Thinking of buying a house and extremely nervous

[Shelly F - Ohio]

So we are going to look at a house today and I am excited to tour the home based on the pictures but nervous too. Its such a big decision which I know that if we like the house we have to make an offer on the spot. Wish the housing market wasn't so good right now and that we would have a day or two to think about it. UGH.
We currently live in 4 bedroom 2 story house that we would have to pack up but then again we can purge some stuff and move to another 4 bedroom ranch. I am loving the fact I will not have to go up and down stairs to do laundry and what not.
The house is well within our price range so its not the money part that has me scared it that fact that once you sign on that dotted line its final no returns.
Tough decisions. UGH

 

[momz]

Good luck! I would love to move to a ranch. The housing market is hot in my area right now. My nephew lost out on 3 homes before he finally got an offer accepted on a lot to build.

 

[tvguy]

You just have to make the best informed choice you can and hope for the best.
We JUMPED to buy our house in 1983 when mortgage rates PLUNGED from 16% to 12.25%. 37 years later, best decision we every made and two refinances dropped our interest rate to 9% then 6.25%. Funny thing is, our daughter is about to refinance to drop her 3.9% mortgage, and our son just refinanced at 2.5% !
We have a single story house between two two story houses, and the stairs have been one of the reasons the owners sold those houses over the years. Stairs get old real quick.

 

[Praying Colonel]

So we are going to look at a house today and I am excited to tour the home based on the pictures but nervous too. Its such a big decision which I know that if we like the house we have to make an offer on the spot. Wish the housing market wasn't so good right now and that we would have a day or two to think about it. UGH.
We currently live in 4 bedroom 2 story house that we would have to pack up but then again we can purge some stuff and move to another 4 bedroom ranch. I am loving the fact I will not have to go up and down stairs to do laundry and what not.
The house is well within our price range so its not the money part that has me scared it that fact that once you sign on that dotted line its final no returns.
Tough decisions. UGH

I'll just say the worst home buying decision we made was when we were in a hurry. I'd encourage you not to rush. Lots and lots of houses out there.

As far as "no returns," it would be hard for me to buy a pre-owned home without making it contingent on inspection by an inspector of your choice. That gives you a "return," in a way. And if the seller won't agree to that contingency, I wouldn't buy, but I'm very careful that way.

 

[barkley]

let us know how it goes!

one of the best parts of our last move was purging so much stuff. i eliminated so many duplicates from the kitchen (or boxed them for the kids when they moved out), tossed the expired/non used stuff that was hiding in the back of cabinets, recycled old magazines dh never got around to reading, got rid of aged out kid stuff with the promise of new bedrooms/new themes (read-new inexpensive bedding more age appropriate )...

i think you will really enjoy a rancher vs. a 2 story. i only lived in a 2 story rental for 10 months when we were waiting to move from one home to another but i told dh after that experience the only way i could see living in one long term was if there were (1) laundry rooms on both floors, and (2) separate hvac systems between floors (the utilities were crazy high b/c one floor was always too hot or too cold).


best of luck!

 

[hopemax]

Normally, psychologists say don't make big decisions while dealing with a traumatic situation. In 2020, we are all in a traumatic situation. Don't underestimate the effect of higher levels of underlying stress we're all feeling, even if we didn't experience "big" things like a family death / serious illness or a job/wage loss.

But since we can't press pause on life entirely, know the things you really want and need from a new house. Does the house measure up? If you can check off all the boxes, the rest will work out. If it doesn't check all the boxes, there are always more houses.

 

[clh2]

I understand the OPs concerns. If the concerns were due to Covid, I would recommend to stop and wait. But her concerns are normal ones in advance of making a big purchase in a hot housing market.

You will know if the house is right for you when you go through it. Because market is moving quickly, make sure you spend extra time looking at basement and the house mechanicals, as well as make offer contingent with homeowners inspections.

good luck! Please let us know how it goes!

 

[Miffy]

OP, I don't know where you are, but where I am, the housing market is sizzling. We have experienced the following:

(1) Going to contract on a house and during the 3-day cooling-off period, we were outbid and the seller didn't accept our over-the-top counteroffer.
(2) Waiting too long to put in bids on 2 different houses. What's "too long"? Less than a week. We couldn't even put in a backup offer on either house.
(3) Making appointment the day of the listing to see a house 3 days later, but appointment was canceled since the house was sold on day 2.
And nearly everything we've seen--whether or not we were interested--has been sold in less than a week. Houses in great condition sell overnight.

My advice to you is the same advice I gave to myself:

(1) Get very, very, very clear on what it is you want. Make a list. I'm currently in the process of refining that list into 3 categories: must have, would like to have, won't tolerate. This was a suggestion I saw in an email from our mortgage broker, so I can't take credit for it!
(2) Jump on anything you see that you're interested in and go to see it immediately.
(3) Put forth your best offer. If you have a good real estate agent, they should be able to help you figure out what that offer should be. Where we are, you have got to offer over the asking price. Sometimes a lot over the asking price. Figure out what's the max you can afford and are willing to spend.

You may not get the first or even the third or fourth house that you want--assuming the market where you are is anything like it is here in the Northeast. If you need time to make your decision, the odds are that you're going to lose out. I say this out of direct experience because, frankly, I'd prefer to think for a few days on a decision this big. But I've come to realize that I have to organize my thoughts and preferences ahead of time and have a very solid sense of what I want so that I can act quickly when the right house appears.

All that being said, the right house will appear.

Maybe you got the very house you wrote about in your original post. If it's the right place for you, I hope so!

 

[GreatLakes]

I'm not sure where in Ohio you are but in the Cleveland suburbs houses are flying. We had three on our street sell within about a week of being on the market at or above asking price. I'd caution you not to overpay or think you have to be the highest bid. I know one house on our street took a lower bid because the high bid was going to be a VA loan and that is a terrible process compared to a conventional mortgage.

Good luck and the best advice I ever got concerning home buying was to get GIS parcel maps and make sure you are not on a flood plain. My first stop was always the basement and if there was a sump pump or any evidence or water I got the heck out.

 

[Luv Bunnies]

We just downsized a year ago. We went from a 5/3 house to a 3/2 townhouse. The best part was getting rid of a ton of stuff we no longer needed. This house is smaller, but much less cluttered and easier to keep clean. We spent over a year looking for the right house and getting our old one ready to sell. We we out looking at open houses every weekend, narrowing down which complexes and types of houses we liked. We finally enlisted a realtor last April and the buying and selling process only took two months. By that point, we knew exactly what we wanted and our agent was able to narrow down which places to show us. Since we didn't have to sell our house, we were in a position to hold out for a good offer.

My point is to take your time with the process. If you know exactly what you want, then jump on it. If something doesn't feel quite right, wait for something else to come along. We got the exact move-in ready place we wanted. It has stairs to a loft area that we don't use much. The bedrooms and laundry are all on the ground floor, which we really like. Being rid of the big house and all the upkeep it required was very freeing!

 

[_19disnA]

I'm not clear on your rush to buy a home if it isn't related to something like a job relocation, your post wasn't clear on that. If staying in the same area, there are likely LOTS of home to choose from and you shouldn't feel rushed into buying in an overheated market where prices are likely inflated. The purchase of any existing home should include a successful homeowner's inspection to uncover items that might require costly repairs and impact the selling price. Overheated markets tend to cool off after a time, so perhaps waiting for several months then looking again might be a better option. The areas where you are looking can also make a difference since some other neighborhoods may be more reasonably priced and not overpriced. You also didn't mention if your current home is already up for sale or how much time it might take to get it ready to put on the market.

 

[RAD]

If you weren't nervous about buying a new house that's when I would worry.

 

[spiders]

The only thing I would caution you is to never overlook the age of the roof and the HVAC. Those things add up.

When we last moved, I had a week off to go and get a new house. We set aside 2 days to see as many houses as we could. We ended up buying one that just listed the night before, saw it and made a full price offer. Sometimes you do what you gotta do.

 

[dclpluto]

If you weren't nervous about buying a new house that's when I would worry.

Op is looking at buying a used house. If they were buying a new one they probably wouldn’t be nervous or a lot less nervous.

 

[tvguy]

As far as "no returns," it would be hard for me to buy a pre-owned home without making it contingent on inspection by an inspector of your choice. That gives you a "return," in a way. And if the seller won't agree to that contingency, I wouldn't buy, but I'm very careful that way.

I thought a clause allowing an inspection contingency was pretty much normal in real estate sales.
HOWEVER, watching way too many HGTV home improvement shows, it seems way too many things get missed by inspectors.

 

[spiders]

I thought a clause allowing an inspection contingency was pretty much normal in real estate sales.
HOWEVER, watching way too many HGTV home improvement shows, it seems way too many things get missed by inspectors.

It is pretty common but flippers don’t care about inspections. They’re not going to pay someone $300 to go inspect something that they should know how to inspect themselves if they intend to flip it.

 

[tvguy]

It is pretty common but flippers don’t care about inspections. They’re not going to pay someone $300 to go inspect something that they should know how to inspect themselves if they intend to flip it.

Yes, I did run into that when I sold my parents house 7 years ago. Cash sale. No inspections, THEY wanted a 7 day close ( I needed 14) they paid the closing costs. My parents house was in great shape, but it was as built 53 years ago, so styles change. I am no aware of any issues they encountered with the house, but they did put way too much money into the remodel. I had multiple offers 17 days after listing. They worked full time 3 months on remodeling, and then it took them 13 months to sell it. Neighbors tell me they figure they lost $100,000

 

[Colleen27]

Goood luck! My son is having some of the same nerves. He'd really like to take his time, as everyone keeps encouraging him to do, but that's hard when houses are selling within days of listing. There were two he didn't even get a chance to look at last week because they listed on Mon/Tues and were already under contract before his scheduled showings today. He was kind of hoping the pandemic would slow things down a bit, but so far, there's no sign of that happening in our area.

 

[Callie]

Good luck. I bought my first place 18 months ago. I had to make an offer on the spot with this neighborhood. To this day, it’s still the same way. Is my house perfect? Heck no. But it does what I need to do and i have yet to see one sell for less. Right now the same floor plan is listed for $25,000 more.
I bought in winter so we couldn’t test the ac. That was a mistake. After a fight we got the warranty to replace it. Thankfully it’s a condo so I just have to worry about the inside.

 

[Callie]

Goood luck! My son is having some of the same nerves. He'd really like to take his time, as everyone keeps encouraging him to do, but that's hard when houses are selling within days of listing. There were two he didn't even get a chance to look at last week because they listed on Mon/Tues and were already under contract before his scheduled showings today. He was kind of hoping the pandemic would slow things down a bit, but so far, there's no sign of that happening in our area.

That’s my neighborhood. My friend bought a few doors down. It was listed at 7am, she was there at 9am and had an offer in right after. I was at mine within hours of it being on the market and got it. My neighbor moved in a few months later and said he was planning to look at the one I bought but it sold so quick. My realtor is having the issue with another client too.