On House Hunting

House hunting can be a very exciting experience. When we first started looking at houses we were excited (or at least I was). The feeling dies down a bit though till you find the one you want.

There were some houses we looked at that were awful and then there were some that were amazing. And also some that were incredibly bizarre. I think every couple should go house hunting, even if they aren’t ready to buy that year or the next. Go see a few places. It’s a great way of telling what the other is drawn to. My husband surprised me with some of the things he said he liked.

Out of the houses we looked at, there were three that we really liked that we did not get. This ended up being a good thing, because they all had issues, but I was so disappointed. This is something that you need to get over. Don’t get down because of disappointments and don’t rush into something you can’t handle. That one flaw that could be a disaster waiting to happen. Unless you have a whole bunch of money to invest to fix something, don’t take a chance.

Example: The second house we liked a lot was amazing. It was very impressive and we were so excited that when we got to the problem area (the basement) I almost cried. Right there in front of the realtor. I kept trying to think of ways to fix it and even went as far as to ask my mother and husband who were there, “how hard would it be to pull the heating and air conditioning unit out of the basement and have the whole thing filled with cement?” Needless to say, I got some concerned looks. It wasn’t worth it. Foundation cracks, sump pumps… basements aren’t worth it. After that disappointment and others I thought, I determined I didn’t want a basement.

In comparison to other people, I’m sure we did not look at very many houses. But it seemed like too many. The first real estate agent we had didn’t seem to take us seriously and I’m pretty sure she felt we were wasting our time so we switched to a very awesome agent (Lynn) who showed us 2 of the 3 houses we loved. She happened to be out of town when we started looking at another set. While I hate that she lost a sale, we would not have gotten our house if she had been our realtor.

A good real estate agent, knows what you want and will help you find your right house. Lynn got a feel for what we liked immediately. I didn’t even get in the door of one house and she turns to look at me with a startled face and asked “What do you think?” We didn’t stay long. But the house we saw after that (awesome house #2), she looked at me and smiled as we walked in.

This is how an agent should be. When we switched to Necia, we thought it might be a little hard to let her know what we liked. That was not the case though. We looked at two houses and after the 2^nd one we were ready to call it a day because both were a big ‘NO’ and she looked at us and said “I know what house you want to buy, let me call to see if it is still for sale.” We thought it was a little odd, but we followed her back to our preferred area just 0.4 miles from our apartment to a house that was For Sale by Owner after picking up the keys from the sellers. She was right. We signed the offer that day and they accepted that night.

I should also note that we had gone under contract for a bit with another house and the owners did not want to make the requested repairs which were NUMEROUS (I had made a list of about 25…). I’m glad they said no. Because we paid $22,000.00 less for a house that didn’t need all that work done and was in a much better area with cheaper bills, etc. etc…. And what items we did request they do… they did them.

Don’t settle for leaky basements, cracked foundations and super steep hills.

Great advices for lots of stairs or inclines: We had one house just one house over from our apartment that had a huge garage and the house was actually the second floor. Lots of stairs. Lynn said when looking at places like that or even on a slope or hill. “Throw on some high heels and carry up a few bags of groceries. Then you will know if you want it.”