house hunting - chapter 1

[swingchickie]

today was my first day of house-hunting. i didn't walk away madly in love with any particular place, but it gave me a great idea of what's out there for my budget. and when i told my realtor about the cost of the mortgage payments plus breaking my lease, she agreed that we should stick to the lower end of my range, not be in a rush to buy a place immediately, and try to get my closing closer to november in the hopes that i won't have to pay that stupid $2300 fee to the apartment complex.

so, the places i saw:

#1 - asking price is about $75,000 more than it should be. bright blue astroturf (that fake plastic outdoor carpeting stuff) going up the exterior stairs. broken fence. closets coming off their tracks. and the best part: the lovely overwhelming smell of dog AND cat pee. oh, and cigarette smoke too. no lie, this place will have to have all the carpets ripped out, and the whole place repainted, just to try to get the smell out. big fat NO.

#2 and 3 - townhouses in the same development. very cute, good amount of space, gorgeous decks out back. awkward living room layout: the living and dining rooms are one big room together, but the living room side has no wall space to put a sofa or entertainment center, because the 3 walls are taken up by 1. a fireplace, 2. the stairs to the 2nd floor, 3. a big window. so, no way to put my furniture in there logically.

#4 - townhouse designed by the same builder as #2 and 3, in a different complex. so same awful layout. fixtures not as nice (cheap metal closet doors, etc.). previous owner moved out, and decided to leave their "lovely" hot pink satin curtains in the living room.

#5 - ADORABLE rancher right down the street from me. bought 2 years ago by a young couple with good taste who completely renovated it: new siding, new kitchen everything, new hardwood floors throughout, great patio, and 3 of the biggest bedrooms i have ever seen in my life. looked teeny from the street, but was actually 1500 s.f. LOVED it... except 1. there's no basement (which would make it hard to resell), and 2. the backyard was directly backed up to the raised highway, with a hill that sloped up that was covered with trash and branches and crap. would not be easy to resell. but if it were in a different area, and had even a tiny basement, i would have wrestled my own mother for it.

#6 - brand-new townhouse in a far suburb. current owners have only been there a year. very modern, beautiful place... but way too big for me. the place was just big and sterile and i didn't feel comfortable in it as i was walking around.

#7 - smaller townhouse in the same suburb. much better size for me... but the owners had so much crap up everywhere, i just couldn't envision my own stuff there. every wall was completely covered with family photos, every surface had dolls or tchotchkes all over it. the furniture was overstuffed and too big for the rooms, the paint was too bright (pink in the living room... woo). my brain was on overload, and i just couldn't get past it to see the place as mine. so, nope.

so, no big victory today, but i'm not in a rush so i'm not devastated. going to look at 2 places on monday night that look really cool... we'll see!

Comments

[shanabanana.livejournal.com]

Wow! That's a lot of looking!

One of the things I wished that I had done when I started looking at places that I would actually buy (rather than the getting to know the area stuff) was take a checklist with all of my must-haves (w/d, d/w, allows dogs, etc) and do the checklist for each place. I saw so many places that it was hard to keep track of which one had what.

Have fun!

[steven.livejournal.com]

We actually preferred an attic or an extra room for storage, rather than a basement. It seems that every house we looked at -- and there were more than 100 homes, no joke -- any one that had a basement also had evidence of flooding. Even if it's rare, when you get those days where it rains on end, in comes the water, unless you have a sump pump. We concluded that the extra space aboveground was more important.

[swingchickie.livejournal.com]

that's a great point. i've been making notes on the printouts i have of each listing... i just figured that if i loved a place, i'd separate that printout from the others after i saw it.

[swingchickie.livejournal.com]

totally agreed... when i was just out of college and moved my stuff into my mom's basement for a few months until i got an apartment, her basement flooded and almost everything i owned was ruined -- boxes of clothes, hundreds of record albums, photo albums, you name it. problem is, if i want to resell this place in a few years (which i will), i need to get a place that people around here will want. that drives me nuts.

A couple of other things

[the-cook.livejournal.com]

Just my opinion (and others may certainly disagree).

When looking at places, ask for a set of floor plans (to scale with accurate measurements), most realtors have them in a single letter-sized sheet per floor. Useful both to understand the shape of rooms when the furniture is gone (when looking at places that still have folks living in them) and also just to start relating your impressions of space (big, small, just right) to actual dimensions (how big is a 12 X 14 bedroom, as an example). I also found that they helped me assess a place regardless of the decor (more helpful in realizing that the beautifully decorated place was small, poorly laid out, etc).

Decide how you feel about renovation. If you're ok with it, start looking at places based as much on potential as condition (having said that, don't confuse "renovation" with "major structural repairs". A bad roof is not a renovation). I'd also suggest finding a contractor in advance and getting his/her advice on how much work would be needed to make the changes you want (this is distinct from the housing inspection), in effect you're in partnership with your carpenter. OTOH, if you know you don't want to put time and money into renno/rehab, don't talk yourself into that "perfect" place that just needs a bit of work.

Much like the checklist, these kind of up-front decisions help you from talking yourself into something and also help you triage your search. Good realtors also like it because you're not wasting their time.

Also, as others here have said, remember that you'll be looking at a BUNCH of places. N and I are thinking of buying over here in 12 months or so, and we're already beginning our search.

Re: A couple of other things

[swingchickie.livejournal.com]

i'm totally up for renovation, as long as i'm not also mortgaged up to the eyeballs. painting, new carpeting or hardwoods, new kitchen cabinets and bathroom fixtures... i'd be all over that, i think it'd be fun. i'm not looking to, as you said, fix the roof or deal with walls crumbling from a termite problem.

the fact that you're searching so early makes me feel better... i don't want my realtor to feel like she's bringing me all over the place with little return.