The House Hunters Thread

[NewEnglandLady]

Diva! YAY!!!!

I think the 30th is perfect because that gives you enough time to get everything checked off the list and pack. If you had to do that all by next week, you''d be running around like a crazy woman! Do you have an idea in mind for the LR paint color?

Anchor, I think that going to see which one fits you better is the perfect plan. Do you have anything scheduled?

 

[DivaDiamond007]

NEL - we are going to do a tan-ish neutral in the living room. It''s painted an off-white with a pinkish tinge to it right now, and while it looks good, our curtains are dark red so it will clash. I like our curtains too much to get new ones

We will head to a local store in the next week or so to look.

 

[geckodani]

Date: 10/9/2009 1:29:19 PM
Author: NewEnglandLady
Gecko, I would love that!

I''m seeing 4 tomorrow afternoon as well, so we''ll have to check back in with reports!

Will do!

 

[geckodani]

Date: 10/9/2009 3:26:59 PM
Author: DivaDiamond007
NEL - we are going to do a tan-ish neutral in the living room. It''s painted an off-white with a pinkish tinge to it right now, and while it looks good, our curtains are dark red so it will clash. I like our curtains too much to get new ones

We will head to a local store in the next week or so to look.

Excellent!!! And I''m glad you got the extra time!

 

[NewEnglandLady]

Gecko, how did the hunt go today??

My day started with a mix-up from the listing agent of one of the homes I wanted to see. She''s the agent for two neighboring houses and thought we wanted to see the wrong one. That was was a million dollar home, haha, so we figured we may as well see it since we kicked the owners out for a half of an hour. It was beautiful! I ended up getting to see both homes, but the one in my budget paled in comparison! It needed way too much work, so I crossed it off the list immediately.

I ended up really liking the second one we saw, which is the one I sort of fell in love with on paper. It''s not perfect, but it fits our needs. It''s only 1.5 baths, which I really did not want, but I have this vision of turning the third floor (which is two empty rooms--no closets) into a master suite with its own bathroom and walk in closet. The current layout is perfectly fine for the next few years, especially since the full bathroom does have a nice jetted tub and huge tile shower, but without a second full bath I think it could get cramped with 2 kiddies. It has everything that we need--a full basement for storage (which isn''t easy to find with oceanfront houses), a good-sized mud room for the dogs, a family-friendly layout, and it has a fabulous kitchen since the owner is a professional chef. I also just got a good vibe--when we went out on the front deck you could see a few residents playing with their dogs off-leash on the beach. The neighbors were out and were extremely friendly. I really wish D could have been there...I''ll take him back next weekend.

The other two were meh. I probably wasn''t as open-minded as I could have been, but I was stuck on house #2.

Dan and I still have 2 on the list, inclucing the one I loved today, so we''ll see what happens. I hope he likes this house as much as I did.

Did anybody else besides Gecko have appts. this weekend?

 

[Lynnie]

NEL, I'm glad something finally looks promising for you! It sounds wonderful... I would LOVE a professional chef's kitchen!

Diva, good luck on picking a paint color! Benjamin Moore has a good color tool. You can even upload a picture and paint it online. We're leaning towards a color called "Timothy Straw"... it's a neutral beige. Good luck on packing, too. It's fun to find the stuff you forgot about. I lost one of my favorite perfumes about a year ago, and found it in a purse I haven't used in forever! That made my day! It was a full bottle of Ralph Lauren Blue... I was refusing to buy another one, because I knew I had one lying around somewhere.

Anchor, congrats! Good luck on the search! It can be easy, or really daunting

Funny... Friday, my RE agent told me that she has one more document for us to sign and bring to closing. It's a document stating that DH & I are not separated, or in the process of divorcing. And we have to get it notorized

I'm sick of paperwork! haha

So, Thursday's closing! We'll take a week to move a lot of boxes by car (new house is only 2 miles away from our apartment). I think we'll rent a U-haul for our furniture next Saturday. Next Sunday's my birthday, too.

We have to scrape wallpaper in the living room, dining room, kitchen, hallway/stairway, and 1/2 bath. Ugh... Hopefully, we'll have it done by next Sunday, and I'll throw a paint/birthday party. We'll see how it goes, though... I hope that wallpaper comes off easily.

After the house is painted, we're gonna rip up the carpets in the LR & DR, and re-finish the hardwoods underneath. I'm half-tempted to leave the carpets (they're in pretty good shape, a neutral beige), but I have a feeling that if we don't do the floors right away, they won't get done at all.

 

[geckodani]

Lynnie -You''re almost done with the paperwork!

And it''ll all be worth it.

NEL - That house sounds fantastic!!! I''m glad you found something that you got a good vibe about.

So, one of the four houses was a no go - the owners had moved back in and not removed it from the listings.

The first one we went to, is a conundrum. It''s cute. The kitchen is FAB. The tilework in the kitchen is fab. The tilework in the bathroom is great. The floors are good. It''s in a good spot. And - it''s TINY. Bathroom is tiny. Closets are tiny. There''s no fireplace, and the second bathroom is down in the basement, with a low ceiling that was making me claustraphobic.

So - I dunno. It has some good things going for it, but I''m really not at all happy about the size of the house, and the lack of CLOSET SPACE.

Second house was a meh. Smelled funny, same tiny layout, crappy kitchen.

Third house, HUGE. Old, leaning, and with neighbors that were yelling obsceneties at their dogs...

 

[NewEnglandLady]

Lynnie, I can''t believe you close this Thursday!! Exciting stuff!

I also can''t believe that you had to get a document notorized stating that you aren''t separated or divoricing! My lordie! The moving plan sounds good, though! I think it''s a great idea to try to get all that wallpaper off and get it painted before you fully unpack. Once you unpack you probably will want to just put it all behind you! And I agree about the floors--if you don''t just get it done now you''ll probably push it off out of exhaustion It''s great that the new place is so close, that should definitely help with moving those boxes. I''m sure you''re packing like crazy this weekend!

Gecko, sorry to hear about the lack of closet space in the house (among a few other issues). We are running into the same problem since all the homes we''re looking at are around a century old. Funny thing is that it''s a bigger issue for D than me. If there is space to expand the closets then it''s not so bad, but in our case all of the rooms are small, so we couldn''t sacrifice the square footage. Do you guys currently have big closets? Ours are tiny right now, so we own many dressers. We also have our second bathroom in our basement currently and I do use it at times...anyway, I''m glad the kitchen was nice, it sounds like for the time being that''s the front-runner.

Speaking of closets, I went through all of mine today and cleaned them out. I also cleaned out the basement, but 90% of the junk down there is D''s. I''m trying to purge everything I can so we can lighten the moving load (when the time comes).

 

[DivaDiamond007]

Geko - I hear ya on the lack of closet space! Our house was built in 1949 and both bedrooms have tiny closets. The one in our son''s room will be fine since his stuff fits in his dresser. I will be using the closet in our room for my things - but we''ll have to put in a closet organizer to make it work - and then hubby''s stuff will go into a wardrobe in the basement (aka the Man Cave). We do have a huge coat closet in the hallway and a linen closet too so we won''t have to store our sheets or towels in the basement.

We went to the store today and got some ideas for the living room paint color. We''re thinking about painting three of the walls a neutral tan color and one wall a red color. We will probably put the dining room table on the red wall since the eat-in-kitchen is sort of small so it would be a way to break up the space a bit. I wish I had some interior pictures of the house so you gals could see the idea "in person".

We also looked at some other things that we''ll need to get right away - a wardrobe, dvd storage for the Man Cave, curtains for James'' room, closet organizers, new locks for the doors and some other smaller stuff. Looks like we could get everything for around $600. Ahhhh....homeownership!

 

[geckodani]

Well, we came to the conclusion that buying a house that''s smaller than our current apartment was a BAD idea. So... we''re still looking. BUT - I just stumbled across some new construction, in the area we want, in the school district we want, and in our price range. So we''re checking it out, to see if I am hallucinating, or if it''s actually an option!!!

NEL - I SO need to do a massive purge of our closets! We''ve got a HUGE walkin right now, and a huge storage area. Honestly, I''m not sure I really care about having a walkin - it just creates more space to throw junk.

But I DO need more than an itty bitty little closet!

Diva - I''m so excited for you! The accent red wall sounds fun!

 

[NewEnglandLady]

Oh, Gecko, the new construction sounds very promising!! If it''s in the location and price range you want, then those are two very big positives! Have the builders broken ground yet? You and Meresal could be moving into your brand new homes at the same time And how fun would it be to be able to select everything yourself?? The countertops, the cabinets, the hardware, etc. And you wouldn''t have to worry about teeny closets! Keep us updated, of course!

D is getting back tomorrow, but I don''t think we''ll go back to see the house I like until Saturday. Blah. I could schedule an evening appt., but I know D would want to see it in the daylight, anyway. We can at least drive by it one evening--I haven''t seen the view at night, so I''d like to do that. The beach it''s on is public, so we can go without looking like house stalkers, even though that''s exactly what I am, haha.

 

[geckodani]

Date: 10/12/2009 9:57:14 AM
Author: NewEnglandLady
Oh, Gecko, the new construction sounds very promising!! If it's in the location and price range you want, then those are two very big positives! Have the builders broken ground yet? You and Meresal could be moving into your brand new homes at the same time And how fun would it be to be able to select everything yourself?? The countertops, the cabinets, the hardware, etc. And you wouldn't have to worry about teeny closets! Keep us updated, of course!

D is getting back tomorrow, but I don't think we'll go back to see the house I like until Saturday. Blah. I could schedule an evening appt., but I know D would want to see it in the daylight, anyway. We can at least drive by it one evening--I haven't seen the view at night, so I'd like to do that. The beach it's on is public, so we can go without looking like house stalkers, even though that's exactly what I am, haha.

Our realtor is checking it out for us. My worry is that the list price is at the TOP of our budget, and it may be for just the basic stuff. Now, if the basic options work for us, then awesome, but I remember when my Mom was building her house, and all the upgrades ended up costing a TON more than the base price. So we'll see!

ETA: Definitely need to see the house in daylight NEL!

 

[NewEnglandLady]

Date: 10/12/2009 10:25:18 AM
Author: geckodani

Our realtor is checking it out for us. My worry is that the list price is at the TOP of our budget, and it may be for just the basic stuff. Now, if the basic options work for us, then awesome, but I remember when my Mom was building her house, and all the upgrades ended up costing a TON more than the base price. So we'll see!

ETA: Definitely need to see the house in daylight NEL!

I understand--I keep gravitating towards the top of our budget, too, and I promised myself I wouldn't do that. If the builder is building multiple units and none (or few) have sold, you may have a lot of bargaining power. Maybe you could even somehow negotiate the price down while also negotiating for mid-grade or even high-end finishes/appliances. I'm jumping ahead of myself, I know. I've been pouring over sales comps for months. Redfin and Trulia are great for comparing sold prices vs. assessments, but I have my realtor send all of the comps for the towns and even streets that we're interested in. That way I can compare asking price to sold price. In the hundreds of comps I've looked at for the past year, less than 1% of homes have sold for the asking price. This gets me into trouble though--it makes me feel like I have a lot of wiggle room and then I start looking at houses at the top end of the budget again...

Anyway, my point is that if you see something you love, it's likely that you do have a lot of bargaining power...at least based on what I've seen.

ETA: you're definitely right about seeing the house in daylight--I don't want to kick the owner out one night this week since I know that we'd just have to go back this weekend, anyway. I think driving by it this week will tide me over

 

[geckodani]

Date: 10/12/2009 10:51:10 AM
Author: NewEnglandLady

Date: 10/12/2009 10:25:18 AM
Author: geckodani

Our realtor is checking it out for us. My worry is that the list price is at the TOP of our budget, and it may be for just the basic stuff. Now, if the basic options work for us, then awesome, but I remember when my Mom was building her house, and all the upgrades ended up costing a TON more than the base price. So we'll see!

ETA: Definitely need to see the house in daylight NEL!

I understand--I keep gravitating towards the top of our budget, too, and I promised myself I wouldn't do that. If the builder is building multiple units and none (or few) have sold, you may have a lot of bargaining power. Maybe you could even somehow negotiate the price down while also negotiating for mid-grade or even high-end finishes/appliances. I'm jumping ahead of myself, I know. I've been pouring over sales comps for months. Redfin and Trulia are great for comparing sold prices vs. assessments, but I have my realtor send all of the comps for the towns and even streets that we're interested in. That way I can compare asking price to sold price. In the hundreds of comps I've looked at for the past year, less than 1% of homes have sold for the asking price. This gets me into trouble though--it makes me feel like I have a lot of wiggle room and then I start looking at houses at the top end of the budget again...

Anyway, my point is that if you see something you love, it's likely that you do have a lot of bargaining power...at least based on what I've seen.

ETA: you're definitely right about seeing the house in daylight--I don't want to kick the owner out one night this week since I know that we'd just have to go back this weekend, anyway. I think driving by it this week will tide me over

Hee hee. Yay for drive bys.

I just think.. that I have champagne taste on a beer budget. LOL. Well, maybe a nice wine budget, but still.

It's going to take some compromises... and we need to see if they're worth it!

Another house in the complex as the one we put in an offer on just went on the market to, so we may scoot on over and take a looksee as well.

 

[meresal]

NEL- Yay for liking one of the hosues!!! It sounds wonderful!!

Lyn- I''m sorry to hear about the houses. How do you forget to take a house off the market??

Gecko- New Construction?!?! Woohoo! I hope the pricing it works out for you! Just as a reference, and each builder is different based on their packages and floor plans, but we got $10k in free upgrades and added another $20k on our own. When you ask questions be sure to ask about price of sod, sprinkler system, fencing, and if there are lot premiums. You can avoid the indoor upgrades, but these are the things aren''t the typical "upgrades" that people think of (we didn''t think of ahead of time), they are not always covered by the builder. They will add up VERY quickly to the base price of the house.


Ok... so today was our final design appt! we put our 25% deposit on the upgrades, and we will pre-close this weekend. Then they will break ground in the next month, and hopefully be done by Feb. (Which I''m not buying, considering this build will be over winter and holidays... I''m hoping for mid March.)
We also saw the baby, and at 12 weeks everything looks great! We can start visualizing the nursery now!

So here are the final decisions. On top: Floor tiles(18x1, On bottom: Cabinet color, kitchen granite, backsplash tile(12x12), and the accent square on the right is what we will be using in between each backsplash tile.

 

[meresal]

What the backsplash tiles will look like.

 

[meresal]

Floor tile color and the tile color that will surround the fireplace.

 

[meresal]

The cabinet color and style we chose is on top, but with the wall mount style on bottom. It will be more custom looking (like the bottom picture) with the cabinets surrounding the fridge and raised above the range/microwave.

 

[meresal]

... and lastly, here is our lot and our SOLD sign!

Sorry for the picture overload, I''m just very excited, and DH can''t go to these appt''s with me, so I have no one to bounce ideas off of.

 

[NewEnglandLady]

Congrats on the final appt., Meresal! Everything you chose is just gorgeous! I love how all the tones are warm and home-y, I think they''ll go together beautifully. I''m especially loving those backsplash accents! I''m sure you''re relieved all that is behind you--did you look at a ton of catalogues and magazined to try to figure out what you wanted? I''m sure it was a huge job!

How great that you had the final appt. and the ultrasound on the same day!

 

[geckodani]

What an exciting day Meresal! I love all the choices you made. I think the different cabinet heights will really give it a personal look, and the tile you chose is gorgeous!

 

[Lynnie]

Gecko... yay for new construction! It sounds promising! LOL @ champaigne budget... I got side-tracked online a lot, because I''d click on the gorgeous multi-million $ listings! Then I''d go back to what''s in our budget, and it was like

Mer, I LOVE all your choices!! The ''sold'' sign is so exciting! And congrats on the u/s!! Did you find out the sex? Is it too early for that? I don''t really frequent the preggo thread...

Kittybean!! I accidentally overlooked your post! Congrats, and good luck!!

We went on a walkthrough of our house yesterday. The sellers told us to make a ''keep'' list of furniture. We''re not keeping much... the kitchen table, a cabinet in the office, 2 filing cabinets, and the basement furniture (which is really ugly, but we''re not doing much to the basement right away, so at least we''ll have someplace to sit until we get the upstairs done). Oh, and DH is a little annoyed. They took the freezer, which was in the basement, in the laundry area (which is separated from the finished part of the basement). In order to get the freezer out, they ripped out metal shelves. The shelves were floor to ceiling, about 8 feet long. This was gonna be his ''beer brewing'' area. We''re not concerned at all about the freezer, but we''ll have to get new shelves now. Oh, and they''re leaving the stair lift thing. Fine by me, we could sell it on craigslist... there''s 2 listed now for 600/800. And we could use it to haul heavy boxes upstairs.

Just for hoo-hahs, here''s a link to the house we lost out on. It needs at least 60K worth of work, but the possibilities are amazing... http://www.trulia.com/property/1074769678-7000-Hegerman-St-Philadelphia-PA-19135
That house is in a ''meh'' neighborhood, though, and doesn''t have much of a yard. Also, it''s the biggest house on the market in the neighborhood, and I''m not sure that even if it were brought to life, that it''d be worth it in the end (as far as resale).

Final walkthrough is Thursday morning, then I''m signing my life away

About that weird document, my RE agent told me that it''s necessary b/c the mortgage is in my name only.

NEL, good luck Saturday! Did you do the drive-by?

 

[NewEnglandLady]

Lynnie, you''re getting so close!!! In just TWO days you''ll have the keys to your new home! And I agree about the furniture--you may as well keep anything you''re slightly interested in, you can always get rid of it later. Even better if you can sell it! I had to laugh when you mentioned using the chair lift to haul heavy boxes, what a great idea!!

It sounds like the house you have now is a bit safer than the other house--the victorian is lovely, but it seems like you could have easily gone over budget and like you said, when all was said and done, if you had the nicest house in the neighborhood you may not have gotten that investment back. Funny how things work out.

I didn''t drive by the house last night--D flies in this afternoon, so I''m hoping to go tonight or tomorrow. I''m eager to go back, I keep analyzing it in my mind.

 

[geckodani]

Date: 10/13/2009 9:23:45 AM
Author: NewEnglandLady
Lynnie, you''re getting so close!!! In just TWO days you''ll have the keys to your new home! And I agree about the furniture--you may as well keep anything you''re slightly interested in, you can always get rid of it later. Even better if you can sell it! I had to laugh when you mentioned using the chair lift to haul heavy boxes, what a great idea!!

It sounds like the house you have now is a bit safer than the other house--the victorian is lovely, but it seems like you could have easily gone over budget and like you said, when all was said and done, if you had the nicest house in the neighborhood you may not have gotten that investment back. Funny how things work out.

I didn''t drive by the house last night--D flies in this afternoon, so I''m hoping to go tonight or tomorrow. I''m eager to go back, I keep analyzing it in my mind.

I had a giggle over the chair lift for boxes too, LOL! That''s awesome. Sorry about the brewing shelves.

NEL - Don''t drive yourself too batty!

 

[drk]

NEL - that sounds like what I did with our two top contenders. Saw them with the agent myself, then had to wait 4 days to take DH along. Then 4 days after that, purchased! That house with the 360 turret sounds fantastic! With the potential to add a master suite and ensuite on the 3rd floor in the future, it definitely has a lot of pluses going for it. Hope your DH loves it this weekend. I have no regrets going at the top end of our budget ($15000 below the absolute mental pain threshold). I imagine we''ll get to the limit when we make the changes we want to in the basement, but so what. If it''s nearly exactly what you want in an area you love, and you can see that with a little effort the space could do just what you need it to, I''d seriously consider going for it.

Gecko - I sure wouldn''t go for the first one. Cute and fab kitchen and good tiles don''t outweigh the tiny factor for me. Tiles and cabinets you can change in the future when money frees up. Tiny is very hard to get rid of! And low ceiling basement with second bath doesn''t sound too appealing to me. Hope some better stuff comes up!

 

[NewEnglandLady]

Date: 10/13/2009 12:36:24 PM
Author: drk
NEL - that sounds like what I did with our two top contenders. Saw them with the agent myself, then had to wait 4 days to take DH along. Then 4 days after that, purchased! That house with the 360 turret sounds fantastic! With the potential to add a master suite and ensuite on the 3rd floor in the future, it definitely has a lot of pluses going for it. Hope your DH loves it this weekend. I have no regrets going at the top end of our budget ($15000 below the absolute mental pain threshold). I imagine we'll get to the limit when we make the changes we want to in the basement, but so what. If it's nearly exactly what you want in an area you love, and you can see that with a little effort the space could do just what you need it to, I'd seriously consider going for it.

This is really encouraging, drk, thank you! I'd love it if we purchased 4 days after DH sees it! The more I'm weighing this one, the more I think it's a really good fit for us. It doesn't necessarily need improvements, but if we added that second bath, I think it could compete with the neighboring homes, which are worth more (I've spent a lot of time going through neighborhood comparables--this is the only house on the block with 1.5 baths). Plus the bath would be directly above the other bath, so I don't think we'd have to do any serious rerouting of plumbing. The house has been on the market for 8 months and has dropped nearly 15% in price, so I'm hoping we can get it in the "comfortable" price range without having to go to the "starting to get painful" price range.

How are you doing?? Do you have a closing date yet? Is everything going smoothly? I'm always interested in hearing about the process after the offer is accepted, but before closing.

ETA: Gecko, I'm trying not to drive myself batty, but I've spent at least a half of an hour this morning looking at pictures of bathrooms with sloped ceilings, haha (the third floor of this house has a slope). Turns out, there is a lot you can do!

 

[drk]

NEL - so far there hasn''t been much to do. DH sorted out the remaining mortgage stuff with the bank once we had the final purchase agreement signed off (after the good inspectino). We had to fill out a little more paperwork and he needed a letter from his employer confirming employment. Then we applied for life insurance (now that we''ll have a mortgage to pay off and hopefully a little one in March), which took some paperwork and appointments. The lawyer called me last week after I contacted him to see what we need to do. Since our purchase is fairly straightforward, all he needed was to confirm the correct spelling of our names and our birthdates, where our morgtgage was, and told me we''ll do the title search in mid Nov as specified in the purchase agreement. Sounds like the rest of the formal paperwork doesn''t have to happen till just before we close (I think this is getting the title put in our names? not sure). Otherwise we''re going to make an appointment to go in and take some measurements and maybe have a consult with a designer friend of our agent who''s good at furnishing places to suit your style on a budget. Of course with my maybe-Braxton-Hicks irritating frequent contractions, I''m too chicken to be terribly active and do the stuff I''d want to do. We''ll have to book movers and try to sort out whether we can hire contractors to come in in mid Jan to do the basement work we want to get done.

That house sounds great! We bought in the upper end on our street, but not in our neighbourhood, according to our agent. The other little bungalows on the street will slowly get bought up and reno''d over the next few years, so we''re pretty sure we''ll have good resale value in the future. If your possible house has been on the market for so long and not been snapped up with the price drop, I bet there is some negotiating room for you. It definitely sounds promising! I was initially a little hesitant about the house we bought because it had only 2 bedrooms and two full ensuite baths (3 half-baths), and the master bathtub is pretty much in the bedroom. But overall we loved the neighbourhood and the feel of the house, and the house has space that we can work with to get that 3rd bedroom and 3rd bath that we want/need. If we had to wait 5-10 years to make the changes, we could. But we''ll probably try to get it over with now.

I''m looking forward to hearing what you think on your second viewing!

 

[NewEnglandLady]

drk, I''m so glad to hear things are going smoothly for you! I''m also glad your husband is taking care of the bulk of the paperwork, you have enough to take care of on your own I have no doubt that you''re probably so tired at the end of the day that the last thing you want to do is dive into a mountain of papers. In just a few short months you''ll be able to take a relaxing bath in (one of) your gorgeous bathroom(s)! And I wouldn''t think twice about the home only being 2 bedrooms, you have that huge den and the house is just so gorgeous. You always sacrifice something, you know?

 

[meresal]

Thank you for the awesome feedback ladies!!!

We got our loan approval today (for the higher amount), so we are PRE-CLOSING this weekend!!!!!!!!!!!!! YAY!!!!!!!!!!!!

How are your weeks going??

 

[NewEnglandLady]

Oh my gosh, Meresal!! That is fabulous!! You must be very excited!!

My week is blah. We have an appt. Sunday morning to see the house again and I''m feeling indifferent. I have reached out to five insurance agents and can''t get a flood insurance quote for under $5,500/year. I mentioned to D that the appeal of an oceanfront house is wearing off for me since it''s such a sacfrifice--not just in terms of extra insurance and maintenance costs, but just what we could get for the same amount if we lived a half of a mile inland. D said "maybe we should just start our search over". OMG, we''ve looked at over 50 houses, I am not about to start over--and am not going to put our real estate agent through it. I just need for the hunt to be over.