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What advice do y'all have for a first-time homebuyer?

SultryHellhound

SultryHellhound

Citizen of Zooville
I don't want to get any dogs before I own a house, as 99% of rentals where I live don't allow dogs of any kind. Plus I'm at the whim of a landlord who might decide they want to sell the place or get burned by another tenant and declare that all dogs are banned.

Houses by me range from $70k to $150k for 2-3 bedrooms.

Really just curious to see what mistakes others here have made so I can learn from those rather than make them myself, and what general advice others may have.
 
Remember to consider vicinity to basic services such as grocery, doctor, hospital, fire department, police, if the price is super low for seemingly no reason it may be because it’s a 30 minute drive to a grocery store
 
Repairs/renovations are expensive, keep that in mind when buying older houses.

If you're handy you can save a lot of money doing things yourself, at the cost of your own time. How much depends on how skilled you are.
 
Flint said:
Remember to consider vicinity to basic services such as grocery, doctor, hospital, fire department, police, if the price is super low for seemingly no reason it may be because it’s a 30 minute drive to a grocery store
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Places I'm looking at have a 5-9 minute drive to my work, the hospital, the stores, and the mall.
 
Sheppermutt said:
Make sure you are aware of any home owners associations and make sure you know their rules if you decide to live where one exists. In my neighborhood for example, the covenant says you can have 2 cats, 2 dogs, and 2 of an 'other' type of pet. Now, some of the rules can be difficult or impossible to enforce. (Who's gonna know if you have 3 indoor cats?) But some will have a list of banned breeds, or may not allow dogs/pets at all.

Also as Flint said above consider what will be available to you in that location. I have become used to fiber internet, which if I ever wanted to move out into a rural place would probably be harder to find, and definitely costly to get installed.

Definitely fully inspect the entire property before making a decision. You also want to get it inspected professionally. (Just like how you can get a 3rd party to do a pre-purchase inspection of a car, you can and should do the same for your house) They can tell you about any underlying issues, like termites, leaky pipes, structural or flood damage, etc.
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That's something I'll definitely take into consideration. Where I'm wanting to purchase doesn't have an HOA, but the city itself has a limit of 3 domestic animals.

Another thing I'm worried about is saving for a larger down payment. I technically can get a zero down payment USDA loan for any house in the city, but would like to save up more. However, I'm afraid that if I wait too long, then I might get priced out.
 
Infrastructure is key indeed, and consider your personal needs/preferences.

General questions to look into for the financial/time aspects:
- Are you willing to renovate? Do you want to? How much $$/time can you put into renovations/upgrades to make the house yours?
- Do you want to get land and get someone to build something that fits your desires?
- If you are going to be close to your spending limit with a mortgage... how do you plan to handle maintenance/repairs? Can you replace your water heater or heat pump (or whatever necessary appliance) a few months after moving in if you have to? How recent/durable is the roof? etc.
- Depending on your climate, what does the insulation efficiency look like? Are you going to spend $250/mo on heating or cooling because your house is a sieve? (even a well insulated house can cost a lot to heat with older electrical heaters)
- If you are considering pets, I imagine there would be a yard: how large? how much work to maintain/shape?

As Sheppermutt suggested, definitely get a professional home inspector. A couple hundred dollars to save you from thousands in repairs. A good practice there is to make an offer with a contingency on inspection, allowing you to drop the offer if you find something fishy.

I avoid HOAs because many have rules about everything, sometimes overreaching, they can put a lien on your house if you don’t respect even the ludicrous ones, plus it seems to me that many have the pettiest people at the helm (reductionist take: most people don’t care, and most of those who do shouldn’t be elected). My property value and happiness shouldn’t depend on having adult-shaped toddlers decide what $800 letterbox I should have or what plants I can have in my yard (frequently with no regard for local flora, too).
 
check literally every little thing. how's heating, plumbing and electricity handled... windows, everything. the mistake i made when i bought my house was that i didn't bother to check if the washing machine presented as part of the "semi-furnished" house is plugged in.. it wasn't (no plumbing prepared for it either) nor was it even there once i moved in.
 
I just bought my home in August and it has been a r.o.l.l.e.r.c.o.a.s.t.e.r. She’s a beautiful brick beauty from 1903 that I wouldn’t trade for the world, but she is not without her struggles. One month in the entire kitchen ceiling caved in because of an old cast iron pipe that had been slow leaking and destroying the drywall over the years. Had a thorough home inspection done prior, so it definitely was a surprise. But that whole endeavor turned into redoing half of the downstairs far sooner than expected. Christmas morning I woke up to my thermostat reading the interior temp as 41 because my furnace died in the middle of the night. Moral of this story is that I’d strongly advise having a large chunk of change set aside to cover major unexpected expenses right off the bat, even if that means putting down a smaller down payment. I definitely did not realize how expensive the initial move/setup was going to be, so I just like to give others a heads up when I can so they can be prepared!
 
Lots of good advice here! My takeaway from buying a home was basement > crawl space. I thought not having a basement would mean not having to walk down stairs to take care of things down there. Turns out you still have to take care of things down in a crawl space, but now you have to do it on your hands and knees.
 
SultryHellhound said:
I don't want to get any dogs before I own a house, as 99% of rentals where I live don't allow dogs of any kind. Plus I'm at the whim of a landlord who might decide they want to sell the place or get burned by another tenant and declare that all dogs are banned.

Houses by me range from $70k to $150k for 2-3 bedrooms.

Really just curious to see what mistakes others here have made so I can learn from those rather than make them myself, and what general advice others may have.
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70K!? Bro, that's a STEAL if it's in functioning condition (no leaks, damage, weather conditions, etc.) and if it's in a good location. In my area the average is 400K. ?
 
Pillar said:
70K!? Bro, that's a STEAL if it's in functioning condition (no leaks, damage, weather conditions, etc.) and if it's in a good location. In my area the average is 400K. ?
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Damn. Where I'm looking, for the really nice houses, 400k will get about 5k square feet on 2-3 acres. (And where I live it'll get around 4.5k square feet on 10-12 acres!)
 
SultryHellhound said:
Damn. Where I'm looking, for the really nice houses, 400k will get about 5k square feet on 2-3 acres. (And where I live it'll get around 4.5k square feet on 10-12 acres!)
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Yeesh, that's amazing! Oh well. I guess I don't mind that houses are more expensive here, I'll just think of it as an investment. :gsd_happysmile:
 
SultryHellhound said:
Another thing I'm worried about is saving for a larger down payment. I technically can get a zero down payment USDA loan for any house in the city, but would like to save up more. However, I'm afraid that if I wait too long, then I might get priced out.
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I would say do your research on the housing market, are the finance gurus predicting that prices in your country are going to continue to climb for years to come or is there a housing crash looming which would leave you in negative equity? I bought first time during a housing crash when prices were at rock bottom and the value of my house has pretty much doubled by itself.

Also scope out the area around the house out on a Friday or Saturday night, a nice peaceful looking neighbourhood during the day can turn into a total ghetto at night ?
 
SultryHellhound said:
I don't want to get any dogs before I own a house, as 99% of rentals where I live don't allow dogs of any kind. Plus I'm at the whim of a landlord who might decide they want to sell the place or get burned by another tenant and declare that all dogs are banned.

Houses by me range from $70k to $150k for 2-3 bedrooms.

Really just curious to see what mistakes others here have made so I can learn from those rather than make them myself, and what general advice others may have.
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Make sure to really look around and don’t be afraid to talk to the real estate agent to go and look at multiple houses in person. Also try not to get your hopes really high on the first house you submit an offer on. If you have a good agent they’ll help you a ton on finding the right house and getting the best price you can just keep your eyes open it’s easier to get houses that haven’t been on the market long since you’ll have less competition on them.
 
Labraguy5 said:
I would say do your research on the housing market, are the finance gurus predicting that prices in your country are going to continue to climb for years to come or is there a housing crash looming which would leave you in negative equity? I bought first time during a housing crash when prices were at rock bottom and the value of my house has pretty much doubled by itself.

Also scope out the area around the house out on a Friday or Saturday night, a nice peaceful looking neighbourhood during the day can turn into a total ghetto at night ?
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You seem well versed in real estate.
 
Labraguy5 said:
I would say do your research on the housing market, are the finance gurus predicting that prices in your country are going to continue to climb for years to come or is there a housing crash looming which would leave you in negative equity? I bought first time during a housing crash when prices were at rock bottom and the value of my house has pretty much doubled by itself.

Also scope out the area around the house out on a Friday or Saturday night, a nice peaceful looking neighbourhood during the day can turn into a total ghetto at night ?
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I live in the United States, and it seems people are mixed. But thanks! I'm definitely keeping that tip in the back of my mind, that would suck if I unwittingly bought a house in a party block. That's also why I'm leaning towards a slightly more rural location.
 
Eminence said:
As someone who isn't familiar with real estate, what does it mean to waive your contingencies?
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So usually people put in offers, on condition that they get the house appraised and inspected first before following through with the contract, which is also a requirement by a lot of banks. For example, if the appraisal value is less than the amount you offer, you can walk away from the deal. Waiving contingencies means you can't do that, and are locked in. Also means that you'd have to come up with the difference if getting a mortgage.
 
SultryHellhound said:
So usually people put in offers, on condition that they get the house appraised and inspected first before following through with the contract, which is also a requirement by a lot of banks. For example, if the appraisal value is less than the amount you offer, you can walk away from the deal. Waiving contingencies means you can't do that, and are locked in. Also means that you'd have to come up with the difference if getting a mortgage.
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In other words, waiving contingencies means you'd have to pay for the bid you won even if it resulted in negative equity on the home. How is that legal, that sounds like a scam at that point (unless you ran a real estate company with some kind of timing strategy but average home buyers don't have that kind of capital on hand). What's the point of waiving contingencies?
 
Inspection.
Age of property considered.
Asking price Vs Market Value.

Also, don't sweat the down payment So much, unless you have complete shit for credit.

Angle for the lowest possible payment, so if you have a catestrophic financial issue, you still may have an above average chance of keeping up with the payments.

Regularly make payments to your Principal balance. For example, on a 30 year mortgage note, paying the extra 3-4 thousand a year may knock 5-10-15 years off of the back end of your payments. This is another reason to not sweat the down payment amount so much. An extra hundred, or even 50 a month, applied to pricipal will, in the long term, make a HUGE impact on the amount of time and the amount of money the mortgage costs you.
 
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