Buying your first house??

[LittleMsSnuggie]

The Mr. and I have been talking about buying our first house when our lease ends for a while now. We pretty much settled on going for it since we're trying to have a baby and I will be finished with school in a couple of months.
I was looking at listings pretty much all day and found a lot of nice houses in our price range.
Other than price and location what would you/did you look for in buying your first house?

 

[apac]

A couple threads I've made recently that might help you out.

http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=2039120
http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=2055715

 

[LittleMsSnuggie]

A couple threads I've made recently that might help you out.

http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=2039120
http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=2055715

Thanks, dude.

 

[dabuddha]

Get an agent. Ours helped us tremendously. We told her exactly what we wanted and she showed us houses that matched our needs. Saved us a lot of driving around and wasted time.

 

[TwiceOver]

LLL Location, Layout, Land.

I fucked up all three on our purchase. Please don't do the same.

 

[Elbryn]

if you want the 8k tax credit, you better hurry. it ends at the end of this month. i think you have to close by then also. not sure about that though.

 

[EagleKeeper]

if you want the 8k tax credit, you better hurry. it ends at the end of this month. i think you have to close by then also. not sure about that though.

You have to be under contract and close by June

 

[LittleMsSnuggie]

if you want the 8k tax credit, you better hurry. it ends at the end of this month. i think you have to close by then also. not sure about that though.

Not going to happen, we still have nearly a year to go on our lease, but I like to do some shopping around and a lot of research before I make major purchases.

 

[EagleKeeper]

A two bedroom can do as a starter if you can not find a 3 bedroom. However, the resale value will be less.

You need to decided from experience, do you need a large yard (upkeep & pleasure), small patio yard; attached/single family/condo.

Each has is advantages/handicaps.

With you anticpating on a child; will your hubby's income be enough to support the house and the needs w/ respect to the child?

 

[AMCRambler]

If the 8k tax credit ends this month, then it's too late for you guys to get in on it. It takes at least a month to close, sometimes longer. And you haven't even settled on a house.

That said, my advice to you is get your mortgage pre-approval lined up as soon as you can and once you find a house make sure you stay on the bank to keep the ball rolling. In my closing, it was the bank that was dragging its feet and holding things up. They told us we were approved to close and then 2 days later recanted saying they needed to perform a second appraisal of the house because it was a former foreclosure. This dragged out our closing another 2 weeks because they pulled this right around Thanksgiving. So stay on top of your bank and make sure they know what they're doing.

Beyond that, make sure you can cover your closing costs. The bank should review all your finances to make sure you're not over extending yourselves. Also, make sure you don't complete drain your bank accounts if possible. Even with a house that passes a home inspection with flying colors, unexpected things can pop up.

It's quite a process buying a house these days so don't think it's wam bam and thank you maam. The banks are very stringent in their lending practices now and look at everything(as they should). There's a lot of things you will need to get done for the closing as well. Get a buyers real estate agent if you haven't bought a house before because they will help guide you the closing process. Ours was invaluable. Just remember with your agent their commission is a percentage of the sale of the house so if you start making offers and they try and talk you into going higher stick to your guns. They want to make money just like the selling agent.

 

[KillerCharlie]

If the 8k tax credit ends this month, then it's too late for you guys to get in on it. It takes at least a month to close, sometimes longer. And you haven't even settled on a house.

The closing deadline is the end of June. You have to be in contract to buy by the end of April. Being in contract to buy only takes about a week once you put in an initial offer, unless it's a short sale.

Stay away from short sales unless you have several months. I think the average closing time for short sales is 3 months. Sometimes you'll put in an offer and you won't even hear back for a month, or sometimes not at all.

 

[RearAdmiral]

LLL Location, Layout, Land.

I fucked up all three on our purchase. Please don't do the same.

lol I'm sorry but this made me laugh. Sounds like the split level house from the game of life.

 

[nerp]

Don't fall in love with a place until after the home inspection.

 

[Cdubneeddeal]

Don't fall in love with a place until after the home inspection.

Agreed. Nothing will take the wind out of your sails like a failed inspection will.

 

[ichy]

I just closed on my first house this past Wednesday. It helped that I'd rented in the area where I ended up buying for two years. I also went to a number of open houses before I even contacted an agent. My current life situation is no wife/no kids/no problems, so size wasn't that big of a deal. I went with a 2-BR place so that I could get a roommate if necessary, but I'm probably going to live on my own at least at first.

Getting a nice kitchen was important to me because I like to cook. A basement for storage was also great, definitely helps to have a place to stash my stuff in order to reduce clutter. I live in a city where a lot of houses have rooftop decks, and while I would've loved to have one that just wasn't going to fit into the budget. I do have a nice little backyard area for grilling & planting a few things though.

 

[Dirigible]

A two bedroom can do as a starter if you can not find a 3 bedroom. However, the resale value will be less.

You need to decided from experience, do you need a large yard (upkeep & pleasure), small patio yard; attached/single family/condo.

Each has is advantages/handicaps.

With you anticpating on a child; will your hubby's income be enough to support the house and the needs w/ respect to the child?

Child thing is a big point. Your expenses will go up and you may well stop working, at least for a while. Make sure you can still afford everything.

With kids in the picture you also want to think about the school district, whether there are parks and playgrounds nearby, arethere other families with kids in the neighborhood, noise in the house (if you want to watch tv after the baby is asleep is the kid's room far enough away the noise won't wake them up?), and I'm sure there are other things I'm forgetting.

I bought my house based on easy commute, small low maintenance yard, and walking distance to bars I like. But I was single and didn't really ever expect to have kids. I'm lucky that the house works well enough, kind of, for two kids too. When/if my wife goes back to work we will move.

 

[tk149]

School district. This is huge. Literally, I've seen a 20% price difference among houses across the street from each other because they are in different towns/school districts.

Steep driveway. No, I kid you not. When I was house hunting, I went to view a house. While I was waiting for my agent to show up, the person across the street could not get her car up her driveway because of the snow/ice. I had to help push. That's when I thought, "I'm single. Who's going to help ME push my car up the driveway?" That's when I decided NO steep driveways.

Facing - if your driveway is on the north side of the house, the snow will not melt and you will be looking jealously at your neighbors' clear driveways across the street. <sigh>

Proximity to other houses - I rejected some neighborhoods because the houses are built too closely together. I do not wish to smell my neighbor's cooking.

Age - Older house -> more repairs in general.

Mil rates - these can change, but at least you'll have a say in it.

Fixtures - nicer is better. I am jealous of people with Six-panel doors. That being said, you can always upgrade after you move in, but it won't be cheap.

Flood plain. Yeah, check it.

Don't fall in love with a place until after the closing.

Do you really want to have a baby and a mortgage while you are still in school?

 

[InflatableBuddha]

lol I'm sorry but this made me laugh. Sounds like the split level house from the game of life.

:biggrin: Life is WIN. I used to hate drawing the split level house too.

 

[edro]

Here are things my next house will have (hopefully).

- Dual sink vanity, so Mr and Mrs can be in bathroom at same time
- Finished basement
- Access to back yard with deck
- 10ft+ ceilings
- 3 car garage or detached garage for workshop/yard tools
- 1 more bedroom than you think you need

 

[tk149]

Here are things my next house will have (hopefully).


- 10ft+ ceilings

Just want to point out that heat rises. Most people I've talked to with high ceilings think that their heating bills are higher than if they had regular 8' (or is it 9'?) ceilings.

That reminds me - my next house will have thicker walls and better insulation.

 

[spacejamz]

convenient access to grocery stores, gas stations, and other places (restaurants, malls, etc) you frequent should also be considered...

 

[PricklyPete]

One thing I tend to say to people buying their first house is to try and buy something that you could potentially rent out in the future.

The reason I say that it is often advantageous these days to not be locked into living somewhere. If you buy a huge house, then you're likely looking at a large financial loss if you are forced to move out of it in just a few years. If you buy something that has good location and is right-sized, then you can often times rent it out and it can either become an income property down the road or sooner if you find yourself in the situation where you have to move sooner than later.

This is not for everyone, but if you want to buy a house and you don't want to tie yourself down to one location...it can definitely have its benefits.

 

[Marinski]

ill agree with what somebody above said. Get your pre approval and financing lined up until you start looking. You dont wanna find something and then not be able to bid on it because you don't have the pre approval, then your just wasting your time. Buying new or fixxer upper??

 

[LittleMsSnuggie]

Thanks everyone for the advice.
I know the 8k tax credit ends at the end of the month, but that was not a concern with us when it came to buying a house.

I really liked the advice on the ceilings as I always liked high ceilings myself. I don't think it would be an issue due to our location. I am now debating this one. I though living in Central Florida I would not have to worry much about the heating bill but since this winter has been unusually cold for us I will have to keep that in mind.

As far as steep drive ways vs. snow goes, I am sure we will have no problems with that lol.

Do you really want to have a baby and a mortgage while you are still in school?

Let me be more specific, I finish school in the beginning of September and have an excellent job already lined up with great maternity benefits. Since I have been working for the company (just in a different department) for nearly two years, they already know of my plans and are on board.
Our lease is not up for another year (We just renewed it) so right now we are shopping around and looking at our options.
In other words mortgage and baby but not in school.

 

[caspur]

I'm going to echo the response for a multiple car garage. I don't know if it is an American thing, but a 3 or 4 car garage + workshop will ALWAYS sell for more. Doesn't matter what part of the country you are in, but big garages hold resale value.

Bathrooms are king. Notice that expensive houses have more bathrooms than bedrooms? Once you have 3 kids and a wife taking showers at the same time, you'll understand.

Of course, as the previous posters mentioned, logistics, location, school district, financing, all that good stuff.

edit-sorry last line was gross.