Five Things I Should Know About Buying A House

Eek, things I wish I'd known or you should know:
1) Know what kind of around the house work you are able to do, e. g. what you're skilled in and/or what you have the time to do - so if the house needs a lot of electrical work and you can do that - great! But if you can't do electrical work, that's another expense.
2) Expect to do semiskilled and unskilled tasks, even if it looks like you don't need to do them or you think you're going to have someone do them for you - the dining room paint job might look just fine, but it could be peeling next year. Or the toilets are working just great but suddenly one of them can't stop running. So you're going to be the one to handle these things, otherwise it's big bucks. This is true of all houses and isn't specific to any age, type or style.
3) Know what you like and stick with it. Being miserable in a home that's otherwise perfect (well, but the schools are great! We're near the grocery store! etc.) just means that you're miserable. Want the Victorian, buy the Victorian - there's a lot of satisfaction to be had there and that can make up for other things not being perfect. We have all sorts of repair issues around here, but every day when I go out to pick up the paper, I see the front porch and the columns and I fall in love all over again.
4) Noddy's right on about the lawn and garden. Very large lawns mean lots and lots of mowing time. Wooded areas can mean ticks. If the neighborhood is filled with everyone's prized flowers, that's pretty but it can be daunting.
5) Exposure is an interesting idea, too. Our house has a Southern exposure in front, which means we have kickass house plants but the kitchen (in the back) is freezing and dark. The computer room is also in the back and the main things that keep it from being freezing are a space heater and to keep it from being too dark it's painted yellow and there are light sage curtains, plus the furniture is mainly pine. It is a light room. In the front, of course, we do the opposite - dark furniture and dark curtains.

PS You need not be grown up if you don't wanna be. :-D

Wow, Brooke, thanks for the info! I have been very pleased with my mortgage broker thus far, and she has been very patient with me as I pepper her with questions. (She said something about me being "unusually thorough" which I think was a nice way of saying "incredibly anal". ;-) ) But I may well have some specific questions for you, too, thanks for the offer!

Roger, that's wise. But for an, um, unusually thorough person such as myself, I gotta cram as much information in my noggin as I possibly can before I can get to that point.

I especially liked your #3, Jes. I gotta send you the links for some of the houses we're considering... some real beauts. Definitely something I like about Columbus, the PRICES on these places. Wow. (Good!)

I seem to have almost always had East or West facing houses, so that's definitely something to keep in mind re: North/ South.

Thanks, all!! (Keep it coming, though, please!)

Also,
a lot of buyers don't know what they are paying for when they buy houses. Check with the local tax authorities for values they have placed on properties for taxing purposes. Some places assess taxes based on 100% market value, others assess taxes on different percentages of market value.

You can get a good opinion of what a property is worth by looking into that information.

Along the lines of what Piffka said, you'd be surprised at the difference between market value and asking price.

You live in a buyer's market, so that's to your advantage.

BE ANAL. It's to your advantage to know every thing you can about homebuying.

Check with consumer reports also. They have a whole lot of info on this.

Another thing...check the county public appraisers office. They can tell you what the houses in the neighborhood go for. This can be a useful tool and let you know where your dream house stands.

Storage space! The more, the better.

Ah yes, storage space - otherwise, you end up chasing your tail, e. g. you either buy more furniture, or build stuff in, or end up going the self-storage route.

This website (unfortunately not yet in the Portal here :wink: )

This Old House

gives some really good advice.

soz

I don't know how these things work in the US, but here in Oz it's a good idea to check with the local council before you buy .... Any planned changes to roads/traffic? Any extensions planned to the houses around you that could block out the light/destroy privacy? Etc.

I'm having a little fit. There is this house that I thought was too expensive when I first saw it, mooned, what-iffed, put it in my binder to admire, then moved on. Since then, we've found out that we can afford much more than we expected. It has also sat there without selling for 54 days, giving us some negotiating power. It's *just* over what we set as our comfort cap (what we would feel most comfortable paying), but still significantly under what we can get financing for.

So, the fit. I came across it while updating my binder, went back and checked it out online, it's just so frigging gorgeous and I want to buy it NOW and I'm going to cry buckets if it sells between now and when we get to Columbus for our house-hunting trip.

Ahem.

So pretty.

(I'm going to have a tenuous grip on my sanity from now 'til closing, aren't I?)

Take a deep breath, soz, then make your very best effort to check it out. I've been there/done that: The disease is called "House Hunting Mania"!
It can be very debilitating!

Quite.

Deep breaths are helping... slightly.

And all of you are helping enormously. Storage space, yes. Market price, yes. (Handy full buyer report from realtors on each house has that info.) County public appraiser's office, ooh. This Old House -- nifty website, but seemed more for after the house is yours than buying it. Still nifty. Planned changes to roads/traffic... eek. Never thought of that.

Anyone have a brown paper bag?

Here you are, soz. <passing a brown paper bag>

Do you have a link so's we can take a peek at it too?

Old houses usually have lead paint. Make sure your inspector has the ability to test for it. If not check with the building department for a lead inspection.

Re: Five Things I Should Know About Buying A House
As a former sub contractor, one thing I've seen happen more than once is people buying a house with the intention of adding on or building a back yard garage, only to find out the city won't approve the addition because it would be too close to the property line.

So if you're planning on building a back yard shop or an addition in the future, see if the building department will approve it before you buy the house.

You should also make sure that the seller has had the septic tank pumped out. That's required by law in many places when a house is sold.

An older home? Definitely a home inspection on at least 1) plumbing, 2) heating, 3) electrical systems, 4) termites, 5) roof. Have the foundations checked for evidence of past leakage - especially since you're looking at Columbus, where a number of areas are in a floodplain and have regular flooding.

Cosmetic/aesthetic stuff was so far down the list for me that it didn't even count. Other than 'I want a tree in the front yard'.

Another factor where I live is parking. A driveway was important to me, and there are very few in downtown Toronto.

Access to 24 hour public transit is also important to me.

Buy it off an old friend like I did. Made it so much easier. When I came to look the place over the day after the valuation, instead of trying to sell me on the good points, the lady spent the whole time pointing out what was wrong. And the problems were minor, especially compared to the issues I'd seen in other places in my price range.

Soz- When you get to Columbus, and negotiate that dream house, (or another dream house) be careful not to wear your heart on your sleeve. You are in a much stronger negotiating position if the seller doesn't realize that you are dying for that house. Assume an air of, "Well, if this doesn't work out, another one will"!

Oh, but of course, Phoenix! I'm really looking forward to the negotiation part, actually -- never had my haggling skills tested on such a large scale. (I'm very happy when I haggle the flea market guy down to $20 from $35!)

I just found a figure I had been really searching for, that, on average, the selling price is 6% less than the asking price.

I'll have the realtors help with all of this, though.

Definitely definitely definitely having the inspection, no question. Have inquiries out already, will plan on getting someone top of the line. The range is $200 to $400, that's paltry compared to the price of the house. Happy to pay top dollar for peace of mind.

Wilso, I wish! We barely have any new friends in Columbus, though, much less old ones, much less old ones who have a house for sale.

Septic tank, interesting. Thanks roverroad!

Find out about the Inspector's insurance to ensure he or she will stand behind the report you'll be buying.

from NOLO -- Law for All



This website also mentioned how in some states the seller must fully disclose problems... I don't know if that is the case where you are looking. Problems include hazards from flood plains*, earthquakes, and changes in zoning laws or re-districting. You should know about the closest fire stations because that will directly affect the cost of house insurance, whether the streets and sidewalks are scheduled for repairs that you may have to pay for, all those potential traffic disruptions...


*I knew a woman who bought a house without knowing it was in a flood plain. (Who knew? It had never flooded there.) Her mortgage company required additional insurance which added $4000 a year to her costs. She also had huge problems with a difficult furnace that wasn't properly tuned. You can legitimately ask for the last 12 months of utility bills which will give you good information about those added costs.

Another hidden cost for new home buyers is the quest for tools. You can spend hundreds and hundreds of dollars on all those tools that you store in your garage... lawn mowers, shovels, rakes, saws, etc. Be very careful when buying them new... good older tools can be found for bargain prices at garage sales.