1st time home buying

[Montanaro]

So im becoming jaded at home buying. Its my first time (2nd really...my ex gf bought a house and i was involved) and weve looked at about 10 houses with no luck.  My realtor is also a coworker with lots of experience. 

 

I know i have to accept i wont get a dream house...but the process with my ex was much quicker and found a move in ready house that was in budget with all our wishes...but now I find nothing even though my budget is higher.

 

Just bad luck?  Good houses are under contract before i have opportunity to view them. 

 

Anyone wish to share their experiences?

[A-Jay]

Start looking yourself - don't wait for the realtor to find it for you.

I'm certainly no expert but after 3 buying three homes (in different states) I've learned that I know I can depend on ME.  So I put the time in and eventually found what I was looking for each time.

Like any venture, knowledge is confidence.

Learn as much as you can about the process and hire your own inspector, not one recommended by the realtor. 

Finally, you are going to PAY whatever relator you use, and pay them well.  Get your money's worth by using someone you like, trust and especially, one you believe has your best interest at heart.

Many Don't - Co-worker or not.

Good Luck.

A-Jay

[12poundbass]

It is a sellers market for sure! My first house I was fortunate, we had friends who were the Realtors and my wife worked at the mortgage company so it went extremely smooth and quick.

 

Our second and current house we bought back in the recession or tail end of it and not too many houses were being bought and even more were going on the market. Hit the jack pot on that one.

 

In the spring we're looking to sell and build a new house. Would building be an option?

[Crappiebasser]

My wife and I looked at dozens of houses before we bought our last one. Finding everything you want move in ready is next to impossible. That's why we had the house we are in now built and still have things we want change after being here a while.

 

Keep at it and don't get discouraged. You'll eventually find something suits you.

[BrianinMD]

Just a sellers market, it is tough to find things in time. Have your realtor add a search to the realtor listings for you with your criteria and email you. Any new listings will be on there days before anything else. 

 

Also just shave your head, easier than pulling it all out.....

[Montanaro]

We are searching and are in constant contact with realtor about possibilities.

 

Most houses are 30 mins from work/school.  Id at least like a place i can safely park a future boat but will settle for the right house. 

 

Our problem.is we both just started grad school and dont have time for fixer uppers (although we saw one yesterday that would make a great flip and probably come out with 100k profit) and it is hard to tell where our degrees will take us.  Buying a house that has poor resale potential or one that we haven't finished fixing could really handcuff our ability to move in future.

 

Sigh...

[Dtrombly]

Patience and keep your head up. It'll happen. 

[BrianinMD]

1 hour ago, Montanaro said:

We are searching and are in constant contact with realtor about possibilities.

 

Most houses are 30 mins from work/school.  Id at least like a place i can safely park a future boat but will settle for the right house. 

 

Our problem.is we both just started grad school and dont have time for fixer uppers (although we saw one yesterday that would make a great flip and probably come out with 100k profit) and it is hard to tell where our degrees will take us.  Buying a house that has poor resale potential or one that we haven't finished fixing could really handcuff our ability to move in future.

 

Sigh...

The thing about looking yourself if you are using realtor.com or zillow.com type sites you are days behind the listings in the realtor search page. Only realtor have access to it, but they can setup searches to email you when something matches. This happens as soon as it's listed. In a sellers market this can be the difference between getting a place or missing it.

[A-Jay]

2 hours ago, Montanaro said:

We are searching and are in constant contact with realtor about possibilities.

 

Most houses are 30 mins from work/school.  Id at least like a place i can safely park a future boat but will settle for the right house. 

 

Our problem.is we both just started grad school and dont have time for fixer uppers (although we saw one yesterday that would make a great flip and probably come out with 100k profit) and it is hard to tell where our degrees will take us.  Buying a house that has poor resale potential or one that we haven't finished fixing could really handcuff our ability to move in future.

 

Sigh...

 

In 2007 (housing crunch - bad) my wife & I both retired from the service while living in NJ.  We planned on relocating to MI.  I drove back & forth from NJ & MI 3 times that summer and looked at over 70 homes  in 8 counties !  All of this while selling our current home in NJ.   Additionally, I worked through a complete remodel (and I mean complete) so that we could compete with all the new homes for sale in the area.   After a ton of trial & tribulations, we sold our home and found & purchased our current one here in MI.    It was a very challenging time in both our lives.  But that's when you find out who you are and what you are capable of.  Everyone's King of the World when the there are no hurdles in front of them but once those hurdles start to pop up and then they turn into walls - what then ?  You adapt & over come that's what.  

You'll succeed because of what you can & are willing to do - not what you can't or won't do.

Good Luck.

A-Jay

[BrianinMD]

A-jay with words of wisdom not only for home buying but for life

[Angry John]

I use the power of the internet to speed things up when i move or rent.  Zillow is an amazing tool and a ton of people use it.  Dont settle because you could be stuck for a long time before you can change....

[12poundbass]

1 hour ago, A-Jay said:

It was a very challenging time in both our lives.  But that's when you find out who you are and what you are capable of.  Everyone's King of the World when the there are no hurdles in front of them but once those hurdles start to pop up and then they turn into walls - what then ?

They say building a house is a major stresser! That's our plan in the spring. On top of that my dad and I are going to build it. We'll see what happens. 

 

Great advise as usual A-Jay. No matter which situation you always manage to come through.

[A-Jay]

6 minutes ago, 12poundbass said:

They say building a house is a major stresser! That's our plan in the spring. On top of that my dad and I are going to build it. We'll see what happens. 

 

Great advise as usual A-Jay. No matter which situation you always manage to come through.

There's always a price.

And the alternative is unacceptable.

A-Jay

[12poundbass]

4 minutes ago, A-Jay said:

There's always a price.

And the alternative is unacceptable.

A-Jay

Are you a monk or someone who writes Chinese proverbs? I'm not a smart man, while what you said no doubt sounds encouraging. I'm finding it rather difficult to translate to laymen terms. I won't lie, lol

[flyfisher]

We just bought a house last April and it was a tough to find what we wanted.  We looked at dozens of houses and the ones that were priced well and were what we were looking for sold very quickly.  I actually found the house we bought on Zillow as a FSBO and told my real estate agent we wanted to look at it and he set it up which wasn't that easy really given no agent to work with.  

 

House was listed on friday, we looked at it saturday and had an offer accepted by sunday evening.  Things go fast around here for sure.  

My only advice is to be patient and don't settle.  It is a lot of money and hassle to buy a house unless you are paying cash.

[Bluebasser86]

Sellers market is making it tough on buyers. We sold our last house for 35k more than we'd paid for it 2 years prior with no major upgrades. It was on the market for less than a day before we got offered 5k more than our asking price by someone who hadn't even seen the house yet, it was nuts. 

 

Lots of patience and a willingness to move fast when the right house pops up seems to be key right now. 

[JustJames]

Sometime it just tough to find a right house at a right time. i remember looking for almost a year before getting my previous house. We found a few houses but always get beat up by those cash offer. This happened in 2011 where the bottoms of house market crashed. I just walked my dog in neighborhood found a house that getting ready to sale. I talked to owner and asked to see the house. Called agent and found out the house just listed that day. Sent in offer that night and since the owner like us, they accepted our offer right away.

For this house here in Canyon Lake, we started buying process since July Last year. We did not look elsewhere just a 4 bedrooms house in Canyon Lake so it was pretty straight forward. I end up moved in Jan 1st of this year.

[Redlinerobert]

As a real estate broker of over 20 years experience, allow me to give you some advice. 

 

In a sellers market, deal with the listing agent.  You'll have a better probability of getting the house you want.  Yes, this means dumping your agent, but let's face it, this is business, nothing personal.  If it was a buyers market, you wouldn't be posting here.  You'd already be in a house.

[deaknh03]

My wife and I have been looking for 3 years now. Robert has a great point, things are going so quickly you need to contact the listing agent and do it yourself sometimes, we've done just that. Houses around here in our price range are selling within a day or 2 of being listed. If we relied on zillow or one of those sites, the houses are under agreement sometimes before zillow gets it. We are set up thru an agent to get the listings the moment they are listed, it helps, trust me. The problem in my area is the days of making an offer below asking price are over, offers being put in are at and ABOVE asking price, so it's can be a tricky game. Have your preappeoval ready, a down payment ready, and be prepared to make an offer literally on the spot. If you don't get the emails from your agent with the listing as they hit the market, forget looking in this market. Good luck, dont get discouraged. We don't have to move, we just want to. We've looked at probably 40 houses in the last couple years, so it can be a process.

[Montanaro]

3 houses we really liked were under contract before we could even see them and that was within a couple days of being on market.

[deaknh03]

53 minutes ago, Montanaro said:

3 houses we really liked were under contract before we could even see them and that was within a couple days of being on market.

Around here you have THE day they go on the market to look at them, thats why having the agent put your specs into the system and generating emails with the listings as soon as they hit is critical.

[Choporoz]

My advice is to get 'move in ready' out of your head.  Curb appeal should mean nothing to a discriminating buyer.  I am the least handy person I've ever known, but between a little elbow grease and just minor (even just cosmetic) contracted work, you can save tons.  My current home showed like crap...was on the market for months.  I had a good realtor and looked beyond the surface.   Bought the cheapest house on the block and after some relatively minor work, had a beautiful home.  I'd estimate that for the couple thousand in work, we probably saved over 30K on purchase.

[Fishing Rhino]

3 hours ago, deaknh03 said:

My wife and I have been looking for 3 years now. Robert has a great point, things are going so quickly you need to contact the listing agent and do it yourself sometimes, we've done just that. Houses around here in our price range are selling within a day or 2 of being listed. If we relied on zillow or one of those sites, the houses are under agreement sometimes before zillow gets it. We are set up thru an agent to get the listings the moment they are listed, it helps, trust me. The problem in my area is the days of making an offer below asking price are over, offers being put in are at and ABOVE asking price, so it's can be a tricky game. Have your preappeoval ready, a down payment ready, and be prepared to make an offer literally on the spot. If you don't get the emails from your agent with the listing as they hit the market, forget looking in this market. Good luck, dont get discouraged. We don't have to move, we just want to. We've looked at probably 40 houses in the last couple years, so it can be a process.

Find one on Cobbetts.  Then I can go up there with the Nitro again.

[DubyaDee]

When you're looking for a house remember that you can't change the houses location. Most everything else on the house can be changed and updated.

 

Since it is a sellers market, it wouldn't hurt to tell everyone you know that you're looking for house. Someone will know someone who is selling the house that you want. You don't have to have a realtor and can save the seller on a lot of fees if you can handle the paperwork. My wife and I are building now, and we have a dozen people that want to buy our starter home before it goes on the market. 

 

Remember that everyone works for you, the realtor, the mortgage folks, and the insurance agents. Don't make decisions that you're not comfortable with. 

 

You say "we". Is this your wife? Girlfriend? Don't get yourself in a sticky situation!

[Montanaro]

Soon to be wife.  I think everyone we work with and know knows we are looking to buy...this area is known to be an overpriced housing market which is one reason we are having to look at houses outside of town in other cities/towns.  Good location in Morgantown at our price gives you very little sqft and parkingon street parking...