We are starting to look at houses and hopefully going on our first tour this week! This will be our first home after a series of apartments, so I'm not sure what to ask about. Any ideas? We live out of town, if that makes a difference. Thanks!
We are starting to look at houses and hopefully going on our first tour this week! This will be our first home after a series of apartments, so I'm not sure what to ask about. Any ideas? We live out of town, if that makes a difference. Thanks!
persimmon / 1130 posts
I think I remember our realtor saying that legally she couldn't tell us if the houses were in a "good" or "bad" neighborhood, but you could ask if it's a highly sought after area and how the schools are, because that will give you a good idea of the neighborhood.
Things to ask would be how old major items are (the roof, furnace, etc.) since those are expensive to replace or if there's been any water damage or flooding issues. I'm sure I'm forgetting other things since it's been awhile since we house hunted.
Since you're just starting out I would mostly concentrate on looking through as many houses as possible to get an idea of what you like and dislike, so when you see the perfect house you'll know. Looking in person is so different from online.
Good luck!
wonderful cherry / 21504 posts
I think you will find out more just by looking at the house and neighborhoods and streets, than any questions you ask, at least to start. Ask how much traffic a street gets and if it's a common through street.
As you narrow down houses I would want to know more about things like the roof and AC, heating costs, etc. But in the beginning I think it's worth focusing on how it feels and what feels right to you.
clementine / 995 posts
We just went through the house hunting process, and should be closing on our first home in a little over a month. We made offers on two houses during our search, and both houses had multiple offers. We were outbid on the first house, and our offer was accepted on the second house.
Here are some tips and questions that I was able to think of. These are things that we learned in our search.
1. Know what the market is like in your area. Are houses selling for over list price? How long do they usually stay on the market? How often do sellers pay for closing costs? We live in a very hot market. Houses are getting multiple offers very quickly (we made an offer on the house we are buying the 1st day it was on the market), and selling for over list price. In our area, if you ask for the seller to pay your closing costs your offer will most likely not be accepted.
2. What year was the house built? This can give you a clue as to some of the issues the house may have. For example, houses built in the 80's and early 90's can have plumbing issues due to the type of pipes that were used.
3. How old are the roof, windows, and HVAC system? We opened and closed some of the windows in the houses to make sure that they worked. These are major expenses that you may not want to take on immediately after buying a house.
4. If the neighborhood has one, how much is the HOA fee per month? What does the HOA cover? What kind of amenities does the neighborhood have? We are buying a townhouse so our HOA is about $100 per month. We have a couple of playgrounds, walking trails, tennis courts, and a pool in the neighborhood that the HOA maintains.
5. Find out what the taxes are on the property. Also, check to see if you will have to pay county and city taxes. One house we looked at had much higher taxes because we would have had to pay both city and county.
That's all I can think of right now. We went to a lot of open houses when we first started looking. This helped us narrow down what we wanted, and when we were ready to make an offer we were able to make a quick decision.
grapefruit / 4455 posts
We just signed off on our first home yesterday! For us, there was no narrowing down process. Properties here are selling quick (properties in good areas going into escrow within a week.) I made a list of properties I wanted to see and two days later when we were scheduled to meet our realtor almost every single one that I suggested to start with (like seven) was in escrow. I think we saw one of those, lol. So we did a lot of research on the neighborhood, school district, HOA fees, mello roos (sometimes not listed),etc. AHEAD of time. DH also knows a lot of people who live there so we used them as resources of sorts. And we chose a real estate agent who has worked in the area a long time and knows where certain issues arise. We asked him about crime, etc., in our initial meeting before we even looked at homes.
During tours we also made an attempt to see if there was copper piping, what the HVAC looked like, what condition the roof was in, how the drainage looked in the yard/the slope of the yard, stuff like that that honestly thank goodness my realtor warned us about or we would not have known.
cherry / 160 posts
@LemonJack: unfortunately, we can' t look at many in person since we live 4+ hours away We're hoping lots of screening and research on neighborhoods will help us narrow it down and make the few visits count.
@NCSUchick27: Congrats on the house, and thanks for the detailed list! For point 2, do you have a resource you looked at to find the typical problems per decade? our top houses are mid-70s, but I don't know the implications of that.
@2littlepumpkins: congrats on closing! due to distance I think we're going to have to go with mostly pre-research too. Copper pipes and drainage were things I wouldn't have thought of, so thanks!
grapefruit / 4455 posts
@MountainBaby: I should have been more clear- we signed the contract, we are opening escrow! But thank you. As long as it isn't galvanized plumbing..but there's really no way to tell for sure by just viewing the house. Need the inspector. I would definitely not have thought of drainage especially since it barely rains here!
wonderful clementine / 24134 posts
@MountainBaby: Can your realtor send you the sellers property disclosure sheet ahead of time? Reading over that can help you know if there was a leak, then when you view the house you can make sure to inspect the spot etc.
pea / 9 posts
I agree with the listings per decade. You can probably just google it.
If you are looking at houses built in the 1970's depending on the area and what materials are there you will want to research if asbestos was popular in that area. We recently purchased a home built in 1974 - asbestos free, thank goodness. A family member purchase one 30 minutes away and the house had a ton of asbestos and it was built in 1976. Most builders stopped using it in the 1970s. It can be a big problem if you are planning any renovation projects.
My advice (I already agree to pay attention to how it "feels" and the big stuff like drainage, age of roof, age of hvac, etc) is to follow your gut. If you like a home and its part of a hot market...don't wait or sit on it. Make your offer! You can always back out (for a small fee) if something terrible happens.
Happy House Hunting!
clementine / 995 posts
@MountainBaby: I just did a lot of googling. I was already familiar with the polybutylene pipes because my parents had it in their house.
This article mentions a few things: http://www.hgtv.com/design/decorating/clean-and-organize/common-problems-found-during-home-inspections
pomelo / 5129 posts
If there are neighbors out and about, it can help to chat with them.
DH did a lot of this, and was able to find out exactly when the roof was replaced and what type of work had been done around the house. And it was nice to find out what sort of community it was that we were moving into.
pear / 1648 posts
This is more once you're interested in a particular house, but (assuming the differences are important to you) verify the water/sewage/gas/electric situation before making an offer. We've bought and sold a few houses already and this information in frequently incorrect on the seller's disclosure sheets. One of our realtors even listed incorrect info for OUR house we were selling (though we'd given her the proper info) and it did come up during negotiations.
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