Floor plan. Convenient storage for towels, cleaning supplies, outerwear. Electric outlets on at least two walls in every room, preferably on every wall. Laundry on same floor as bedrooms, so I’m not hauling up and down stairs.
Stairs that are wide enough for comfort when carrying something, with treads that are deep enough for my big feet, with a landing halfway, with handrails or sufficient space to install, with lighting that doesn’t require me to stand on steps to change bulb. I’d rather not have stairs, but I refuse to live in a place with steep narrow dark stairs again.
Location, including checking crime and flood zone maps. Condition, particularly foundation. Any hint of mold is a no-go. Nearby vacant lots raise possibility of neighborhood’s character changing, so check zoning.
I wonder whether owning a home is always best. It’s a big responsibility. When you rent, the responsibility is someone else’s. If a natural disaster not covered by insurance destroys the property you own, you have a total loss, but if you are renting, you lost your stuff only. Also, insurance fees and property taxes may approach the cost of rent. If you own a condo or coop, you are at the mercy of the corporation. Do you really own? If you have to pay property taxes, you are essentially renting. When you own, repairs and maintenance are your responsibility. When you rent, they’re not.
Before we were married my wife bought a house in the path of a major highway expansion project. We got a very, very nice buyout for that. (She’s now in charge of real estate and I’m in charge of non-real estate investments…). This buy-out plan works better if you’re “investing” in real estate. Otherwise, I learned from my parents. They bought a house and lived there 49 years. We’re at 26 years and counting. I guess just buy a place you’re happy with, that you can afford, that you don’t mind living in for many years.
The number one thing to look for when buying a house is patience. The biggest mistake home buyers make is to rush into a purchase which is often fueled by the fear of wasting money on a rental. This is especially true for those moving to a new area where identifying the neighborhood you want to live in is difficult and you have to accept whatever inventory is available at the time. Closing costs and realtor commissions on buying the wrong house can cost you a lot more than rent for a year or two.
While most of what makes up the right house for you depends on personal factors such as first house vs. retirement home and family status, make sure you have a list of needs and wants based on your budget. Don’t accept a house that doesn’t meet your needs and patience will allow you to find as many wants as you can. If you have the intestinal fortitude for it, build, but this is not for the faint of heart. Building will get you the closest to what you want with the quality of materials you want but there are disadvantages that might not be obvious such as there has been nobody there before you to build storage shelves, a backyard shed or that immaculately landscaped backyard. Personally, I would never buy a new spec home since you get the disadvantages of a brand new home without the advantage of getting exactly what you want.
Finally, make sure the home you buy is in the condition you want. Buying a fixer upper because it’s cheaper will cost you more in the long run if you are not handy or don’t like/don’t have time to work on a house. You will end up spending more on contractors than you saved and there’s always that hidden problem you weren’t expecting. While it can be lucrative for some to perpetually rotate through remodels, most people should approach home buying and home ownership as a way to create your personal space and your happy place and not as an investment.
I have many friends who’ve bought houses because of location, but then spent ungodly amounts of money remodeling and redecorating. In one case, their relentless desire to ‘update’ everything was equal to the original cost of the house. I bought a house that I already liked the minute I walked in the door. Other than paint, AC and new shingles, I haven’t changed a thing over 35 years. I think it’s important to consider total cost of ownership. Hold out for a house that you like ‘as is’. They’re out there if you can be patient.
We held out for months for the house we wanted in as is condition. Didn’t happen. We then found a house that needs a new kitchen, bathroom, new windows, and other work. The seller let contractors in to take measurements before the closing so the afternoon of the closing, construction began. We continued to rent and moved in at the tail end of renovations. If you can get the timing right, a strategy like this can work.
Find the house you like in the neighborhood you like with good schools and a good church. Buy one of the smaller houses in the neighborhood. Don’t overextend on the mortgage. I agree with the other lengthy comments listed below, but most of those aren’t my first thoughts when looking. Obviously all the details are very important, but not so if you don’t pick a house you like.
We’ve moved 10 times over 40 years, mostly for needing a bigger house for a growing family or work assignments. Assuming you’ve already found a home or two you really like:
Pay particularly close attention to the big ticket items like the foundation and roof for example. You want a home with “good bones”. A wall paint color you don’t care for is a minuscule cost and an easy change. Don’t get hung up on that. Although I’m sure rules vary considerably between municipalities/counties/states, read through the seller disclosure statement and again, don’t be afraid to ask questions. Things like septic problems can be much more than an inconvenience.
Taste the tap water from the kitchen and/or bathroom. You might be surprised, even with municipal water. We bought a great home years ago only to find out the water (well) had an awful sulfur smell (after it rained) and taste. Showers were short and luke warm to keep the smell down. Thankfully, only lived there about a year before moving for a job promotion.
Beware the “home inspection” service. Some are truly great, others, not so much and others worthless. Be present when the inspection is being done. Have someone more knowledgeable there with you if you’re not comfortable. Ask questions! There are limits to what their industry code allows but some will not do things they should be doing. After moving into one home, we had a neighbor tell us that the “inspector” was at the house for about a whole 10 minutes (we could not be there) and wrote up a glowing report (which wasn’t accurate).
In a similar vein, be sure you understand the home warranty policy, whether the buyer provides it or you purchase it. There can be significant restrictions on what it will cover. An important example is that repairs are covered but if the “broken” item must be replaced, it’s on your dime.
Look (a lot) around the neighborhood and learn about the community. That vacant parcel of land close by might be slated for construction for something you may not like or lower your property value. Like getting married, you marry into your spouses family as well. Here, you join the community.
If applicable, make sure you attain and read through any subdivision rules/covenants (the latest edition). While they should not be written to be ridiculously restrictive, they should provide good fundamental expectations of keeping everyone’s property to a reasonable standard. If you don’t like seeing your neighbors RV or boat 365 days a year in their driveway, you want to check on that. Then, drive through the neighborhood and see if they are being followed by others. See if you can obtain a copy of the last homeowners association minutes and budget report.
No house is perfect in every way and maintenance costs are a given. The question is, what can you live with and afford?
What should you look for when buying a home? Well, it depends.
Do you have kids?
How old are you?
If it’s snow country, are you going to shovel your own driveway (in which case you’d want it to be shorter)?
Do you like doing renovation?
Do you like outdoor activities?
Do you need air conditioning?
I mean – the list is endless! So really, the only universally correct advice I’ve ever heard – and it continues to stand the test of time – is location, location, and location are the three most important things to consider when buying a home. 🙂
After that, you need to decide what’s important to you, create some criteria and prioritize them, and go find a home that meets those criteria. No short cut; no simple answer. Except don’t forget: location, location, location!!
We are now living in our third house. We got married in 2001. We rented for the first year and then bought a house in the city of Pittsburgh, Pa, which generally avoids the huge real estate market swings in either direction, and steadily went up the 11 years we lived there.
My wife read a book that said to draw three one mile radius circles on the map, centered around work, grocery stores, and churches. We have always had a high emphasis on community and didn’t own a car for the first few years of marriage, and so being able to walk places is important to us.
We started out looking heavily in the one mile circle around work reasoning that I would be going there every day and check is only once or twice a week. (There was also a good sized grocery store across the street from my workplace) Our real estate agent drove us around and we looked at a lot of houses (she certainly earned way more than her commission on our first house). We had pretty much settled on a house that was a block from from my office for $85k. We had been approved for a loan for $200k, and frustrated our agent because we looked at houses anywhere between $20k and $150k.
Our agent said that if we were willing to look in a current neighborhood, she could get us a better house for half the price. So we took her advice and did just that. The house was a similar age (100 years old) and we bought it for $43k.
It was 4 miles from my office, and we took a long time to think about that. It was also a couple blocks from a smaller, but reasonable-sized grocery store and a mile from church.
The commute wasn’t great (20 minutes by bus, car, or bike), but tolerable. The community was pretty good. And the house sold for $95k 8 years later (we rented it out the last few years because when we bought our second house, property values were going up due to a new hospital being built around the corner.)
I had an opportunity for a side hustle after a few years and I worked a lot for a 9 months and was able to pay off the house (our total payment including the mortgage and taxes was $279/month, something I often think about now where I pay $500/month just for the property taxes)
Our second house was a 60 year old house in a suburb of Pittsburgh, and the main problem with the house was the road turned out to be a shortcut between two highways, but only if you sped, and so traffic was very fast and our front yard was small. We bought for $65k and sold five years later for $85k.
We then moved to my hometown in rural NH. We bought in 2012, which still recovering from the 2008 recession and threatening to go into another one and there were foreclosures everywhere. We again looked at houses between $20k and $140k. (We thought about stretching up to $150k or even $180k, but having lived with no mortgage, it was hard to think about going back). We bought a 120 year old house for $68k. (I get regular phone calls the last couple of years asking to buy it for $300k)
So, my advice? Buy as cheap as you can in the location you want to live. I watch all of my friends buy expensive houses in the same areas (most people I know bought houses for $150 to $200k, and now people are buying $300k houses that are worse than any of mine).
We did have to borrow some money from our parents to make the cash flow work, but we have been debt-free for the majority of our marriage, and having the grocery bill be the biggest expense is really great. People don’t realize how much having low expenses reduces stress. I’ve been self-employed since 2008 and had a three year ramp up period before that while I worked full time, but also worked to get my comment off the ground.
My schedule C expenses have also always been low, and so it is easy to have variable income and not have to worry, since we spend so much less than I earn.
The other criteria I would probably put more attention to if I were to do it over again is lead paint. All of our houses had lead and all of our kids (7 of them) measured high in their first two years and then went down once they stopped putting everything in their mouths. (Except for one kid who after lots of tests and the state coming in because his levels were so high eventually found out that he was eating the “tasty rocks”, the paint chips falling outside, but that’s another story.
I don’t know if we were in the right place at the right time to have our houses appreciate so quickly, but I attribute most of it to buying so cheaply (and all houses were in move-in condition, though we did do a lot of work over the years. Our first two houses we had a defined list and finished the work within a handful of years. Our current house feels like we could work on it forever and never be done, but it is very liveable, and my oldest son (19) as he considers where he might want to live says we have the best house in our town… 🙂
The one mile rule is a good one. We live one mile (with sidewalks) from reliable public transportation into Manhattan and an excellent grocery store and a few other shops. Less than a mile in another direction has an ok smaller grocery store, a CVS, other shops and local gov’t offices. There are small parks with playground equipment and schools too. And ice cream store and bodega within a few blocks. And a lot of friendly neighbors. The one mile radius rule for walkableness works.
I wouldn’t have written this ten years ago, but I think it is worth noting now. If you have strong political convictions, you’re not going to be happy in certain neighborhoods (or next door to certain individuals). The other day I walked by a house with a big F Biden flag. Two houses down had a big rainbow flag and one of those In This Home We Believe signs. You often don’t know who your neighbors are, but why choose to live where you have to deal with uncivil disagreement?
Another question comes before that one, which is why are you buying a home, here and now?
If the answer is something like, “This is where I hope to spend the rest of my life,” then what you should look for will something like, “A place that makes me confident I will love spending most of the rest of my life within its walls.”
My most important lesson related to house purchase occurred while my husband was in the Army. He had been in ROTC and went on active duty during the Vietnam War. Fortunately, he was stationed at the US Military Academy at West Point. We were both in graduate school at the time and lacked a car; my father drove us around so we could find housing in ONE day– Tom was too low ranking to qualify for on post housing. We had the minimal amount for a down payment on a modest house, and looked at a couple that we could have afforded and which would have been fine. We decided not to risk a buy and instead found a rental. We stayed at West Point for 3 years; during that time, we saw career army people buy and sell their houses. They rarely planned to stay put for more than 3 years. Nevertheless, they rapidly found houses they thought would “work” for them and bought them. Every junior officer we knew followed this plan, and sold at a profit when their tour was finished.
After the army stint, my husband took a job at the University of WI — Madison. We were not mid-westerners and did not plan to stay (we actually have for almost 50 years!) BUT this time we followed the “army way.” We drove to Wisconsin with one week to find a house that would work for us and our two young children The inventory available was very limited, but we found a 3 bedroom ranch that met our needs but was NOT our dream house. We stayed in that house for 5 years.
During our initial week looking for housing in Madison, we did identify the small neighborhood in which we wanted to live, but it took us five years to find a house there that we could afford. We were constantly outbid until we came upon a true fixer upper. We were the first people to tour the house and we offered the full asking price. Our offer had no contingencies — we did not have it inspected (it would never have passed!), we gambled we could sell the ranch house before the closing, and we just held our breath. We sold the ranch for about 25% more than we paid, and closed on both houses the same day! Forty-four years later, my husband and I still live in the fixer uppers.
The house over the years has required a lot of work — both do- it- yourself and bigger projects that were done by professional contractors. But the house in which we raised 3 kids still works well for us as empty nesters. Realtors often claim “location, location, location” are the 3 most important factors in real estate. I totally agree — today, my neighborhood is as hot as it was 44 years when we moved into it. But I would tell any first time home buyer to determine his/her non-negotiable– it might not be location for them– and then proceed from there. No house is going to be “perfect,” and it’s important not to be overwhelmed by a housing purchase. The lesson from West Point was that what you buy, you can also sell! That approach definitely does work!
I’ll take a little different spin. Never ask someone else if it’s a good time to buy a home. The market will do what it does, and buying a home really comes down to your situation, not the market. Timing the stock market is obviously a fool’s errand, but it’s even more perilous when trying to buy a home. Real estate markets heat up and slow down, but they rarely crash. You can’t sit around on the sidelines waiting for the market to come to you–particularly with historically low mortgage rates right now (3.0% for a 30yr fixed, 2.25% for a 15yr fixed).
So focus on where you think you’ll be in life in 5-10 years. If you think you’ll be somewhere else for a new job, buying a new home is not something you should look to do. If you plan to stay put and see little risk of moving, follow what Rick says!
Buying s house is one of life’s biggest challenges, and can lead to a lifetime of happiness, or bitter regret. The more effort you put in to researching your new home, the more likely you’ll get the former. I use a funneling system – start with a wide array of information and narrow it down to specific targets. Some things to consider:
Area – decide if you want to live in a city, suburb, small town, woods farm, coast, mountains, … Is there family nearby?, Are there jobs nearby that you want/can perform?
Location – This includes local municipality (how are the taxes and services), schools, roads, shopping, access to nature, children’s programs,
Neighborhood – Narrow the search down to neighborhoods that have the type of house you want and can afford. Drive through the neighborhoods at various times of day, weekdays and weekends. Are there lots of kids playing, do neighbors interact, are the yards well kept? You can tell a lot from a driveway.
House – When I look at a house I start with the bones. Is it structurally sound? Are the electric and plumbing systems adequate and up-to-code. How old is rook? Any evidence of water – especially in a basement. Is it in a flood zone? Sidewalks and driveways?
Day in the life – Imagine a day in the life with your family in the house you are considering. This is a great technique my wife uses. Are there enough bedrooms for everyone? How will the kitchen flow (everyone gathers there in our family)? Where will the kids play? Room for in-laws? My Mother always asked this question – Where will you put the Christmas Tree? This simple question made you think about holidays and family and how the house would handle your family’s traditions.
First imagine. My wife and I learned a great technique for newly engaged or married couples. Independently, draw a picture of a big holiday celebration in your home on your 5th anniversary. Put in detail about the house. We did this with many young couples and it is amazing how many had wildly different ideas of how they would be living 5 years into the future. These couples had a lot of discussing to do!
Single floor, cul de sac and no HOA.
Floor plan. Convenient storage for towels, cleaning supplies, outerwear. Electric outlets on at least two walls in every room, preferably on every wall. Laundry on same floor as bedrooms, so I’m not hauling up and down stairs.
Stairs that are wide enough for comfort when carrying something, with treads that are deep enough for my big feet, with a landing halfway, with handrails or sufficient space to install, with lighting that doesn’t require me to stand on steps to change bulb. I’d rather not have stairs, but I refuse to live in a place with steep narrow dark stairs again.
Location, including checking crime and flood zone maps. Condition, particularly foundation. Any hint of mold is a no-go. Nearby vacant lots raise possibility of neighborhood’s character changing, so check zoning.
I wonder whether owning a home is always best. It’s a big responsibility. When you rent, the responsibility is someone else’s. If a natural disaster not covered by insurance destroys the property you own, you have a total loss, but if you are renting, you lost your stuff only. Also, insurance fees and property taxes may approach the cost of rent.
If you own a condo or coop, you are at the mercy of the corporation. Do you really own? If you have to pay property taxes, you are essentially renting.
When you own, repairs and maintenance are your responsibility. When you rent, they’re not.
A good home inspector. I’m not sure one really exists, but anyone is better than the one your real estate agent recommends.
Before we were married my wife bought a house in the path of a major highway expansion project. We got a very, very nice buyout for that. (She’s now in charge of real estate and I’m in charge of non-real estate investments…). This buy-out plan works better if you’re “investing” in real estate. Otherwise, I learned from my parents. They bought a house and lived there 49 years. We’re at 26 years and counting. I guess just buy a place you’re happy with, that you can afford, that you don’t mind living in for many years.
The number one thing to look for when buying a house is patience. The biggest mistake home buyers make is to rush into a purchase which is often fueled by the fear of wasting money on a rental. This is especially true for those moving to a new area where identifying the neighborhood you want to live in is difficult and you have to accept whatever inventory is available at the time. Closing costs and realtor commissions on buying the wrong house can cost you a lot more than rent for a year or two.
While most of what makes up the right house for you depends on personal factors such as first house vs. retirement home and family status, make sure you have a list of needs and wants based on your budget. Don’t accept a house that doesn’t meet your needs and patience will allow you to find as many wants as you can. If you have the intestinal fortitude for it, build, but this is not for the faint of heart. Building will get you the closest to what you want with the quality of materials you want but there are disadvantages that might not be obvious such as there has been nobody there before you to build storage shelves, a backyard shed or that immaculately landscaped backyard. Personally, I would never buy a new spec home since you get the disadvantages of a brand new home without the advantage of getting exactly what you want.
Finally, make sure the home you buy is in the condition you want. Buying a fixer upper because it’s cheaper will cost you more in the long run if you are not handy or don’t like/don’t have time to work on a house. You will end up spending more on contractors than you saved and there’s always that hidden problem you weren’t expecting. While it can be lucrative for some to perpetually rotate through remodels, most people should approach home buying and home ownership as a way to create your personal space and your happy place and not as an investment.
I have many friends who’ve bought houses because of location, but then spent ungodly amounts of money remodeling and redecorating. In one case, their relentless desire to ‘update’ everything was equal to the original cost of the house.
I bought a house that I already liked the minute I walked in the door. Other than paint, AC and new shingles, I haven’t changed a thing over 35 years. I think it’s important to consider total cost of ownership. Hold out for a house that you like ‘as is’. They’re out there if you can be patient.
We held out for months for the house we wanted in as is condition. Didn’t happen. We then found a house that needs a new kitchen, bathroom, new windows, and other work. The seller let contractors in to take measurements before the closing so the afternoon of the closing, construction began. We continued to rent and moved in at the tail end of renovations. If you can get the timing right, a strategy like this can work.
Find the house you like in the neighborhood you like with good schools and a good church. Buy one of the smaller houses in the neighborhood. Don’t overextend on the mortgage. I agree with the other lengthy comments listed below, but most of those aren’t my first thoughts when looking. Obviously all the details are very important, but not so if you don’t pick a house you like.
We’ve moved 10 times over 40 years, mostly for needing a bigger house for a growing family or work assignments. Assuming you’ve already found a home or two you really like:
Pay particularly close attention to the big ticket items like the foundation and roof for example. You want a home with “good bones”. A wall paint color you don’t care for is a minuscule cost and an easy change. Don’t get hung up on that. Although I’m sure rules vary considerably between municipalities/counties/states, read through the seller disclosure statement and again, don’t be afraid to ask questions. Things like septic problems can be much more than an inconvenience.
Taste the tap water from the kitchen and/or bathroom. You might be surprised, even with municipal water. We bought a great home years ago only to find out the water (well) had an awful sulfur smell (after it rained) and taste. Showers were short and luke warm to keep the smell down. Thankfully, only lived there about a year before moving for a job promotion.
Beware the “home inspection” service. Some are truly great, others, not so much and others worthless. Be present when the inspection is being done. Have someone more knowledgeable there with you if you’re not comfortable. Ask questions! There are limits to what their industry code allows but some will not do things they should be doing. After moving into one home, we had a neighbor tell us that the “inspector” was at the house for about a whole 10 minutes (we could not be there) and wrote up a glowing report (which wasn’t accurate).
In a similar vein, be sure you understand the home warranty policy, whether the buyer provides it or you purchase it. There can be significant restrictions on what it will cover. An important example is that repairs are covered but if the “broken” item must be replaced, it’s on your dime.
Look (a lot) around the neighborhood and learn about the community. That vacant parcel of land close by might be slated for construction for something you may not like or lower your property value. Like getting married, you marry into your spouses family as well. Here, you join the community.
If applicable, make sure you attain and read through any subdivision rules/covenants (the latest edition). While they should not be written to be ridiculously restrictive, they should provide good fundamental expectations of keeping everyone’s property to a reasonable standard. If you don’t like seeing your neighbors RV or boat 365 days a year in their driveway, you want to check on that. Then, drive through the neighborhood and see if they are being followed by others. See if you can obtain a copy of the last homeowners association minutes and budget report.
No house is perfect in every way and maintenance costs are a given. The question is, what can you live with and afford?
What should you look for when buying a home? Well, it depends.
I mean – the list is endless!
So really, the only universally correct advice I’ve ever heard – and it continues to stand the test of time – is location, location, and location are the three most important things to consider when buying a home. 🙂
After that, you need to decide what’s important to you, create some criteria and prioritize them, and go find a home that meets those criteria. No short cut; no simple answer. Except don’t forget: location, location, location!!
We are now living in our third house. We got married in 2001. We rented for the first year and then bought a house in the city of Pittsburgh, Pa, which generally avoids the huge real estate market swings in either direction, and steadily went up the 11 years we lived there.
My wife read a book that said to draw three one mile radius circles on the map, centered around work, grocery stores, and churches. We have always had a high emphasis on community and didn’t own a car for the first few years of marriage, and so being able to walk places is important to us.
We started out looking heavily in the one mile circle around work reasoning that I would be going there every day and check is only once or twice a week. (There was also a good sized grocery store across the street from my workplace) Our real estate agent drove us around and we looked at a lot of houses (she certainly earned way more than her commission on our first house). We had pretty much settled on a house that was a block from from my office for $85k. We had been approved for a loan for $200k, and frustrated our agent because we looked at houses anywhere between $20k and $150k.
Our agent said that if we were willing to look in a current neighborhood, she could get us a better house for half the price. So we took her advice and did just that. The house was a similar age (100 years old) and we bought it for $43k.
It was 4 miles from my office, and we took a long time to think about that. It was also a couple blocks from a smaller, but reasonable-sized grocery store and a mile from church.
The commute wasn’t great (20 minutes by bus, car, or bike), but tolerable. The community was pretty good. And the house sold for $95k 8 years later (we rented it out the last few years because when we bought our second house, property values were going up due to a new hospital being built around the corner.)
I had an opportunity for a side hustle after a few years and I worked a lot for a 9 months and was able to pay off the house (our total payment including the mortgage and taxes was $279/month, something I often think about now where I pay $500/month just for the property taxes)
Our second house was a 60 year old house in a suburb of Pittsburgh, and the main problem with the house was the road turned out to be a shortcut between two highways, but only if you sped, and so traffic was very fast and our front yard was small. We bought for $65k and sold five years later for $85k.
We then moved to my hometown in rural NH. We bought in 2012, which still recovering from the 2008 recession and threatening to go into another one and there were foreclosures everywhere. We again looked at houses between $20k and $140k. (We thought about stretching up to $150k or even $180k, but having lived with no mortgage, it was hard to think about going back). We bought a 120 year old house for $68k. (I get regular phone calls the last couple of years asking to buy it for $300k)
So, my advice? Buy as cheap as you can in the location you want to live. I watch all of my friends buy expensive houses in the same areas (most people I know bought houses for $150 to $200k, and now people are buying $300k houses that are worse than any of mine).
We did have to borrow some money from our parents to make the cash flow work, but we have been debt-free for the majority of our marriage, and having the grocery bill be the biggest expense is really great. People don’t realize how much having low expenses reduces stress. I’ve been self-employed since 2008 and had a three year ramp up period before that while I worked full time, but also worked to get my comment off the ground.
My schedule C expenses have also always been low, and so it is easy to have variable income and not have to worry, since we spend so much less than I earn.
The other criteria I would probably put more attention to if I were to do it over again is lead paint. All of our houses had lead and all of our kids (7 of them) measured high in their first two years and then went down once they stopped putting everything in their mouths. (Except for one kid who after lots of tests and the state coming in because his levels were so high eventually found out that he was eating the “tasty rocks”, the paint chips falling outside, but that’s another story.
I don’t know if we were in the right place at the right time to have our houses appreciate so quickly, but I attribute most of it to buying so cheaply (and all houses were in move-in condition, though we did do a lot of work over the years. Our first two houses we had a defined list and finished the work within a handful of years. Our current house feels like we could work on it forever and never be done, but it is very liveable, and my oldest son (19) as he considers where he might want to live says we have the best house in our town… 🙂
The one mile rule is a good one. We live one mile (with sidewalks) from reliable public transportation into Manhattan and an excellent grocery store and a few other shops. Less than a mile in another direction has an ok smaller grocery store, a CVS, other shops and local gov’t offices. There are small parks with playground equipment and schools too. And ice cream store and bodega within a few blocks. And a lot of friendly neighbors. The one mile radius rule for walkableness works.
I wouldn’t have written this ten years ago, but I think it is worth noting now. If you have strong political convictions, you’re not going to be happy in certain neighborhoods (or next door to certain individuals). The other day I walked by a house with a big F Biden flag. Two houses down had a big rainbow flag and one of those In This Home We Believe signs. You often don’t know who your neighbors are, but why choose to live where you have to deal with uncivil disagreement?
Another question comes before that one, which is why are you buying a home, here and now?
If the answer is something like, “This is where I hope to spend the rest of my life,” then what you should look for will something like, “A place that makes me confident I will love spending most of the rest of my life within its walls.”
My most important lesson related to house purchase occurred while my husband was in the Army. He had been in ROTC and went on active duty during the Vietnam War. Fortunately, he was stationed at the US Military Academy at West Point. We were both in graduate school at the time and lacked a car; my father drove us around so we could find housing in ONE day– Tom was too low ranking to qualify for on post housing. We had the minimal amount for a down payment on a modest house, and looked at a couple that we could have afforded and which would have been fine. We decided not to risk a buy and instead found a rental. We stayed at West Point for 3 years; during that time, we saw career army people buy and sell their houses. They rarely planned to stay put for more than 3 years. Nevertheless, they rapidly found houses they thought would “work” for them and bought them. Every junior officer we knew followed this plan, and sold at a profit when their tour was finished.
After the army stint, my husband took a job at the University of WI — Madison. We were not mid-westerners and did not plan to stay (we actually have for almost 50 years!) BUT this time we followed the “army way.” We drove to Wisconsin with one week to find a house that would work for us and our two young children The inventory available was very limited, but we found a 3 bedroom ranch that met our needs but was NOT our dream house. We stayed in that house for 5 years.
During our initial week looking for housing in Madison, we did identify the small neighborhood in which we wanted to live, but it took us five years to find a house there that we could afford. We were constantly outbid until we came upon a true fixer upper. We were the first people to tour the house and we offered the full asking price. Our offer had no contingencies — we did not have it inspected (it would never have passed!), we gambled we could sell the ranch house before the closing, and we just held our breath. We sold the ranch for about 25% more than we paid, and closed on both houses the same day! Forty-four years later, my husband and I still live in the fixer uppers.
The house over the years has required a lot of work — both do- it- yourself and bigger projects that were done by professional contractors. But the house in which we raised 3 kids still works well for us as empty nesters. Realtors often claim “location, location, location” are the 3 most important factors in real estate. I totally agree — today, my neighborhood is as hot as it was 44 years when we moved into it. But I would tell any first time home buyer to determine his/her non-negotiable– it might not be location for them– and then proceed from there. No house is going to be “perfect,” and it’s important not to be overwhelmed by a housing purchase. The lesson from West Point was that what you buy, you can also sell! That approach definitely does work!
Rick C crushed it below. Take a look.
I’ll take a little different spin. Never ask someone else if it’s a good time to buy a home. The market will do what it does, and buying a home really comes down to your situation, not the market. Timing the stock market is obviously a fool’s errand, but it’s even more perilous when trying to buy a home. Real estate markets heat up and slow down, but they rarely crash. You can’t sit around on the sidelines waiting for the market to come to you–particularly with historically low mortgage rates right now (3.0% for a 30yr fixed, 2.25% for a 15yr fixed).
So focus on where you think you’ll be in life in 5-10 years. If you think you’ll be somewhere else for a new job, buying a new home is not something you should look to do. If you plan to stay put and see little risk of moving, follow what Rick says!
Buying s house is one of life’s biggest challenges, and can lead to a lifetime of happiness, or bitter regret. The more effort you put in to researching your new home, the more likely you’ll get the former. I use a funneling system – start with a wide array of information and narrow it down to specific targets. Some things to consider: