https://boards.hellobee.com/ Pregnancy, Baby and Parenting blog, by Hellobee en Mon, 11 May 2026 10:13:22 +0000 https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/order-of-importance-when-house-hunting#post-990640 Mon, 05 Aug 2013 14:12:02 +0000 MsMamaBear 990640@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>Basically with my list, I found a good school system and good county, then looked in my price range and the floor plans.</p> <p>1. School system<br /> 2. County<br /> 3. Price<br /> 4. Floor plan </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/order-of-importance-when-house-hunting#post-990581 Mon, 05 Aug 2013 13:56:50 +0000 lamariniere 990581@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>We won't be looking for a house anytime soon, but after living in tons of rentals, I know one of my priorities would be a beautiful kitchen or the budget to be able to renovate the kitchen. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/order-of-importance-when-house-hunting#post-990371 Mon, 05 Aug 2013 12:57:43 +0000 deactivated_account 990371@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@looch: sounds you like hit the neighborhood jackpot! </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/order-of-importance-when-house-hunting#post-990356 Mon, 05 Aug 2013 12:53:09 +0000 looch 990356@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@MrsMcD: Yeah, good point! The street we're on is the back of the school and a cul de sac, so the car/ bus entry to the school is actually on the main road up the hill. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/order-of-importance-when-house-hunting#post-990343 Mon, 05 Aug 2013 12:48:45 +0000 deactivated_account 990343@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@littlecasita1122: ohhhh!! Sidewalks are a good requirement! Same with garages on the same level as the kitchen. When I was looking at condos, so many had the garage and kitchen on different levels.</p> <p>@LuLu Mom: how nice to be able to build on family land!! </p> <p>@looch: I love the thought of being within walking distance of an elementary school. I just don't want my driveway to be blocked by the same before- and after-school traffic! Yikes!</p> <p>@BabyMats: Neighbors can definately ruin a house that would otherwise be perfect.... </p> <p>@StbHisMrs: I'm actually super obsessed with looking at homes. The only thing that I am ever nearly obsessed with is baby items. </p> <p>@mediagirl: Oh my gosh... how could I forget HOA fees?!?! I don't eve want to pay over $300 for HOA fees. Really not more than $210. I better be getting something really good if I'm paying more than that. Gees. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/order-of-importance-when-house-hunting#post-990326 Mon, 05 Aug 2013 12:42:58 +0000 NovBaby1112 990326@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>thanks everyone! its good hearing what others have focused on and make sure we aren't missing anything!</p> <p>@Modern Daisy: that's a great way to look at it! that makes a lot of sense </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/order-of-importance-when-house-hunting#post-990220 Mon, 05 Aug 2013 12:10:39 +0000 mediagirl 990220@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>We're looking now. I have so many things on my list:<br /> 1. Schools. There are 2 high schools we want to be in the range of. We will not look elsewhere.<br /> 2. Location (no busy streets, prefer culdesac, no corner lot).<br /> 3. Backyard for playing in, natural screening, fenced in lot would be nice.<br /> 4. 3+ bedrooms, 2300sf, prefer a downstairs guest bedroom. 2 bath, 2 car garage.<br /> 5. Pool community<br /> 6. Walkability<br /> 7. Better commute (though this doesn't really apply b/c where the schools are, we know what our commute will be - better).<br /> 8. PRICE, of course.<br /> 9. HOA fees<br /> 10. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/order-of-importance-when-house-hunting#post-990151 Mon, 05 Aug 2013 11:49:09 +0000 StbHisMrs 990151@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>I'm continually looking at real estate, it's an obsession of mine..</p> <p>My list is a little bit different because we live in the country, not in any particular order.</p> <p>1. Location - as long as my husband can get to work in 1.5 hours we're good to go.<br /> 2. Size, we have a large family so we need at least 2300 sq ft. and 4 bdrm, preferably 5.<br /> 3. Acreage - we would like to have at least 1 acre to start.<br /> 4. Land needs to be flat so my husband can build a shop and the kids can play (basketball, bikes, scooters, skateboards, playset etc..) needs to be fenceable.<br /> 5. A playroom or a finished basement<br /> 6. Attached garage<br /> 7. Lots of storage </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/order-of-importance-when-house-hunting#post-990054 Mon, 05 Aug 2013 11:23:05 +0000 BabyMats 990054@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@NovBaby1112: I age with your list. But if u do find a house that is perfect for u. Come back during the weekend to see how your neighbors are on thewhile street. Sometimes those guys can ruin anything :sad: </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/order-of-importance-when-house-hunting#post-990019 Mon, 05 Aug 2013 11:18:13 +0000 Sunshine1810 990019@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>Our top two were location and school district. We were willing to compromise on other things (like space) in order to have our top two items! We ended up getting a townhouse in our desired area. It's 1400 sq. feet and has 3 bedrooms (another important item on our list). I would have liked something bigger and a single family home, but this was a great opportunity for us to get into the area we wanted at a price that was affordable for us.</p> <p>It's perfect for us right now, and the great thing is that it has been completely updated. Move-in ready was a big bonus! We also have a great yard! </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/order-of-importance-when-house-hunting#post-989974 Mon, 05 Aug 2013 11:06:26 +0000 dolphin 989974@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>We are currently looking for a new house too! Our priorities are the same as yours. We're already in a great neighborhood now (good school district and close to parks, public transportation, etc.) so we want to stay where we're at, just need a BIGGER space! So far the homes we're considering needs to be 3 bedroom (all on the same floor), open layout (need to be able to see the living room from the kitchen), attached garage, and a small yard or patio. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/order-of-importance-when-house-hunting#post-989924 Mon, 05 Aug 2013 10:53:34 +0000 PurplePumps 989924@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>Location &amp; best school districts were uncompromisable. Then came size and layout. Followed by outdoor space and cosmetics. And what we learned during house hunting was that we just can't really compromise at all. We ended up compromising the budget (still within reason) rather than give anything up. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/order-of-importance-when-house-hunting#post-989920 Mon, 05 Aug 2013 10:53:05 +0000 MapleMoose 989920@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>We wanted:<br /> - Location: specific town, avoiding certain areas/neighborhoods<br /> - Privacy: not on main road, with private outdoor space<br /> - Move-in ready, or nice features we could work with</p> <p>Sounds easy enough but it took us 1.5 years of home searching to get this house! </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/order-of-importance-when-house-hunting#post-989901 Mon, 05 Aug 2013 10:48:57 +0000 littlek 989901@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>Our priorities were:</p> <p>1. Location<br /> 2. Size (DH wanted a house that had 4 bedrooms and 3 baths on the upper level).<br /> 3. Open layout </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/order-of-importance-when-house-hunting#post-989895 Mon, 05 Aug 2013 10:47:00 +0000 littlek 989895@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@Bao: So true!! When we were getting approved, we didn't even use DH's actual salary (we gave a much lower number) or include mine. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/order-of-importance-when-house-hunting#post-989889 Mon, 05 Aug 2013 10:45:10 +0000 looch 989889@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>We just bought our first home, and my must have list went out the window when we found our house.</p> <p>I selected location first because really, you can not change that. Everything else can be modified to suit our needs. I so wanted a center hall colonial with a huge back yard, instead I ended up with a raised ranch with a small back yard and land in the front of the house.</p> <p>The selling point for me was that the house is walking distance to the elementary school. To not have to deal with the bus or car pool line=priceless for me. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/order-of-importance-when-house-hunting#post-989881 Mon, 05 Aug 2013 10:41:59 +0000 Smurfette 989881@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>Our priorities were<br /> location<br /> schools<br /> house/space/bedrooms<br /> backyard </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/order-of-importance-when-house-hunting#post-989879 Mon, 05 Aug 2013 10:41:36 +0000 deactivated_account 989879@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>We live in a condo now and are I'm always looking for our next house even though we are three years or so from purchasing again. Here's my order of importance: </p> <p>1. Location (specific neighborhoods and specific sides of streets)<br /> 2. Proper wall for Tv placement in family room<br /> 3. Downstairs guest bathroom<br /> 4. Decent kitchen storage and counter space<br /> 5. Driveway<br /> 6. Yard<br /> 7. Fairly move in ready</p> <p>And if I can get all that, plus a view and a pool, within our tiny budget, I will never ask for anything again!! :wink: </p> <p>Ps: we're unfortunately picky. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/order-of-importance-when-house-hunting#post-989874 Mon, 05 Aug 2013 10:40:16 +0000 immabeetoo 989874@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>Ours was a similar list, location was first, layout was second. We tried to weigh what we'd want to change with the feasibility and cost, and also resale value. We ended up with a really nice brick ranch - I LOVE the open floorplan and ranch and don't think I'd want to go back to a non-ranch with kids. The basement is huge for this winter to play in. The only drawbacks were it's dated inside (slowly trying to fix) and the yard is meh. </p> <p>Good luck!! </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/order-of-importance-when-house-hunting#post-989846 Mon, 05 Aug 2013 10:32:27 +0000 LuLu Mom 989846@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>Our case is a little different because we will build our next house on family land so location/school district is already decided due to the small town we plan to build in. </p> <p>1. Layout: Ranch style, open plan, sq. footage. We want to build a house that will last us forever with only steps to the basement (I have bad knees &amp; hate going up and down steps) </p> <p>2. Bedrooms: 3-4 + office and basement guest room </p> <p>3. First floor laundry </p> <p>4. Large bathrooms &amp; a large deck for entertaining. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/order-of-importance-when-house-hunting#post-989842 Mon, 05 Aug 2013 10:31:26 +0000 coastmama 989842@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>We just went through this process and bought our first home last month. </p> <p>1. School District<br /> 2. Location (Safe neighborhood, will LO be safe playing outside when he gets older, etc.)<br /> 3. 3+ bedrooms<br /> 4. Amount of work needed<br /> 5. Backyard</p> <p>We ended up getting what we wanted.... just had to put a little more work into it that we originally wanted. We also wanted to keep resale value in our mind. We bought somewhere that we could see ourselves living forever, but you never know what will happen so we definitely bought in an area that it should resale easily if ever needed. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/order-of-importance-when-house-hunting#post-989827 Mon, 05 Aug 2013 10:23:27 +0000 plantains 989827@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>We just bout a few months ago and our priorities were a little different from a lot of this list because we live in NYC.</p> <p>1. Location - we wanted to be within 20 mins subway ride of work. Good schools factored into this too.<br /> 2. Sq footage - We needed min of 1000 sq ft and 2 bdrs (we ended up with 2.5)<br /> 3. Condo vs Coop - We didn't want to deal with NYC crazy coop board drama, we wanted to be certain to get a condo for more flexibility.<br /> 4. Laundry in unit, dishwasher new bathrooms and kitchens etc. Didn't want to deal with getting permits to do renovations in the city, too expensive, stressful and time consuming. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/order-of-importance-when-house-hunting#post-989807 Mon, 05 Aug 2013 10:18:32 +0000 NovBaby1112 989807@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@mrskc: i like open floor plans too, that is a plus!</p> <p>@hellobeeboston: omg yes! that's exciting!! we looked at houses yesterday too! haha </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/order-of-importance-when-house-hunting#post-989797 Mon, 05 Aug 2013 10:14:50 +0000 citymouse 989797@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>Our number one thing for our next house, we are currently still in our first home, is the neighborhood! We really want a great neighborhood and atmosphere. </p> <p>1. Neighborhood Atmosphere/Culture<br /> 2. Size<br /> 3. House- Fixer Upper, Old, Good or Easily Changeable Layout</p> <p>We don't really take schools into consideration bc we plan to homeschool! </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/order-of-importance-when-house-hunting#post-989793 Mon, 05 Aug 2013 10:13:22 +0000 Ra 989793@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>We just settled on a house last week!</p> <p>Our priorities were:</p> <p>1. Space. DH wanted at least 1800 sq. feet and I wanted at least 4 bedrooms.</p> <p>2. Location. We wanted a house in that was walkable and in the city, but still had a neighborhood feel.</p> <p>3. Yard. I wanted a yard large enough for a playset for LO and with plenty of room for the dogs to play.</p> <p>4. Character. We don't like houses that are new construction. We both wanted an older home with lots of character.</p> <p>5. Move in ready. DH did not want a fixer-upper.</p> <p>We weren't as concerned about school district because I am a teacher so I can send LO to a school in my district. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/order-of-importance-when-house-hunting#post-989790 Mon, 05 Aug 2013 10:13:10 +0000 Bao 989790@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@NovBaby1112: it's amazing how much you can get approved for. When they told us, DH was like umm yeah if we didn't need food, utilities, clothes lol. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/order-of-importance-when-house-hunting#post-989788 Mon, 05 Aug 2013 10:12:44 +0000 Modern Daisy 989788@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>I've done a lot of house hunting since it took us a long time to finally buy our first place, but I've found that the overall 'package' has to make sense. It's kind of like adding and subtracting weights to a scale based on features and drawbacks then seeing if it meets the overall weight requirement at the end. </p> <p>Although location is definitley the most important thing by far, so I kind of kept that separate. If the home wasn't in the right neighborhood in the first place we didn't even consider it since of course we could easily find everything else we were looking for if we were willing to compromise on neighborhood! </p> <p>Keep in mind, a lot of things about the house itself can be modified after you buy it, but you can never change where it is located. And we were definitely willing to cram into a smaller space to live on a better street zoned for better schools within walking distance of everything we need and super close to our jobs. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/order-of-importance-when-house-hunting#post-989785 Mon, 05 Aug 2013 10:11:55 +0000 hellobeeboston 989785@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@NovBaby1112: we are house hunting too!!!!! Looked at a couple yesterday - must catch up! </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/order-of-importance-when-house-hunting#post-989782 Mon, 05 Aug 2013 10:11:35 +0000 mlm2934 989782@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>Our list this past time house hunting would have been:</p> <p>1. Location<br /> 2. Outdoor space<br /> 3. Flow of interior floor plan<br /> 4. Exterior charm</p> <p>And because of that list, I love our house but hate the front exterior!! :) but there are def a few things we can do to improve it over the next few years </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/order-of-importance-when-house-hunting#post-989779 Mon, 05 Aug 2013 10:11:13 +0000 NovBaby1112 989779@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@littlecasita1122: good point about the sidewalk in neighborhood for walks. we go on walks all the time so that is important!</p> <p>@Bao: ahh i forgot about affordability. that is def one of our major priorities too. houses in our area are crazy expensive so it will def be a small starter home and we were pre-approved for way more than we would ever want to spend! </p>