- Blog
- Bios
- Boards
- Classifieds
- DIY
- Gallery
- Vendor Reviews
- Shop Weddingbee
Weddingbee boards
The home hunt has been sort of depressing!! I've seen about 10 homes during open houses in the last 2 months and hated all of them except maybe 2. Does this just mean my expectations are off? Or is it really that hard?
Homeowners... how many homes did you visit before you found the one you bought? What were some things you had to compromise on if anything?
Oh gosh. I think we looked at like 30-50 houses at least, although thankfully we didn't drag our agent out to all of them. We'd see a listing we'd like and go drive by to check out the neighbourhood, etc first. That really helped to narrow things down.
We gained in some areas and compromised in others. We ended up with a house on the river (we never thought we could afford anything on the water!), but we don't have a garage. That's a pretty big deal for us considering FI is a contractor. Also we have our master bedroom on the main floor and the other three bedrooms in the walk-out basement (tons of big windows and sun). However, we plan on renovating next year and moving all the bedrooms up onto a new second floor. We bought for the land, not the house, so we've just been making due for the past two years knowing that we'll renovate and make it all to our style soon! Don't be scared off by cosmetic stuff! Good luck!
We compromised on age and distance (3 more miles further in a previously ruled out community). But the trade-in was 3 bdrm value, limited neighbor proximity and a gorgeous ocean view with picture windows which were huge plusses not originally on our list.
We found ours in close to two months and about 15 or 20 houses later. We had to take a break one or two weekends b/c we did get a litttle depressed finding things we really didn't like a majority of a time. Be patient, take notes (plusses and minuses) at each house before you drive away so you can analyze your decisions and get better throughout the process.
We probably looked at about 10-15; out of those we had 3 we looked at again before making our final decision.
omg.. 30-50?? that sounds exhausting!!! there are only like 20 maybe in the neighborhoods that fit my desired price and size range. =(
I think it really honestly depends on how well matched your expectations are to your budget. If you want x, y, z in a house and can afford houses that usually have that... its not so hard. If your budget wouldn't usually support such features then you might need to either compromise or wait to get REALLY lucky.
Our budget was pretty well matched to our expectations and we only looked at maybe 10-15 houses? We actually liked quite a few of them but I wanted to do due diligence in our search before picking.
Um, like 100. Our realtor worked hard for her money. And she still likes us!
But we really got a great deal and it's a great house for what we paid! It is exhausting but well worth it!
I like what Corgi said, you may need to adjust your expectations for the budget.
However, I would say that only looking at 10 seems really low. I looked at HUNDREDS online, probably drove by over 100 (location and yard were REALLY important to us) and did scheduled showings for about 25 before deciding on our house.
Don't give up, but make sure you have your expectations set appropriately for your budget.
Try listing out what is most important to you.
I completely agree with @CorgiTales. I think if your budget aligns with what you're looking for, it doesn't take too long to find a house. My husband and I looked at roughly 10-15 houses, though house #5 was the one. We looked around some more after seeing that house just incase there was better/cheaper, but in the end, I loved that house so much so we put in an offer after viewing it the second time.
10-15 are just the ones we went to and walked through. I, like @caszos, looked at MANY on-line, looking at their pictures, how many bedrooms/bathrooms, what their neighborhoods were like. For me, one of the biggest pieces was location. My husband and I work over an hour apart from each other, so we wanted to find a house that was in a good location either to the highway, or something. We both wanted our commutes to be under 45 minutes, so that narrowed down our search a lot and only looked at houses in good locations for us.
Hang in there! For us house shopping was such an exhausting process but it's where you are going to be for a while and you better love the house that you will be working to pay your mortgage for.
Since we had access to the MLS we looked at hundreds of houses online. We kept a folder of every house we saw and it was around 75. We bid on 4 houses (all bids asking price or more) and we got the 5th house. We started looking in the beginning of December, had our offer accepted in the middle of February, and closed at the end of April.
Once we narrowed down the exact neighborhoods we wanted to live in rather than just the cities it was just a waiting game of a house to come on the market in those 2 areas.
I think expectations and budget in check. There are dozens of homes that fit the criteria that show up in my searches and I've checked out every single one online. I'd be able to accept updating or cometic issues, but the problem is that in the Boston area, a lot of the home are much older so layout and flow are the major problems. I wish that in addition to pictures, listings would include a floor plan! =( HGTV makes it look so easy on house hunters...
We also looked at hundreds online, drove by a LOT of them, and went to about 20 with our realtor. The 2nd house we looked at was the one, but we looked at another 18 first ;-) Every house kept comparing to "The 2nd house."
For us, we knew we could be like our friends, and get a "move in ready" house that was a little more up to date and nice. But it would be 2-3 bedrooms, 12-1500 sq feet, and in a chaotic not so great neighborhood. We didn't want a townhouse. We wanted something we could grow into. we BOTH wanted an office so we needed at least 4 br and we both didn't want under 1600 sq. ft. Oh, and a garage.
The one we found actually has everything we asked for, and more! We found a foreclosure however. Our house at market value is about 60,000 more than what we paid (i.e. other homes in the neighborhood are far out of our reach). We really lucked out, because it was in really good condition and has over 2000 sq feet. We've put about 6k into it so far in a new a/c and wood laminate floors throughout... and it's pretty much up to that value already. We still have a lot of projects to do, but we knew to get the neighborhood, location, and size we wanted we'd have to compromise. Our neighborhood is ridiculously amazing. As our friends put it, "This is the kind of place I expect our friends parents to live, not our friends."
Basically, you have to look at your price, expectations, and if it IS possible to do. We knew that we could get what we wanted in a foreclosure... so that's what we were looking at. You need to keep your list to what you can't live without, (this should be location, bedrooms, and structural things like maybe a garage.) Then a "really would like it to have" list, with things that are easy fixes down the line, Decks, pools, stainless appliances, certain types of floors, granite counters, etc....
Once you really put everything in perspective it will help you. It also helps to know average costs of renovations etc. Most expensive is the kitchen followed by bathrooms. But, that's where you'll recoup the most. Floors are SO EASY and can be in-expensive to change.
I really highly suggest looking at the before/after house tour on younghouselove.com. It may help open your eyes to what some paint and elbow grease can do.
http://www.younghouselove.com/photo-gallery-2/
Best of luck, and let us know updates on the search!
Right now, I think we've probably seen about 25-30 houses. We started looking last fall, took a break until after the wedding (May this year) and are back at it in full force. I have got the online searching down and know basically every house in the area we are looking in our budget that's on the market. We too, have done a lot of driving to see houses without our agent and have ruled a lot out that way.
It's been interesting though, the biggest issue we have is DH's height. He's 6'6" and so many homes (in our area and in our budget) do not have standard height ceilings in the basement or second story. We've ruled out about half the houses we've seen just for that reason alone.
Out of the houses we've seen, we're making our third offer. First was last fall, on a house we loved, but the sellers wouldn't come down enough. Second was another house last week, but the sellers are pretty unrealistic and wouldn't come down enough to offset the work needed on the foundation. Now we are about to put an offer in on a house we saw yesterday.
We've had to adjust our expectations. DH wanted land, but where we are looking we can't afford more than 2 or so acres unless the house is a total mess. So we've compromised on this house - 1+ acres, 2 bed, 1 bath. It needs some work, but was a one owner home and meticulously maintained. The owners built the home when they first started out and raised 4 kids in the home. I kind of like that it's a home that has been so loved and cared for, and based on the pictures still on the walls, held so many wonderful memories.
We had to learn to not look at homes that were above our budget, even if only by a little bit. Our expectations got raised, but despite the market, there are a surprising number of people who are not negotiating. Also, you need to be up to date on the market and able to act quickly, since a lot of homes were under contract by the time I found them and tried to make an apt to see them. This was very common when the tax rebate was still being offered. The best homes were moving very quickly.
Good luck on your search!
At least 30+. I was looking for a non-townhome (because of the pet restrictions usually written into the HOA), a level fenced in (or fence-able) backyard for the dogs, and not TOO much work because I was a single woman at the time, and didn't have extra money to fix anything major.
I put in an offer on one house, but couldn't afford the repairs discovered during inspection. I ended up spreading out my search radius ("well, I guess a ten minute longer drive isn't SO bad..."). Then a twin house opened up in a development where I'd look at my very first house ever (and loved...should have gotten it, even though it backed up to a well-traveled road). They waited a week after listing it to show it because they were having it professionally cleaned, which had me just dying inside because I wanted to see and buy it RIGHT NOW.
Been living there for two years now :). Somewhat modern kitchen? Check! Level, newly-fenced in backyard? Check! Three bedrooms, plus a possible fourth in a walk up third floor attic? Bonus!
Biggest advice I can give: It will happen! but don't do what I do and get so excited and frustrated with the process that when you do find something doable, you offer full asking price just to be done with the whole thing. I probably could have bargained them down if I'd just calmed myself a bit.
Trust me, the house for you is out there, it just takes a while to find it!
I've lost track, but I bet we've seen close to 100 homes in person. There are nearly 400 in my "reject" folder from our realtor. It really will pay to be patient and picky. I know it's frustrating until you find the right place. We've been looking for 10 months now and have seen a lot of really crappy places.
Find a great realtor, and let them do the heavy listing. Don't be afraid to ask your agent to check out a listing in person and tell you whether it's worth a trip. That'll help cut down on a lot of your trips. If you're looking for a specific floor plan, that's something your realtor can scope out ahead of time.
Good luck.
We looked probably at like 50 homes!
In the end the one thing we ended up compromising on was the garage. But that was because the home we ended up with is 3 bed/1 bath/full basement that would be great for finishing in the future. We want to start having kids in this house so this house was a lot more accomodating size-wise than other homes we had looked at with garages.
The other thing was in the beginning we knew we wouldn't mind having a little bit of a fixer upper but sometimes we would find homes we loved that WOULD be gorgeous if you just put some money into it. We ended up finding one that did need fixing up, but not in every room. Our kitchen was not looking so hot, but we just finished our mini-remodel of it (painting, refinishing cupboards and adding new hardware, new sink & faucet, new countertop & backsplash..). I was so nervous about it before, but now I'm so glad we stuck with it because I loooove the new look of the kitchen.
@ pinkshoes - What kind of research are you doing online? It can be really hard to jump around on realtors sites, but Realtor.com is the official site of realtors and links into the MLS so its kept 100% up to date.
It is really hard to look at floor plans from just the pictures but that may be something you have to sacrifice on a bit. Our master bedroom is right off of our main living room. Not idea at all but we liked the rest of the house.
Oh and HGTV does make the house buying process seem WAY too easy! There is no way I would feel comfortable looking at three houses and then putting an offer in!
We definitely looked at anywhere between 50-100 homes. With our budget, there were just a ton that were all over the board. That, and we had a few stipulations that were deal breakers for us, so we took forever.
A good thing was that my brother was our realtor, so he was extremely patient with us! It took him over a year to find his home, and it took us about 6 months to find ours. Don't worry - you'll find yours! We were picky, so it just took us a really long time!!
Before I bought my house, I looked at a few hundred online and looked at anywhere between 60 - 70 in person over a 5 month period. I'm a fairly picky person and I had time, so I waited until something that fit practically all of my specifications came around. To fit my budget, I basically only looked at foreclosed homes, so I also considered how much work the house would need.
My specifications were:
No more than 20 minutes away from my parent's home (I have a very young sister in which I had to stop by the house 2 - 3 times per a week), no vinyl siding, between 3 - 15 years old, all electric, 3 bedrooms+, 2 bathrooms+, and a ranch.
I ended up with everything except the home being all electric. As a plus, my home is only .5 mile from the highway (which I love). It was a foreclosed that needed NO work. I did change some things in the home that were cosmetic (changed paint and flooring, although from my understanding were less than a year old when I bought the house) but other than that, it worked out great.
We realitor showed us about 10 houses but we looked at HUNDREDS online. We are moving to another city so it was hard with our work schedules to find time to drive over there every time we found houses to look at. it was so frustrating because we'd drive over there and look at a couple and almost all of them would be disappointing. Then its like great i took off work and drove there and none of them worked out! but we finally found an amazing home in our proce range and put in an offer on it that day! PHEWWW.. the stressing isover!
We saw hundreds online and probably 30-40 in person with a realtor (not even counting open houses). Fell in love early with a house at the very upper end of our budget, but finally found "the one" (after 4 solid months of looking) for a surprisingly reasonable price. The former owners were a sweet older couple who'd lived there for 30 years. They weren't looking to turn a huge profit; just to find decent people to take good care of their beloved home. We comment nearly every day how lucky we are to have found this great house (and how we dodged a bullet not paying $40k more for the first one we liked). It took a lot of looking and patience and, like romance, didn't happen for us until we were almost ready to give up.
Caution with realtor.com. Even though the listings are relatively up to date, you still want to call, as I have found many houses on there that were already under contract. Once sold, the listings were removed, but sometimes a home under contract would be up for 2-3 months until it closed. I found a local real estate agency with a website that directly links to the MLS database and listing are updated within 12 hours if they go under contract. That was/is very handy.
Yes, Realtor.com doesn't tell you if its under contract or whatever, but its a good "one stop shop" for searching. I like the fact that it tells you how long it has been listed for and who the realtor is.
It was the first house that I saw. But I still looked at about 30 houses before we made an offer. I looked at the home we selected 3 times before putting in the offer about two weeks later (I wanted to be sure before I headed back to TX).
We looked at around 75-100. Many of them were viewed online, and we would drive by. We pretty much did it over a 2 year period. We put in 3 offers (at cost) and got the third house that we bid on.
Wow, thanks guys! that puts things in perspective. i've gone on major house hunt mode and am going to basically see everything in the 2-3 towns that i want to be in on the market that fit my requirements and look pretty good in pics.. so about 15 houses. but now i've put a rush on things and really want to find and close by sept 1 or oct at the latest so FI can still try to get out of his lease and sub his apt (prime student location)... eek! oh, and i've enlisted a realtor/friend to work with as well.
@KLP, I LOVE that site!!! thanks!! now to work on my imagination a little..
@caszos, I've been using redfin.com and ziprealty.com. i ended up using those two since a lot of other sites i had stumbled on before didnt give an address for the homes, just the city. its weird b/c i thought they all pull from the same database but i've found some on one site and not the other. now that i'm using an agent tho, i feel better about getting *all* the correct info.
aaahhhh... semi long rant warning!!! i was SOOOO bummed yesterday.
Last Sunday we went to an open house and found a home we both really liked, and decided that it was by far the best we'd see. Monday morning I was telling my realtor/friend about it and that we want to see a few more with him Friday and decide. 30 minutes later he tells me... I got bad new for you, they actually just accepted an offer this morning. UGH...ok... we're kinda bummed, bummed, but still had 10 or so more on the list.
Then Monday-Wednesday we have exams and presenations so Thursday we finally make it out to see some houses again and totally loved one. Perfect in just about every way, we were 95% sure this would be the one.... but we had 1 more to see on Friday which we thought could be a real contender also. So we decided to wait to see that one and then make the decision. We go Friday to see it and its not even close, Thursdays was much better.
So since it was in the same neighborhood we went back to take a look at it, then went to the winery that it backed up to and walked through that and found the house from that side... we strolled along thinking about having our wedding in the unbelieveable big probably 75x200 foot flat backyard that even had an wooden arch already...
Then... we got a call from the realtor... 'So the house...' 'Yeah????' 'They got an offer last night and accepted it this morning'... OMG... WTF!??!? AGAIN!?!?!? Those people saw the house last week and sat on their asses for nearly a week. I saw it and just wanted not even 12 hours to see one more the next morning and they decide right after I get to see it that they want it!! And why would they accept an offer so fast!??! And the stupid sellers realtor, why wouldnt she call us and tell us!! SHE KNEW WE WANTED IT!
Well, I'm finally starting to get over it, but I've seen about 25 homes now, and no yard has even come close to this one, never mind havnig a perfect house too. I dont know how this can be topped. 
We did drive-bys of about 50 at least. This helped us narrow down ones that we actually wanted to go in with our realtor. We only went inside less than 10 homes before buying one.
We look online ALL the time. Then the first one that we actually called a real estate agent to say 'show us' was THE ONE. We did a lot of online looking. A couple of drive-up=and-peeks. For us, the first one was the one.
Looked through countless ads then visited 3 homes. Compromised on flooring--the house has nice carpet/tile, but i wanted all tile or wood.
We have an accepted offer!!! Just had to share, but I wont hold by breath until the inspection and appraisal. We fianlly gave in and decided we weren't going to get anything we really loved on our original budget and ended up just blowing that out of the water. =\
Good luck!!
It took us almost two years to find our home. But we're pretty picky and time wasn't an issue.
We looked at less than 10 houses in person, but many on line. We already knew what we'd get on our budget, so that was a big help as our expectations weren't too high ~ but I love fixing our place up and making it ours! :)
@pinkshoes, good luck with your offer, I hoe it comes through for you!
We looked at at least 50 and put offers on 3 before getting ours. It took 3 months total.
We've been to probably 10 open houses so far and are still in sticker shock about what's available for our price range (NYC) so we will probably continue to rent for now. I think it's normal to look at between 30-40 houses before finding the right one, especially if you aren't sure exactly where you want to live or what features are most important to you. And watching House Hunters all the time and having personal experience flipping houses, I think people look at so many houses because they're overly concerned with things like the ugly carpeting or a bad paint color. Really easy fixes, but people really do get caught up in them. It's a lot easier to get rid of the ugly red wall color than to add on another bathroom.
We went to look at probably 30 houses give or take over the span of three months. we made many offers but were always outbid.
In the end we did compromise on size (2 bedrooms instead of 3) to be able to live in a good neighbourhood along the subway line. being close to transit was a big thing for us. now it only takes us a five minute walk to get to the subway station.
Good luck!
We looked at hundreds online, but only 30 or so in person. Put a bind on one, didn't get accepted. Put a bid on another, got out bid, then we outbid them, then they outbid us, then we outbid them. That put us at our ABSOLUTE MAX price. Then... we needed a new roof. Truth be told, our real estate agent worked absolute magic for us, and we moved in about 9 months ago. If you ever need a recommendation in the Seattle area, let me know- she's amazing!
We just started looking - half-heartedly. Went to a couple of open houses, but have been looking at online listings for months!!! Fell in love with house #2 and are in the process of seriously putting in a bid. Already frustrating but at least we are officially in the game. Trying to be optimistic. I am a HGTV groupie and to finally have reality hit is sobering. LOL Just like planning a wedding, the process should be fun and preparing for a lifetime together. The right house is out there. Be patient.
You must log in to post.
| Visit our sister sites | eHarmony Online Dating |
eHarmony Advice Dating Advice |
Project Wedding Wedding Songs |
JustMommies Pregnancy Calendar |
Create the honeymoon of your dreams.
| User | Posts Today |
|---|---|
| Lyndzo | 26 |
| beargoose | 21 |
| his chippymunk | 20 |
| Ms. Salamander | 18 |
| LammChop | 17 |
| fivemonthsnotice | 17 |
| kat2014 | 15 |
| mypinkshoes | 15 |
| aussiebee | 15 |
| pengoala | 14 |
| User | Posts Today |
|---|---|
| noopnoop | 1 |
| Mrs. Mustang | 1 |
| StaceyA | 1 |
| Beebug | 1 |
 vorpalette |
1 |
