Let's talk about buying houses

MamaFantastic · September 2014

We're house hunting. Our 3 bedroom townhouse isn't ideal anymore, as one bedroom is on the ground floor (my studio) and the kids share a bedroom next to ours on the top floor. We want a 2 car garage, rooms for everyone plus a guest, our own yard... the American dream, yada yada yada.

When you house hunted in the past, did you end up compromising on any of your must-haves? If so, on what? Do you regret the compromise in the long run?

Did you save for a bigger down payment for awhile, or finance almost everything?

Did you go over budget?

Which non-traditional questions are you glad you asked about the home and property? Which things, in retrospect, did you wish you had asked before buying? (I'm thinking beyond the normal due diligence stuff like dry basement and roof age, etc)

What was your biggest unexpected expense(s) related to moving and settling in?

Did you do any initial work before you moved in? What was the scope of the fit up? Did things go as planned/budgeted?

How long did you search before putting in an offer? How many houses did you visit before you found yours?

Answer as many or as few as you wish!

KatieGummow · September 2014

We put down 20% and don't regret it because our mortgage is so low. We also went under budget, because the houses weren't THAT much better at the top of ours, aka still needed work.

I compromised almost all of my must haves, no ragrets:
-We are in the city next to the city I wanted to live in, I LOVE my neighbors and neighborhood. My friend who lives in my ideal city hates hers.
-I wanted turn key, now we slowly, very slowly, get to fix it up and put our fingerprints into it.
-wanted better school district, still want a better school district

Before we put in an offer, I parked outside the house at night (before we had LOs) and counted the cars that drive by. We asked about crime in the area, also... I can't remember anything else.

We didn't do major projects when we moved in. We prioritized our projects and then saved up until we could pay cash for them (most people gave us discounts). Things went well all around, but we definitely learned cheaper is not better.

Unexpected surprises: our venting system under the house was destroyed by animals. They left the vents on the side of the house broken. My husband was SO thankful our crawl space wasn't tiny, he had to go under so much. Gross.

We scoped out houses for a month. Saw about 15 houses, looked at a billion online.

Good luck, lady!!!!!

avidkeo · September 2014

We bought our place a year ago. Lawyer fees are so much more than we expected, that hurt a bit.

look at areas you wouldn't normally consider - you may be surprised. Decide what you WON'T compromise on, and refuse to move on that. We wanted 3 bed minimum and the agent kept trying to show us 2 beds that we "could add on if we wanted".

Actually drive the route from the house to your work, DH work, daycare etc, see if it will drive you mad. Nothing worse than 1hr commutes that look like 20 mins on paper!

Go back without the agent and talk to the neighbours. Thats what sold our house to us, and its fantastic.

RedDawnsRevenge · September 2014

We had 0 down on a VA loan. We bought the house next door to my husbands HS BFF. The lady was dying of cancer. If it hadn't been for that we would have bought this house. It wasn't what we were looking for but good neighbors are hard to come by. And the man who owns the other house next to us is deaf so he doesn't care. We built a fence and remodeled the bathroom, because gravity flush toilets suck ass.

avidkeo · September 2014

Oh, one other thing, the habits you have in your current home are likely to be the same habits you have in your new home. If you see a home and suddenly "look at this deck, we can spend every night eating dinner here", unless you do in your current home, you are unlikely to do this in your new home, so don't buy based on that sort of thing - if you currently eat dinner in your dining room, don't get a place with a small dining room and a large deck with this in mind.

I hope that makes sense! We have an amazing deck and occasionally spend time there in summer, but not as much as we would like because we just don't think to! and it gets way to hot out there!

hordol · September 2014

I think it's helpful to make a list of everything you consider a "must have" and "would like to have" and rank them in order of importance. We are not in our "forever home" right now and that's mainly due to our location. I thought it would be fine when we bought it and we compromised because this house needed less work than the others we looked at. Going forward, location and yard size is going to be what is most important to us in our home search because my husband and I have tackled some home projects now and have more confidence in that department so a fixer upper doesn't scare me as much as it used to. You can change almost anything about a house, but location and yard size can't be changed so for us, that would be at the top of our must have list. Other people have compromised on those areas and found it was fine, so obviously it just depends on what your top priorities are and what you truly need as a family.

MamaFantastic · September 2014

I will add more tomorrow! It's so late and I need to sleep now. Thanks for these responses so far!

MamaFantastic · September 2014

I will add more tomorrow! It's so late and I need to sleep now. Thanks for these responses so far!

cd92007 · September 2014

We'll be house hunting soon, too! We sold our home this summer but we weren't able to find another home that we loved. Our first house we bought pretty soon after we moved here and we didn't really get to know the neighborhoods... It ended up being a bit too far outside of town. It was taking an hour for me to get home after work which was heartbreaking once DS was born because I would get home at 6:30 and he'd go to bed pretty soon after. So we sold our house and now we are renting a small condo in the city and we love it! But its def temporary. We are really taking time figuring out what we want next in a house (and which neighborhood we want to live in).

AmberLiz99 · September 2014

We looked in several different areas at about a dozen houses. We put offers on 3 different houses before we found the one we now live in. We decided after all the looking that area was most important to us since you can change things inside the house, but can't change location.
The house doesn't have a separate dining area, which I originally wanted, but we stuck to our must haves of # of bedrooms, hardwood floors, and finished basement. I'm happy with the choices we made, the space still works for what we need.
We had 20k saved up for down payment and financed the rest. We refinanced last year from a 30 to a 15 year mortgage for an awsome interest rate and the same monthly payment, so we're lucky even though we bought at the top of our budget.
Closing costs, processing fees, legal fees, should all be considerations financially that you can talk to your real estate agent about. Some lending programs require thy you have a certain amount of unspent money in your bank account. For us it was $4,000. We didn't know about that befor, it was our biggest surprise.
Other expencise that pop up are moving trucks, copying keys or changing locks, window treatments for the new house (if not included), furniture for new rooms or space, cost of switching utilities if there is any, paint if you're planning on painting, cleaning supplies, and if you need it, childcare for loading and unloading.
I wish we had asked the seller to take care of more of the little minor things that piped up on inspection. We had them fix all the major issues, but there were a few small easy to fix ones that we accepted because we coul fix them, but they were a pain once we got into the house and took us longer to fix than we anticipated.
Always ask about electric, water heaters, AC age etc (those are obvious) but also check closely for even small wet spots in bathrooms and kitchens. Closet and storage space were important to me. ask about the neighborhood and check out the sale prices of other homes around there, as well as how Lon they sit on the market before selling.

I have to go make my toddler breakfast, I'll try to add more later if I have time

UnofficiallyLO · September 2014

I bought my first home this year it was not very planned out, I was renting a condo on the second floor and just decided to go drive and look at houses one day (when I was 6 months pregnant). I only looked at a few places, I was pretty sold as soon as I saw ours even tho it needed a lot of cosmetic work. I didn't go over budget because the finance portion is them giving you a letter of how much house you can afford and during the process they practically try to stop you at every turn and say you may not actually have all the money they're going to require from you at closing, it kind of becomes a joke but seeing how my SO was pitched a double mortgage at 20 that he couldn't afford now I know why they're so uptight. Since it wasn't planned far in advanced I only put 5% down thru a Fannie Mae home loan and my mortgage is the same as my rent was. Anyway, we didn't close until a month before G was due so I couldn't help much but we had to touch up everything inside- patch holes, caulk and paint every inch, recarpetting 2/3 bedrooms and fixing the wood floor in the third, replaced doors and fans. This probably cost $2-3k in touch ups to be move in ready. We were given appliances by friends and my SO is a greenskeeper so the intense amount of initial landscaping that probably turned all the other buyers off wasn't a huge deal for us. Our compromise would be that we don't have a garage but we do have a barn for extra storage. The house is not large, big enough for our things but I have over 2 acres so hopefully when DS gets older and rambunctious he can take his ass outside! We are still constantly doing projects around here but again they are all cosmetic, thank goodness. The other weekend we pressure washed and painted the exterior of the house (cost $250) and SO finished the privacy fence out front (just under a grand in materials) , now we are moving onto the barn. Our house was bank owned so any major issues (A/C, septic, well) they were responsible for, they ended up replacing the well system right before close which was great but the county also pulled our electric from barn last minute, delaying the closing, because the previous owner had never pulled permit for it. I'll edit if I'm forgetting anything big but bottom line is I hardly knew what I was looking for but I knew when I found it, and that's not usually how I roll. AW- posted before and after of house and front yard

janice9821 · September 2014

We wanted something in a nice neighborhood with 3+ bedrooms, 1 1/2+ bathrooms, a decent sized kitchen, living room big enough to comfortably fit our sectional, a garage or finished basement or other place for DH to putter around, and that wasn't going to need much work in the near future. We found a place we loved that was all of that except it has a small kitchen. The small kitchen is driving me crazy already. I don't regret buying the house because I love it but we may need to put on an addition eventually to make the kitchen bigger. I want to put on a deck too at some point.

We did a small downpayment (3%) but property is cheap here so the mortgage is still super affordable.

There were some things I asked based on getting burned when I bought my first house and also based on my job (CPS/foster care). I wanted to know if the previous owner was a DIYer and what projects he did himself, and whether there were any pest infestations (especially bedbugs and cockroaches because they are a nightmare to get rid of).

I checked the location of the pipes in the basement because pipes against an outside wall with poor circulation will freeze in the winter here - I learned that after many mornings in the basement with a hair dryer at our last place.

I measured to make sure there was a place for our larger furniture items. I forgot to measure the staircase opening though and our headboard didn't fit up the stairs- oops!

I drove around the neighborhood to get a feel for it. I wanted a place with mostly owner occupants and not apartments because it tends to be a more stable environment.

I checked our state's sex offender registry for the address so I could see where the offenders were located.

I sat outside at different times of day listening for screaming neighbors and barking dogs and such.

We looked at about ten places before settling on this one.

UnofficiallyLO · September 2014

Yes, always a home inspection! I had mine done by a company that guaranteed their findings or lack of for a year and had a million in errors and omissions insurance.

rockstarlaw · September 2014

I am in the process of buying a house right now. I am currently under contract for a foreclosure in the neighborhood we wanted to be in. I got a decent price on it because it's a foreclosure and I hope to make some money on it when I move.....but I did have to compromise on one of my top two items. I wanted to back up to woods (no houses behind me) and that didn't pan out. I have shrubbery in my back yard, a 6 foot privacy fence and plan to put in some fast-growing tall evergreens, but I absolutely hate the idea of looking in to another back yard. That being said, this is not my forever house (as others have mentioned) and it did meet my other criteria: good school district. I put an offer on another house in the neighborhood that backed up to woods and had a basement, but it was $40K+ more than this house. Sometimes I think I should have just sucked it up and gone for it, but I lost to another bidder and that ship has sailed...so no sense crying over that now. Plus, I do like the inside of the house I am actually buying better than the basement/woods house. This will be the second foreclosure I've purchased. The last one was what you'd typically expect from a foreclosure: shitty ruined carpet, the people removed all of the lighting fixtures except one (which was hideous, which leads me to believe I was lucky they took the others) and they also took weird shit like the racks from inside the closets. I got a good repair credit to buy new lights, etc., and got to buy ones I actually like vs. the shiny brass crap I suspect was in there before. So it worked out. This foreclosure you wouldn't be able to tell is a foreclosure, though. Apparently Fannie Mae has some new program wherein they are investing a little more money upfront to rehab houses but get closer to market value of out them. You don't get a "steal", but I am paying close to FM appraisal value vs. a jacked up rate because some homeowner wants to make a fortune on their house. Also, the house was already professionally painted and new carpet installed, so that's one less thing I have to do before moving in. Mind you, it's contractor-grade carpeting so eventually I will want to replace it, but for the time being it will do.

pbandjmom · September 2014

We could afford MUCH more than our house cost us, but choosing a low budget allowed us to:
- make upgrades
- create a savings
- invest elsewhere
- vacation

we believe in living below our means often times and are very happy with our decisions. Obviously be cautious about what you're approved for vs what you realistically can spend. (This may not be as much of an issue as it was in 2008 when we purchased our home)

A garage was a must for us after living in the city and waking up to cold cars.

We also wanted to live within easy driving distance to the city in an area with a "country" feel. Our location is perfect, and we crossed county borders so the taxes are much lower.

We have friends who purchased a home next to a creepster sex offender, but only learned that after they moved on. Make sure to check the registry.

ksulli · September 2014

We moved from our 'starter' to our current home 3 years ago. Living in the starter gave us a great perspective on what to look for in our move for us. We looked at 40 homes in two weekends. It was wild.
1) Loads of storage- but useful storage. An empty basement is not useful storage to me- you won't put your vacuume and winter coats down there.
2) I also wanted a foyer- it's nice to have entry space that isn't living space- somewhere to take off shoes & coats and put bags before you start leaving all the things on your kitchen table.
3) A bathroom on every living floor is a must, but a shower on the 1st floor is weird. You'll never use it, but 3 full baths costs more than 2.5 baths.
4) garage with entry to the house. Our old house had a garage, and it was attached to the house, but had no entry. This does you no good when it's raining.
5) laundry on the living floor. You know how much laundry gets done. Way easier to load/change when it's not in the basement. I can change laundry while cooking dinner and watching the kids. Not possible if it's down a flight of stairs.
6) somewhat separated living space. People love open concept. It's nice to an extent, but if your first floor is one HUGE room, if there is a mess anywhere, you can see it everywhere. Our kitchen includes eating area, and has a half wall to the family room. The dining room/office/play room are less open to each other, which is actually quite nice.
7) look past bad wall colors, furnishings, and clutter. It scares most buyers off, so the property will sit, and you might get a better deal. You're going to paint anyway to make it your own, so who cares what you're painting over. And the seller has to take all their shit with them.

Finance wise:
1) put 20% down. Otherwise you have to pay private mortgage insurance (PMI) and its a waste of money every month. Plus the second mortgage (the one that covers whatever you take out over 80% of he home's value) comes at a higher interest rate.
2) absolutely get a fixed rate. Variable may get you a lower interest rate for now, but then you never know what you'll face in the future, and rates won't get much lower than they are now.
3) expect to spend about 10% of what you pay for the house to get settled. Between bigger trash cans, new paint, new carpet in a room or two, and furniture that fits the new house better, it adds up. Best to plan for it. Or be comfortable knowing that it will take some time to get things just how you want them.

Rileypie · September 2014

Location location location, you can change the house but you can't change where it is. Schools are now another top priority for me. Ignore cosmetic things that you can fix/change if the location is good and price is right. I prefer a fixer upper to make the house what I really want. Plus you can get a better house in a better location that way. My husband and I don't mind the work that it entails though. We are going to be moving soon due to a new job, I hate house hunting, it's such a process. Good luck!

lcr23 · September 2014

We just sold our first home and used the profit to buy a bigger house - put 5% down. We ended up compromising on the city and the size of the yard. I really wanted to be in the town I grew up in but we ended up in the next city over with equally as good schools. The smaller yard without a fence still makes me a little sad for our dog.

My suggestion is not to feel pressured into making an offer based on knowing that other showings are scheduled. We had second showings on two houses, the first ended up having an accepted offer and the second there was other showings that day. I really loved the house but we should have taken a few days longer.

We ended up at the top of our price range but will have to do very little to the house. The homes that were less $ just needed so much work and where we are there wasn't really a middle ground when it came to price and amount of repairs.

Enjoy the process and take time before making an offer!

olenkapdx · September 2014

When you house hunted in the past, did you end up compromising on any of your must-haves? If so, on what? Do you regret the compromise in the long run?
- Maybe a larger yard, since I enjoy gardening and am now concerned about LO having a space to play. I kind of wanted a second bathroom (my house is 2BR/1BA) but at the time I was single and it didn't seem necessary. My neighborhood is pretty rough around the edges but I like it and it is convenient to a lot of areas. I know that if we have a second kid we'll outgrow this house, but that's all theoretical at this point.

Did you save for a bigger down payment for awhile, or finance almost everything?
- Nope, I just put 10% down.

Did you go over budget?
- I think I bought on the higher end of my approved range, but didn't go over.

Which non-traditional questions are you glad you asked about the home and property? Which things, in retrospect, did you wish you had asked before buying? (I'm thinking beyond the normal due diligence stuff like dry basement and roof age, etc)
- Basically "What were you thinking??" regarding fake wood paneling, drop ceilings in the bedrooms that look like they belong in an office. All that shit was ripped out with extreme prejudice.

What was your biggest unexpected expense(s) related to moving and settling in?
- Nothing really. My furnace is a ticking time bomb however, ready to die any day apparently.

Did you do any initial work before you moved in? What was the scope of the fit up? Did things go as planned/budgeted?
- No. I literally had $.08 in my bank account once I bought my place. I waited a good 6 months - year to do any work on it. Would have been nice to do the work before I moved in, but whatever.

How long did you search before putting in an offer? How many houses did you visit before you found yours?
- I actually looked for homes twice, once in 2006, and again in 2008 when I bought my place. In 2006, the market was at its peak and it just seemed absurd to buy anything after looking at two dozen overpriced shit boxes. Second time around I looked at about half a dozen places (and a million more online). The market had dropped some (though in retrospect it would have been better to wait another year).

Ashleypixie · September 2014

We bought a fixer upper ten years ago in a GREAT area and school district. It was in terrible shape when we moved in but by the time we sold it we had done a lot of remodeling and added about 80k in equity. It was the EXACT same situation as @AprilMay9‌ the best house in a not so great neighborhood, we would have been able to sell it for more had the comparables not brought it down. Some of the neighbors were like us and some has zero standards whatsoever, and we even had the same problem with people cutting through to miss an intersection so a lot of people sped through and we worried about kids and pets playing in the yard, as well as complete weirdos driving by all day long. Mostly we needed more bedrooms and wanted a guest room and a basement and a large yard in the same area and schools district, plus a more private neighborhood with less traffic and an HOA. And something that wasn't more than ten years old so we didn't have to do any work to it. We looked for months at probably 150 houses. Every single one of them was a sacrifice in some way. Its a good idea to make a list of what you are willing to compromise, but know that that list will change the more houses you look at. We eventually did find the right house, AFTER we sold ours, and it was worth all the trouble. It was a model home in a new neighborhood in a beautiful area. We were able to negotiate with the builder to finish the basement and work the cost into the mortgage. We went slightly over budget but we got everything we wanted, and we've got instant equity in the basement finish. Plus two more guest rooms.

momofmanyinthemitten · September 2014

We bought a home 2 1/2 yrs ago. We looked at about a dozen homes and ended up buying the one that I originally fell in love with online. We put down a small portion and had to get PMI, but we knew that once we did some work on the house, we would have enough equity to cancel the PMI. We chose to do quite a bit of painting/wallpaper removal before moving in, in addition to some major cleaning. Luckily, my ILs live around the corner and did the majority of it since we were still living out of state when we got occupancy. After living in it for a year, and doing minor fix up projects, we decided to renovate the kitchen, mudroom, and den to make it all open. Once we started, we added on a lot of other things too-since the walls were open, we added some more heat runs to the upstairs, added connected smoke detectors, did some electrical rewiring, etc. I'm sure we went over budget, but we're certainly not upset about it. They were all things that we would have wanted done sooner or later. The problem is that when dealing with a 120 yr old house, you run into some crazy things.
I was glad I asked what the heating/electrical bills were, so when we got a $500 gas bill last winter, we weren't too surprised. I wish I had asked what their city taxes were, because they are astronomical.
I didn't have to compromise anything on my wishlist. It's my dream home. However, I wish I had taken into account that with a growing family, I wouldn't have time to do a lot of the projects and would have to hire them out, making them much more expensive.

hordol · September 2014

Oh I will add that we only put 5% down, so we are paying PMI. But come October it will be 2 years in our home and we will qualify to get PMI cancelled. I live in MN and MN law says that if that house appraises high enough that it creates that 20% gap after two years or more, you don't have to pay it anymore. I think nationally the law is you can get pmi knocked off if you do an improvement to your home that ups the value the amount you need. At our 2 year mark, we will technically qualify for both MN and national law since the market has gone up enough in our area and we have done an improvement. So we working with our "mortgage guy" to get everything squared away to get rid of that when the time comes.

Moral of my tl;dr is that 20% down is best but is not the end of the world and you aren't necessarily stuck with pmi forever.

hlm184 · September 2014

Our situation is a little different - since we move so often we aren't buying a forever home. Like @mamrotu73 we plan on building our forever home ...later. Much later.

We're going to be buying later this year. DH is going to fly out and see as many houses as possible, then put in an offer. We've discussed what we need and want for this house at length.

The most important thing, I think, is too make sure you are within budget. And like some other people said, that doesn't mean whatever you get approved for by the bank. Be very realistic about what you can afford. We could have gotten approved for a lot more than we will be spending.

katy4128 · September 2014

Next week will be one year since we bought our first house. It was a house that was bought, flipped, then sold to us. Brand new kitchen ( new appliances, cabinets etc.) bathrooms and deck. It is a little smaller than we originally thought we would want but it works. Dream home no, but it is a great first place!

My advice..read all the fine print in the 1 year home warrenties that are recommended. We had one and were very cheated out. A month after we moved in our carbon monoxide detectors went off. So glad I was home because I don't know what would have happened if my furbaby was there all day during that. Turns out we needed a completely new furnance. We called the warrenty company we went with and they said a new furnance wasn't covered because there company never inspected it before hand. We had it inspected before we moved it was fine but it wasn't by their company and we were never told it had to be. In the end we made a settlement and got over 75% after months of complaining and threatening to sue. So whatever you do...read eveything twice!!!!!

kmos816 · September 2014

We only did 5% down.... Wish we could have down more but w/student loans this made saving very difficult.... Still paying less than rent! We stayed in our budget and only compromised on location as we aren't in our ideal neighborhood but now we love it. Our house only needed cosmetic improvements which ended up costing more than expected.... Oops! My one tip would be make sure in your contract that you state the sellers need to get rid of everything in the home- we webs cup w/ lots of hidden random junk we had to get rid of.

kmos816 · September 2014

I was fine with the extra paint they left/ .....not with the old bookshelf, the old windows in the garage, or the junk behind the garage!!!!

Oh and I wish we would have asked them to take down the wallpaper for us, they might have said no but it wouldn't have hurt to ask!

Calla123 · September 2014

We are in the same position right now. We have opened our minds to different neighbourhoods and areas of the city. The most important thing for us is to have schools within walking distance that have a good reputation. We would compromise on number of bedrooms....I see nothing wrong with my two girls sharing a bedroom. I would also like a big yard that is not looking into everyone else's yard. I also want a somewhat move in ready house....I can change floors/paint/fixtures easily when moving in but I want the rest to be in good shape (kitchen/bathrooms)

irisheyez7 · September 2014

We compromised on location because after looking for a while we realized the property taxes on the town we wanted to live in were OUTRAGEOUS! Depending on where you live keep and eye on that. We looked forever! We put offers in on 3 houses and were outbid before finally finding this one. We originally had a smaller budget and after looking for awhile we realized that we were not going to be able to find anything close to what we were looking for so we had to up our budget. In the end we went 9g's over that budget but we got almost everything we were looking for. A few compromises were: I wish it had two full baths instead of 1.5, I wish the main bathroom was updated more (terrible tile in tub but we can take care of that later), the basement needs updating and I wish our bedroom was a tad bigger but overall we are really happy with our new home! Good luck!

CalinAZ · September 2014

Compromises: The only big compromise we made was to have the master downstairs with the other rooms upstairs. This was fantastic when it was just the two of us, but now it sort of sucks. Not sure LO will ever sleep upstairs. We are only hear for another year, though, so it won't be that bad in the long run.

Finances: We saved up for a sizable down payment (25%). We're glad we could afford that, in large part because we saved up for living in an expensive area, and then moved to an area that cost less than half.

Budget: We went over by $11,000, but were still very much within our means. Glad we did, as we got a house substantially better than the others we saw.

Questions: We're glad we asked about the scorpions in the area (Arizona) and found out there weren't any. Wish we had known about all the hidden cracks behind drapes and in corners. Didn't know this was important to check and were blind sighted when we moved in.

Biggest unexpected expenses have been repairing said cracks. Also, we had to completely redo the sprinkler system, which was pricey, and replace the pool equipment.

We did no initial work, but the first few months, we redid the living room. Wish we would have gotten everything painted professionally before we moved in.

We searched for 2 days before we found our house. We flew out for the house hunting trip and only had a week. We saw about 8 houses before ours, and another 4 after ours. Ours was by far the best, and the best value.

We're now getting ready to start the selling process...much more intimidating!

MamaFantastic · September 2014

Ahhhh so much good info here! Thanks everybody. We're pretty smart shoppers and are being careful, so hopefully something perfect-ish will come on the market eventually. I'll update tomorrow from my laptop when I can type faster.

zazu13 · September 2014

We are just starting the process to get our house ready to list and shop for our "forever house". We have been in this house 11+ years and it's the only one we've owned. We didn't really compromise much when we bought it because we were young and naive and didn't really even know what we wanted. Now our list of requirements is much longer!

A few things we didn't notice when we bought this house was that it had no closets besides the bedrooms. No coat closet. No linen closet. No pantry. It didn't occur to me until we were moving in and didn't know where to put things! We have lived just fine without them, but there is no way I will sacrifice these things in our new house.

Also, we lucked out with the direction of our house on the lot as it faces west so we have lovely afternoon shade on our backyard deck for the summers and full sun most of the day in the winter to melt snow on our driveway. These are things I definitely want again in our next house.

knotty-girl · September 2014

Past compromise:

My old house we did not buy together as a couple, however, living in it gave me a good idea about what I wanted in a new home. As far as compromising goes, the mediterranean architecture was not our style. It was really hard to make it work with our interior design preferences. Although artistic vision and creativity can go a long way, the gap between what our old house was and what we were going for could not be bridged. I always felt like the house was beautiful, but not a reflection of me.

Biggest unexpected expense(s):

Our new house was "turn key". However we still ended up spending a lot on little things that added up- a finished garage and relocating the laundry there, turning the laundry room adjacent to the garage into a mudroom/entry with built in desk, fencing in our yard/gates, and some drainage and landscaping changes.

Non traditional questions:

Who are the neighbors? Are there any rehabs/sober houses in the area?

Did you do any initial work before you moved in? What was the scope of the fit up? Did things go as planned/budgeted?

We planned on finishing all the above before moving in, but the city (same city that didn't do dick about a rehab with a broken septic system) gave us trouble with the yard and dragged their feet on the garage permit process so we moved in around Thanksgiving and all was completed in February. And of course it ended up being over budget. Also the Belgium oak floors with some weird oil or wax finish turned out to be impractical so we ended up having to move all our furniture out after moving in to get a "real" finish on them towards the end of my pregnancy which was really stressful.

How long did you search before putting in an offer? How many houses did you visit before you found yours?

We saw did all the showings in one day and knew ours was the one the moment we stepped inside. I will never ever move again. Ever. Love. This. House.

@MamaFantastic Good luck to you in your search the perfect home, sending dream house vibes your way! (I feel like A14 helped me with positive energy when I was looking, and I remember you personally being super supportive when I shared my nightmare story.)

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