Advice on House Buying
May. 14th, 2006 05:22 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
livingdeb(Due to technical difficulties over the past 24 hours, yesterday's entry appears today.)
I enjoyed reading Laura Rowley's What I Wish I Knew Then About Home Buying. She writes a letter to her younger self as her younger self was buying a house and passes on the wisdom on this subject that she has acquired over the last four years since that time.
My favorite: "I know you follow the 'Starbucks barista rule': The mortgage payment should be small enough so you can make the monthly nut -- even if your career tanks and you have to make lattes all day at Starbucks." What a great rule and a great name for it. Of course, most people don't feel they could live in such a low-priced place, but I love that philosophy.
Or maybe this was my favorite: "Don't be so quick to tear out the former owner's quirky additions. That weird foam padding on the back of the attic door? The plastic sheets sealing the attic windows? Before you consider improving the aesthetics, live through all four seasons in the home, including the first eye-popping winter utility bills. Those eccentric little upgrades will become your friends."
Here's what I would have told myself:
I already knew to get pre-approved for a loan, to not get a house if I was going to have to stretch my finances, to use an architect to help plan updates, to value a good foundation over a good paint job and to value a good location over curb appeal.
Oh, I just thought of an idea. Around here, real estate agents generally get 3% from the seller and 3% from the buyer. This works in your favor if you're selling because both you and your agent both want a high price. But if you're the buyer, I wonder if you could negotiate a specific amount. If you buy a house for so little money that they end up getting more than 3%, you both win.
I enjoyed reading Laura Rowley's What I Wish I Knew Then About Home Buying. She writes a letter to her younger self as her younger self was buying a house and passes on the wisdom on this subject that she has acquired over the last four years since that time.
My favorite: "I know you follow the 'Starbucks barista rule': The mortgage payment should be small enough so you can make the monthly nut -- even if your career tanks and you have to make lattes all day at Starbucks." What a great rule and a great name for it. Of course, most people don't feel they could live in such a low-priced place, but I love that philosophy.
Or maybe this was my favorite: "Don't be so quick to tear out the former owner's quirky additions. That weird foam padding on the back of the attic door? The plastic sheets sealing the attic windows? Before you consider improving the aesthetics, live through all four seasons in the home, including the first eye-popping winter utility bills. Those eccentric little upgrades will become your friends."
Here's what I would have told myself:
- Do not trust your real estate agent in any way. That person has different goals than you do.
- Don't let on how much you can really afford. You will get shown only houses at the top of hour price range.
- Get a real inspector. A person who uses a checklist is not being thorough enough.
- Confirm any information about property developments in the area. That place next door to the place you almost bought never did get fixed up. They just built an ugly privacy fence between it and your almost future home.
- Get an arborist to make an inspection also. Those big, beautiful trees shading your house are weapons, not investments, and will be gone in ten years.
- Find the flood maps and check them. Also crime maps. And zoning maps. Not that these can't change (heck, even the street map has changed), but it's a good minimum. That apartment complex adjacent to your back fence is in the hundred-year flood plain. Your land is no higher.
- One thing about ugly laminate countertops and vinyl flooring are that they are both durable and soft enough that if you drop a glass, it might not even break. The odd painted cork floors are good for dancing--smooth, yet cushy.
I already knew to get pre-approved for a loan, to not get a house if I was going to have to stretch my finances, to use an architect to help plan updates, to value a good foundation over a good paint job and to value a good location over curb appeal.
Oh, I just thought of an idea. Around here, real estate agents generally get 3% from the seller and 3% from the buyer. This works in your favor if you're selling because both you and your agent both want a high price. But if you're the buyer, I wonder if you could negotiate a specific amount. If you buy a house for so little money that they end up getting more than 3%, you both win.