Tell me about your house...

[icebrat001]

Please tell me about your house. Dear SO and I were pre-approved for a home loan and we are flying out to house hunt in 3 months. So i'm just trying to get ideas.

1. How many square feet is it?
2. How many bedrooms and bathrooms do you have?
3. Do you have a garage, carport..?
4. Carpet, tile, hardwood, or other?
5. Do you have a patio or porch?
6. Do you have a laundry room?
7. What are your favorite features of the house?
8. If you can go back or change anything about your house what would it be?
9. If you were going to purchase another home, what are some of the things that you "must have"
10. Are your applicances gas, electric or combination?
11. What type of stove do you have (flat burner, raised, whatever, what brand, do you recommend it?
12. Anything else you would like to add?
13. If you don't mind sharing, can you give a range of what you paid for your house? Did it increase in value?
14. Did you house come with the appliances?
15. Who paid the closing cost? How much were your closing cost?

 

[AmazingGrace]

I'm going to give you stas on the house we're in now...
1. How many square feet is it? 2345
2. How many bedrooms and bathrooms do you have? 4 bedrooms and 2.5 baths
3. Do you have a garage, carport..? 2 car garage
4. Carpet or hardwood? carpet, won't have hardwood with kids.
5. Do you have a patio or porch? not worth calling a porch
6. Do you have a laundry room? yes
7. What are your favorite features of the house? my humongous eat in kitchen with the walk in pantry
8. If you can go back or change anything about your house what would it be? I'd get rid of the builder's grade carpeting and put in wood laminate and I'd add a jungle gym to the back yard
9. If you were going to purchase another home, what are some of the things that you "must have" must be two story with a gameroom for the kids
10. Are your applicances gas, electric or combination? electric
11. What type of stove do you have? electric
12. Anything else you would like to add? a nicer lawn
13. If you don't mind sharing, can you give a range of what you paid for your house? Did it increase in value? We're paying rent, but to buy the house was listed at 146,000
__________________

 

[Taylor]

1. How many square feet is it? A bit more than 5,000
2. How many bedrooms and bathrooms do you have? 3 BR, 2 1/2 bath
3. Do you have a garage, carport..? 2 car garage
4. Carpet, tile, hardwood, or other? carpet, granite tile, brazilian cherry hardwood
5. Do you have a patio or porch? cobblestone patio + deck around pool
6. Do you have a laundry room? yes
7. What are your favorite features of the house? very large living areas plus each of the kids has their own play room separate of their bedroom
8. If you can go back or change anything about your house what would it be? It wouldn't have cost so much
9. If you were going to purchase another home, what are some of the things that you "must have" no consideration of ever moving
10. Are your applicances gas, electric or combination? electric
11. What type of stove do you have (flat burner, raised, whatever, what brand, do you recommend it? flat top GE
12. Anything else you would like to add?
13. If you don't mind sharing, can you give a range of what you paid for your house? Did it increase in value? would rather not share the price, it has appreciated greatly
14. Did you house come with the appliances?
15. Who paid the closing cost? How much were your closing cost? don't remember

 

[darrose]

My advice: Buy a home in your price range with the most features YOU think you will like. And remember a good coat of paint never hurts! LOL
Good luck on your search .
One of my favorite shows to watch in house hunters. Its so neat seeing the three different homes/condos the house hunters end up choosing from.

 

[icebrat001]

My advice: Buy a home in your price range with the most features YOU think you will like. And remember a good coat of paint never hurts! LOL
Good luck on your search .
One of my favorite shows to watch in house hunters. Its so neat seeing the three different homes/condos the house hunters end up choosing from.

I know, I love a lot of the TLC and HGTV shows, I have a lot of them set up on Tivo, Hopefully, I'll have time to watch them tomorrow evening.

We've found a lot of houses that we like, too bad they will be sold before we fly out in 3 months.

 

[kilee]

1. Sq feet- 1900
2. 4 Bedroom 1 Bathroom
3. No garage or carport
4. I have carpet, tile and hardwood
5. I have a huge tiered deck w/ a pool. Our deck is a true highlight
6. I have a large laundry room (15 x 15)
7. Fav. Feature- I have a deep lot that backs to the woods- a great outdoor area, inside my bathroom's whirlpool tub.
8. I would change the whole house-- I wouldn't of bought it--it has plaster walls and it makes remodeling a nightmare.
9. My next house will need to be updated already, have a garage, and 2 bathrooms.
10. Appliances are gas
11. My stove- I have no clue- a regular one??
12. ???
13. We paid $60,000 for our house and it's market value has gone up $20,000 since we bought it in 2002. The full market value is in the high $90,000's now.
14. No appliances came w/ our house.
15. My closing costs were in the $3000 range- and we paid them.

 

[SplshMtn99]

Fly out to where????

Prices & styles & sizes range all over based upon location.

We can else more if you give more info. Where are you looking to relocate too?

 

[Feralpeg]

1. How many square feet is it? 2400
2. How many bedrooms and bathrooms do you have? 4 BR, 2 Full Baths
3. Do you have a garage, carport..? Garage
4. Carpet, tile, hardwood, or other? Carpet and Ceramic Tile
5. Do you have a patio or porch? Screened porch. In Florida, we call it a lanai!
6. Do you have a laundry room? Yes
7. What are your favorite features of the house? One Story, Kitchen & Great Room Combo
8. If you can go back or change anything about your house what would it be? I'd have added a bonus room. Although, I love everything on one floor, I'd use the bonus room for storage. No basements in Florida.
9. If you were going to purchase another home, what are some of the things that you "must have" I pretty much have everything I want
10. Are your applicances gas, electric or combination? All Electric
11. What type of stove do you have (flat burner, raised, whatever, what brand, do you recommend it? ceramic cooktop
12. Anything else you would like to add? No.
13. If you don't mind sharing, can you give a range of what you paid for your house? Did it increase in value? I paid $250,000 in May 2004. That was with $20k extras over the base price. Today, the base price for my house is $500,000.
14. Did you house come with the appliances? It did not come with the refrigerator, washer or dryer
15. Who paid the closing cost? How much were your closing cost? I paid the closing costs. It was somewhere around $12k.

 

[dennis99ss]

We built a home from a plan, in a neighborhood. It was not custom, so most of the features were there. We did, however, pick all floor coverings, added a second gameroom, added appliances we wanted, added power for Christmas lights outside,, upgraded carpet, a/c, etc. So we did not have the choices that some are faced with.

1. How many square feet is it? 3600+ a/c area 2 story, no basement
2. How many bedrooms and bathrooms do you have? 4/3.5
3. Do you have a garage, carport..? 3+ GARAGE
4. Carpet, tile, hardwood, or other? CARPET, MARBLE, TILE
5. Do you have a patio or porch? COV. PATIO
6. Do you have a laundry room? YES
7. What are your favorite features of the house? ENTRY FOYER, W/ STAIRCASE. ALL AREAS OF HOUSE COME THROUGH ENTRY FOYER/ TWO GAME ROOMS, ONE FOR "GAMES" ONE FOR AIR HOCKEY, SOCCER TABLES, ETC. WINE CABINET/COOLER UNDER THE CENTER ISLAND
8. If you can go back or change anything about your house what would it be? NOTHING, BUT, MAYBE MORE STORAGE.
9. If you were going to purchase another home, what are some of the things that you "must have" TWO GAME ROOMS
10. Are your applicances gas, electric or combination? ELECTRIC KITCHEN. GAS FURNACE, WATER HEATER
11. What type of stove do you have (flat burner, raised, whatever, what brand, do you recommend it? FLAT STOVE TOP. DOUBLE OVENS
12. Anything else you would like to add? NOT THAT REALLY BUGS ME. MAYBE A COUPLE OF BURNERS ON THE STOVE TOP
13. If you don't mind sharing, can you give a range of what you paid for your house? Did it increase in value? --
14. Did you house come with the appliances? CAME WITH THEM. UPGRADED THEM. ADDED SOME
15. Who paid the closing cost? How much were your closing cost? WE DID.

 

[icebrat001]

So plaster walls are bad?

What houses don't come with appliances? I thought unless you bought it brand new that people left their appliances. Wow, that is a large laundry room.

1. Sq feet- 1900
2. 4 Bedroom 1 Bathroom
3. No garage or carport
4. I have carpet, tile and hardwood
5. I have a huge tiered deck w/ a pool. Our deck is a true highlight
6. I have a large laundry room (15 x 15)
7. Fav. Feature- I have a deep lot that backs to the woods- a great outdoor area, inside my bathroom's whirlpool tub.
8. I would change the whole house-- I wouldn't of bought it--it has plaster walls and it makes remodeling a nightmare.
9. My next house will need to be updated already, have a garage, and 2 bathrooms.
10. Appliances are gas
11. My stove- I have no clue- a regular one??
12. ???
13. We paid $60,000 for our house and it's market value has gone up $20,000 since we bought it in 2002. The full market value is in the high $90,000's now.
14. No appliances came w/ our house.
15. My closing costs were in the $3000 range- and we paid them.

 

[KristaTX]

13. If you don't mind sharing, can you give a range of what you paid for your house? Did it increase in value? I paid $250,000 in May 2004. That was with $20k extras over the base price. Today, the base price for my house is $500,000.

 

[icebrat001]

Fly out to where????

Prices & styles & sizes range all over based upon location.

We can else more if you give more info. Where are you looking to relocate too?

We are flying out to Florida. Tampa/Lakeland area.

I know prices and styles range from place to place. I'm just trying to see what people have or wish they had, so I make sure to be aware of those things before I we buy the house.

I'm only 22 and by the time we purchase I will be 23, so i'm not too savy on this whole home buying thing. Luckily, we found a good loan broker and realtor.

 

[Pugdog007]

1. How many square feet is it? 2700
2. How many bedrooms and bathrooms do you have? 4 BR, 3 1/2 BA
3. Do you have a garage, carport..? Full basement with 2-car garage
4. Carpet, tile, hardwood, or other? Downstairs - all hardwood & porcelain tile, including MBR (hardwood), Upstairs - carpet , ceramic tile in baths
5. Do you have a patio or porch? screened in deck + an open deck
6. Do you have a laundry room? Yes
7. What are your favorite features of the house? All the hardwoods, brick on the outside, the details - crown molding, high ceilings, wrought iron staircase, custom ceiling fans
8. If you can go back or change anything about your house what would it be? Larger kitchen, laundry room, GR & MBA
9. If you were going to purchase another home, what are some of the things that you "must have" Everything this one has
10. Are your applicances gas, electric or combination? Gas stove, all else electric
11. What type of stove do you have (flat burner, raised, whatever, what brand, do you recommend it? Kenmore Gas with built-in microwave. We're having problems with the microwave already and it's only 2 years old.
12. Anything else you would like to add? Get what you want or you will regret it later. Moving is a pain!
13. If you don't mind sharing, can you give a range of what you paid for your house? Did it increase in value? $269k
14. Did you house come with the appliances? Yes
15. Who paid the closing cost? How much were your closing cost? I think around $15k. We paid. Builders never pay closing costs in this area.

 

[ChrisnSteph]

1. How many square feet is it? 2987 sq. ft
2. How many bedrooms and bathrooms do you have? 4 br, 2.5 baths
3. Do you have a garage, carport..? A two car garage
4. Carpet, tile, hardwood, or other? Carpet, linoleum in kitchen, baths and laundry
5. Do you have a patio or porch? A front porch
6. Do you have a laundry room? Yes, downstairs
7. What are your favorite features of the house? The floorplan, kitchen
8. If you can go back or change anything about your house what would it be? I wish we upgraded the flooring, but we're going to be doing this ourselves next year.
9. If you were going to purchase another home, what are some of the things that you "must have"? This is our third home. Our must-haves were Caesarstone countertops in the kitchen, upgraded appliances, extra recessed can lights, and Cat 5 wiring throughout the house.
10. Are your applicances gas, electric or combination? Combination
11. What type of stove do you have (flat burner, raised, whatever, what brand, do you recommend it? Countertop range in white (black shows all the smudges), with a double oven/micro combo. All our appliances are Whirlpool, except for the hood over the range, that's by Kitchenaid.
12. Anything else you would like to add? We live in in a suburban two-story tract home, at the end of a cul-de-sac, on a half acre. No neighbors behind us.
13. If you don't mind sharing, can you give a range of what you paid for your house? Did it increase in value? After upgrades, our home cost $463,000, but we put money down so we financed $363,000. We live in Southern California so homes cost an arm and a leg. Once our backyard is finished it will have increased in value.
14. Did your house come with the appliances? Yes, but we upgraded them.
15. Who paid the closing cost? How much were your closing cost? Our builder paid $2000 of our closing costs, we paid the rest.

 

[MzDiz]

1. How many square feet is it? About 1300
2. How many bedrooms and bathrooms do you have? 3 bed, 1 bath
3. Do you have a garage, carport..? garage
4. Carpet, tile, hardwood, or other? All hardwood, even the kitchen, wouldn't have it any other way!
5. Do you have a patio or porch? ugly porch on the front, deck out back
6. Do you have a laundry room? not really, we have a laundry corner
7. What are your favorite features of the house? honestly, its location
8. If you can go back or change anything about your house what would it be?updating the kitchen and bath, adding another bathroom, changing the pitch of the roof
9. If you were going to purchase another home, what are some of the things that you "must have" 2 bathrooms, newer windows, better heat retention in the winter
10. Are your applicances gas, electric or combination? combo
11. What type of stove do you have (flat burner, raised, whatever, what brand, do you recommend it? this hideous monstrosity that's original to the house (1960) and no, I certainly wouldn't recommend it!
12. Anything else you would like to add? find something on a dead end street or cul-de-sac, I can't tell you how sick I am of my lovely neighbors zipping down my street at 50 mph - in a subdivision

 

[dixipixi]

We just finished rebuilding our house after Katrina took the roof and both porches. We enclosed the entire structure in steel framework and the new metal roof is bolted and welded in place. To answer your questions:

1. square feet.......2400 (house) and 2400 (porches and carport)
2. 4 bedrooms 2 1/2 baths
3. 4 car carport
4. hardwood flooring throughout
5. 10 ft. wide front porch along the entire length of the house. 20 ft. wide
porch along the entire back. We also have a deck that connects the
porch to the pool.
6. my laundry room is 8 x 14
7. my favorite feature are the porches and our pool.
8. I would change the size of my boys' bathroom. It could be larger.
9. we're not going to move, so I guess the upgrade I would want the most
would be operable storm shutters around all of my porches so that I could
completely seal the house up in case of another storm.
10. we have electric appliances.
11. flat stove top...it's a one piece unit with one stove...i have a built in
microwave over it.
12. not really.
13. the biggest increase in value here has been land. We paid $1,500 an acre
8 years ago and it recently appraised for $4,500.
14. we bought our appliances
15. doesn't really apply to us. We paid for most of it as we went along.

 

[SplshMtn99]

1. How many square feet is it? 1300 sq ft (3 level townhouse style condo built in 1987)
2. How many bedrooms and bathrooms do you have? 2 bed, 1.5 bath
3. Do you have a garage, carport..? oversized 1 car garage in lower level
4. Carpet, tile, hardwood, or other? all carpet; vinyl in kitchen & baths
5. Do you have a patio or porch? deck (7x12)
6. Do you have a laundry room? yes - semi finished in lower level
7. What are your favorite features of the house? pellet wood stove
8. If you can go back or change anything about your house what would it be? hate all the stairs
9. If you were going to purchase another home, what are some of the things that you "must have". No stairs; first flr laundry & first flr master
10. Are your applicances gas, electric or combination? electric
11. What type of stove do you have (flat burner, raised, whatever, what brand, do you recommend it? electric coil
12. Anything else you would like to add? see below
13. If you don't mind sharing, can you give a range of what you paid for your house? Did it increase in value? Pd $59,900 in 1993. We'll be selling this year for approx $200,000.
14. Did you house come with the appliances? No, but we'll be selling it will all appliances.
15. Who paid the closing cost? How much were your closing cost? We paid closing costs. Can't remember amount $2000 to $3000.

This is a small rural town in MA - country setting - bedroom community. Maybe 10,000 people. 2 towns away from 2nd largest city in New England (Worcester). Mass Turnpike exit & other major higway run thru town. Trains available in Worcester. Great access. About 1 hr to Boston; 45 min to Providence. Traffic managable. My 21 mile hwy communute takes my 35 minutes.

Condo community of 68 units. Spread on lots of acreage. Close, but not TOO close.

We are moving to another condo closer to DH's work later this year. Ranch style; 1 level with 2 car garage; with finished basement. Starting prices are $320,000. Being built & advertised as "luxury" condos. See link below.

ETA: We bought our first condo in our late 20's. We paid WELL under what we could afford. We didn't want to be mortgage poor while still young. It has allowed us to travel, have hobbies like jetskiing, have nice things & cars, & save $ for retirement. We have no other debt. I'm picky....and like things just so. It's a very nice home....even though we didn't go broke like friends did who bought houses.

Now that we are 41, we are taking all that equity & moving up to a REALLY NICE condo. We are aging; priorities change; planning for future........

My advice.....don't go house poor. You are young & there will be other things you will want to do beside pay a mortgage. All our friends with big house mortgage payments are jealous of our lifestyle (& our savings acct.)

 

[Monte Cristo]

Please tell me about your house. Dear SO and I were pre-approved for a home loan and we are flying out to house hunt in 3 months. So i'm just trying to get ideas.

1. How many square feet is it?
2. How many bedrooms and bathrooms do you have?
3. Do you have a garage, carport..?
4. Carpet, tile, hardwood, or other?
5. Do you have a patio or porch?
6. Do you have a laundry room?
7. What are your favorite features of the house?
8. If you can go back or change anything about your house what would it be?
9. If you were going to purchase another home, what are some of the things that you "must have"
10. Are your applicances gas, electric or combination?
11. What type of stove do you have (flat burner, raised, whatever, what brand, do you recommend it?
12. Anything else you would like to add?
13. If you don't mind sharing, can you give a range of what you paid for your house? Did it increase in value?
14. Did you house come with the appliances?
15. Who paid the closing cost? How much were your closing cost?

1. 2094
2. 3 bed/2.5 baths
3. 2 car garage
4. hardwood every where except in bathrooms which are tile.
5. Paver patio in the back, "farmer's" porch in front
6. No, it's in the half bath down stairs.
7. The bonus room above the garage. We bought the house new from the builder with the room unfinished and then finished it ourselves for 1/4 what the builder wanted to do it for.
8. I would have bumped out the bottom floor 2 feet which would have given us a dedicated laundry area that you could close off in the half bath. Now the washer and dryer are right there with the toilet. This would have given us more room through out downstairs.
9. Bonus room above the garage, gourmet kitchen
10. Range and dryer are gas. I paid extra when the house was being built for this. I love gas ranges and gas dryers. I will never cook with anything but gas.
11. We have a 36" Viking gas range-4 burner with the griddle in the middle. I love the range, if I were to do it over again, I might skip the griddle and spend that money on the 30" dual fuel, meaning gas top, electric oven. We love the griddle, but a gas oven is difficult to clean.
12. There's nothing like owning your own home.
13. In May of 2004 we closed at the contract price of $325k. Plus $11k in extras brought it to $336k. Currently my next door neighbor's house is for sale at $479k and there is one other house in the subdivision for sale at $469k, so I think I am doing good. Our house is bigger than these and has more options.
14. No, the builder wouldn't even talk to me about appliances. I bought them from a store here in RI and had them installed by that store after we moved in. Thus the first week was a lot of take out pizza.
15. We did.

 

[MoniqueU]

We've found a lot of houses that we like, too bad they will be sold before we fly out in 3 months.

I must of missed it, where are you flying out/looking in?

 

[2BigKIdz]

1. How many square feet is it? 2300
2. How many bedrooms and bathrooms do you have? 4 BR 3 BA
3. Do you have a garage, carport..? No
4. Carpet, tile, hardwood, or other? carpet all over, except ceramic in kitchen, dining, foyer and baths
5. Do you have a patio or porch? front porch, back deck on top, patio on bottom
6. Do you have a laundry room? yes
7. What are your favorite features of the house? don't really have any
8. If you can go back or change anything about your house what would it be? have a fireplace, larger bathrooms
9. If you were going to purchase another home, what are some of the things that you "must have" fireplace, bathroom w/ "water closet" and separate whirlpool tub and shower, garage, granite countertops, cermic tile and hardwood floors
10. Are your applicances gas, electric or combination? all electric
11. What type of stove do you have (flat burner, raised, whatever, what brand, do you recommend it? flat, think it is whirlpool, have had it 8 years and haven't had any problems with it
12. Anything else you would like to add?
13. If you don't mind sharing, can you give a range of what you paid for your house? Did it increase in value? we paid $83K 10 years ago, given the sales of houses similiar to ours in our subdivision I'd say it would sell now for $230-250K. The house next door sold last year for $305K and they have added a pool and sunroom since then so I'm sure it's a lot more now.
14. Did you house come with the appliances? Yes, all appliances were included except washer and dryer
15. Who paid the closing cost? How much were your closing cost? we paid closing but I can't remember what they were, maybe $3k