Any advice for first-time homebuying...

[SASM]

We are finally ready to buy our first home ~ YAY!!!! We have to relocate closer to home to do so but we are so excited, as the kids will finally be closer to family and friends. So...any advice???

Any great websites, other than www.realtor.com, that help with guidance through anything ~ real estate, mortage, ANYTHING?

Any favorite books?

Any tips from personal experience?

TIA!!!

[SnuggleBuggles]

Get a home inspection!!

Don't be afraid to ask for things from the seller- things you would like fixed, financial assistance if you need it...

I liked having an agent to walk us through the process.

I had the "Everything Homebuying" book and it was ok. Look for a very new edition as advice changes w/ market conditions.

Enjoy!

Beth

[ellies mom]

Have them set aside $300-500 in escrow to hire cleaners if they leave the house a mess. Try and get into the house several days before you have to move so you can get any cleaning done, plus painting goes much smoother when the house is empty. We were unable to get into our current house until the last minute and it was a royal pain especially since the house wasn't as clean as I wanted and we still had to clean our old house and deal with the old owners clearing out garbage they had left behind. All of that is some much easier when you are not dealing with telling the movers where to go.

ETA - Oh yeah, check the CC&Rs and any HOA rules early on in the process. Some of them may be deal breakers, so you need to know before it is too late to back out without losing money. When house hunting, bring a camera and take a picture of the outside and then everything of interest inside, then at the next house start again with the exterior shot. Houses start to blend together really quickly and that will help keep things straight.

[purpleeyes]

Congrats! Its a buyers market, so you are in luck. I would definately have a looong conversation with your DH and make a list of what you want/don't want, what you're willing to live with and what would be a deal breaker. That way you have clear expectations and can go to a agent somewhat prepared. Also, depending on where you are moving, I would look into schools and the planned development in the communities-you may think you're getting the best school, but b/c of development, your kids could be moved somewhere else. Also, what are the future plans for roads or open space around you? Here, that stuff gets gobbled up pretty quickly and the roads haven't caught up exactly. ;)
Good luck and have fun! We just bought a house, too, and are super excited.

[rachelh]

Get a home inspection!!

Don't be afraid to ask for things from the seller- things you would like fixed, financial assistance if you need it...

Cant agree with both of these comments more! And let me reiterate it - GET A HOME INSPECTION!

A couple of comments on the mortgage side of it... (I am in the mortgage industry)

1) the mortgage industry tightened their guidelines/requirements tremendously in the past 6 months. Eventhough you know you can qualify, I would get a pre-approval before you go house-hunting. I think it will be beneficial when meeting with realtors/sellers. Many people are having problems selling their houses now because buyers cannot qualify with the new tighter guidelines.

2) Shop around for a rate and FEES.

3) While shopping around dont let everyone pull your credit. This causes your score to drop.

4) This sounds like a given but some people neglect to do so...GET AN ATTORNEY

Hmmm I am sure I can think of many more but its late and I have been out of work for a bit...feel free to PM me with any mortgage questions you have.

[ThreeofUs]

1. Make sure you have targeted communities (check out everything that matters to you by driving them as a recreational or nap activity).

2. Attend real estate open houses obsessively so you get to know the range of housing in your targeted communities. Are most of the houses in your favorite community built before 1972 (when lead paint was banned)? Don't necessarily count them out, but plan on and cost out the remediation necessary before you bid. Also remember to get any such work done before you move in - and think about if you'll need to extend in your current home if so.

3. After you have a good idea of where you want to live, and what type of house you're looking for, find a realtor you trust. Make sure your realtor knows and has worked in those communities by asking for an activities list and talking to her/his references.

4. Start a "figuring" list. House price at top, pluses in the middle, and potential work on each major system with estimates at the bottom. Use as honestly and critically as you can for each house.

5. You may fall in love with a house. Do your due diligence first, though, and get a home inspection. But that's not enough - you have to be an extremely critical buyer. This place will affect your health and happiness for years.
-Open all the windows and doors, as well as the storms. Don't open? You might have to replace.
-Follow the electrical, plumbing, and heating lines. Any dark spots? Any smells? Any evidence of leaks, like covered-over cracks in the ceilings or walls? Open cabinets and look for the same.
-Turn on all lights, plumbing, heating, and appliances. Check for functionality.
-Take a flashlight and check basement/cellar for mold. Look under carpets and behind doors. Pull the pan(s) out of any appliance.
-While in basement, check for cracks, seepage in the walls or floors. If you see any evidence of damp on box bottoms or under shelving, note that basement waterproofing is not a science, costs a bundle, and will mess up any drains under the basement floor.
-Look in the attic/crawl space. Is there enough insulation? What about the walls - are they insulated? *can* they be insulated? (In our century home, they can't - we have to build new walls!)
-Find the county or city property auditor website and check on values from previous sales, as well as the tax burden.
-Find the city building office and ask what permits were pulled for the house. If none and you see new work, inquire why permits were not pulled (and run).
-After a lot of chat, ask the owners (if you meet them) what one thing they would have done to the house to make it work better for them. You may not get an honest answer, but the answer you get will be telling.

6. Trust yourself and your first reactions. If you don't quite like your realtor, get out of the relationship or figure out why and address the issue candidly. If you like the look of a house, but the minute you get inside you feel sick - leave. (Read the book "Blink" for affirmation of first responses.)

Above all, buy the house with the best hvac, plumbing and electrical systems you can find!

Best of luck to you!

[birdie75]

I found that I buyers agent saved me a lot of time and hassel. She could narrow the list of house and I would send her to preview houses at times to see if they met our needs, our likes and our dislikes. I also had her manage the process since I can never remember the steps.

Also I would generally spend a Saturday and visit maybe 10 houses in a row I found taking a digital camera and snapping a picture of the MLS listing, followed by the outside of the house and then any key features I liked in the house was helpful to tell them apart. I know it is not normal to visit that many houses at one tiem but I was always doing a corporate relocation and had a weekend or maybe a week to find a place.

Some things that I have learned now that I am on house number 3. Paint, wallpaper and carpeting are easy to change and not worth worrying about, in a buyers market maybe you can even get an allowance for these things. The things that effect your happiness in time with the home are location (in particular I hate noise and like nice communities where I can walk) and the layout of the home itself. These are item that you either can't change or involve a costly remodel. I definately agree with the above posters to get an inspection and be pre-approved for the loan you need. On the selling side I would not take any offers from buyers who were not pre-approved even in a buyers market.

[SnuggleBuggles]

I wanted to add before that when you have a home inspection make sure either you or your dh (whoever is more in the know on home repair stuff) go along on the inspection. A good inspector can teach you a lot about your house.

Beth

[ThreeofUs]

Any great websites, other than www.realtor.com, that help with guidance through anything ~ real estate, mortage, ANYTHING?


Btw, try zillow.com for more information on the house and neighborhoods you are targeting.

[erosenst]

You've gotten a lot of great advice, above - I won't repeat it.

Be aware that things will go wrong after you move...maybe not right away, but at some point. Make sure you allow room in your budget to put money away each month to pay for the repairs/upgrades/decorating/whatever. A lot of people get the max mortgage for which they can qualify - and then are strapped later.

Also, make a list of things you absolutely MUST have. If you give on these, you'll likely regret the purchase. Also have a list of nice-to-haves, and make sure it has most of them. You may need to trade a couple of "nice-to-have's" for a MUST. Also, if there are things you don't like about a house that is otherwise "perfect", get some estimates of what it might cost to fix them...or realize that they'll never be fixable. (You can't move a busy road, if that bothers you!)

HTH-

Emily

[american_mama]

We bought our first house almost three years ago, so of course that means I think I know everything. (Actually, I am still somewhat amazed that you can buy a house without understanding every detail fully because there are so many people who help move you along in the process. I wish I understood every detail fully, but more importantly, I am glad we bought this house when we did.)

Anyway, two tips. If you have good credit and aren't going to put down 20% of your purchase price, you may want to look into an 80/20 or 80/10/10 mortgage. These let you get one mortgage for 80% of the value and another mortgage, usually at a slightly higher rate, for the remaining 20% (or 10%, and then you 10% down). The reason to do this is with less than 20% down payment, your mortgage lender will require private mortgage insurance (PMI), which is, I don't know, maybe $50-150 a month until you have 20% equity, and NOT tax deductible. With an 80/20 mortgage, you are paying a similar amount every month but it's all tax deductible. If you do an 80/20, you won't put anything down on your house. Sounds bizarre, but true. I suspect that it is harder to get these mortgages now with the mortgage crisis, but I think it's they have been around a long time and if you have good credit, you can probably still get it.

The second advice is one that I have no experience with. A neighbor who is realtor says hire a real estate attorney to do your closing, not a closing/title company. He did not do this with his two previous home purchases (before he was a realtor), but he feels from his experience as a realtor, attornies are more thorough and make sure everything is legal better than title companies.

I give a little bit of weight to this comment because of our own experience. We hired a title company, which did not require a land survey, so we bought the house, which was fenced, not knowing the legal boundaries of our property. Well, we found out from neighbors and the previous owner that way back when, one of the fences was built in the wrong spot for who knows what reason, and our neighbors have a three foot wide flowerbed that they are fond of planted on what is technically our property, property we are paying tax on, property that is the flattest part of our yard and the best location for a swingswet. We'd really like that three foot strip. Now the fence is broken and needs to be replaced, and we'd like to at least know the legal boundaries (if the land is even still ours after so long) of our property so we could at least consider talking to our neighbors and having the new fence built in the proper place. To do that, we'd have to hire an attorney for some legal advice and a survey company, all things that could have been made conditional before our sale (thus making us not the bad guys).

Good luck. We looked at 30 or 40 houses before we bought, and it really helped us understand our needs and wants better.

[SASM]

Hi there,

A HUGE "THANK YOU" for responding to my post! Your answers will be so helpful!!

Thank you...Thank you!!!

Anyone else care to share, too? :)

[C99]

Buy, read, and bookmark Homebuying for Dummies. Pretty much everything you'd get on these boards, plus a lot of things you won't, in that book.

[trales]

The advice given has been right on.

Make sure you are at the inspection.

Don't be afraid to fire you real estate agent if they are not meeting your needs/expectations.

Make sure you get a walk through 24-48 hours before closing and again right before closing, after they have moved their stuff to ensure the house is in the condition you think it should be in.

[kijip]

I would recommend a first time homebuyer's class run by a non-profit or government housing program. We learned a lot, and found out about a mortgage program we were eligible for that we did not know about previously.

Get a good mortgage. 15-30 years, fixed rate of interest. Don't take a payment that is more than 25-35% of your income. Less if you have other debts.

Learn about home maintenance. You will have a lot, if not to fix, but to maintain. Deferred maintenance costs mega bucks in emergency repairs, learn what you can do to avoid that.

[nupe]

The Fields have a house book and message board too. I read it 3-4 years ago and it had some good advice in it, and as I recall, a lot of info about building a home.