As the title says. I am curious as to how many houses you checked out before you decided on buying. Also, how long did the whole process take before you found the right one?
Homeowners: How many homes did you look at before buying?
- Thread starter PanzerIV
- Start date
HomeBrewerDude
Lifer
- Jan 18, 2001
- 14,465
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Yes, I've discovered yet another useful facet of the internet. I've found many on my own that way, though usually the pictures on the 'net make them look more appealing than they are in real life.
Vic
Elite Member
- Jun 12, 2001
- 50,415
- 14,305
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Take as long as you need, but know what you are looking for. You don't want to buy a house you don't like, but you don't want to be indecisive and miss out on a good house either. I suggest making a realistic list of what you like, what you need, what you want, and then what you can get in your price range.
HomeBrewerDude
Lifer
- Jan 18, 2001
- 14,465
- 1
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looking up the assessed value is a good idea too. our city has a nice webpage with the info.... its a decent way of knowing relative value of a property.
searched through hundreds online
we drove by ~35
went into ~20 with our realtors
i am waiting to find out what the counter-offer is from offer to buy a house is, they are supposed to fax the counter offer to our realtor by 5 pm (.5 hr from now)
i am nervous, we really want this house, but i don't want to overpay
*edit*
heard from the realtor , they countered and asked for 15 days after the close , so they can give notice to the people in the house they are buying so they can move out, its a big choo choo train :Q
we drove by ~35
went into ~20 with our realtors
i am waiting to find out what the counter-offer is from offer to buy a house is, they are supposed to fax the counter offer to our realtor by 5 pm (.5 hr from now)
i am nervous, we really want this house, but i don't want to overpay
*edit*
heard from the realtor , they countered and asked for 15 days after the close , so they can give notice to the people in the house they are buying so they can move out, its a big choo choo train :Q
HomeBrewerDude
Lifer
- Jan 18, 2001
- 14,465
- 1
- 0
Interesting Roger. That is a long ass time to be patient. Glad it worked out for you. What was it specifically about that house you were drawn to?
No, two towns over, talked to the owner (A elderly man), when he passed away, I bought it at his Estate sale.
Shape, size, property and it was right next to the town's green (old historic Milford)
I must have done drivebys of a couple hundred and did walk throughs of around 20. I looked at so many I had to start keeping a folder with all their listing numbers and print out of the adds off Realtor.com so I could remember which ones I already looked at and what I didn't like about them. Took me 6 months and probably drove my realtor crazy 
. She didn't have to do that much work though. I looked up all the houses myself on Realtor.com and just called her after one passed the driveby inspection.
. She didn't have to do that much work though. I looked up all the houses myself on Realtor.com and just called her after one passed the driveby inspection.
-Casual viewing (driving by and picking up flyers, shopping online, etc.) - too many to count
-Walking tours (including new neighborhood open houses) - 15-20
-Very serious about (multiple viewings, almost made offer on) - 3
-Made an offer - 1
The whole shopping process took us about 8 months. We weren't in a major rush as we were in the same city and the longer we waited the more we could pack away into savings. Once we made an offer it took about a month and a half. It would've only taken a month to close normally, but we found out a few things they were trying to pull the wool over our eyes on and made them address those issues first - and also threated to pull our offer. We were able to lowball them as a result because we were the first serious offer they'd had in about 6 months and they just wanted to sell at that point because no one was living there anymore.
I miss house shopping. My wife and I really had a good time during the whole process. It was fun to go ride around and look at homes and laugh at the price of some and get excited about others. The house we're in now was in one of the very first neighborhoods we looked in which we originally didn't think we'd be able to afford. But after shopping around for several months and coming back to find out that the house we liked was still on the market we finally realized that if we could get it at a lowball price that it wouldn't be much more than most of the smaller 'first' homes we were looking at. I'm glad we were patient.
-Walking tours (including new neighborhood open houses) - 15-20
-Very serious about (multiple viewings, almost made offer on) - 3
-Made an offer - 1
The whole shopping process took us about 8 months. We weren't in a major rush as we were in the same city and the longer we waited the more we could pack away into savings. Once we made an offer it took about a month and a half. It would've only taken a month to close normally, but we found out a few things they were trying to pull the wool over our eyes on and made them address those issues first - and also threated to pull our offer. We were able to lowball them as a result because we were the first serious offer they'd had in about 6 months and they just wanted to sell at that point because no one was living there anymore.
I miss house shopping. My wife and I really had a good time during the whole process. It was fun to go ride around and look at homes and laugh at the price of some and get excited about others. The house we're in now was in one of the very first neighborhoods we looked in which we originally didn't think we'd be able to afford. But after shopping around for several months and coming back to find out that the house we liked was still on the market we finally realized that if we could get it at a lowball price that it wouldn't be much more than most of the smaller 'first' homes we were looking at. I'm glad we were patient.
my case is not that usuall. We looked at used house for about 3 month and then found brand new build about to start of about 38 house so we got it there and it took about 6-7 month before it was completed.
HeroOfPellinor
Lifer
- Dec 27, 2001
- 11,272
- 1
- 0
looked at 50-60 online and about 25 walk throughs with realtor ... still haven't found one yet ... it's so depressing up in NorCal.
Looked at quite a few online, had my dad drive by a few (we were buying the house "online" from out of state, hehe), visited one in person. Whole process was pretty fast. Found out about property from realtor by email/phone thursday night, drove ten hours friday evening, visited property/house saturday, drove home sunday, put down an offer monday morning.
Three.
We were looking to rent until we found something perfect ( I was moving fro Nasvhille, TN to NJ to be with the b/f) cause no one would rent to me with three cats. We spent one afternoon looking around and we saw this place cause the sign outside said: Open House. So we came in and looked. It was 1/2 mile away from my father's g/f who was recovering from cancer and we figured I could be close enuf to help take care of her. She died three days after the closing. We had paid in full in cash by then. But if she would have died three days before the closing, I woud have never taken this place.
We were looking to rent until we found something perfect ( I was moving fro Nasvhille, TN to NJ to be with the b/f) cause no one would rent to me with three cats. We spent one afternoon looking around and we saw this place cause the sign outside said: Open House. So we came in and looked. It was 1/2 mile away from my father's g/f who was recovering from cancer and we figured I could be close enuf to help take care of her. She died three days after the closing. We had paid in full in cash by then. But if she would have died three days before the closing, I woud have never taken this place.
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