I'm looking to purchase i home soon and would like to know some tips a real estate agent or experience home owner could pass on.
Thank you
Thank you
1st Time Home Buy - Any Real Estate Agents around (Tips/Etc)
- Thread starter OneJArpus
- Start date
I'm in the same boat right now, but what are you looking for? What to look for when buying a house or how to handle getting a mortgage?
A couple of things from my home buying experience.
1. I am assuming you want a house with a garage so you can work on your supra. When searching listings tell your agent to also include houses listed with 0 garage space. A lot of times Realtors get lazy and dont always put in the correct garage info. I found my house with a 3 car garage and an old 2 car standalone garage I use as storage, that was listed at 0. Just look at the pictures.
2. Try and look past the peoples stuff/clutter and paint. Look at the structure / layout. If it has a good layout it can sometimes hidden by junk / dirt.
3. Talk to your neighbors. This was my mistake. I did not talk to my would be neighbors and could have found out pertinent information that would have made me pass on my last house. I had to sue the owners to buy it back and would have saved time and money had I asked the neighbors if they knew anything about the house. This also lets you know if they will be good potential neighbors or not if they are friendly or rude.
4. Get a home inspection and add contingencies to your offer.
5. Never ever use the same selling agent as your buying agent to save a few bucks. They always side with the seller to get the sale done.
6. Get your financing/preapproval ahead of time. And factor in property taxes, hidden costs such as utilities and special taxes into your budget. I have a tax for a damn in my area that is $75 every two months tacked on to my water bill.
7. Go to the city and county offices and pull permits for any construction that has been done. An illegal addition can be difficult to deal with. Also, you can get the map for your property line as well and check it out.
8. If you are buying a condo/townhome check the meeting minutes of the homeowners association. My friend got screwed by that one. They had a 40K special assessment going through the HOA that he got hit with a month after buying his condo.
9. Make sure you get a good realtor/broker with a long history of good work. You don't want one that is out there to get your money and thats it. My Broker stood by me 100% with my housing ordeal. My agent and her broker went above and beyond to help me get out of my house after I learned of its material defect. He offered to do the deal of me selling it back to the previous owner commission free and was always available for questions.
Thats all I have the time for right now. Good luck to you.
1. I am assuming you want a house with a garage so you can work on your supra. When searching listings tell your agent to also include houses listed with 0 garage space. A lot of times Realtors get lazy and dont always put in the correct garage info. I found my house with a 3 car garage and an old 2 car standalone garage I use as storage, that was listed at 0. Just look at the pictures.
2. Try and look past the peoples stuff/clutter and paint. Look at the structure / layout. If it has a good layout it can sometimes hidden by junk / dirt.
3. Talk to your neighbors. This was my mistake. I did not talk to my would be neighbors and could have found out pertinent information that would have made me pass on my last house. I had to sue the owners to buy it back and would have saved time and money had I asked the neighbors if they knew anything about the house. This also lets you know if they will be good potential neighbors or not if they are friendly or rude.
4. Get a home inspection and add contingencies to your offer.
5. Never ever use the same selling agent as your buying agent to save a few bucks. They always side with the seller to get the sale done.
6. Get your financing/preapproval ahead of time. And factor in property taxes, hidden costs such as utilities and special taxes into your budget. I have a tax for a damn in my area that is $75 every two months tacked on to my water bill.
7. Go to the city and county offices and pull permits for any construction that has been done. An illegal addition can be difficult to deal with. Also, you can get the map for your property line as well and check it out.
8. If you are buying a condo/townhome check the meeting minutes of the homeowners association. My friend got screwed by that one. They had a 40K special assessment going through the HOA that he got hit with a month after buying his condo.
9. Make sure you get a good realtor/broker with a long history of good work. You don't want one that is out there to get your money and thats it. My Broker stood by me 100% with my housing ordeal. My agent and her broker went above and beyond to help me get out of my house after I learned of its material defect. He offered to do the deal of me selling it back to the previous owner commission free and was always available for questions.
Thats all I have the time for right now. Good luck to you.
^ THIS.
Seriously, there is a LOT of good information in there. Fortunately I've had a pretty good experience in buying my home, it's not perfect, needs a bit of work before I'll move in, but overall, I like it. Take this advice above to heart, this guy knows what he's talking about, and you're talking about getting yourself into a VERY serious situation here, it's not like a car where it's easy enough to flip if you end up not liking it.
Only thing I can say is that you might want to look into a neighborhood that suits you. I found a couple awesome houses that I really liked, but the neighborhood wasn't very Supra friendly due to REALLY steep hills (add snow and you have a recipe for disaster), not to mention I was miles from anything but other houses. If you're a particularly private person, find yourself a particularly private area. My brother lives on top of a hill with about 20-30 other houses, one road in or out, nice and quiet. I would have bought another house in that neighborhood that was for sale if but for the fact they wanted about 30k more than I was approved for. Place had a 4 car garage though, which would have been very conductive to owning a few cars...
Oh, and one last thing to consider, as mentioned above: the layout. Some houses are built by lunatics, with no regard to functional living. This I've found is true of many older homes around here... I think people were just shorter 80 years ago, and probably didn't have furniture and certainly not tv's like we do. For example, we had to put my couch in through the window of my parents' house, because the room I'm living in until moving into my house is in the corner of the house, where the ceiling is too short to walk the couch in vertically, and the hallway bends in such a way that you can't get the couch in lengthwise either.
Anyway, good luck, keep us posted.
Seriously, there is a LOT of good information in there. Fortunately I've had a pretty good experience in buying my home, it's not perfect, needs a bit of work before I'll move in, but overall, I like it. Take this advice above to heart, this guy knows what he's talking about, and you're talking about getting yourself into a VERY serious situation here, it's not like a car where it's easy enough to flip if you end up not liking it.
Only thing I can say is that you might want to look into a neighborhood that suits you. I found a couple awesome houses that I really liked, but the neighborhood wasn't very Supra friendly due to REALLY steep hills (add snow and you have a recipe for disaster), not to mention I was miles from anything but other houses. If you're a particularly private person, find yourself a particularly private area. My brother lives on top of a hill with about 20-30 other houses, one road in or out, nice and quiet. I would have bought another house in that neighborhood that was for sale if but for the fact they wanted about 30k more than I was approved for. Place had a 4 car garage though, which would have been very conductive to owning a few cars...
Oh, and one last thing to consider, as mentioned above: the layout. Some houses are built by lunatics, with no regard to functional living. This I've found is true of many older homes around here... I think people were just shorter 80 years ago, and probably didn't have furniture and certainly not tv's like we do. For example, we had to put my couch in through the window of my parents' house, because the room I'm living in until moving into my house is in the corner of the house, where the ceiling is too short to walk the couch in vertically, and the hallway bends in such a way that you can't get the couch in lengthwise either.
Anyway, good luck, keep us posted.
A few more things to consider.
If you have kids or planning to have kids You may want to be in a neighborhood with great schools.
Also you have to think what your goals for the house is. Is this a long term place to live or a starter house. How much yard work do you want to do. I learned I don't want to do much at all so I don't really want a very big yard in my next house.
TE72 also mentioned some good things. Hills, My car is lowered and scrapes on the driveway. I Have a Bomex front bumper I have in storage until I move again so I don't destroy getting in and out of my driveway. Neighborhood, How much crime is there. How much noise (i.e. right by train tracks or freeways)
For resell ability I would choose a 3 bed 2 bath for a starter home if you can afford. 1 bed and 2 bed houses sell slower and families tend to overlook them. Also, If you are handy around the house you may want to choose the crapiest house in a nice neighborhood and fix it up. Do not buy the nicest house in the crappiest neighborhood.
Again, Good luck to you.
If you have kids or planning to have kids You may want to be in a neighborhood with great schools.
Also you have to think what your goals for the house is. Is this a long term place to live or a starter house. How much yard work do you want to do. I learned I don't want to do much at all so I don't really want a very big yard in my next house.
TE72 also mentioned some good things. Hills, My car is lowered and scrapes on the driveway. I Have a Bomex front bumper I have in storage until I move again so I don't destroy getting in and out of my driveway. Neighborhood, How much crime is there. How much noise (i.e. right by train tracks or freeways)
For resell ability I would choose a 3 bed 2 bath for a starter home if you can afford. 1 bed and 2 bed houses sell slower and families tend to overlook them. Also, If you are handy around the house you may want to choose the crapiest house in a nice neighborhood and fix it up. Do not buy the nicest house in the crappiest neighborhood.
Again, Good luck to you.
I've chosen 3 neighborhood's I've been around for the past 20 yrs. They are nice and some what up scaled area's. The schools in the area are very good. Insurance on Auto is cheaper there then my current town. The houses I've been looking at will need a finished basement, 1-3 car garage, Garage is A MUST! I will not buy a house I do not have a garage i want it for my supra because i spend 100 a month storing my car in someone else's garage and its a PITA to drive 30 minutes to get my supra when i want to drive it. I want a moderate backyard but nothing too big, and it will be a multifamily house. My sister & I are the ones who are going to get a home. We both have good credit, we are looking at how much down payment we will need and i will most def see if i can get the seller to pay the closing cost if possible. I am in no rush to jump into ANY house so that is a good thing, but if a house gets inspected and comes up A+++++ and is a great deal i'll jump on it if i <3 the house... I will be visiting the houses 2-5 times if i really like it to see if i missed anything the first few times and i will have my digital camera. I thank you all for all the tips you've have given me. If there is anything else let me know. I will be putting my agent to the test and see if he really wants to help or just wants some money.
Sounds like a good plan. If you can muster the 20% down payment you will have a much easier time getting a loan and you will not have to pay PMI on the second loan. Whats funny is my friend said if he ever buys a house again he is going to stay in the house overnight prior to closing.
Scott 88-1JZ;1706025 said:
This actually isn't a bad idea, I almost wish I would have done this myself. Now I live in the epicenter of where all the kids like to run around... I swear one of these days one of the little shits is gonna get run over by *someone* in the neighborhood. :nono:
Quite honestly...The best thing I could suggest, is to buy WELL within your means. Up here, the average price for a detached home is around 800k and the housing market is near the crashing point. No matter what happens, you want to leave yourself a lot of room financially for anything that could pop up. Whether it be medical, car repairs, rising interest rates...And above all, as somebody else suggested: At least 20% down. Don't look at the house as a financial investment, because it is a place to live, raise a family etc. and there will be an emotional attachment to it. You do however, want to have more equity right off the bat so that you don't accumulate such high interest payments over the course of the mortgage. And as well, I don't know how US mortgages work, but having an open mortgage will greatly benefit you in the long run if you were to want to rid yourself of payments at a younger age.
Read the bottom half of this this post:
http://www.supramania.com/forums/sh...finanically)&p=1157326&viewfull=1#post1157326
Going back and reading the entire thread might help as well. You should have mastered everything in that thread before buying a home IMO...
http://www.supramania.com/forums/sh...finanically)&p=1157326&viewfull=1#post1157326
Going back and reading the entire thread might help as well. You should have mastered everything in that thread before buying a home IMO...
Supracentral;1706769 said:
Wow, looking back on that thread and reading the stuff about what I said with the college students is a nightmare, two friends of mine both have credit card debit in excess of 20k each. >< Just from college. Sad :/
As for what you said about the payment on the house, is exactly what I'll be doing, got a 30 year fixed mortgage at 4.875% and can pay well above the minimum payments on it.
Also, I don't know if it was said, but MAKE DAMN SURE, your mortgage is a FIXED percentage.
Mike, I think that it would help to just copy/paste that post you linked to, at least the part pertaining to housing. It's pretty much exactly how I've set up my home and mortgage. I *have* 30 years to pay it off. If I do that, or need a little breathing room, my payment is only ~$816/month. By paying the little extra to get that to $1000/month and being on time with payments, I'll pay off my house in some ~13 years sooner, *and* saving myself enough in interest to buy a new Corvette.
Food for thought, and certainly sound advice, if you haven't read that link that SC posted, go read it. Good thread in general (I've read it before), but that post should be required reading for people getting into a mortgage.
Food for thought, and certainly sound advice, if you haven't read that link that SC posted, go read it. Good thread in general (I've read it before), but that post should be required reading for people getting into a mortgage.
I just read all the post's great information, i will keep my eyes out for the house i want BUT i will work on my credit and a larger down payment. Time to prepare
check with the local and county assistance organizations. there are a lot of homebuyer programs out there that will help "first time buyers" with closing costs and down payments. its always nice to get free money. i got my closing costs ant 10% on my down payment granted to me as a first time buyer. and i make decent money. they fund stuff like this to pad their tax base in most countys/citys
A few more things...
Get references for the home inspector. Check them. Nothing sucks more than giving money to a man who missed a critical defect in the property you purchased.
Talk to the folks who already live there. Getting along with them is a big part of buying a house. They also have all sorts of useful information about utilities - how much it costs for power, gas, water, trash collection, etc.
If the house is relatively new, do some research - who built it, what else have they built in the area, and so on. See if you can talk to some people living in the other houses they have built.
Speaking of hidden fees... remember that you're going to need to equip the place. Going from a 2 bedroom / 2 bathroom place to a 4 / 5 means you'll need to equip an additional 2 bathrooms and 3 bedrooms. You'll be surprised how fast that stuff adds up just in little things like toilet paper, waste bins, towels, etc. Furthermore, your upkeep will rise as well - I spend well over double what I used to in light bulbs, for crying out loud. Plus I had to buy a grill, and a lawn mower, a leaf rake, a couple garden hoses, and a bunch of other nonsense that I've forgotten about by now.
Check the damn windows. Double glazed glass is worth a lot towards your heating / cooling budget. While you're at it, check all the appliances for efficiency. If it's got a 30 year old dishwasher, get rid of it even if it still works. Same with hot water heaters, furnaces, hot tubs, refrigerators, and if your water is metered, toilets. Use everything shortly after you move in - don't wait for winter to fire up the furnace, or for Thanksgiving before firing up the oven to cook a turkey. If there are problems, you want to know about them right away.
Try not to buy a house where all your eggs are in one basket. I had a boiler pop a couple years ago - and of course it went during a cold snap, when we really needed it. If it wasn't for the backup, in this case two natural gas fireplaces, we'd have had to stay with family or in a hotel until we could get it fixed. On that note, put away an extra $100 / month for stupid expenses like a dead hot water heater, or a new fence after a big storm, or all the other things that in a previous life you could pass off to the landlord.
Oh, and here's one I got busted with that stinks. If you end up with a spare bathroom that doesn't get used, go in once a month and run the water in the tub, sink, and flush the toilet. Otherwise, the water in the drains that seals you off from the sewer evaporates, and stinky sewer fumes leak up into the spare bathroom.
Get references for the home inspector. Check them. Nothing sucks more than giving money to a man who missed a critical defect in the property you purchased.
Talk to the folks who already live there. Getting along with them is a big part of buying a house. They also have all sorts of useful information about utilities - how much it costs for power, gas, water, trash collection, etc.
If the house is relatively new, do some research - who built it, what else have they built in the area, and so on. See if you can talk to some people living in the other houses they have built.
Speaking of hidden fees... remember that you're going to need to equip the place. Going from a 2 bedroom / 2 bathroom place to a 4 / 5 means you'll need to equip an additional 2 bathrooms and 3 bedrooms. You'll be surprised how fast that stuff adds up just in little things like toilet paper, waste bins, towels, etc. Furthermore, your upkeep will rise as well - I spend well over double what I used to in light bulbs, for crying out loud. Plus I had to buy a grill, and a lawn mower, a leaf rake, a couple garden hoses, and a bunch of other nonsense that I've forgotten about by now.
Check the damn windows. Double glazed glass is worth a lot towards your heating / cooling budget. While you're at it, check all the appliances for efficiency. If it's got a 30 year old dishwasher, get rid of it even if it still works. Same with hot water heaters, furnaces, hot tubs, refrigerators, and if your water is metered, toilets. Use everything shortly after you move in - don't wait for winter to fire up the furnace, or for Thanksgiving before firing up the oven to cook a turkey. If there are problems, you want to know about them right away.
Try not to buy a house where all your eggs are in one basket. I had a boiler pop a couple years ago - and of course it went during a cold snap, when we really needed it. If it wasn't for the backup, in this case two natural gas fireplaces, we'd have had to stay with family or in a hotel until we could get it fixed. On that note, put away an extra $100 / month for stupid expenses like a dead hot water heater, or a new fence after a big storm, or all the other things that in a previous life you could pass off to the landlord.
Oh, and here's one I got busted with that stinks. If you end up with a spare bathroom that doesn't get used, go in once a month and run the water in the tub, sink, and flush the toilet. Otherwise, the water in the drains that seals you off from the sewer evaporates, and stinky sewer fumes leak up into the spare bathroom.
What I'm dealing with right now, the house I'm looking at needs around 15-20k in repairs, but I love the house, and the neighborhood is awesome. What I've come down to is, I can fix the house, I can't fix the neighborhood.
GrimJack;1706917 said:
I hadn't thought of that, but it'll be on the list of things to do. I have 3 bathrooms, and it's just myself and girlfriend gonna be living there, so that second bathroom upstairs probably won't be used often if at all. Thanks for the tip Poodles.
I think you've got me confused with some other clown.te72;1707218 said:I hadn't thought of that, but it'll be on the list of things to do. I have 3 bathrooms, and it's just myself and girlfriend gonna be living there, so that second bathroom upstairs probably won't be used often if at all. Thanks for the tip Poodles.
GrimJack;1707435 said:I think you've got me confused with some other clown.
Not sure how that's possible:
vs.
