Central Pennsylvania Nesties
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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.
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.
Poll: Things you wish you'd thought about when buying your first house:)
So tonight is our first meeting with the Realtor I'm so excited!! We have two lists - 1 of absolute must
haves and things we'd really "like." I don't think
they're super demanding, they might be a little bit because of our
price range, but we're willing to take our time to really find
something that's
going to work for a while . Since so many of you are further ahead in
life/more on the ball than we are in this kind of stuff - I'd love some
thoughts/suggestions/input on things you were glad you thought of,
things you wish you considered, etc. when you were first house hunting.
Re: Poll: Things you wish you'd thought about when buying your first house:)
- ?Are the hardwood floors really that splintery? ?Should we have had them refinished before we moved in? ?We sure should have!
- ?How old is this carpet and when was the last time it was cleaned? ?Should we make the owners clean them before we buy?
- ?Are there enough windows to provide a good bit of natural light?
- ?Are the windows going to be drafty and chilly in the winter?
- ?Is there a potentially huge and mysterious plumbing issue hidden in the wall that occasionally leakes but we are too afraid to have it looked at??
Haha, as you can see, these are things that I wish I would have taken care of before we bought! ?We were just so excited to afford and buy a house!?
The townhouse was brand spanking new, no yard maintenance, HUGE master bedroom with an even bigger granite bathroom - all the perks of a new home. The single family home was a tudor home at the very end of a dead-end street, gorgeous hardwood floors (under carpet of course!), great construction and a very nice, somewhat private backyard, but only one bathroom. The SFH was also $20,000 cheaper.
We ended up with the SFH. We fell in love with the character of the older home and the neighborhood - and we knew there was no way to re-create that in the newer townhouse. It was the right decision, but I still hate shoveling show and my husband hasn't fallen in love with mowing the lawn. I still look back longingly at that jacuzzi tub, kitchen island and two other bathrooms.
I do think if we had to do it again, we would have held out for at least 1.5 bathrooms and some sort of extra living space - a den or basement that could be finished into a family room (our basement now isn't suitable for that).
PS - You should try to buy that gray house across the street from where you now - my husband and I both drooled over that thing!
Closet space! I really didn't think that much about it before we moved in and started trying to put stuff away. Our house is old, so closets just weren't as much of a priority back in the day. As it turns out they aren't even deep enough for hangers and forget trying to store anything in them. It's not the biggest deal in the world, but I like to have everything put away and out of sight so not having closets to work with makes it tricky.
My first house I bought solo. People tried to tell me repeatedly that I couldn't get what I wanted in my price range in a decent area, but I did. So I would say have a vision, stick to it, and don't rule out an area to quickly because others say you can't afford it. I wound up making $25K in 3 years because of it.
And don't get super happy about a house and overlook what you truly want. DH and I fell in love with our house for looks, but functionally it's the pits. We thought we could live with certain things, and 2 years later I would give almost anything for a decent closet or bigger kitchen.It took us walking through a few different floor plans before we decided that we liked and didn't like. I'm so glad we didn't go for a split level.
Pictures on the internet almost always lie. You won't see the super-steep driveway, chopped up backyard, power station next door, etc. until you do a drive-by or check google maps. Yep, there were a lot of houses we were excited about before we actually saw them.
Turns out, DH hated all of the newer construction houses. I hated the small room sizes and closets of most of the older houses. It was a tough compromise, but we eventually found an older house that had additions put on over the years that made us both happy.
I'm so glad we went to a few builder's open houses - more than anything, because it helped us re-think our target neighborhoods.
Lots of people will have opinions (family, friends, etc), but don't let anyone push you around. What you can and can't live with, and what you are or aren't willing to do yourself is a very personal decision.
Don't rush into anything. Be prepared for an emotional roller coaster ride.
My list is a little bit more things that I know I want from now on. I think in each house you go in or live in, you learn a little more about what your likes and dislikes are.
We live at the end of our street beyond a cul de sac even and it's very quiet, something that I personally love. We also don't have any houses directly behind us or in front of us so even though it's a townhouse, we are much more secluded and have great views of the golf course and woods. It's something that I think makes our stand apart from others who are near many other houses.
I would definitely consider storage space, especially in the garage/tools, also the layout of the house and where you will be spending time. Will you all be near each other or will things be more spread out. What kind of kitchen design do you like?
For a bedroom, I love vaulted ceilings and I like a large walk in closet. I also will never go back to one sink in the master bathroom again, I love having two.
And on a personal note, I love the look of tile but it is a pain in the butt to clean and the grout always seems to get dirty no matter how much you seal it.
Good luck!!
We really love our house and don't really have any issues, so I can give you more of a list of things to ask about/look for:
If you buy an old home, have the galvanized pipes been changed over to PVC or copper?
Has the electrical been updated?
Has the house been tested for radon?
Is there enough storage space?
Do you need to make improvements on the home? Is the home priced with regard to the need for improvements? Make sure you don't overimprove and then not be able to recoup that money when you sell down the road.
How old are the windows/doors/furnace/AC?
Definitely closets and storage.
Also the way the house is situated. I like morning sun in the master bedroom and afternoon/evening sun in the living spaces (living/dining room). And I would never live in a house that doesn't get direct sun on the front and/or driveway, because that becomes an icy nightmare all winter long.
Good luck!
This may seem really logical but I'll list it anyway- public utilities. Specifically sewer and water. When we bought our house, we had public/township water but a septic system. 3 years after we bought the house the township decided to roll through our street and put public sewer there. Why this wasn't done when they put public water is beyond me but that's besides the point.
When we bought the house, we didn't mind septic because it was easy to maintain and in good working condition.
However, now we had to shell out $12,000 to be connected to public sewer and the crappy thing is that it won't raise our property value by anything close to what we paid.
This might not seem like a big deal, but check to see if doors open into each other. For example, When you come into our house, you cannot open the front door and the door from the garage at the same time. They hit each other. Same with the linen closets and bathroom doors. When I put towels away I have to carry them into the bathroom, shut the bathroom door and then open the linen closet. I know it's not the end of the world, but it kills me every time to think that the house wasn't planned out very well.
Good luck house hunting! I loved it!
NEIGHBORS!
Make sure you drive through the neighborhood many times - different times of day, both weekends and weekdays.
We weren't aware til we moved in that people on our street park their cars ANYWHERE BUT THEIR DRIVEWAYS, and it drives us nuts! Our neighbors have kids, who play basketball in their driveway, so they always leave it open, and have FOUR CARS! There are alwyas 2 parked in front of our house and it truly puts me in a p*ssy mood every time I leave or come home from work! It is so annoying!
Also things will start to bug you like: do your neighbors take care of their yards? Do some keep their trash cans out in plain sight all the time?
It can be small things that drive you nuts that you would never think of - barking dogs, especially loud music (i.e. a teenager with a garage band - ugh!)... make sure you really get a feel for the street!
In my bag: Canon 60D, 50mm 1.4, Tamron 28-75 2.8, 430exii
You said it so perfectly right there. I'm going through this now that we're ready to put an offer in on the house. I'm going over and over and over our finances checking for the billionth time that we can really afford this, and swinging from loving the house to "nah, we'll just stay in an apartment forever." I'm so scared about making such a huge investment I could throw up!
However, this post is awesome. It's giving me a lot to think about while house hunting! The thing with this house is that it's only got 1 bathroom. We figure that for now, since it's just us, we can deal with that. The one bedroom upstairs is so big, we can put a 1/2 bath in if we wanted and then make that our master bath. We'd also have so much property we can add on if we wanted.
I swore I'd always buy a house with a fireplace in it. THis house doesn't have one. But we can always add in a wood-burning stove later. I just figured that we really like the house and area so much that some things we thought were important just aren't (like the firehouse).
We bought our first home in June of 07. For probably 6 months prior we took a lot of time to walk through model homes, townhomes, everything and anything just to get an idea of what we wanted. When it came down to it, we gave up a much bigger and fairly new townhome with a huge master bedroom and garage for a smaller SFH with no garage. However, in the end the SFH had more character, and we're situated in a wooded area with hiking trails, lakes, etc. We love our house but we've learned a lot for what we'd like our next house to have! Here's our list:
-Definitely a two car garage
-Large master with walk-in closets
-Master bathroom with his/hers sinks (our old apt. had this and we miss them)
-enough room to grow and have guests stay (we have two bedrooms; the townhomes all had 4. We feel like we'll outgrow our house when we have our first baby)?
-kitchen flooring. this time last year I love our ceramic tile/grout. As Stacey said, grout gets dirty regardless. It now drives me nuts and I wish we had hardwood like we do in the adjoining room.
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Must-ask questions:
1. How old is the roof? What repairs have been made/when if any?
2. When was the carpet last replaced?
3. If there is a fireplace, get it checked out and certified!
4. Ask about water pump, furnace, etc.
5. Ask for all estimate monthly utilities
6. HOA fees and what it includes
7. Natural light
8. Drive through neighborhood at various times, as pp mentioned.
9. check for flooring--does the upstairs squeak? (we had a spot that we just fixed today finally since we got new carpet!)
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GL and happy hunting!?
The previous posts are a very comprehensive list. One thing that I wish we would have checked closer - if I even knew how - was the condition of the windows. Our windows fog up between the panes in the cold and rain. I don't know how much energy we're losing, but I hate the way it looks when I'm trying to look out the window.
How well insulated are the windows
What will need painted (we have very high eves)
Make a list of what you want to do to the place (add a bathroom, redo rooms) to see how long it will be
How many years is your mortgage going to be (ours is 15 and I love that we can see the light at the end of the tunnel)
How busy is the traffic near your house
If you have children, what direction is the school district headed in, how will future development impact the school system