[stoney]

This is a serious pain in the ass. We are looking to finally get a house by summer and the search process is a bitch. We are pretty specific about what we want and don't want, but even then it's a pretty big range. Trying to sort through the available inventory where we are looking is tedious.

We are looking for a minimum finished square footage, which shouldn't be that difficult to screen for, but the listing brokers are hit and miss about listing finished and total square footage properly. This I just discovered after having screened through probably 200 houses in the MLS. At least I have access to MLS, but this is still a pain.

That being said, even being able to screen using the primary broker tool for screening (MLS) still blows. Like I mentioned, I am well into 200+ houses I have screened and will probably have to go through them again. Damn nightmare.

In other news, I think I will have officially changed my life as much as possible within the last four months. Wifey is pregnant, I just started a new job, she's going to stop working, we moved halfway across the country, are buying a house, and in the middle of this we took a nearly 70% cut in household income. Hoowah!


Any of the home owners have suggestions on little things you learned in the process or after the fact?

 

[SkaredShtles]

Damn dude - get a decent agent to sift through the crap for you...

Where ya lookin'? Golden?

 

[Nick]

Wifey is pregnant...

congrats!

 

[CrabJoe StretchPants]

It's a pain in the ass, but worth every headache/hassle/dollar/minute spent in the end.

 

[stoney]

Highlands Ranch actually. Bang for buck with schools it cannot be beat. We are working with an agent, but they are just sorting through the MLS anyways. Once I filter down which schools are out, I can narrow things down a bit though. I also need to figure out issues regarding the soil composition of eastern HR. There are some serious issues over there.

We did find one place that is hitting all of our marks, I just need to get in to see it. Hopefully this wknd. If it snows though, I might have to do a morning trip to WP.

 

[Beef Supreme]

These are probably all common sense but here are a couple of things.

- Money is made or lost when you buy a house and not when you sell it. Be careful.
- Don't rely on your realtor to find you a house. They are useful when buying a house but worthless for finding one. 200 listings is just a warm up.
- There is probably a reason if a house has been on the market a while. Check for new stuff multiple times a day. Be in a position to know if something is a good deal.
- It's not too early to key in on schools. 5 years flies by.
- If you find something, check it out at different times during the day. It sucks to find out you have a-hole neighbors after it is too late.

 

[4130biker]

My best advice is to be patient and keep trying. Also, rated lists (1-10) on what you want vs need- but it sounds like you guys know pretty well.
We narrowed everything down, then had to just check listings every day in a very specific place/ price range until what we wanted came available. Best of luck to you!

 

[4130biker]

Beef supreme is right- our realtor was pretty good, but my wife, not the realtor, found our place the morning it was listed. We had our realtor show it to us that day, put an offer next day and two other a$$holes put offers in the same day! Our realtor was good because he knew we needed to offer fast if we were serious about it.

 

[ICEBALL585]

Getting a good realitor is the best advice I can give you. We started house hunting with one realitor which went no where because she was a complete idiot. She didn't listen to the specifics we were looking for and she showed us a ton of crap. The second realitor we went through was awesome and showed us a bunch of great places. She helped us find a house and get an offer accepted in less than a month.

 

[stevew]

schools in the ranch.....

highlands ranch kids aren't that smart........spend a afternoon in park meadows mall to validate this.

 

[kickstand]

I found my house myself as well. In my area we had tons of short sales and bank owned homes, I was able to find a house in move in condition and was lucky enough to find out the homeowner actually owned the house outright, which made for a quick and easy sale compared to the foreclosure and short sale crap.

I did search for almost 3 years, of course some of that was intentional because I was waiting for values to at least stabalize somewhat before purchasing, I probably could have waited longer for values to fall a little more, but I had outgrown my temporary rental home and needed to either make a purchase, or upgrade my rental, I decided I would be happier purchasing something.

 

[CBJ]

One good advice I got was to accept compromises on the first home purchase. I think that helped me purchase something that worked out well but also stay within a good budget.

 

[Colonel Angus]

This is a serious pain in the ass.

Congrats.

You think finding a house you even want is a pain? Wait until you start dealing with a bank and their loan underwriters. Things have changed since the downturn. They will ask you for the same sh!t nineteen different ways.

 

[kickstand]

Congrats.

You think finding a house you even want is a pain? Wait until you start dealing with a bank and their loan underwriters. Things have changed since the downturn. They will ask you for the same sh!t nineteen different ways.

and then you will move in
and then you will get a leaky faucet
or a bad sump pump
or a bad furnace
or your hot water heater will take a ****
or your roof will leak
or your foundation will crumble
or you will need carpet
or........

welcome to home ownership, they're more expensive to maintain than cars! lol

 

[jonKranked]

OMG house buying so hard. try moving to haiti where they eat dirt.

 

[CrabJoe StretchPants]

OMG house buying so hard. try moving to haiti where they eat dirt.

Less bull**** to deal with.

 

[ICEBALL585]

welcome to home ownership, they're more expensive to maintain than cars! lol

Damn straight they are! We need to replace the roof on our detatched garage this Spring and it'll cost at least $1500

 

[OGRipper]

I stopped focusing on square footage pretty quickly after I started to look. Lots of places may technically have the footage you want but if it's laid out in a way that it is not as usable as a house with less space, what's the point? You may be automatically dismissing some great candidates, and wasting time on others.

I also decided that I was willing to deal with some pretty significant renovations (full kitchen remodel, remove walls, replace windows, floors, and electrical) rather than pay a steep markup for someone else's crappy aesthetic and quality of work. With a kid on the way, I can understand that you might not be willing to deal with that though.

Probably the most important thing is to try to be patient. It's a pretty important purchase and you don't want to pull the trigger just because your tired or frustrated with the process. You're better off renting until you find the right place.

Good luck.

 

[SkaredShtles]

Buying a house in Highlands Ranch makes baby Jesus cry.

 

[CrabJoe StretchPants]

Buying a house in Highlands Ranch makes baby Jesus cry.

Why, is he a landlord?

 

[jimmydean]

Damn dude - get a decent agent to sift through the crap for you...

Where ya lookin'? Golden?

This. My buddy is a buyers agent who deals only with REO's. I gave him a list of what and where. I looked at about 8 houses total before I found something I really liked. But that all went to hell...

 

[dump]

Damn dude - get a decent agent to sift through the crap for you...

Where ya lookin'? Golden?

Agents work for the seller, not the buyer.

 

[CrabJoe StretchPants]

Agents work for the seller, not the buyer.

How do you figure? On paper maybe (seller agrees on a selling price, hence determining the agent's commission), but the time and hassle a good buyer's agent can save you makes them working for you as well.

 

[kickstand]

Agents work for the seller, not the buyer.

Not where I live.

I have always had a buyers agent who represents me and what I want, and then dealt with the listing agent who represented the seller and what he wanted.

Yes my agent will get a better commission (3% for buyers agent, 3% for sellers) if I pay more for the house, but my agent knew and was well aware up front that if she did not find me what I wanted I would gladly work with someone else, she also knew up front I would not make a full price offer and would come in extremely low as a starting point but would counter appropriately based on the buyers initial reaction and willingness to make a deal happen.

She worked for me, she got me the best deal possible (in my situation and in my eyes) and I was satisfied. She knew what I wanted and that I was a motivated buyer and found me homes, and I found some on my own.

She did NOT represent the seller.

 

[dante]

Beef supreme is right- our realtor was pretty good, but my wife, not the realtor, found our place the morning it was listed. We had our realtor show it to us that day, put an offer next day and two other a$$holes put offers in the same day! Our realtor was good because he knew we needed to offer fast if we were serious about it.

We found our house, not our Realtor. It was sitting on the market for 6 months because an offer was put in on it 5 months earlier (and was accepted), but it had a contingent that the buyer had to sell her house first. During those 5 months the buyer hadn't even held an open house and obviously wasn't really that interested in moving. No Realtors wanted to waste their time showing the house since there was technically an "accepted offer" on it. We came in with a loan offer in-hand and were ready to close within a month, so the seller took $20k less than the previous accepted offer. We used our Realtor for a lot of things, including closing and cost estimates on the various renovations we wanted to do to each of the houses, but she wasn't that great at finding diamonds in the rough.

I stopped focusing on square footage pretty quickly after I started to look. Lots of places may technically have the footage you want but if it's laid out in a way that it is not as usable as a house with less space, what's the point? You may be automatically dismissing some great candidates, and wasting time on others.

I also decided that I was willing to deal with some pretty significant renovations (full kitchen remodel, remove walls, replace windows, floors, and electrical) rather than pay a steep markup for someone else's crappy aesthetic and quality of work. With a kid on the way, I can understand that you might not be willing to deal with that though.

Probably the most important thing is to try to be patient. It's a pretty important purchase and you don't want to pull the trigger just because your tired or frustrated with the process. You're better off renting until you find the right place.

Good luck.

How the square footage is arranged is HUGELY important, far more than the actual square feet. You'll get pretty good at noticing the different building styles in that area, and what has been improved (and what hasn't). For us there were two different Cape Cod style houses, one being ~900' and the other ~1250'. However, most of the 900' had a 300-400' finished room in the basement, so were listed at 1200-1300'. What that meant, however, was that every other room (kitchen, bedrooms, living room, etc) were all 20% smaller. It got to the point where we could tell just by looking at the outside pictures which floor plan each one had, and which ones we were willing to look at.

The only thing I'd say is that depending on the market, be prepared to pay more for something that's *exactly* what you want as opposed to something that would fit your needs. When we were shopping we had a very specific idea of what we wanted, and where we wanted to live. If we had been willing to sit back and negotiate (ie, low-ball until we found a seller willing to accept) we probably could have saved another 10-15%. If there are really that many acceptable houses for you (ie, 200+) find a Realtor that is willing to start lowballing and see if any seller will accept. People get desperate to sell a house due to financial troubles, new job, etc, and every month that goes by they've got another $2000 mortgage payment. It's worth a shot, and if you're more interested in getting a great deal than a specific house in a specific neighborhood it might work out well for you.

 

[dump]

Not where I live.

I have always had a buyers agent who represents me and what I want, and then dealt with the listing agent who represented the seller and what he wanted.

Yes my agent will get a better commission (3% for buyers agent, 3% for sellers) if I pay more for the house, but my agent knew and was well aware up front that if she did not find me what I wanted I would gladly work with someone else, she also knew up front I would not make a full price offer and would come in extremely low as a starting point but would counter appropriately based on the buyers initial reaction and willingness to make a deal happen.

She worked for me, she got me the best deal possible (in my situation and in my eyes) and I was satisfied. She knew what I wanted and that I was a motivated buyer and found me homes, and I found some on my own.

She did NOT represent the seller.

Yeah, I think this is a good way to approach it. I was referencing sellers agents and the misconception that they have your interests in mind.

Did your agent have an agreement with the seller's agent for the (%s) or was that an agreement you set up independently?

This is a good breakdown:
http://real-estate.lawyers.com/residential-real-estate/Who-Does-a-Real-Estate-Agent-or-Broker-Represent.html

 

[dante]

By the way, relish buying a house, as you'll never have it this easy again.

You're not trying to buy in an exploding market (think '01-06) where houses were gone unless you bid 10%+ over the asking price.

You don't have another house to sell first, putting you ahead of 80%+ of the people who are stuck with a house they can't sell and usually have to work in a contingency plan.

You have 20% to put down and good (great?) credit, meaning the hardest part of getting a mortgage will be printing out bank statements.

You're buying a house in an area of the country that you like and want to raise a family in.


You're walking into this game holding all the cards, stop and relish that for a minute or two...

 

[stoney]

Congrats.

You think finding a house you even want is a pain? Wait until you start dealing with a bank and their loan underwriters. Things have changed since the downturn. They will ask you for the same sh!t nineteen different ways.

Our credit is perfect, we are putting 20% down, and have comfortably enough savings to pay the mortgage for 10 years if we were to both become unemployed. We are also going through our credit union, who have 5 years of income records for us. I'm not concerned.

I stopped focusing on square footage pretty quickly after I started to look. Lots of places may technically have the footage you want but if it's laid out in a way that it is not as usable as a house with less space, what's the point? You may be automatically dismissing some great candidates, and wasting time on others.

I also decided that I was willing to deal with some pretty significant renovations (full kitchen remodel, remove walls, replace windows, floors, and electrical) rather than pay a steep markup for someone else's crappy aesthetic and quality of work. With a kid on the way, I can understand that you might not be willing to deal with that though.

Probably the most important thing is to try to be patient. It's a pretty important purchase and you don't want to pull the trigger just because your tired or frustrated with the process. You're better off renting until you find the right place.

Good luck.

Working with Wifey on this. She is starting to understand this process.

Buying a house in Highlands Ranch makes baby Jesus cry.

Find me schools at the same par, in equivalent neighborhoods, for the same px range. Despite my best efforts, I have only found 2-3 houses in Littleton and Centennial that we would even want to see. Those two were both going to need ~$30k of work minimum to get it to a place we would even be comfortable living in.
Most are in need of new carpets at a dead minimum, and we would be putting hardwood downstairs instead of new carpet we will likely pull later. I tried listening to you, but we're not finding anything in our range there.

Agents work for the seller, not the buyer.

Given that I am doing most of the research, I made it clear that he is the facilitator for the most part. Also, I have no issues dropping a broker and moving to another one. He is getting paid by me, and I expect what goes along with that.

 

[-BB-]

- If you find something, check it out at different times during the day. It sucks to find out you have a-hole neighbors after it is too late.

Not only that, but maybe go for a walk around the neighborhood one evening. Are there a bunch of kids playing in the street (possibly a good thing since you have one on the way) Do people come flying down the street on their way home? Is it a "cut through" street to get from one part of the neighborhood to another with heavy traffic? How close is it to the nearest park where your kid might be able to go play.

This one might be tough, but what is traffic like there in the morning? One thing I never thought of when I bought my place was that there are 4 schools on La Paz between my place and the freeway. That means in the morning there are millions of parents dropping off their kids backing up left turn lanes etc. Takes me an extra 10 min to get to work when school is in session vs summer/holiday periods when it isn't.

 

[CrabJoe StretchPants]

Not only that, but maybe go for a walk around the neighborhood one evening. Are there a bunch of kids playing in the street? Do people come flying down the street on their way home? Is it a "cut through" street to get from one part of the neighborhood to another with heavy traffic?

This one might be tough, but what is traffic like there in the morning? One thing I never thought of when I bought my place was that there are 4 schools on La Paz between my place and the freeway. That means in the morning there are millions of parents dropping off their kids backing up left turn lanes etc. Takes me an extra 10 min to get to work when school is in session vs summer/holiday periods when it isn't.

10 minutes! The horror!

 

[-BB-]

10 minutes! The horror!

Well, when it usually takes me 3-4min to get from my place to the freeway and then it takes about 15-20min, that is sort of significant.

 

[jimmydean]

Yeah, I think this is a good way to approach it. I was referencing sellers agents and the misconception that they have your interests in mind.

Did your agent have an agreement with the seller's agent for the (%s) or was that an agreement you set up independently?

This is a good breakdown:
http://real-estate.lawyers.com/residential-real-estate/Who-Does-a-Real-Estate-Agent-or-Broker-Represent.html

This is why my agent only dealt with REO's. He got 6% on the deal and wanted bottom price. He made his money on volume. But he said at 6%, he could get me the best price for ME and he still made way more than a 3% deal working with a traditional listing agent.

 

[Sandwich]

dante is absolutely right. It's a good spot to be in.

My wife and I recently bought a house for the first time. Some pointers I picked up...

A) Find yourself a realtor via recommendation. We had a guy who our friend recommended and he did OK for us. He had a hard time finding houses that we really liked, but in this world, with apps like Trulia and Zillow, finding a house is SO easy. He allowed us access to his MLS listings, so we saw things that entered the market on day 1, and he showed us a couple of places that weren't even listed yet. He also helped us negotiate a little bit when it came time to make and accept an offer. We were really pleased with his performance, though he wasn't perfect, which was expected.

B) Decide for yourself a price range and a price cap that you're willing to pay, but also a cap that you're willing to look at. Our house was originally listed for 14% more than we paid for it, in an area that sees very quick turnover. We paid under our "cap" just a little, and the house was originally listed for far more than we would have ever looked at. On this note, remember that DOING renovations costs less than BUYING renovations. I think if we had to do it again, I would have picked a smaller house with a nicer kitchen and bath area, but as it is we have more square footage (~2600 livable feet) and more yard (.9 acre) than any house in the area for the price....but we have to pay to renovate our old bathrooms, and we also have to take the time to do it, which will suck....and you can't really finance a renovation like you can finance a renovated space.

C) Don't listen to anybody else outside of your area. I posted something about buying a house on RM, and everybody came out of the woodwork to tell me how stupid I was for paying more than the 2x golden rule, and everybody told me not to buy a house "in this economy" etc. etc. Nobody knows what stands in your area besides people that live there. We made multiple low offers and they got rejected, then the house got snatched up for more than we would be comfortable paying at all. the 2x rule would have bought us little more than a single room in an apartment in the very worst area of the very worst town within 20 mi of where we wanted to live...that's just not applicable here. People will spout off a lot of information that just doesn't work for your situation at your appropriate time.

D) While I wish our house was more newly renovated, it does have a near new roof, siding, kitchen appliances, windows, heating system, french drain and sump pump, and a few other things that are well worth it. Pay a good house inspector a lot of money to do a thorough house inspection. Our guy prevented us from buying a house riddled with bad wiring, bad plumbing, termites, and a collapsing sun porch. You can always renovate a working shower/toilet later, but if it falls through the floor, it doesn't matter how new it was.

E) Forget the timelines. Rent if you have to. Our purchase came together magically, but we were willing to rent again if our lease ran out (LLs were selling) or if we just couldn't find a house. We did, and we're happy now, but don't set yourself a "Find a house by this date" unless you have more money than sense.

I'll see if anything else comes up, but those are some big points. Be flexible with your areas and try to forecast. If you're too rigid, you may wait forever. It's a fun but exhausting process. Be prepared to see some weird ****.

 

[dante]

Not only that, but maybe go for a walk around the neighborhood one evening. Are there a bunch of kids playing in the street (possibly a good thing since you have one on the way) Do people come flying down the street on their way home? Is it a "cut through" street to get from one part of the neighborhood to another with heavy traffic? How close is it to the nearest park where your kid might be able to go play.

This one might be tough, but what is traffic like there in the morning? One thing I never thought of when I bought my place was that there are 4 schools on La Paz between my place and the freeway. That means in the morning there are millions of parents dropping off their kids backing up left turn lanes etc. Takes me an extra 10 min to get to work when school is in session vs summer/holiday periods when it isn't.

This is also good. Find out the traffic patterns, and whether that little side street is *actually* the shortest/fastest route getting in or out of the neighborhood. We got lucky (it's a through street that's practically deserted, with the kids playing catch in the street), but since moving here I've found that there are other side streets that don't look like much, but are actually the shortest route out of the neighborhood so they're usually pretty high-traffic streets. I often think about how glad I am not to live there.

Walking the neighborhood is actually what we did, and it ended up with us picking the neighborhood first, and then even the specific area. When we found the house we wanted that met our requirements in that area, we jumped on it (we actually found the house by walking the neighborhood, since it still had the sign in the front yard).

 

[Pesqueeb]

Given that I am doing most of the research, I made it clear that he is the facilitator for the most part. Also, I have no issues dropping a broker and moving to another one. He is getting paid by me, and I expect what goes along with that.

I can't second this enough. Both houses we bought our agents were complete sh*t bags. My wife called them both out early and because I'm both stubborn and dumb, I didn't ditch them both right away. Mistake learned. If/when we ever buy again, the second the agent is even mildly irritating they are getting the boot. Especially now with the way real estate is, if this guy/gal isn't pretty much in a constant state of kissing your ass, show him the door. Real estate agents are scum.

I also concur with the statements already made about wandering the immediate neighborhood of any place you happen to like at weird/off times, for the traffic and noise issues, as well as to get a feeling of what the neighbors and their kids might be like. Check for nearby parks or open spaces as well. We have several within walking distance of Casa De Pesqueeb, and we visit them with an amazing amount of regularity.

 

[stoney]

I just got off the phone with our bank. They'll let us do an 80/20 loan to value if we put down a full 20%. That will allow us to buy a foreclosure, gut it, and re-build as we want. This is great, as it really opens up our options.

 

[Pesqueeb]

What a great time to be buying a house. Our bank is offering 30 years @ 3.8 and 15 years @ 3.1. I thought we were getting the deal of the century at 3.5. Damn I wish we had the cash to buy an investment property at these rates.

 

[dump]

I just got off the phone with our bank. They'll let us do an 80/20 loan to value if we put down a full 20%. That will allow us to buy a foreclosure, gut it, and re-build as we want. This is great, as it really opens up our options.

Can you explain this? I thought you take an 80/20 if you don't have the money to put down. Does that mean they'll give you an 80/20, then you immediately pay off the 20?

 

[kazlx]

An agent is definitely worth it. I have a great one that I will use when I buy my next house. The wife and I are actually planning to buy a rental house in the near future. While there are many avenues that the average schmuck has for finding stuff, like any trade, a good agent will know the ins and outs and may be able to get you the first foot in on something new to the market. It's about who they know as well as what they know.

Be prepared for sh*t to break. No matter how good it looks when you look at it, sh*t will break. Do your best to make sure major things have been done, are in good shape, or use that as a bargaining chip, like the roof, HVAC, etc.

If I had the money to buy something that needed reno, that's what I would do. I think the hassle would be well worth the payoff to get something finished out the way you want it.

Definitely walk the neighborhood. Drive by at different times once you are serious. I would at least do morning, afternoon, evening/night. I only did some daytime scouting at my place. I got lucky, but something I would want to be sure of when buying again.

I agree with Sandwich... you have to figure out what works for you. The housing 'rules' don't fly in OC, crappy economy or not. I bought something I could afford, but it was still a hell of a lot more than most people in other parts of the country would pay. Rent around here for a 2br/1ba is probably more than 80% on this board pay for their mortgage on a 2000+ sq/ft house. You would never close on a house around here if you came in low trying to say 'it's a buyer's market'. Legit houses with equity being sold that aren't short sales are commanding a premium and the sellers know it.

In the end, it's worth it. It's so much better than renting. You can write off the interest, so that puts extra money on your paycheck to offset the monthly cost. In hindsight, I wish I would have waited a bit, but only because I met my now wife, so it would have been nice to buy a house together. Other than that, it's been awesome.

 

[CrabJoe StretchPants]

This reminds me I really should refinance.