Your first time home buying mistakes?

[MrDudeMan]

Is it true that real estate agents have access to listings that non-realtors don't, or gain access to listings faster than non-realtors?

I've never bought a home before, but have done some casual searching and have found websites that overlay MLS listings on top of a map. Are these websites up to date?

Some non-realtor friends of mine told me that going with a realtor is good because they get new listings much sooner than these websites pick them up. They also said that if houses are selling quickly, then you may never even see a lot of what comes on the market if you don't use a realtor because the houses aren't for sale long enough to be picked up by the aggregator websites.

Also is it true that the MLS database used to only be accessible by realtors under any circumstances?

Zillow and all similar sites directly query from MLS. Real estate agents, as far as I know, have no special access that allows them to view properties that would otherwise be unavailable to you or me.

You can also directly view the MLS database. Some people also don't post their houses on MLS.

I've found multiple houses that have been listed for less than five days on Zillow. There's a lot of misinformation out there, so it doesn't surprise me that people have told you that.

Another huge reason why realtors are a bad idea is because they sometimes won't show houses that pay low commission. If you put on the MLS form that you're paying 2% instead of 3%, some realtors won't even mention your house to their clients. To beat this, I put that I was paying 3% and then informed the agent who showed that house that he was going to have to get it from his clients. He was pissed, but I asked him if he would have shown the house if it said 0% and he of course said no. What other choice did I have? The whole system is fucked. People should pay the agent they hire and not expect this complicated mess to sort itself out later. If you want to buy a house, you should have to pay for the agent out of your own pocket instead of making the seller do it. I refuse to play that game and it has worked extremely well for me. To date, I've saved over $60k by either not using realtors or forcing the issue of not paying for the ones who were involved but out of my control.

 

[JMapleton]

Zillow and all similar sites directly query from MLS. Real estate agents, as far as I know, have no special access that allows them to view properties that would otherwise be unavailable to you or me.

You can also directly view the MLS database. Some people also don't post their houses on MLS.

I've found multiple houses that have been listed for less than five days on Zillow. There's a lot of misinformation out there, so it doesn't surprise me that people have told you that.

Another huge reason why realtors are a bad idea is because they sometimes won't show houses that pay low commission. If you put on the MLS form that you're paying 2% instead of 3%, some realtors won't even mention your house to their clients. To beat this, I put that I was paying 3% and then informed the agent who showed that house that he was going to have to get it from his clients. He was pissed, but I asked him if he would have shown the house if it said 0% and he of course said no. What other choice did I have? The whole system is fucked. People should pay the agent they hire and not expect this complicated mess to sort itself out later. If you want to buy a house, you should have to pay for the agent out of your own pocket instead of making the seller do it. I refuse to play that game and it has worked extremely well for me. To date, I've saved over $60k by either not using realtors or forcing the issue of not paying for the ones who were involved but out of my control.

Unless you are completely unfamiliar with a city, I couldn't imagine why anyone would need a realtor. All the information you need is available to you online and it's very very easy to find a house. And if you've lived in a city for longer than 5 years you should know where you do and do not want to buy.

 

[HumblePie]

I think that's an odd way of looking at it. I budget all my money and don't understand why you would differentiate between items that are "billed" vs. items that are paid for upfront.

Property taxes should absolutely factor into your housing cost calculation, as should any wage taxes a municipality might impose (these are unusual, but I'm moving to Philly soon and will have to pay a wage tax)

In any case, your housing cost for a home you own with a mortgage is generally "PITI" or Principal, Interest, Taxes, and Insurance. This is the number that should be compared to the cost of renting. Utility bills are highly variable, and you should be aware of what they can run whether you're renting or buying.

I was pointing out that the hard and fast rule of mortgage price being 30% of net income is off. One should look at total bills versus net income and decide how much out of their income for the year they want to go towards all their bills. Ideally you want 50% or less. Although most households are closer to 75% or more. From 50% to 75% is pushing it, but can be done if a person can constrain themselves to realize it may take longer to reach savings goals.

Take the average median household income in the US which is like $45K or 4 times the federal poverty level.

So $45K per year is about 10~% federal income tax and if a single person household, no federal subsidy on healthcare costs at the exchanges. So about $40K to spend each year. I say ideally you want only 50% of your budget going to bills which is about $20K per year. Lets do some math on basic bills people tend to have minus rent/housing costs so we can fill in that gap later. These are averages I remember looking up.

Phone = $800/yr
TV = $600/yr
Internet = $600/yr
Current debt = $1200/yr (credit card, student loans, and misc debt)
Car + Gas + Maintenance + Insurance = $3000/yr + $2800/yr + $1000/yr + $1200/yr
Groceries = $4800/yr

That right there is already $16,000 per year. Which doesn't leave much for housing costs for someone making $45k a year. Of course, if someone is willing to take mass transportation, cut out an amenity or two like TV/internet, and live off ramen without eating out, then one can cut costs greatly. Typically transportation costs, housing costs, and groceries are the biggest bills for most people that aren't dealing with health issues. With what I listed thus far, the average person is spending almost 50% of their income with considering housing costs. Take typical lowis middle end average rent at $800/mo and that's another $9600 on top. Making total on bills to be $25,600. Even renting most people still pay electricity costs as well. Which can range in houses as well as rental properties. Least I ever paid in a 600 sq/ft studio apartment was $70/mo for electricity. Which is still another $840/yr. I usually average around $110/mo though in rentals and my house is averaging $150/mo right now. Rental apartments you don't have to usually factor in water/trash in many places as it is built into the rent. Some apartment places I've lived you do pay water/sewage/trash, and all rental houses you most certainly do. Water/sewage/trash averages for me to be around $80/mo when I had to pay for it. So another $960.

When you add in the misc housing (elec, water, and such), its another $840/yr-$2500/yr average depending on rental unit agreement and location. Pushing that 75% of net income for bills.

For someone to live in a house + property tax around here with only a $800/mo combined cost... It's about a $95K home..... which are REALLY ghetto around here. Many places in America you aren't even going to find homes that cheap that aren't made out of cardboard anymore or considered zoned for demolition. No builder is making houses that cheap anywhere that's for sure. So any home you buy for that amount is going to be old and run down..... Which is going to come with additional bills for fixing it up. Unless you don't mind living in a crappy ghetto house that you don't want to spend money on.

So a person/household making $45K a year is not really good candidate for buying a house. Renting is the smarter thing to do as damn near any house they buy is not going to be one that could be a possible investment.

Anyhow, I've rambled on a bit. But that is basically how I did my math in determining how much "house" I could buy. I looked at all the average costs and tried to consider even some possible "oops" costs when buying my house.

 

[HumblePie]

Zillow and all similar sites directly query from MLS. Real estate agents, as far as I know, have no special access that allows them to view properties that would otherwise be unavailable to you or me.

You can also directly view the MLS database. Some people also don't post their houses on MLS.

I've found multiple houses that have been listed for less than five days on Zillow. There's a lot of misinformation out there, so it doesn't surprise me that people have told you that.

Another huge reason why realtors are a bad idea is because they sometimes won't show houses that pay low commission. If you put on the MLS form that you're paying 2% instead of 3%, some realtors won't even mention your house to their clients. To beat this, I put that I was paying 3% and then informed the agent who showed that house that he was going to have to get it from his clients. He was pissed, but I asked him if he would have shown the house if it said 0% and he of course said no. What other choice did I have? The whole system is fucked. People should pay the agent they hire and not expect this complicated mess to sort itself out later. If you want to buy a house, you should have to pay for the agent out of your own pocket instead of making the seller do it. I refuse to play that game and it has worked extremely well for me. To date, I've saved over $60k by either not using realtors or forcing the issue of not paying for the ones who were involved but out of my control.

AFAIK, Zillow doesn't query the MLS database at all. Listings on Zillow are posted by agents after they pull them from MLS. So listings in MLS don't always show on Zillow. And people can post there own listings to Zillow which would make them show up there instead of MLS. So it is not exactly a good relation of data to each other. So realtors do have access to info you won't find on online sites as they do guard their MLS access from such sites as Zillow to a degree.

 

[Special K]

AFAIK, Zillow doesn't query the MLS database at all. Listings on Zillow are posted by agents after they pull them from MLS. So listings in MLS don't always show on Zillow. And people can post there own listings to Zillow which would make them show up there instead of MLS. So it is not exactly a good relation of data to each other. So realtors do have access to info you won't find on online sites as they do guard their MLS access from such sites as Zillow to a degree.

But if the MLS is a publicly accessible database then shouldn't all websites querying this data theoretically display it at the same time?

 

[Blackjack200]

Zillow and all similar sites directly query from MLS. Real estate agents, as far as I know, have no special access that allows them to view properties that would otherwise be unavailable to you or me.

You can also directly view the MLS database. Some people also don't post their houses on MLS.

I've found multiple houses that have been listed for less than five days on Zillow. There's a lot of misinformation out there, so it doesn't surprise me that people have told you that.

Another huge reason why realtors are a bad idea is because they sometimes won't show houses that pay low commission. If you put on the MLS form that you're paying 2% instead of 3%, some realtors won't even mention your house to their clients. To beat this, I put that I was paying 3% and then informed the agent who showed that house that he was going to have to get it from his clients. He was pissed, but I asked him if he would have shown the house if it said 0% and he of course said no. What other choice did I have? The whole system is fucked. People should pay the agent they hire and not expect this complicated mess to sort itself out later. If you want to buy a house, you should have to pay for the agent out of your own pocket instead of making the seller do it. I refuse to play that game and it has worked extremely well for me. To date, I've saved over $60k by either not using realtors or forcing the issue of not paying for the ones who were involved but out of my control.

AFAIK, Zillow doesn't query the MLS database at all. Listings on Zillow are posted by agents after they pull them from MLS. So listings in MLS don't always show on Zillow. And people can post there own listings to Zillow which would make them show up there instead of MLS. So it is not exactly a good relation of data to each other. So realtors do have access to info you won't find on online sites as they do guard their MLS access from such sites as Zillow to a degree.

But if the MLS is a publicly accessible database then shouldn't all websites querying this data theoretically display it at the same time?

There is no monolithic "MLS" in the United States. There are almost a thousand regional MLS's and RE agents pay an annual fee for each one they want access to. Zillow and Trulia went out and negotiated with each of the individual MLS's to show summary listing information. I imagine the initial terms involved a licensing fee, but now that the sites are so big and have more leverage, that could be a thing of the past.

I have looked closely into all of this as I have a real estate business and there is no easy way to get MLS data.

And I don't think any of the MLS's are public at all.

 

[sportage]

My advice.....
Do not get in a hurry.
Do not sell out or trade off your basic requirements with thinking you can put up with flaws that will later cause you to hate your home and drive you totally crazy both financially and emotionally.
Like settling on a yard way too big to maintain.
A driveway much too steep to navigate during the winter.
A one car garage when you know you really needed a two car.
A house needing a lot of work or upkeep.

And my favorite... Settling for a looooong commute to and from work, thinking you will get use to that long drive every day, day after day, month after month, year after year, and realizing way too soon you never will get use to it ever.
And you despise that drive more and more with each and every passing day.

And don't fall into this false security that a home inspector will do all the hard work for you.
They miss ALOT when it comes to home inspection.A LOT !!!!!
For example, buying a quaint little home built around the 1950s most likely will not have the proper sewer plumbing from the house to the street.
During that era, after the war, steel and metal was expensive and hard to come by.
So home builders used this crap cardboard coated with tar as under ground sewer piping.
Fine back then, but now many homes built during the 1950s find that cheap shit sewer piping collapsing.
Or tree roots destroying the piping.
Replacing that sewer line will definitely cost the owner tens of thousands of dollars to replace with metal sewer piping.
A home inspector probably will not help with finding that flaw before you buy.
You need to investigate city records for that property on your own, to make sure you are not buying a huge headache in the making.

If you buy any house built around the 50s, have a sewer company stick a camera down the line to determine the make of the sewer line and it's condition.
Costs about $150 - $250 and well worth it when purchasing that quaint older home.
Those leave it to beaver type of homes with the cute white pillar front porch and the upper level bedrooms, in those quiet old fashion maple tree in the front yard neighborhoods.
You know, just like in the movies.

If you don't find a house with exactly the basics you want, do not give up or settle for a flawed property, keep looking.
Experience, you shall find something even better and more perfect will come along just when you were about to give up all hope.
Then you will thank your lucky starts that you did not settle for something you know wasn't exactly what you wanted in the first place, but in desperation committed on regardless.

I've seen and heard all the horror stories. My family is, or was in the real estate business for decades. Some of them are still.

 

[MrDudeMan]

AFAIK, Zillow doesn't query the MLS database at all. Listings on Zillow are posted by agents after they pull them from MLS. So listings in MLS don't always show on Zillow. And people can post there own listings to Zillow which would make them show up there instead of MLS. So it is not exactly a good relation of data to each other. So realtors do have access to info you won't find on online sites as they do guard their MLS access from such sites as Zillow to a degree.

You're right. I thought it did, but this link says otherwise. I know there are other sites that directly query MLS, though.

There is no monolithic "MLS" in the United States. There are almost a thousand regional MLS's and RE agents pay an annual fee for each one they want access to. Zillow and Trulia went out and negotiated with each of the individual MLS's to show summary listing information. I imagine the initial terms involved a licensing fee, but now that the sites are so big and have more leverage, that could be a thing of the past.

I have looked closely into all of this as I have a real estate business and there is no easy way to get MLS data.

And I don't think any of the MLS's are public at all.

I see. That's new information for me, but I'm not sure it changes anything. Every house we've ever considering buying was listed on Zillow as well as whichever version of MLS services the local area. I think people who sell houses these days without an agent make sure their house is listed on craigslist, zillow, etc. just as rigorously as some agents will do the same. I certainly did.

There's also FSBO.com to help with MLS listings sans realtor.

 

[RockinZ28]

Are there any major cons to buying a brand new home?

A lot of what I'm seeing in my area are brand new homes for the same or less price than 5-20 year old homes, with features being very similar.

Advantages I see are everything will be brand new, HVAC, roof, plumbing, electrical, carpet etc. Homes come with a 10 year manufacturer warranty. They're energy efficient qualified, better insulation and newer equipment, so hopefully lower utility bills. Shouldn't have any pests or mold. Everything is up to the latest code. If I want to sell in 10 years, I'm selling a 10 year old home, not 15-30 years old. Think on some I can even choose finishing touches or upgrades before completion. Plus don't have to deal with any seller shenanigans such as them finding a home before completing the sale.

Seems kinda like people are trying to sell their used car for the price a dealer will sell a new one. Land value out here is worthless, so just about your entire property value is based on the home.

 

[jaedaliu]

Thankfully I didn't have to learn the lesson the hard way, but I've seen people that have.....it's not pretty.

There is a couple of general "DO NOT ATTEMPT" things I would recommend.

a) DO NOT let the bank/realtor or ANYONE other then you to define your Budget or tell you what you can afford. Remember YOU are the only one that knows if you are ready or not. Banks/Realtors just want to sell you stuff, just because you CAN, doesn't mean you should. If Bank tells you, here have 300k and you can only afford 200k......ignore the bank.

b) DO NOT buy a house as an investment. Houses are places to live in and all too many think of it as an investment. Although some have been successful (key words: some)

c) Be ready financially. This means, you have 6-9month emergency fund, mortgage doesn't reach more than 30% of your income (post taxes) and you have 20% down payment. I know many here will argue about 20% down, but I think it's a good pre requisite as it teaches people to save money and get into good financial habits. It's not a must, but it's GOOD to have extra equity in your home.

d) lay off HGTV and do not buy houses for others. Open concepts....entertaining etc is all BS. You need to define what it is that you want, not what others like. Entertaining makes up 1% or less of the time you actually live there. HGTV will also make you upgrade EVERYTHING in your house for no reason.

That's all for now.....

A and C are very closely tied. How much house you can afford is directly related to how much you want to pay per month, how long you want to have the mortgage, etc.

Also, just like in A, adjust the values in C as it fits you. As you make more (or less) money, the relative amount that is smart for you to spend on housing is going to be different.

And, B. Housing is a great investment if you know where to buy. But it doesn't make sense as a first house if you're paying a mortgage through rentals and paying your own rent somewhere else. That type of risk usually isn't a good idea.

 

[vi edit]

Are there any major cons to buying a brand new home?

A lot of what I'm seeing in my area are brand new homes for the same or less price than 5-20 year old homes, with features being very similar.

It's all about the builder and the community it's built in. There are *A LOT* of miserably built homes in the last 15 years. Everything is built to a price point...windows, doors, fixtures, flooring, mechanicals, ect. Looks good in pictures and on a walk through but then you spend a little more time and realize just how cheap the place really is.

You just really need to know the builder and be involved in the process if possible. There's still some really nice homes being built, but you need to look for them. New homes get what you said - updated looking fixtures, prewired with modern cabling, and all new mechanicals.

Many newer homes in the midwest (when I'm used to the market) get postage stamp size lots, are jam packed together, have very little mature trees/landscaping and are just really generic looking. You also run into situations where some communities are building so fast that schools can't keep up with the demand and classes are overcrowded and the school systems struggle.

In older subdivisions the boom/bust of school districts is not much of an issue and it's a more stable system that doesn't have to account to large fluxes of students.

When it comes time to sell, older subdivisions may have more of a charm or appeal, are closer to areas of interest, and may have better schools. But it's really just very location specific. I've lived/looked in several cities where older neighborhoods are highly desired because of proximity to universities or major employers. Houses get bought up almost instantly there. But then in other cities where older neighborhoods are desired because of the charm of the homes, but the school districts suck and they are a pocket of charm surrounded by blocks of gang banger chaos. It takes the right person to buy those and they can sit for months.

In the 'burbs you are on the market with a billion other places that look just like yours and it takes that uniqueness out of your property. Buyers have a lot of other options.

 

[Zee]

Is it true that real estate agents have access to listings that non-realtors don't, or gain access to listings faster than non-realtors?

I've never bought a home before, but have done some casual searching and have found websites that overlay MLS listings on top of a map. Are these websites up to date?

Some non-realtor friends of mine told me that going with a realtor is good because they get new listings much sooner than these websites pick them up. They also said that if houses are selling quickly, then you may never even see a lot of what comes on the market if you don't use a realtor because the houses aren't for sale long enough to be picked up by the aggregator websites.

Also is it true that the MLS database used to only be accessible by realtors under any circumstances?

that's half true. They get new exclusive listings. before it hits the general public radar. It's not related to speed.

 

[BikeJunkie]

Honestly, not to rain on your parade, but I wish I knew that by the time I was in my 30's, I'd wish I had the freedom of not owning a home. I love the thought of moving to a new area every couple of years and experiencing the country in 2 - 3 year chunks at at time.

So yeah, that's what I'd do

 

[HumblePie]

There is no monolithic "MLS" in the United States. There are almost a thousand regional MLS's and RE agents pay an annual fee for each one they want access to. Zillow and Trulia went out and negotiated with each of the individual MLS's to show summary listing information. I imagine the initial terms involved a licensing fee, but now that the sites are so big and have more leverage, that could be a thing of the past.

I have looked closely into all of this as I have a real estate business and there is no easy way to get MLS data.

And I don't think any of the MLS's are public at all.

Correct. I never said it was a monolithic database. I was just trying to keep my explanation simple. As you stated, MLS databases are regional. My friend did the MLS database for South Texas Realtors Association (sp?). But it's certainly not a publically added. Many realtors take some of their listings and upload them to sites like Zillow, but not all of them are forced to comply.

As stated, in some locations Zillow is far more accurate than others. Especially if the local MLS setup allows for Zillow to access them. But I'll state that is still RARE. Most of the time they get a subset database that gets setup for them. Speaking from experience here. Sometimes data in that subset is purposefully screwed up too. Just to allow realtors to keep a themselves as an attractive feature to use for the real estate market for the average person.

 

[alkemyst]

There are limitations with what is online as far as MLS goes. This is a good explanation to that and what the MLS is all about.

http://www.agents4homebuyers.com/mls-data/mls-data-limitations-of-public-systems/

 

[HumblePie]

There are limitations with what is online as far as MLS goes. This is a good explanation to that and what the MLS is all about.

http://www.agents4homebuyers.com/mls-data/mls-data-limitations-of-public-systems/

The point of the discussion is that not everything has every listing or even all listings being accurate. Zillow and online services get you some listings, but not all. Realtor access through MLS will usually get you listings that Zillow and other online sites won't have. They do that as a tangible benefit for having a realtor agent. But not everything is in MLS either. So that is why having a broad base as possible for listings will help anyone in buying a home to a degree. Of course not going with a realtor means usually not having access to the local MLS. That may not matter if what you are looking for is listed in other places like Zillow. For some that is true, and for other that is not.

*EDIT* A few things worth pointing out in that site as they describe the pitfalls though of online MLS like sites such as Zillow are the following.

1) Seller agents typically list properties for sale through Zillow as I said earlier. These listings are rarely ever FSOB (for sale by owner). This is because the seller agent hopes to find a buyer to buy the house without a buyers agent. The seller agent has already contracted with the seller that they will get a commission based off the sale that they split with a buyer agent. But if there is no buyer agent, then they get the whole commission. They hope to also lure in buyers without agents that don't know the true value of the property/home and will overpay so they get a bigger commission as well as keeping both halves.

2) Zillow listings don't display the type of sale all the time. It won't let you know it's a short-list sale for example. The local MLS listing will have that in there.

Zillow is a sellers tool, not a buyers tool. Don't mistake it for anything more.

There are some sites that are gaining popularity like FSBO.com but a buyer has to be willing to still do more homework than normal without a buyer agent. First time home buyers usually don't know how to find out of a property they are buying in a FSBO has added liens, or is a short-sale, or has some other complication to it.

 

[marvdmartian]

Make sure you check out the neighborhood at various times of the day. I always seemed to be here during the time that my neighbor was still at work, and her dogs were locked up inside her house.

Imagine how pleased I was, to discover that she had an obnoxious German Shepherd bitch, who felt as though the entire neighborhood belonged to her, and would bark incessantly the entire time I was out in my yard, if she spotted me.

That dog died last year. No, I had nothing to do with it, she was just old. Until then, I was pretty much banned from using my back yard, unless I was wearing hearing protection. Yes, it was that bad. The neighbor saw nothing wrong with her dog's behavior, either, and said she was "just being protective".

 

[maziwanka]

just wanted to say this thread is excellent and has been marked for when i'm ready to actually purchase.

the only reason i feel i would go with a re agent is to save me time in the search process - though that is a lot of money to pay for the "convenience" of using a re agent.

 

[Zee]

just wanted to say this thread is excellent and has been marked for when i'm ready to actually purchase.

the only reason i feel i would go with a re agent is to save me time in the search process - though that is a lot of money to pay for the "convenience" of using a re agent.

its the right decision for the most part. Think of it as a giant union for seller and buyers. You can try to go solo outside of the union, but they band together to control the market outside of independent and very limited FSBO's.

 

[nageov3t]

Make sure you check out the neighborhood at various times of the day.

that's solid advice all-around... I got a bit screwed in my first ever apartment because of that.

when I was first touring the place, the guy who owned the building assured me that parking was never a problem and at the time of the tour (middle of the afternoon on a weekday), the street was wide open so I didn't think much about it.

once I was actually living there, though, and working the night shift (4 pm - 12 am) it became a nightly issue that I'd get home and spend 20 minutes looking for parking only to end up 5-6 blocks away.

 

[z1ggy]

Now that I've seen the heating home thread here in OT- I somewhat regret not holding out for a nat gas home, or a newer home with better insulation. Right now paying $375/month during the winter on heating costs for a 1000sqft house. Buddy with similar house on nat gas spending about $130-150 per month.

 

[apac]

Don't ignore your instincts. I was under contract on a house that I thought was pretty good, but I had this feeling that there was something wrong with it. I wrote the feeling off to nerves. The home inspection came back with some problems, which the seller wanted to negotiate on (and address). I just didn't like the feel of it and my realtor and I decided to walk away.

6 months later the house is still for sale, and listed at a price $25K below what I offered (and I offered under the list price at the time). I guess no one liked the look of those problems. Either someone lost a lot of money on that flip, or I would have been ripped off.

I learned a lot from that experience, though. Ended up with a house that was cheaper, in a way better neighborhood, and had no structural issues.

 

[cavemanmoron]

We're starting our preapproval process in the next week or two and I'm looking for some real world data. What better place than ATOT?

What do you wish you knew before you bought your first home?

Any horror stories?

Next time, off street parking.

 

[cbrunny]

We're starting our preapproval process in the next week or two and I'm looking for some real world data. What better place than ATOT?

What do you wish you knew before you bought your first home?

Any horror stories?

I wish I knew where I would want to live two years down the road.

We bought a great house in 2012, and I've recently realised that I need to explore different employment opportunities. I'm starting a new job next week in a city that's ~20 minutes farther away than where I work right now. If I would have known that I'd be doing that two years ago, I would have bought in a different location.

My partner too, she is in a similar situation.

 

[rednas]

Buying a home has been on my mind recently and many of the comments in this thread and gave me a number of additional things to consider.