House Hunting.....ugh

[mickeysaver]

My partner and I decided about a week ago that we needed to push up oue plans to move, "one day", to our truely forever home. This has it's good and it's bad points of course. I certainly had not planned my life around making a move so soon and neither had she. It's one of those family obligation meets desire to be somewhere other than where we are sort of things.

We are really picky homebuyers. God bless the real estate agents that have to work with us. We love older homes that have character, but are in great shape. Not an easy find. We are looking to stay around 1800+ sq feet, 3 beds, and at least 2 baths. We do not like wallpaper in general. We don't like pink walls or floors. We prefer hard wood and tile to vinyl and carpet. We don't want to buy a short sale or a foreclosure house. We need a fenced backyard for the Chihuahuas. We are hoping to have a baby in the next year or so, so good school districts are a plus. We don't want a house that needs a lot of work, we just want to pack up and move in so that we can try to rent our current house our or sell it ASAP, so as to be able to survive financially.

Up until today, we never really considered new construction. Yes, shiny, pretty, and new is nice, but we would put our solidly built 1974 brick ranch up against 90% of new construction homes and find that ours cost less, costs us less to maintain, and will be worth more in 20 years because mine will still be standing while the currently new ones will be looking pretty wilted. (Have you looked at the homes built 20 years ago that are on the market? ) But this new construction issue made it into our lives today, so I did what any good wife with major planning skills does, I started searching, price comparing the same builder floor plans based on location and found major money differences. For instance for one builder, their really nice 4-2.5 2800 sq ft house was for sale in one city for just over $145,000 and in another for almost $230,000. It's just crazy.

So here towards the end of our night, I found a very nice, very livable floor plan for a house that was just under $129,000. It has just over 1,800 sq feet and it's a single story home with the master on one side and the other bedrooms split from the master by common living space. I liked the look of it and the price of it. My way of thinking is that you buy what you need, for as cheap as you can at base price, upgrade the heck out of it to make yourself happy, still end up around the same price as the next house a step or two above that house, but in the end, the lost sq footage is made up in overall "upgraded luxury" and lower bills because it's a single story and in Florida, I know our power bill is going to stink if we have a two story house. I also know that I am not getting any younger (almost 43) and my left leg hates me standing for long and really hates me when I carry the laundry up and down 2 flights of stairs now. However, my dear sweet 6 year younger wife thinks that bigger is better. I kind of had to burst her bubble tonight on that one. She agrees that we have too much "stuff" in the house as it is and that it is time to do a major dump of a lot of the "stuff" that just sits there, does nothing, and has no real value or sentimental attachment to it. I bet we can clear out at least one full room of junk if we just started really pulling the junk out of here. I will say that I do have packrat tendencies, but she has hoarders in her family and I live in fear that we will one day have big problems if we don't make an effort to keep the hunter gatherer instincts in check.

In the end, she more or less agreed that it is time to purge a lot of our "stuff" and go with a home that is about the same square footage, but has more bells and whistles to enjoy. Now, I just have to find the perfect new house to build and continue to monitor the resale market. I am shocked by the difference in home prices now vs. just 4 to 5 years ago when we were house hunting. Thank God we go this one for a steal then because there are lots of people in our neighborhood singing the blues right now because they can't unload their homes for even half of what they paid. I am really glad that I pushed Gabby to take a look at this diamond in the rough, because it's had a little TLC and shines pretty bright in our neighborhood and lord knows the dated decor demons have been exercised. lol

Is anyone else currently house hunting? Any of you doing it in central Florida?
Does anyone need a great older home in the north east metro Atlanta burbs?

 

[ilovefh]

We were house hunting in the Central FL area in June. I hated house hunting from a distance. My husband actually ended up finding "the one" while I was still in NH. We made an offer without me actually seeing it in person. He did very well! There are some major deals to be had in this area! Good luck!

 

[OK!]

I just moved here a little less than a month ago and agree about the deals to be had in the area. Even though I'm happy with my home, I still pick up the real estate circulars when I go to Publix because I like seeing what all's available in the area. There are some great houses down here going for WAY less than I'd have expected. Good luck!

 

[golfgal]

I guess "older" is relative. When you were talking older houses I was thinking 1800's for old Compared to what I think is old, a 1974 rambler is "new" and isn't well built .

A house will last if it is taken care of. Our house is almost 20 years old and certainly isn't wilting or falling apart. Some of it might be your price range, some of it might be the area in which you are looking. A house in that price range around here would be missing a couple outside walls and may or may not have plumbing (it's all relative).

If you are looking in a moderate to lower end price range (I don't know what houses go for around you) you are going to have to expect you will have to do some upgrades in the decor. Too many people want to move right into a house but aren't willing to pay for that. Even if the house is "move in" condition chances are you are going to paint or redecorate something. If you find a house you like but it still has a pink bathroom, for example, plan your move around a remodel of that-give yourself a month between closings so the bathroom can get remodeled while you are not living there. Buy a house for the "bones" and fix the rest.

 

[ilovefh]

I just moved here a little less than a month ago and agree about the deals to be had in the area. Even though I'm happy with my home, I still pick up the real estate circulars when I go to Publix because I like seeing what all's available in the area. There are some great houses down here going for WAY less than I'd have expected. Good luck!

I do that too and it bugs my husband! I'm glad someone else does the same thing!

 

[Cheshire Figment]

Judy and I bought our first house a couple of months before we got married.

We had an extremely professional Real Estate Agent. He interviewed each of us separately, finding out what we were separately interested in and also what each of us thought the other wanted.

Then he showed us houses that he said were about $50,000 above our price range, not even planning to make an offer but to see our reactions to the features and such in the houses. Then he showed us two places that we were interested in and we bought one of them; it suited us very well until we retired 15 years later and moved to Florida.

We did have a problem with clutter, both of us loving things Disney. We ended up putting almost 200 1½ cubic foot (average) boxes in off-site storage before we could even have the house in condition to sell.

When we moved down here we first moved into a large apartment and had our "dream" home built; We started with a 2,300 SF 3/3 and put in lots of upgrades to the kitchen, insulation, and accessibility.

BTW, there was a headline and article in yesterday's Orlando Sentinel that the average house selling price in the area is now down to about the 1998 level.

 

[Pinkgurlshubby]

We bought a house almost 3 months ago. No not Florida but here in Canada. We are very picky as well. It's no offence to the neighbors we are very sociable, we just didn't want any of them in back of us LOL. Our agent laughed and said this could be difficult, then I gave her our wishlist, she said I hope you are not in a hurry. We basically did a 1 hour circle from Toronto and looked at everything everywhere and it took us a year to find this house. Stick to your budget and your wishlist and you'll know when you find it.
We did consider new build but this one is 7 years old so we did alright.

 

[mjkacmom]

Interesting - there is a fixer-upper next door for sale for 3800,000, that was assessed at 440,000 a few years back. It needs tons of work. Our housing market is sinking! A house across the street is listed at 750,000, which is crazy - they bought at close to the top, for 530,000, and it still has only one bathroom, no a/c, no garage, 4 small bedrooms with little to no closets!

 

[mickeysaver]

Well, the two houses from the 1920's did not work out, both had issues that we could not overcome and the one from the mid-1950's also was a bust. So, we have focused our efforts today on which home to have built. We have pretty much decided that we have given up on buying used cars and that now might well be the time to give up on used houses.

Gabby loves the craftsman looking exterior elevation with the stone work on the outside of the home that we have pretty much settled on. I don't really care as long as it's not super plain looking. We want to keep the place clean, simple, functional, and beautiful. It's a one story house with 1,877 sq ft. It has 4 bedrooms and 2 baths with a 2 car garage. Since we are hoping to have a baby in the next year or so, we love that we can put in a nursery that would be right next door to the master.

We are going to "bling" this house out with every bell and whistle that we can afford and feels that it will make sense in our new home, so that it's as perfect as possible. Gabby is also going to make her presence known at the build site. I know that it's not common, but I want to follow this from the ground up. That foundation had better not be slanted, pitted, or cracked. The rest falls into place from there. I want to make sure that doors and windows are installed correctly and that the place is insulated to keep our cooling and heating bills low too. Not to mention proper electric and plumbing installation is essential too. And did I mention that it had better be built square or I am going to hurt someone?

We are already looking at some custom tile designs to have installed. We have been discussing cork flooring too. We know that we do not want any wallpaper at all and there will be no carpet or vinyl flooring at all. We are committed to doing this the right way from the start, so that it will be in good shape still when we are super old.

Now, I just have to get my employers to agree to let me telework from a state away and we are all set to sign paperwork.

 

[Cheshire Figment]

If you are getting construction to spec it is worth the money to hire a certified ASHI inspector to do at least three inspections. It cost us about $00.

The first time the inspector came was just before the slab was poured. He checked all dimensions and the forms for the footings. He also looked at all the water and drain piping that was to be under or through the slab, to make sure everything was there and that all the water piping was capped with a pressure gauge.

Second visit was after all the exterior walls, roof, and windows were in. All the wall structure was in with doorways of the correct sizes and locations, and all of the wiring (regular electrical, telephone, cable, alarm, etc) was in proper place. There were a few minor problems which we brought to the attention of the builder and they contacted me to reinspect after they had done the work but before they actually put in the insulation and drywall.

Last inspection was two days before I was to have the one-week-to-closing walkthrough. Again there were some minor problems which we sent to the builder. When I did the formal week-before walkthrough I had the problems list and all but one (cooktop color) had been corrected and the lanai had not yet been screened in. The day of closing I went through the house again with my RE Agent and found everything had been corrected.

So by my checking about weekly, as well as the three-phase professional inspection, they did a very good job on the house construction.

 

[mickeysaver]

Oh I love me some independently contracted home inspectors, because when we bought this old house, they found lots of stuff that needed some TLC, including a leak that was coming down into our crawlspace. Everything was supposed to have been fixed by closing. The day before closing, all of the workers showed up to fix stuff, so we took the optional reinspection visit for $50 and found that the leak was not fixed and had a new leak due to faulty installation of the new dishwasher. All was fixed before he left and I was never happier to part with $50.

You can bet that we will be using one this time too. We might need the name of your guy if he travels over to Volusia.