Chewer House buying advice

- DON'T fall in love or get emotionally attached to a house until it's yours.
- Ensure that whatever house that you get has enough storage for your stuff. Seriously, don't underestimate your storage needs for clothes, books, and accumulated shit. You don't want boxes of shit cluttering up your new house.
- You want TWO FULL BATHROOMS.
- Insist on a home warranty

I'll take any advice as well. Was hardcore house shopping for about six months, decided to take a year off of it to save a ton of cash. It's a shame, because I broke Judas' first rule, twice.

I can't stress the importance of the 'Don't Fall In Love with a House' rule enough. Retain your objectivity throughout the house buying process, and be prepared to WALK AWAY from ANY house for ANY reason. Keep it a business decision...don't turn it into an emotional one or you'll live in a constant state of panic and despair throughout the process.

I'm very near the end of the process of buying an apartment, just signed the contracts today. I don't have much advice for you (my parents have been handling a lot of the legal shit for me as it makes my head get all dizzy) but I will say this - be prepared for it to take MUCH longer than it should. Back in August we were being told, "you'll be moving in within 3 weeks". It's now November, and I'm still being told "yeah, now the contracts are signed you can move in within the next couple of weeks".

EDIT: Judas, why two bathrooms? I've not heard that advice before.

I would consider it a plus. A warranty means that someone actually came in and inspected the house to ensure that everything was in working order.

Find out what is covered and what is excluded on the warranty. A warranty will ONLY fix what breaks, NOT what is already broken, so find out WHY things were excluded. Ensure that the warranty covers your furnace and air conditioner, for instance. Those are very expensive to replace. If an appliance is excluded (the refrigerator, for instance), find out WHY and ask the home owner to replace it OR drop some money off of the price of the house.

I'll always take forced air heat over radiator heat. I'm not sure of the price/efficiency difference, but I know that I've been MUCH happier with forced air. It spreads the heat out around the house better and isn't as noisy as a screaming, pinging radiator.

I honestly, honestly, swear to God, I'm not trying to be sarcastic or treat you like you're dumb or anything. But you do know not to ever ever ever agree to an "adjustable" mortgage rate, don'tcha? I've been saving up for a down payment for a few years now, and as I chug along, I try to educate myself as much as possible, and that's the one thing people cannot emphasize enough to me.

I also enjoy the occassional "Buying my first house" kind of shows on HGTV, and on one of them, they focused on a couple who had bad credit, and the only kind mortgage offered to them that they could afford - at that time - was an adjustable one. And I'm just sitting there thinking, Oh man, this poor couple is going to lose their shirts. So not to get too personal, but if you have any credit problems at all, and all that's being offered to you is an adjustable mortgage, walk the hell away. Rent for however long you have to until you're able to snag a fixed mortgage at a rate you can afford.

Well, you never want to rush it. With the market the way it is buyers have all the advantage. My parents are *this close* to selling their place (the inspection already happened and just waiting to hear on that with a potential closing date of early December). They ended up selling at a much lower price simply because they didn't want the hassle of owning it for any more time.

I don't know that you want to do this but the person buying their house offered them an insultingly low price and gradually came up but never to even close to what they wanted. They eventually decided it was worth the loss of money to not have the worry of that place (they had already empty-nested it and moved to a condo almost 2 years ago) and just sell. I'd imagine that not everyone is like that but if you can find someone that desperate as well, it's sometimes worth taking the chance and starting with a really low offer.

As for the other stuff, I've not bought a house myself so I can't really offer any advice (I still move too frequently for it to make financial sense).

Do your homework on who your realtors are - you don't want them to be pals or relatives, and that happens a lot, and they'll pawn a bum house off on you.

Got kids? Planning on having any? Go to http://familywatchdog.us/ and see how many sex offenders live in the area.

Home inspectors aren't looking for bad news.

Knob and tube wiring = bad. Replacing that is on the seller, not on you.

1. Your master bathroom tends to get junked up and filled with personal stuff that you don't want others to necessarily see. If you have company over, you can shut the door to the master bath and direct everyone to use the secondary bathroom which is probably cleaner.

2. You want that backup shower/tub in case something goes wrong with the other one. Plumbing repairs can be expensive and time consuming, and you're going to want access to a full bathroom facility.

3. Ease of use. There's nothing worse than both of you coming home from work and having to use the bathroom at the same time.

Seriously, I've heard alot of people learn this lesson with their first home.

That's why I'm waiting a year. My credit could use a bump, it's not horrendous now and obviously I hope nobody gets suckered into adjustable rates after what the whole country is going through, but I can do a lot better on interest with a better down payment and a few higher points on my credit report.

Also, I'm an HGTV addict. I watch all that home buying shit like a fiend.

I must respectfully disagree with this. My family has worked in various real estate related fields for decades (including the warranty business), and the inspectors that I know are pretty damn thorough, especially in older homes with older appliances/fixtures. They are there to reduce risk.

I can't speak for Judas, but the two bathrooms thing is CRITICAL if you have kids or are planning to have them. My daughters are 13 and 9 and are already spending ungodly amounts of time doing hair and make-up (in the case of the 13-year-old anyways).

If you are looking to cash in on the misery of others and get into the foreclosure market, ensure that the entity you are purchasing the house from actually has ownership documentation for the house in question. That might sound obvious, but given how people who default on mortgages are winning court cases based on a lender's inability to prove they control the mortgage, it's best to keep an eye out.

And one of your walk-away conditions should be if the owners do not want you to get a home inspector. You definitely don't want to get a deal on a house only to find out it is mold-ridden or about to sink into the ground. Ditto if the owners suggest an inspector to you, as you can never trust that inspector's advice.

If possible, save more than the minimum amount required for a down payment on your mortgage. Even a few extra thousand down on your home can save you a ton of money down the road. AND FOR THE LOVE OF GOD, read the fine print on your mortgage terms, especially if you decide to play the variable rate mortgage game. Make sure you have the option of locking in at a particular rate periodically.

I have had mixed experiences, Judas. I've had good ones and bad ones. But to be fair, you're in Nice Country and I'm ovah heah in Joisey.

HOME INSPECTION is critically important, not only because your closing will be contingent on it, but it will bring to light items that you can address with the seller before you close. Depending on what the inspector finds, you may be able to wrangle a discount on the purchase price (since you'll end up having to pay to fix it yourself), or at least commit the seller to fixing certain things if they bust within a certain time frame.

Home warranties can be worthwhile, but ours was useless because it's referral network of subcontractors was shit. They once sent a couple of guys to look at our dryer ductwork who'd literally never done any ductwork before. If it's possible to shop around, I'd recommend doing so. We dropped ours after about eight months when we realized it would never be worth it (at least with that carrier).

Are you a first time buyer? You may qualify for a first-time buyer loan (with very generous rates) with the FHA. Worth looking into.

I'm probably just going to rent for the rest of my life because there's no fucking way I could afford a house in most of the places I want to live, plus I don't know where I WANT to live yet.

*bursts into tears*

All that makes sense, and it'd be nicer to have two bathrooms, but I wouldn't see it as a priority. There's no way I could afford that right now, without sacrificing space in other parts of the apartment. We've gone for a two bedroom place so that my boyfriend can keep some personal space for video games and the like, because he's never lived away from home before and I don't want to panic him. Plus, extra storage. That always seemed like one of the most important things to make sure we had, some space to get away from each other if we piss each other off.

All kidding aside, you could start building home equity by purchasing a small house where you live now. Yeah the real estate market makes it difficult to sell once you decide where you want to go, but owning is always better than renting if you can swing it. Unless you live in a major city, then renting may be the only option for you anyways.

Buying a fixer-upper could be an option too, if you are handy or have handy friends.

hehe, that's a great strategy: lure him into your lair by giving him his own video game room!

I still think at least 1.5 baths is a decent requirement. If you can't afford a place like that and are living somewhere with reasonable housing prices, you probably should save up a bit more money first.

This happened to friends of mine. He trusted the friend, she didn't. They bought the house. A week later, the kids were playing with the hose as it was a hot summer day. Came to find out there was leak in the plumbing and the entire basement got flooded. Cost them an arm and leg to renovate.

I've got to go with Judas here as well. We are in our first house (6.5 years in it so far), and we rejected houses based on what our home inspector found (things we would have never noticed), and on the house we finally bought, we got the owner to fix things before we moved in based on the inspection.

We will also be moving in the next 6-18 months, and we have slowly started prepping our house.

Other advice... think about resale value. When are you going to sell the house, and will it be worth as much or more in the future?

Some major things that affect this:
# of bedrooms
# of bathrooms
School district (finding a school district that is improving can help you sell for a lot more)
(if you haven't considered the above, you may be severely limiting your resale value by eliminated a huge % of your potential buyers)
Basement
Garage

You may find a quirky house that YOU like, but it might be a pain to sell it when you are ready to move on.

Tell your realtor that 1.5 baths is one of the non-negotiable elements for your house purchase and that you'd prefer 2 full baths.

Another suggestion: Before you contact a realtor, do as many walkthroughs of open houses as you can. Look at them with a critical eye and make a list of the things that you like and don't like. Determine what your non-negotiable items are before you sit down with your realtor; it will make their job easier and weed out alot of houses that you don't want to waste your time looking at.

I fucking love this site, thanks for the tip Phil, it's like googling your friends!

Seriously?

My Realtor is a friend of mine. She has been a Realtor for about two dozen of our other friends (buying and selling). She seems to work harder for us than for her other clients because she likes us and because we'll recommend our other friends and family members if she does a good job. And she does a fantastic job.

It seems odd that people you have to interact with often would screw you over so readily.

You also made the home inspector comment too, though... do you just live in Meanville, USA where everyone tries to screw everyone else over?

On the home inspection thing: do the homework and pick your own. Don't take your realtor's recommendation blindly. That's a situation where work is passed off to buddies fairly regularly.

Weeeellll, kinda. I mean, people are people, and you can't guarantee someone isn't going to screw you over somehow just because they're friends or family. My brother-in-law's brother was the realtor for my mom and stepdad's house. I'd still like to hold his head in a toilet over that one.

If anything, go with the inspector that your home warranty company recommends. THEY will have access to a good network of inspectors that will look at things thoroughly and with a critical eye to detail.

Regarding the use of friends and relatives: DON'T do it if you can avoid it. If something goes wrong, you want to be able to pull the trigger on the person at fault...if that's a friend or a relative, you're going to be put into a real quandry. Have your relative/friend recommend someone else instead. Remember, you need to keep this as a business decision.

Sorry, I meant make sure they're not connected to EACH OTHER. I have friends with horror stories and when they get to the part where they say "the seller's realtor is our realtor's brother..." I wonder what the fuck they were thinking would work out for them in that scenario. You want your realtor looking at the other realtor as prey. Our guy was awesome in that regard.

Well, sure, but I cut people off (family and friends) REAL fast if they pull shit like that, so I'm left with only people I actually trust in my circle of friends.

You can't guarantee it, but I feel pretty confident in knowing if a "friend" of mine is capable and willing to screw me over, and if they are, why am I still friends?

Anyway, derail!

Surely realtors get blamed for pretty much everything that goes wrong? - sure if one of them was a major douchebag before-hand then don't be shocked if you get the hose.

My wife and I are about to start looking for our first family home and we're going with our friend because I still trust her more than any stranger.

Gotcha! That certainly makes more sense. I wouldn't want to buy a friend's house through a Realtor that was a friend to both of us for multiple reasons.

A final thing on realtors: The housing market crash has culled most of the bad/mediocre ones from the available pool. Almost any realtor that you work with today will be a 'good' one.

That being said, don't be afraid to cancel your relationship with your realtor and find a new one if things don't work out. In particular, make sure that your realtor is showing you houses that match YOUR criteria (which you should have outlined in your first meeting), not houses that match his/hers (some will push houses on you that they have a vested interest in selling). Once again, it's a business relationship and you want to ensure that your realtor isn't wasting your time.

Another thing: If you're looking at buying a townhouse, find out whatever information you can about the association. What is the monthly fee? What is their history of raising their fee? What does the association's insurance policy cover for your house (Will they cover your deck and garage door? Probably not). How much money do they have in reserve to cover any special assessments that they city might impose on your communitity?

In short: you want an association that's in good financial shape. You don't want to be in a place where everyone gets hit with a $10,000 assessment in order to fix a roofing issue.

We have forced air heat in our house. First home I lived in that had it. It's efficient, sure, but one drawback is it dries the shit out of the air. I wake up some mornings w/ the mucous membranes in my mouth & throat parched like the Sahara. My wife & son, too. Winters can be a bit of a drag for that reason. We keep a humidifier going in my son's room, but our door remains open (to allow pet ingress/egress), so that doesn't work so well for us. I hear they have a device that can be retrofitted on to existing heating systems that will humidify the air as it comes out of the furnace, but we haven't seriously looked into this.

Good call Judas, you'll be paying assessments for a long time so you'll want to make sure that you're comfortable with how the association works (same with condo buildings). Special assessments are particularly brutal. And if you have associations that won't pro-actively look for potential issues and avoid them you can end up getting pretty screwed.

Also, in places like townhouses, even though you have a yard it's not actually your property. So while you may be able to do what you want with it, that is not always the case.

On the other hand, extra rooms and basements tend to be magnets for useless or broken shit that should've been trashed or sold ages ago. Not having a ton of space has forced me to keep things lean and organized.

Yeah, my boyfriend has forced air heat in his house. He keeps having to get up in the middle of the night to turn the heat off when it gets too hot, then up again when it gets too cold. He barely sleeps during the winter.

I have radiator heat in my apartment, and really, when it kicks on full blast, it's pretty cozy without drying the air out too much.

Agreed 100%, but not everyone is prepared to change their lifestyle in order to match their living arrangements. If you're unprepared to do a serious culling of your accumulated shit, ensure that you've got enough room to accomodate it. A house with too much stuff in it will never really be organized and clean, and unorganized piles will only get larger over time.

Variable rate can work in your advantage if you have a lock in clause so you can lock your rate (usually at 1 above prime) at any time during the mortgage term. Our first mortgage was variable (1 below prime) and we were able to lock in when the interest rates started going sky high. We were paying 4.5 percent when everyone else around us had 8 or 9 percent.

Great advice. Always remember that the realtor works for you. Don't let them make you feel otherwise.

Also, look for houses for sale by owners. If you follow all the previous advice given by Judas you can get some really good bargains.



Forced air heat dryness can be counteracted by adding a hundred dollar humidifier to your furnace. Get a pro to do it and make sure it's attached directly to your water line and you'll be fine with central forced air.

(Sorry, Lisa, I wasn't picking on you)

Also, one more thing, make sure your mortgage has a one time a year lump sum payment option. What that means is that once a year you can pay a lump sum on your principle without incurring penalties. This becomes important if you start making more money then you currently do. You want to pay that down as soon as possible.

Shop for a mortgage the same way you shop for anything. Get your best deal by working the banks against each other.

Of course not, I know that. This is all good advice, no offense taken!

I would second all the comments about school districts made above. Being in a good one makes a big difference in ease of resale and value. I would also add that you need to be aware of your commute. You may get a great house, but if you are spending three hours in the car each day you will probably be miserable. Check to see if your home is in flood plain and if it is make sure you are properly insured. Find out what you can about the geology of the area. Are there a bunch of sink holes around? Find out who built the house if it is relatively new and find out their history. Are they a good builder or scumbags? If you are buying new and have the opportunity go our and look at the materials and construction techniques being used. If you are buying into a development you don’t have to look at your house specifically if it is all done. One under construction near by should give you an idea of quality. You don’t necessarily need to be a pro for this. Crap is crap and you should be able to tell.

If this is your first house you need to keep in mind that you will likely need to buy most or your appliances. Keep $2000-$3000 handy for that. You will also likely have to buy window coverings of some sort so figure on $500 min.

You can cut this cost greatly if you have any friends with a tiny bit of sewing skill. My best friend's wife bought a lot of fabrics and made curtains for their entire house for under $100, and they aren't just white sheets over the windows. The kids each got checkerboard patterns curtains with their favorite colors, heavy dark curtains for the living room to help keep it cool, and a little fancier curtains for the bedroom.

Turn on or try EVERYTHING in the house that you possibly can. Lights, water, heat, A/C, oven, microwave, fridge, toilet, etc. Check every door and window and make sure they all open, close, and lock/unlock correctly. Go outside and look all around the windows, the gutters, and the eaves of the house, checking for rot and chipped paint. And hire your own home inspector. They will check stuff you never thought about. When you are buying the house, you'll have a punch-out list of things that need to be done before you close--don't settle for "we'll get to that, so go ahead and sign off now". Once you sign that paper, they'll most likely never come back.

Or get an allowance so that you can get those problems fixed yourself.

Edited to clarify:

The current home owner will most likely get it fixed as cheaply as possible. So it might pass re-inspection but long term it's no good. Much better to get an allowance and then have someone you know (and trust) do the necessary repairs.

Good, thorough home inspectors will do everything that you listed (I know that ours did; he uncovered a broken outlet that we had the sellers fix), but that's still excellent advice to follow, especially in the final walkthrough. Whatever you do, don't allow yourself to be rushed through ANY kind of walkthrough or inspection. If someone pushes you or tries to rush the situation, WALK AWAY.

Here is another one that actually happened to us. Demand a draft of your mortgage paperwork a couple of days in advance of closing. Read the paperwork yourself and make sure all the number jive with what was agreed upon. Note any errors and bring that with you to the signing or let folks know ahead of time so the docs can be corrected. There was a error in one of the numbers on ours that we caught that way. We got to the closing and showed it to the lawyer and she had it corrected. Even if everything is right bring your copy and check it against the one you sign to make sure it is the same. The lawyer at the closing commented that we were very unusual in actually taking the time to look at our mortgage paperwork before and during the closing. The builder was annoyed that we took longer than most, but the lawyer seemed pleased that we were looking at the stuff.

Oh, 1000 times this. The first house my wife and I bought was way out in the ex-urbs. We spent 7 long years spending hours in our cars every day. Moving back to Austin proper was one of the best decisions we ever made. Buy a house as central and/or close to your jobs as you can afford. Benefits include:

-Longer life, lower stress. Spending more time sitting in your car is bad for your health and increases the odds of getting in a bad accident.
-You're not as big of a part of the problem of ex-urban sprawl and air pollution. Feels good.
-Established neighborhoods have things like trees and personality.
-Being able to get everywhere faster, fighting less traffic. Heck, you may even be able to walk or bike to most places.

In hindsight, we were happier being relatively poor recent grads crammed into a 700 square foot apartment that was centrally located than we were being "house poor" in our 2000 square foot house stuck in the goddamn boonies.