Homeowners ?

Did you shop for your house all at once or did you space it out over a long period of time. We just started looking and it seems like every day we have to go and look at more houses.
Also, how long before you found your house?

Re: Homeowners ?

we waited until we were absolutely ready, so that if we saw a house we loved, we'd be able to put an offer on the spot.

we started looking in Feb, found a house, put an offer, but they accepted the first offer (ours was second), then in March, we found THE house, and also put an offer on the spot - and got it! we closed on 5/5, so I guess our whole house hunting experience from beginning to end, would be around 4 months.

Now the moving part - that's a WHOLE other story!!

Re: Homeowners ?

I'm just postng because I see your icon!!!! love it!!

Re: Homeowners ?

i take it you both like turtles!!??

Re: Homeowners ?

I would say our total time was about 3 months too, but we were living in LI and looking in NJ, so we were limited to the weekends.

All in all we looked at about 20 houses, and the one we bought was the first one that we both said yes to. All the others one of us liked and the other didn't or neither of us liked.

I think it's like your wedding dress or hall decisions. You just KNOW when you've found the right one. But with this market, you can't take too long to think about it unfortunately.

Good luck!!

Re: Homeowners ?

We started talking seriously about buying a home last summer- we looked at condos in a lot of different areas- we took weekend trips to areas in westchester, forest hills, bayside, bay ridge to explore the neighborhoods. We thought, at that time, we could only afford a condo.

We talked with a friend and realized we didn't have to put 20% down- that there were other ways to finance a mortgage. So, then we went and got pre-approved and then we knew what we could afford. Then we decided right away on Commack, E. Northport, St, James area. We looked at about 15 houses and found ours in E. Northport. Our bid was accepted and we closed in Feb- start to finish the whole process was about 7 months.

Re: Homeowners ?

We also had to focus on looking on Fridays/weekends. We lived in Queens but bought in Putnam cty, about an hour away. That made it hard to look during the week.

We lucked out though- we initially looked at a few condos. Then we decided to focus on houses since houses were not much more than condos. We went out one afternoon and saw five houses, and the next week we made an offer on the house we are in now. We loved the house, plus it was so much nicer than the other houses in the same price range. It turned out that the owners really needed to sell.

There were moments where I worried that we were a little hasty, but I still look from time to time and I know we got a great deal. It turned out that someone offered $20k more than us two days after our offer was accepted but the sellers went with us.

There are now two houses in our neighborhood that are the same style as ours, and one is selling for $60k more than we paid and the other is $30k more. The one that is $60k more is a corner lot, but otherwise everything is the same- square footage, # of beds, baths, age of house. I am so glad we got this house.

Re: Homeowners ?

Posted by leighla

I would say our total time was about 3 months too, but we were living in LI and looking in NJ, so we were limited to the weekends.

All in all we looked at about 20 houses, and the one we bought was the first one that we both said yes to. All the others one of us liked and the other didn't or neither of us liked.

I think it's like your wedding dress or hall decisions. You just KNOW when you've found the right one. But with this market, you can't take too long to think about it unfortunately.

Good luck!!

Re: Homeowners ?

Message edited 1/30/2009 12:16:19 PM.

Re: Homeowners ?

we would see a whole bunch in one day... it got tiring, but you get a lot done that way...

we started looking around March, and after putting offers on 3 different houses, our 4th offer was accepted in the end of May...we are in contract now!!

Re: Homeowners ?

OMG it felt like forever. We looked for about 18 months. We moved out of our apartment in Brooklyn and into my MIL's thinking it would take about 6 months to find a house we liked and that fit our budget.

We found our house through kelleherkm! Thanks Kathy!
Before then we found 2 others we really liked but we were outbid both times.