Buying a home. Want opinions.

[ladykemma]

Date: 8/10/2006 7:29:07 PM
Author: codex57
Please, don''t hold back. All these these food for thought is exactly what I''m looking for. I can get sooo many people''s opinions. Most of my friends aren''t homeowners yet so I can''t ask them. I''d just appreciate as much detail as possible so I can tell how closely your experience will mirror mine.

Yeah, that''s why I brought up the ''key lot'' term. It butts up against so many yards. It doesn''t bother me too much, but I''m more interested how it bothers other people.

I guess the backyards butting up don''t bother me too much cuz I fail to see how it''s that different than any other lot. Sure an extra house or two can look into my yard, but if it''s not totally private, then I don''t see too much of a difference. The fencing in this area are all 6 foot tall wood fencing that completely blocks in your yard (it''s not that open metal fencing you see in the model pic). Unless you''re well over 6 feet, you can''t see into your neighbors yard if you''re in the yard. However, if you have a 2 story house, then you can see into your neighbors yard. But, the lot next to me has a ''regular'' lot and it''s the same thing there. Anyone with a 2 story house across from them is going to be able to see into their yard. Including me. That''s why I need a little help understanding why it''s considered so bad.

oh heck in so. cal. you can hear your neighbor taking a shower, the houses are so close.

how are the neighbors?

 

[codex57]

The ones I''ve met seem nice. We had a neighborhood get together thrown by the builder last nite. I dunno who''s actually on my street though cuz those houses just got released and most aren''t sold yet. We were the only lot on our street released with all the others on that one street that ends in the cul de sac.

 

[Mara]

codex, where in CA are you again? in california i think that buying property is different than in many other areas of the US. greg is always laughing when he sees property descriptions that say how many sq ft the lot is rather than acreage. and how i coo excitedly when it's 4500-6000 sq ft lot. which by many other state standards is tiny, but here that's a real big yard! hehee. so i think that californians' are used to being around lots of other houses, having funky sized lots or a tiny front and a large back or tiny front and tiny back, or near a train station or near a freeway etc. there just is not a lot of land to build on unless you are moving to redding or los banos or something. my girlfriend has a house in menlo park and it's right behind the train tracks and you hear huge freight trains at 4am and at random points during the day. it would drive me nuts! but she is used to it and i am sure when she goes to sell she will have no problem because it's a desirable area and zip code and within walking distance to downtown. californians' are a little more used to this kinda thing IMO in certain areas.

i think with any new property, you ARE taking a larger risk than an established home/community, especially buying when the community is just being built. you are taking a risk on your unknown neighbors, on your unknown homeowners association, on unknown issues that crop up (aka guest parking is always a big deal in these types of packed in communities and no one ever thinks of it beforehand) on the unknown neighborhood and the unknown future. it was really stressful for us to buy our townhouse. we had been looking around in this area and pretty much everything was on par with each other...pricing for the townhouses we liked, the sq ftage, the floorplans, it was all pretty similar. it just boiled down to where we wanted to be in that cookie cutter kinda townhouse, aka starter home. this area we took a big risk on...it is a total transitional area and it has pockets of million dollar homes, pockets of three million dollar homes, and pockets of 700k homes, and then there is us and our townhouse communities (there are 2 right now that have been built in the last 3 years and one more that is going up in the next year as well as lofts/condos all around us in small pockets within 1-2 miles). it's near downtown, and it's near a train station (very near) where they do maintenance work at night (though that is moving soon). it's got a public park where not only our complexes mingle but also all sorts of random neighborhood people, not all of which are DINK kinda individuals or families with kids. there are some scary characters walking around sometimes. we hear there are still the last vestiges of prostitutes up on this huge road about 3 blocks from us. we walk the dog down this street and around the neighborhoods all the time. we actually feel very at home here with all the different types of individuals. it doesn't feel quite SO suburbia.

i'm rambling now but reading your posts i can feel for you...i remember what it felt like to be panicking about the purchase. buying this place for us just felt RIGHT even though we were totally freaking out inside, it was a huge purchase for us too...we also don't have any other debt like cars or anything so this was a HUGE deal for us. plus as a californian you know what kind of coin you drop when you buy even a shack. it's a lot of money to throw out there. we had put $$ down on another new community a month earlier and then it just didn't feel right after we talked it over for a week. but this place felt right to us. even with the few cons that we were worried about. we just loved the floorplan, we loved the place, the exterior, the community, the builder, the package we got. we loved that you had this mingly old neighborhood where new blood was coming in. sure there were things that really stressed us out...thinking about resale, being so close to the train station, what if this area never really took off. we looked at some places about a mile from us over near the rosegarden, i'd LOVE to live over there...taking walks amongst multi million dollar homes every night...these townhouses were brand new, same price as ours but smaller floorplan, not as great of a layout at all, less livable feeling. but it had the great location. the gal over there turned us onto the place we eventually bought and said that this place was their main competition but that lots of people were saying they didn't want to live 'over here'..kinda thing. that worried us too, we didn't want our place to be unsellable if people didn't want to live here. but the houses were SO CUTE. hehe.

fast foward three years, the neighborhood and community has really changed and for the better. sure stuff still gets weird sometimes but there is so much growth and development around here, it has boomed like we never could have dreamed of. there is the whole foods, the new drugstore, lots of talk of new retail to support the growing market over here. we don't even know if we want to move in a few years like we planned! it's too exciting to be in the middle of it all and watch it all unfold. we love our neighbors, we know many people in the community (there are TONS of dog owners and everyone is really friendly), we have made friends with people out in the neighborhoods who come to the park, it's probably more than we hoped for when we bought originally.

anyway, i am totally babbling now, sorry for the long post, but i think that sometimes you can take a calculated risk and go against the norms kinda thing to really come out with something you love and come out ahead too. my parents kept wanting us to buy a dilapidated old house in cupertino so that we'd have a great zip and great schools and a 'real house' which appreciates so much faster than a condo or townhouse. nevermind we don't even have kids and don't plan them (if at all) for years. nevermind that i check the property pages every few months and have to smile when i see that cupertino has something like a 5% growth in appreciation and our zip code is like 25% growth. so much for the real house being the better deal for a 5-7 year term.

so continue to do your research, take a drive out there and sit at night and listen to the noises and see what happens out in that neighborhood at midnight (if you can), determine what your timeline is and then take that educated risk. it can only go one of two ways...i don't think EITHER outcome is guaranteed in this type of market and especially in california.

 

[codex57]

Mara, you weren''t rambling at all. Thanks so much for telling me your story. It''s great to be able to here what another first time homebuyer went through.

We''ve been out there at night. It''s pretty dead quiet. I haven''t had a chance to sit out there and listen for the train''s whistle at night tho. In the day time it was fine, but there might have been enough ambient noise to have made it not too noticeable.

I''m out in the Sacramento area. This whole area is just exploding, but I''m on the north side. Lot is 8000 sq ft. Avg lot size seems to be about 5000 sq ft around here. Normally, you''ve got 6 ft btw your house and your side fence so our one side yard is kinda cool cuz we''re not right on top of our neighbor.

 

[Mara]

oh and the other thing i wanted to add is that those other townhouses we were looking at originally in the 'better area' have not appreciated as much as ours have at all. it's kind of interesting actually since they are only about a mile from ours. that definitely goes to show that there is no true rhyme or reason to this kinda thing in terms of guarantees...i would imagine anyone who would have examined the areas originally would have given ours a shaky thumbs up, but it has been a real positive for us. as greg calls it, total dumb luck!!

i say go with your GUT...it can take you a long way when you trust it and you have some educated research under your belt. i also think you both should be on the same page with loving it or not wanting it....it's much easier that way than trying to convince the mate that this is where you should be or vice versa. greg and i both loved these places over all others we had seen so the decision was that much easier mentally i think.

is the train a freight or a passenger? ours is passenger and so it completely slows when it comes into the station so it's not roaring through at 4am. freight would be harder to take i think. the whistle is not bad either at all...we don't even really hear it at all.

 

[codex57]

It''s a freight train. I''m not too worried about it. It blows it''s stupid whistle sorta near us, but we''re far enough away where you can only hear it off in the distance if you''re outside. The planned community next to me has a few neighborhoods that are close enough to be really annoyed by it, but the community is pretty huge so those on the far end don''t hear it too well. And our neighborhood is behind those far neighborhoods. Some time next week I''ll prolly sit out there for a couple hours to try and listen for the train at nite, but I''m not too worried based on what I''ve experienced in the daytime. Course, it gets really quiet at nite so maybe it will be noticeable.

 

[aljdewey]

Date: 8/10/2006 4:26:06 PM
Author: codex57

We initially weren''t hesitant. We were sold when we first saw the house cuz we LOVE this floorplan. It''s just pre-mortgage jitters right now cuz it''s a LOT of money we''re talking about. We''re prolly weird in this, but we''ve only financed one thing before and that was just a TV. We''re not very comfortable with the idea of debt. I guess you can say we live well within our means.

I think you''ve hit the nail on the head. I really think that''s the issue. Other than that, you LOVE the house. So, do it.

I can tell you that most folks in the same position go through the same worries/misgivings. Hubby and I bought 1.5 years ago - first home purchase for either of us. Our rent cost at the time was 2/3 of what the mortgage would be. We both work at the same company, so we worried "what if something happens and we''re BOTH out of work?"

Like you two, both of us were debt free and VERY adverse to the idea of debt. We were hoping/planning to buy this one house, and stay in it for 30 years (or until we retire). It''s hard to feel confident that you won''t face some adversity during 30 years, and we started feeling anxious about committing to such a thing. I really think most folks go through that when they leap into home ownership.

The thing that got us over it? Two things....the realization that we could always sell it if we had to, and the commitment we made to keep a minimum of one year''s expenses in savings. This way, if the house didn''t sell as quickly as we hoped, we would still be okay for a bit. So, we took a deep breath and did it.

Now? Piece of cake - hard to imagine we worried so about it. Our quality of life improved drastically in having our own house, and we are absolutely sure we made the right choice.

It''s a big decision, but it''s less scary once you''ve done it.

 

[aljdewey]

Date: 8/10/2006 6:20:02 PM
Author: MC
haha DO NOT buy a house near a freeway/bypass, etc. DH and I got a transitional home that we bought and remodeled and now are renting out. It''s near a freeway and it''s unbelievably noisy. NONE of the neighbors ever go outside. We had to install soundproofing b/c our renter couldn''t sleep due to the noise! (what may seem like a small road may grow before you know it. I can say, without a doubt, you WILL regret purchasing that house!)

I really have to disagree with this as a blanket statement. While it may be true in some instances, it''s not true in all......it really depends on the particular location and what the sound is really like.

I think it''s important to scope out the location during all hours (especially commuter hours) to see how it sounds. In my neighborhood, we are what I would call "near the highway"......and yet, we don''t hear anything when we''re in the house even with the windows wide open.

All our neighbors go outside, as do we, and we''ve had plenty of backyard parties on our deck with guests. At it''s busiest, our highway noise sounds like rustling wind through the trees.

Our neighborhood is so quiet, you can hear the birds every evening.....and we''re near the highway.

 

[diamondfan]

I personally would not want to live near an overpass. The noise would annoy me, but not everyone feels this way. In terms of resale, it only takes ONE person wiling to pay what you want, so it is hard to say whether the house would sell down the line. For me, I try to see long range. Are the schools good, because that is so vital for resale. The area, can it be improved over time with new blood coming in and new development? What is not so great now might be fine in 10 years. I have passed on homes that are on busy corners or near highways. Can you go to the area at night and hear what it is like? Can you do extra soundproofing to ease any issues?

 

[diamondfan]

also, cosmetics in an existing house can be modified over time. LOCATION and LAYOUT are more vital. And do you like the curb appeal? You can repaint or plant flowers, but if it is a ranch and you want a traditional house, you maybe not ever really love it...

 

[aljdewey]

One thought about new community vs. old/established and the comments that it''s hard to know who you''re neighbors will be in a new community......

If you plan to stay long-term, that becomes less of a consideration because believe me, things change over time. My parents have been in their house just over 28 years now, and the neighborhood has changed dramatically. They are the last ones still living on their street from when we arrived. Families have come and gone over the years.

Rich and I plan to be here for the long term. Right now, this dead-end street is about a dozen homes. None have small children; the only kids are my neighbors across the street with one son a junior in college and the other recently graduated college. We LOVE that, but we realize that over the years, the neighborhood will change and new families will likely infuse a different flavor.

 

[diamondfan]

I grew up in Beverly Hills, and when we were home shopping near there it was so sad to see how close some of the homes were. (and not inexpensive, either...) We moved to the suburbs of Philly and could not believe the homes, prices and taxes lower (not now, sadly, home prices here are insane) but also you could be on so much land. An acre in Los Angeles is a ton, here it was the minimum in a lot of places. The houses seemed so far apart and I got spooked at night in the beginning. I think you will always be fearful to make that committment, it is huge. Who can say years from now if the area will boom or bust? Or if the road will prove to be a minor nuisa ce or a major issue? Sometimes, after all the thinking and researching, you still are left with more questions than answers.

 

[codex57]

What''s curb appeal exactly? The house itself looks nice to us. Dunno about the front yard and stuff cuz it''s just dirt right now. We imagine it''ll look fine.

So far, the people that have moved into the neighborhood seem alright. I did run into one jerk, but he turned into an area that''s pretty far from my neighborhood. I think we''re going to be the only family in the city without an SUV/truck.