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I got preapproved for a mortgage and I’m shopping for a house right now. It feels very surreal to be in a position where I can do this because even a year ago I was in a bit of a rough place in terms of employment/life. I’m very excited, but holy smokes is this process stressful. I’m at work and can barely concentrate.
good on you .. one thing to consider are property values both current and future .. i would suggest making sure you find a neighborhood that is either long standing stable or up and coming .. owning a house is an investment and if you play your cards right, allows you the chance to sell for a higher price down the road and upgrade your digs or cash out .. good luck and have fun with your process
That's awesome you are looking for a house. I bought one about 13 years ago with my girlfriend (now wife). Some lessons I've learned:
Get recommendations on a home inspector trusted by someone besides a real estate agent. Ours was from an agency, he sucked, and it turned out he had worked for our agent before so he probably wouldn't want to torpedo the sale for someone with whom he would likely have future business with.
Some things are easier to fix/improve than others. Does the house need a new heater or interior wall added/moved? Easy. Do you have galvanized steel or iron pipes nearing the end of their useful life? Less so. A small bathroom that needs a complete redo is surprisingly expensive, even if you do the work yourself. Sometimes a complete gut of a cheaper house ends up being easier and cheaper overall than fixing layers of work done by someone's uncle.
Some fixes/improvements are a nightmare to live around and if possible are best done without you living there (like fixing your only bathroom).
Pay attention to things like school quality, even if you don't have kids. You may suddenly end up with them and then panic because your local school is crap. Even if you're sterile or something, schools are a good flag for a place that will appreciate or hold value.
It's usually better to pick the worse house in the better neighborhood. Our house is niceish and was so much bigger than a lot of the other places we looked at but if I did it again I'd pick the smaller place on the quieter street in the better school catchment.
When you're really serious about a place, try coming back at different times of the day to assess noise, neighbors, etc.
When it's all said and done there's still a bit of luck involved. You may get lucky and buy in a neighborhood that appreciates incredibly (like my friend) or you may buy in an outwardly nicer neighborhood that lags the overall market (me).
Owning is mostly a good thing but if things are going wrong it can really weigh on you in a way that a rental never will. I never had dreams about water leaks until I had to fix water leaks myself.
Topic: Things You Are Stoked On But Not Stoked On (Read 717230 times)