loving everything about the non-open house house. It had a wonderful large lot with privacy fence and it was a corner lot. My husband was ready to jump on it, but I was just like you. I though I'd be looking at a ton of houses and this was the 5th one we've seen and only the 1st with our realtor. I really worried about jumping on this so soon and without seeing anything our realtor could find. So we compromised and I asked our realtor to take us out that following weekend to see some other houses he thought might be good even though it was a bit ahead of our timeline. He showed us 6 houses that weekend and we found ourselves comparing every one to the original house and none of them really matched up. We kept driving by the house and a few days later when we saw other people coming out of it after a showing, realized we had to make a decision. We arranged a second showing and put an offer on it that night. Trust me I was worried and scared that something better might come along later and how could we but a house after only seeing a few. But after being here almost a year, I don't regret it for one minute. When you see something you love, you need to jump whether it's the 2nd one you've seen or the 50th

KatiKapral · February 2013

I found myself asking the same question when we started the process in late November. It's important to make sure you're not "falling in love" with anything right away. My husband and I saw two awful houses at the first showing which was good for us. We also watched a lot of House Hunters on HGTV. It seems silly, but it can show you some good things to look for and that you want without even knowing you wanted it; my example is dual sinks in the master bathroom. Between the end of November to the middle of January we had seen maybe 10-12 houses. Our market was and is extremely tight too. We narrowed it down to two, made a pros and cons list for each, and put an offer on our favorite. We are SO glad that we did. From initial offer to closing (which was yesterday!) was about 6 weeks. If you have a lot of specifics you are looking for, you'll probably look at less houses. We are in an area where two-story homes are very rare and are from the opposite side of the country where they are the norm. We knew we wanted one. Since we put an offer in 6 weeks ago, it became the ONLY two-story in our price range for over 60 miles and as of yesterday it's ours. Had we not jumped on it, I'm confident it would have been snatched up.

TL;DR: The more specifics you have (the more you know what you want), the less you'll probably look. When I entered my home on the 7th or 8th showing, it felt like home. I didn't "fall in love" but when I got home I knew it, I just didn't want to admit it yet. I wanted to "look around" like most people tell you to do. If you find something you want, go for it! Don't worry about what others do or have done, it's very different for everyone.

Sue-n-Kevin · February 2013

When house hunting over 18 years ago (while I was pregnant and climbing in and out of a truck every weekend looking at houses, LOL), we looked at probably 40. That was the last "buyer's market" when prices were deflated.

One of the earlier weekends we were driving to an open house and passed another "open house" sign. By then we'd seen about 10. We walked in and fell in love with the house. It was move-in ready, we loved the floorplan and decor, and it had a huge yard, another thing that was important to us. "Back in the day" of a depressed market, no one offered what the asking price was. We gave a written offer about $30K under asking price, which was declined. We then gave a verbal offer about $20K under the asking price, which was also declined. The counter offer was over our budget.

We then continued to look at the remaining houses over a few months. LOTS of them. And we compared EVERY house to the one we loved. It was so frustrating, but having seen something we really wanted and met our needs, we did not want to settle. Out of the blue, we got a call from the seller's agent, the house we had loved, and they accepted our verbal offer! It was truly amazing.

We moved in when my daughter was 1 week old. My family and his family did all the moving, and we've been here ever since, over 18 years. I still love it.

As the housing market has changed over these many years, my house continued to appreciate in value, then the bottom dropped out. But this house is still worth well over what I paid, and my surrounding neighbors are all "under water" since they bought their homes in the past 10 years. There's a foreclosure 3 doors down the street, exact same layout as my house. They are asking $50K more than what I paid 18 years ago........they won't get that price, but the market is starting to rebound. This is a very good time to buy.

Sometimes you just know. You can't give up hope. Stay within your budget. But when you see the house that meets all your wishes on your "must have" list, get it, because continuing to look is not always the best thing, as prior posters have said. But, with my story in mind, sometimes you do get what you want, just not when it's the first time making your offer.

Good luck.

vpine · February 2013

We saw about 8, we did put offers on 3 but got outbid. We started looking July 2012, closed Oct 15th (2012). When I searched online for houses, I knew exactly what we wanted (sq ft, number of bedrooms, yr built, price) so that helped when we made appointments with realtor to view.

LoveKiss · February 2013

In our 18 month search we probably saw 50-60 houses. It felt like way more because I felt so consistently disappointed and frustrated as we searched for so long. Truth be told, we should have looked at fewer houses. Mr. LK really loves ranch style homes, so I kept looking at them and trying to make myself like them because they were so plentiful in our price point and Mr. LK was so fond of them. I even tried to make myself like split foyers, again because there were tons of them in our price point, but had the same results. I probably wasted a lot of our realtor's time looking at houses that I would never be willing to spend my money on because I wanted so badly to like one and get it over with.

IMO, don't be afraid to offer early. If it's the right house for you, then go with the flow. An offer is not a total commitment. You can always pull out "based on the results of the inspection" if you get cold feet. You'll be out the inspection fee, but that's a small price to pay in the scheme of things.

gymbugmj2k · February 2013

theres a lot for sale in my area. in our 12-18 month search we saw at least 2-5 per weekend, plus appointments towards the end. we put in offers on a couple houses but got outbid/turned down. finally we got one!

total? we probably saw upwards of 60 houses. it gave us a good education about what was/wasnt a fair price for a type or quality of house. we got to learn certain areas really well. so when we did fall across our final house -- we knew it was under-priced and had no problem going over asking price to make sure we got it!

you CAN always put in an offer and back out if you find something in the meantime. if you really like something - then go for it.

TX-Bride · February 2013

We saw a lot, started in October, saw 6-8 houses on sundays/saturdays for 4 months. We saw every house in the market in our price range in the zip codes we wanted to live in.

HouseSpouse · February 2013

One. No really, just one. We had appointments to see others but the first one we saw was exactly what we wanted and in great condition. Everyone always says don't buy the first house you look at, but as our agent said to us, "You've been looking at houses online for years and haven't seen anything you both love this much. This isn't the first house you've looked at." And that was true, and made me feel better, even though there was no way I was going to let that house slip away from us regardless. When you know, you know.

entropicbeauty · February 2013

So far I've seen close to 30 houses and I'm sure I'll see a lot more before we actually get one. We've put offers in on 6 houses and been outbid on every single one. Through this process we've learned what features of a house really matter to us, so now when we see one we like and can envision ourselves living in we jump and put an offer in. I'm looking at the very very low range of the market though and there is a LOT of competition (HUD homes under $40k).

torichantel2005 · March 2013

I probably looked at around 20 houses when I purchased my home by myself. I had a very low budget when I decided to purchase, so it was difficult to find something that was in decent shape at a good price. I imagine that if DH and I looked now, we would look at even more than that. When you have two people who want what they want, there are even fewer houses that fit the bill. HOWEVER; if you find a house that you both like and has the features that you want, there isn't much reason to wait. There will ALWAYS be something better out there, so don't let a good one get away because you think maybe you should keep looking.

alejitarami · March 2013

Our closing is on friday! Sooo excited!!! We saw about 10-15, but the one we bought is actually the very first one we saw! I had that feeling, but wanted to see our options so kept looking for about a month or so. We then decided we wanted to see that first one again...a month later we two days away of being first time home-owners! I do think that you definitely will "know" which one is right for you, once you find it, don't be scared!!! Best wishes!

jenny&will2014 · March 2013

online i literally looked at about 75. in person 13. bought the 4th one i looked at. (husband hates house shopping so i found one i liked and brought him to it and he loved it) does your area do open houses (mine does them on Sundays) if they do then go looking then (even at ones that are a hair over your price range so that you can rule out aspects of houses you dont like)

natsfans84 · April 2013

Like HouseSpouse, DH and I looked at 1 house. We had our realtor set up an online search for homes that met our specifications in our area, and we looked through that for probably 6 months before we saw a house we actually wanted to see. We made appointments to see 2 others, but we loved the first so much that we drove by the other 2 and didn't like them as much from the outside (location mostly, also curb appeal) so we put in an offer on the first house. We close June 3!

MrsS728 · May 2013

We were lucky. We looked for 6 weeks and found our house. We were looking at 4-6 a week with our agent and then 2-3 open houses on Sundays. Overall, I would say that we looked at a good 30-40 houses before finding THE house!!

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