house hunting - tips anyone??

luvbug00 wrote: Alright homies ,this is our first time house hunting and we wanted to know what kind of things to look out for, both cosmetically and with the relitor?? Aside from common sense safty what other safty factors that can escape ones mind should we be aware of?? we are on the hunt for a min. of 3 bedroom and 2 bath place with a yard. several possiblities have sprung up but we shall see.. i just wanted some advice before jumping into the fire

Hillbilly Housewife replied: Best piece of advice anyone ever gave me was not to jump on a house just because it's your first house together. Take your time, keep looking... and the realtor is trained in making you make a quick decision... so when he says there's another offer, there may or may not be. If yu jump on the first house you like... you'll be miserable in 3 months.

Of course, could be completely karma based and you get the first hosue you like and it turns out to be great.. lol

austins mom replied: Take your time. Even if you find one you love. Put it on your list and keep looking.

sparkys2boys replied: Also stick to your guns. Stick to your price no matter how tempting it may be to go a lil higher. Also look at a propery more then once if you really like it. And dont let your realtor rush you through it. We used to ask the realtor to wait outside until we walked through first alone, that way we could say what we wanted to one another and not feel bad because he was there. Don't forget to think about what the neighbors may be like, you can see alot on how they keep there property as to what they are like, remember things like school districts and check into busing etc if that will come into play for you. A good idea is to have other people view the house with you, ex... friends, family as they may see stuff you over look or offer it sight into things!! GL with it!

lovemy2 replied:


Especially when it comes to price - don't even go into a house that is over what you know you want to spend because inevitably you will fall in love with it and either buy it and be really house poor or you will come to your senses but nothing else will compare....

And have fun - I loved looking at houses and even though I am still in love with the house we bought I was disappointed to not be able to walk through any more houses

lisar replied:
Great advice. However my realtor walked thru with us and I said what I wanted to say. I dont care what they think. She knew if I didnt like it cause I would flat out tell her. It isnt her house so isnt gona offend her KWIM? She is there to help you find the one you want. Alot of realtors are diffrent. Mine was the kind that would ask what did you think of the house I would tell her and she would ask me if I wanted to keep it on the list or take it off. She never asked me if I wanted to put in an offer on a house. When I was ready to put in an offer I just came out and said it and she fine with that. She never asked me though.

luvbug00 replied:

we have already eliminated several places we have peaked at due to neighbors. to me a bad neighbor is enough to say no, no matter how pretty the house is.

MyBabeMaddie replied: I just wanted to say Have fun! I think its so fun to look at houses.

grapfruit replied: I agree with what everyone else said but want to add a few things.

Find somebody you trust that knows a lot about electric/structure/ect. And have them walk through w/you as well. That way you'd know realistically if it's a "dud" house. We looked at some that we liked but had some major electrical issues, so we walked away. (Wire is expensive). The one we purchased needed some upgrades right away, but it was small enough it took Tim and his dad a day.

Measure the rooms to make sure your furniture fits. My friend had to buy a whole new living room suite b/c it didn't fit through the door to go back to their "den".

Be realistic with what you'll need to do. You may say "Oh this just needs some paint". "Just some paint" isn't easy or cheap if you do it right (which is why most of our walls are still white )

And ENJOY We looked for like 6 months at more then 50 houses. It ended up starting to suck.

What we did was made a list of "must haves" (like a garage) and "would like to have" (like 1.5+ bathrooms). Then we talked to our realtor and she didn't even show us houses that didn't "qualify". Also, I "prequalified" houses. Meaning I'd go onto a realtor website and find a list of houses, then I'd drive past to check out the neighborhood and see if I liked the house. I knocked out a lot that way.

OH, and beware of foreclosed on houses. Yikes! EVERY one we went in was destroyed and smelled awful b/c it'd been closed up and nobody cleaned when they left. Maybe it was just our price range, but some of them she just opened the door and let us walk through on our own they we so bad.

And I'd leave Mya out of the house hunting until you guys find something you REALLY like. She'll inevitably get attached to something you guys hate and you'll break down and get that one. (we did that to my mom when she bought the last house, she hated it )

MommyToAshley replied: I agree with the advice already given.

Find a realtor or buyers agent (since you are not selling a house too), that you like and trust. Our realtor actually pointed out why would shouldn't buy a particualr house that we were interested in... now that is a realtor that was out for our best interest.

Figure out what your priorities are and what you are not willing to compromise on. If a big backyard is important, then don't compromise on that becuase you like the rest of the house. Also, don't compromise on the living space. We had specific needs and only certain floor plans would work for us. You can always change the carpet, paint, or seed the backyard... but it is much more expensive to change the floor plan of a house.

I agree with taking your time. We looked for 6 months before we finally found our house. The more houses you look at, the more you will realize what type house you want, what neighborhood, and really narrow it down.

Have fun! I always liked going to the open houses.

Keep us posted on how it's going!

luvmykids replied: Ditto to everything else, but ESPECIALLY the budget....people get over qualified all the time. Maybe technically you can afford it, but do you really want to if it means you don't have two pennies to rub together?

Insist on a home inspection. Period.

And don't let the realtor talk you into a house you don't like....we had a realtor once who kept insisting we just couldn't find a better deal than this one house, and when she'd show us others all she did was talk about why that one house was better. Beware if a realtor only shows you listings by them or their company They should be working to find the house for you, not unload one on you.

momofone replied: age of roof, furnace distance of schools. Good Luck and have fun hope you find something great!

grapfruit replied:
Oh yeah, part of our criteria was "New roof, new windows" Meaning he didn't want to have to replace either of those. It took a while, but we finally found it!

You can get a furnance installed for like $2-3K (probably closer to 2), so that's not a HUGE big ticket item. But windows, stay away from that if you can!