Homeowners: How Picky Were You?

[cinnaminny]

We looked at about 15 houses. We were a bit picky, but not crazy picky. Good schools, big enough for kids and his enormous tv, not a pita to make a left had turn.

 

[John VN]

For 1st house we were actually looking at 2 family to co-own with DW's brother and his wife. Looked at 3 houses then decided to go for single family. 2nd house we looked at we bought in 1974. Moved to FL in 1986, looked at 3 houses and while bicycling I found some property for sale, bought it, wife designed house the way she wanted it with my kitchen requirements and moved in March 1987.

 

[wenrob]

We looked at about 15 houses. We were a bit picky, but not crazy picky. Good schools, big enough for kids and his enormous tv, not a pita to make a left had turn.

That’s a good one. No corner houses and no fire hydrant in front of the house for us.

 

[mrodgers]

Wasn't rich. Our budget put us looking in a range of needing $20-30,000 worth of work just to get a mortgage. So, we looked at a lot. Picked the house when we increased the budget by $20k.

First criteria was the property. Not city people. You can change the structure, you can't change the property or the quality of the water. 2nd criteria was the integrity of the structure. Lowest on the criteria was how pretty it is, which is how most people purchase just about everything.

 

[china mom]

Our most recent house...I found it online and then it disappeared and I had a feeling that it was going into foreclosure so I waited it out. Stalked realtor.com until it sowed back up. DH was out of town when it came back on the market and he told me "I trust you, make an offer if you want it." Nope, not happening. I wasn't going to be blamed if it turned out bad.

I scheduled four showings and had my realtor put them in order house that there was no way we would buy; house that could possibly work but too much money; other house that we would not buy; and then my choice.

House purchases prior to this one, looked at maybe 15 or so each time.

 

[Julie's Haircut]

I would say that if they have been living under somebody else's roof, and have been looking for for a year, yes, they are being picky.
But, part of me is thinking that haven't found the 'right one' yet is making it easier for them to live cheaply, and easily.
If they were not just too comfortable, after a year, they would absolutely find a house, or go ahead and rent so that they had their own place until they do find the 'right one'.

Yep, they have it cheap and easy here, so they weren't in any rush. We didn't charge rent, but they do contribute $500 per month toward food and utilities so that they could save for a larger down payment. And they do help with yard work and other chores.

Theoretically, in a buyer's market, there are tons of choices. If that had been our situation there's no telling how many we would have looked at. @Julie's Haircut - what are their circumstances? Budget constraints? Too many choices? Not enough? I can see being pretty tentative if it was my first home.

They want a single detached home and are unwilling to consider a townhouse or condo. And they want to spend about 100k less than what they theoretically can afford. So it limits the options unless they go into less desirable areas. If they raise their budget about 50k they'd have plenty of choices in neighborhoods they like.

DW says that most of the homes they rejected were because of locations, not the houses themselves.

My wife and I gave up trying to find what we wanted and just decided to build our own with help. We didn't actually build it. The help we got was with designing and creating the prints for the builders. The builders actually built it.

Thanks for saying "we had our house built for us" instead of "we built our own home." Yours is the truth in 99% of cases.

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The kids offered 10k below asking price. The sellers countered with 5k below. Kids came back with 8k below. That's where it stands as of yesterday afternoon.

 

[MrsDuck]

We looked at 3, I think. We bought the 3rd. We've looked at 2 houses since but chose to stay where we are!

 

[moreisgood]

I was a real estate agent for 30 years. Some people look at 5 houses, and others look at 100. I would say that the average is about 30-40 over 3-4 months time.

 

[Cindy's Mom]

2 - 1 was new construction the other was the one we live in now, 18 years later (built in 1942)

 

[design_mom]

For our first house, we probably looked at 15 or 20. We made an offer on a different house (when we'd looked at less than 10), but if fell through. I'm still not sure why since it ended up closing for several thousand less than we were offering. As it turns out, the house we bought was probably "better" for us anyway. Our realtor the first time said "Make of the list of the things you want, but realize that getting 80% of those is probably a really good match and should be strongly considered."

For the second house, we looked around quite a bit then decide on new construction where we could have some input into the floorplan, etc.

*If I was living under someone else's roof I think I would be more motivated to be less picky. When we were buying the first time, our apartment lease could go month to month for as long as we wanted it to. And the second time, we hadn't put our house on the market yet, so we weren't in a rush there. (Although our house did end up selling before our new one was ready. We ended up moving into my parents' house for several months. But there was always an end-date on it.)

 

[barkley]

we've owned 3 homes since we married in '91-

#1-looked at probably a couple dozen b/c we weren't sold on location (lots of bedroom communities ideal for commuting from). ended up buying first home we saw in 3rd town (but saw multiple homes there). NOT PERFECT by any means-over 30 years old but it was our starter home and we could do some upgrades over time.

#2-look at TONS b/c it was a crazy seller's market so if you didn't immediately make a bid the house was generally gone next day. just ended up finding a new subdivision one town over while out for a family drive-loved the exteriors/lots sizes so we went back a couple days later to see inside and ended up signing the paperwork. that was brand new build so while we got to pick finishes still not perfect but we did changes over time.

#3-NO INTENTION TO BUY, was just visiting for 3 days to scout area out (out of state/dh had checked it out without me a month earlier). planned to rent 6 months to a year then buy but when i had a realtor take me around to show me different areas and what house styles were like/how much our money could buy i found the ideal property/house so i called dh and told him to hop on a flight to come see it. offer made and accepted w/in 24 hours. again-NOT PERFECT but we've done changes over time (it was new construction but builder had chosen finishes).


i suspect it's easier to wait for 'perfect' if you are in a living situation where's there's no pressure to get out/find what's 'perfect for now' (we always had rental leases or home sale closings to deal with).

 

[Praying Colonel]

House 1: we bought it sight unseen. We lived overseas at the time. My in-laws traveled and picked it out, and we trusted their judgment. Great house.
House 2: we looked at 3 houses and bought the least bad choice. We were stuck due to a move, tax laws that existed at the time and the relatively low mortgage we could afford due to being on 1 income. In retrospect we should've just eaten the tax hit and not bought a bad house. Lesson learned.
Current house: we looked at probably 8-10 houses. We were pretty picky and wanted something that was move-in ready and had a good layout in a good neighborhood. We've been very pleased.

 

[firefly_ris]

We have looked at like.... 300 houses in the Buffalo metro area over the past 13 years -- but we also had properties that were for rental purposes only (not just ours, BIL and some friends also purchased rentals and we went looking at a lot of them with them), so a lot of those fell into that category, so a large portion of that doesn't count for personal home seeking...

But... not picky. All of our homes needed large amounts of work, my 4 things were just: solid foundation, no mold remediation needed, good lot, good neighborhood. Pretty much anything else about the house could be changed. The first one was built 1870, second 1967, current 1963, and the one non-owner occupied rental was 1912, so all needed work, some more than others -- the 2nd one was a foreclosure ranch and was the worst by far (like... you'd be afraid to touch the kitchen cabinets because you might catch a flesh-eating disease gross type worst), but we fully gutted and made the most on that one when we sold it. However, we do 98% of all work ourselves, if we had to hire out for everything, it would have been totally different.

 

[leebee]

We haven't been overly picky with any house we've owned, as we've usually been under the gun to purchase before a new job started. We knew going in what we wanted, and it's pretty much stayed constant: 3 bedrooms, at least 1.5 baths, 2 car attached garage, good schools, safe neighborhood.

House #1: Moving from upstate NY to Michigan, we thought we had 2.5 days to look. Got to Lansing and nope, Sunday was Mother's Day and the agent wasn't available, people didn't want to do showings, etc. We looked at maybe 10 houses on Saturday and were feeling desperate. On Sunday we looked in the paper and found an open house. We knew it was ours, but DD confirmed it. She was 20months old at the time and kept running in circles around the big family room saying, "Home! Home!" Met our agent on Monday, put in the offer that afternoon. We had to come up $2K but we'd low-balled the offer, so voila! We were homeowners! To this day, both DH and I agree that was the best home we'd owned, and it met all our criteria and more- it even had central air!

House #2: Leaving MI, moving to PA. We didn't know what to expect so we listed our house at the end of April, hoping to move in August. HAHAHA. We had an offer over our full asking price in 48 hours! We sold the house mid-May, rented it back until school got out in mid-June, and then moved into a 2br student sublet apartment for the summer. We'd been house hunting in PA but it cost more than we'd expected, and there weren't a lot on the market. We looked at 5 maybe, undecided on one only to find it'd been pulled from the market due to a pipe rupture that put 4 feet of water in the finished basement. Our realtor contacted theirs (they'd already moved and were anxious to sell) and said if the repairs were done by X date and met inspection, we'd buy the house... and we did! IT was also a great house; not as perfect for us as the MI house, but more space (we just didn't use it very efficiently). It met all our criteria, and even had 1 full bath, one 3/4 bath, and one 1/2 bath!

House #3 (current home): We'd moved to Maine and rented an apartment (sight unseen) because the housing market was so tight and expensive. After 2 years in the apartment we moved to a rental home in our current town. It was getting close to impossible to find a house; at the height of the market, by the time homes showed up on the list, there was already a "behind the scenes" agreement, or they were seen and under contract immediately. I bet we tried to get into 15 houses, and our rental was running out; the landlady wouldn't let us stay past our lease as she didn't want to rent by the month. We were starting to panic! I was online with my realtor when a house popped up on the hotlist and she said, "How soon can you get there?" We left work and were there in 30 mins, walked through and put in an offer immediately; wrote it up right there at the kitchen counter. The house was empty, had been a student rental, needed a lot of work, but we put in an offer. We paid more for this house than either of the other two, but we needed a place to live and I knew it'd "fit" us. We've been there for 15 years now. Neither of us love the house, and it didn't meet criteria (not only do we not have any garage at all, we don't even have a paved driveway... in MAINE) but it has 2 full bathrooms (both on the 2nd floor ) and it's solid (for a 100+ year old place). They were in the process of residing and re-roofing, so that was good. We have kept our fingers crossed about the furnace, but so far, so good. The best part of this house is that we can walk into town, which we love! We needed to buy a house and this one has been fine.

 

[mnrose]

The most I ever looked at in buying a home was something like 70. DH and I had exactly one week to find and make an offer on a new home in an area entirely new to us. There were literally dozens of communities within the commuting distance we were seeking (Northern New Jersey). We saw houses (multiple) in a lot of those communities to figure out which area suited us best. In the end, we lived there about 5 years and then got transferred. Hated the house by the time we moved. LOL. But, it was super hard to do all that in the time we were allotted in an area we did not know.

Other than that, every house we've purchased, we've maybe looked at a dozen before buying one. With the advent of on line real estate ads/photos, we've "looked at" a lot more than that, but we are talking just seeing on line that the yard wouldn't work or the style wouldn't work or the neighborhood is wrong (google maps is a wonderful thing!), and could be eliminated without having to see it in person.

I'd say you are being taking advantage of, OP. Life is good where they are, and they are not properly motivated. There is no such thing as a "perfect" house.

The last place we purchased (condo for my son), we looked at only one. I found it on line. Toured it. Loved it. Bought it. Done. At this point, I've bought and sold enough houses that I don't need to hem and haw about every little thing. I know what's important. What can be changed. And what can be tolerated.

 

[Squirlz]

.



First and ONLY one you looked at? Or first among the several you looked at?

First and only. I guess the bar in the basement was part of the appeal. The all original brick exterior circa 1949 was a big draw. Many similar house in the neighborhood have been added on to and cladded with vinyl. I bought the 'cheapest house in the nicest neighborhood' as they say and there is a major shopping mall and all kinds of stores, restaurants and other conveniences within a mile radius.

Looking back on it I was pretty naive and I really kind of lucked into it. I just wanted a bar in the basement!

 

[tvguy]

We went to dozens of open houses before hooking up with a Realtor. She got use pre-qualified, and from that point on I think we might have looked at 6 to 10 houses. All in our budget, all meeting our wants and needs, and all move in ready.
Fast forward 10 years and we wanted a bigger house. We looked at 40 before giving up and adding onto our existing home. Buying another house was going to cost us 4 times what adding on to our house cots.

 

[ronandannette]

Thanks for saying "we had our house built for us" instead of "we built our own home." Yours is the truth in 99% of cases.

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The kids offered 10k below asking price. The sellers countered with 5k below. Kids came back with 8k below. That's where it stands as of yesterday afternoon.

I've been in residential construction for 30 years - I always find the bolded hilarious.

Good Luck!! (To you, I mean. I'd almost be inclined to throw in the extra $3K myself. Living with adult child, especially a spouse's child is more than I'd be up for any more. BTDT)

 

[Julie's Haircut]

I've been in residential construction for 30 years - I always find the bolded hilarious.

Good Luck!! (To you, I mean. I'd almost be inclined to throw in the extra $3K myself. Living with adult child, especially a spouse's child is more than I'd be up for any more. BTDT)

In early March I jokingly told DW we should just give them 20k as an incentive to move. Pay rent for a year with it somewhere else, bid on a more "suitable" house, or whatever.

Like I said in my OP, it really wasn't a problem having them here. But it was time stop lollygagging and move on.

They haven't heard back about their counteroffer yet. If it comes to it, sure, we'll give them the extra 3K to make them scram.

 

[Moliphino]

We've been looking for over a year and a half. Granted, there's not a whole lot coming up in the two towns we're looking in so we haven't looked at hundreds of houses or anything.

We're actually still kicking ourselves for not buying a house we looked at our first weekend out. It was the best we've seen by far, but someone else put in an offer the next day and we were just not ready to jump that fast.