Okay everyone talks about how to pick real estate and we touched on bad house in good neighborhood versus great house in bad. But what factors are involved? What's important in buying a house?
1. Condo versus house? Let's assume you can't afford a house in your chosen neighborhood but you can buy a condo. Which is it? Condo let's say is closer to work but house is farther way? How important is a commute?
2. If you did buy a condo what if you can't afford a 2 bd but only 1 bd?
3. If you could buy a house in your chosen neighborhood what if it were only 2 bedrooms instead of 3 bedrooms?
4. What if the house only has 1 bathroom? It also depends if there is a logical area to add a second bathroom. Or is a second bathroom unnecessary?
5. Do you buy a house in the "right" neighborhood but on a busy road? What if it's not in a neighborhood but a commuting traveled road?
6. Do you buy a home with a bad layout and not easily fixable due to constrained lot size?
7. Is it ever worth to buy a home fixed up or better to always buy a fixer?
8. Is it worth looking for a bigger lot with an older house or newer house on a smaller lot?
9. What about buying next to places likes a little strip mall or gas station? It's nice to have things but at the same time is it less desirable to be next to things?
I heard a quote from my old realtor. The time to buy a house and move up in size/price/location is during a recession. Yes you'll sell your house at a loss but you get a better deal. But the time to sell your house is during a boom. Then all the "negative" faults of your house, too small, one bathroom, busy road is more likely to be overlooked by the buyer and bought without question.
What do you think?
Real Estate questions
March 12th, 2016 at 03:55 pm
March 12th, 2016 at 04:28 pm 1457800091
I've never lived in a condo, but they are a little appealing. I feel there is a buyer for every home. I lived in a home where our back yard was next to busy street. Really only busy during commuting hours. It was fine. It was a concern to some buyers, but still someone did buy our house.
Our first home had master and second bedroom on main level. Third bedroom was smaller and in the basement. Our girls shared a room. Not sure if we would have lived there long term because of that basement bedroom.
I think the answer to most of your questions, is it depends! It depends on you and what you want. It depends on how much money you have. Schools are the most important factor to us when buying or living in a home.
I don't like big project homes. I can deal with changing flooring, light and bath fixtures, paint and landscaping. Adding an addition on would be too much for me.
March 12th, 2016 at 05:24 pm 1457803483
#1 - #4 - in high cost areas it is what it is. You buy what you can afford. Most people are so desperate they do not care if the house only has one bathroom. I've seen million dollar homes with only one full bath. I'd personally rather live in a condo I could afford and not have a commute.
#5 & #6 go with #1-#4 I guess. Not choices I would make, but maybe if I had to due to price constraints.
#8 sounds like a personal decision. I'd rather have less land to deal with.
#7 - I think it's important to go into home shopping with an open mind and see what your options are. The two homes we have bought were both like new. (The first condo had been heavily remodeled by prior owners and our current home was bought new construction). We paid below market for both of our homes and we spent $0 having to fix them up. We aren't DIY or "home improvement" types and that is what worked best for us. For this to work it helps to have a top notch realtor on your side. We bought in two absolutely insane sellers markets but never were pitted against a single other buyer. We considered buying another home about a decade ago (in a down market) and our experience was the same. We considered a heavily remodeled home that no one else was interested in. Most the upgrades had not been advertised. We always seem to stumble upon some great property that is overlooked. I never in a million years imagined we could afford a 3-bedroom "remodeled/like new on the inside" condo for our first home, but that is what we ended up with. We weren't even sure we could afford anything. But we figured we'd dip our toes in and try. It was normal at the time for condos to sell in one day with 100 bids. We had low expectations of faring well since we could barely afford the asking prices we were looking at.
MMM had a post about this. Basically, don't follow the herd. It's amazing what deals there are to be found if you skew even the slightest bit from the herd. I will see if I Can find that post.
March 12th, 2016 at 10:03 pm 1457820204
March 16th, 2016 at 04:35 am 1458102921