House Hunting

[jellydonut25]

So, just started house hunting and I must say, even though I know all the pitfalls, I find myself ALMOST falling into them anyway:
being unable to look beyond simple aesthetics like paint
falling in love with one house and getting tunnel-vision with it
wanting a house so bad you get into a bidding war and bidding beyond what you originally wanted to pay

we've already lost one house, due to a MUCH higher offer than ours and we have an appt to look at a house that i've already (almost) fallen for:
4600 sq ft
9000 sq ft lot
granite counter tops
undermounted sink
media/cinema room
2.5 car garage
study
decent backyard (only knock, no covered patio)
and it's LISTED at $269K...that's like $60/sqft!! Awesome!
PLUS it's in a lower property tax area, good school district and it's pretty central...my commute would actually be like 5 minutes shorter.

PLUS, it looks like a freakin' plantation home:

I could stand out on that balcony and pretend I'm lookin' at people pickin' crops for me

[king_ghidorah]

[jellydonut25]

[The Shadow]

[jellydonut25]

[jellydonut25]

Goin to meet with the realtor today to put in an offer...
not on the house above, it ended up being kinda dumpy on the inside and the backyard looked like a battleground. The repairs would have been pretty minor, but a house doesn't jump out and scream "Buy me!" when it looks like there was a monster truck rally in the backyard, because the fence is destroyed.

Instead, we've found a couple of houses of interest. One sits on a manmade lake in a little subdivision, the updates we would want to do are MINOR (change out the wood spindles on the staircase for wrought iron and update the bathroom fixtures to eliminate what I have come to dub "90s brass" even though the house was built in 2005 - they must be older people), the other sits around the corner, on the opposite side of the street, so not lakefront, but the walking distance to the lake is like 0.05 miles (that's more attractive for walking the dog than for sitting at the lake or anything like that) this house is actually a little bigger (it has one more room) but the updates we'd want to do are a bit more of an undertaking, namely, we'd want to add a covered back patio.

I didn't think something like a lake view would influence me a ton, but it really gives the yard a more open feel to look out and see no obstacles in the viewpath.
It's at a wierd spot in our budget...it's at the higher end, which I'm willing to pay, but considering it's a little bit smaller (and getting my media room would be tougher) I don't want to go all the way up to their asking price. Unfortunately (for me) the list price is REALLY fair...at MOST it's like $7,000 high

[jellydonut25]

Our offer was countered, we've re-countered. Waiting for a response...assuming they re-re-counter, we've got one offer left and then that's it, they'll either take it or we'll walk...


I wish you could just go in at your max price and if they accept, fine, if not, fine and I guess you could, but that's not how the game is played in the house-buying world...

[Mysterio]

Well sure you can do that. That's entirely up to you, man. Just tell them up front, this is as high as I can go. If they counter, hang up the phone and look for someplace else.

[jellydonut25]

[jellydonut25]

[jellydonut25]

[The Shadow]

Calling South Korea can't be that expensive anymore can it?

At the very least the seller's agent could buy an international calling card to use and secure a decent phone rate that way; and it would be a business expense the agent can write-off come tax time.

There's also Skype -- I've never used the service but I do know you can call internationally with it. According to Skype's website, it's just 2.3¢ a minute without a subscription and about half that for Skype subscribers.

[jellydonut25]

[jellydonut25]

Five days later, the jackanapes FINALLY send back a counter-offer and the ONLY thing they changed is that they offered $5K towards closing when we asked for $6K...

Not gonna squabble over a thousand bucks on a purchase of over $200K, so unless there is an issue with the contract, or the loan, or the inspection, or closing, I just bought a house.


3800 sq ft.
8000 sq ft. lot
5 Bdrm, 3.5 Bath, 2 Car Garage
Full-size porteco in front of garage
Study has a closet so it could be a 6th Bdrm (but will likely be converted to my media room)
Sun shades on west-facing windows
Granite countertops
SS Appliances
Fridge included (woot!)

It does not have a covered back patio like I wanted, but we will install one in the future...that and minor (as in purely cosmetic to my aesthetics) bathroom changes are all that will be required. I'm pretty please their counter was reasonable, I didn't want to dicker back and forth with people who take 5 days to say "boo"

[The Shadow]

[canofhumdingers]

[The Shadow]

[jellydonut25]

[The Top Crusader]

Congrats, looks like an awesome house!

...we are doing the paperwork, etc, to finalize our first home purchase. So sick of apartment renting. Although ours is just under $70,000 and... a lot smaller than that place.

Housing prices are through the floor here, though, so I'm taking it while i can, even though I'd like something a tad bigger. The awesome finished basement makes up for most other issues.

[jellydonut25]

[canofhumdingers]

[jellydonut25]

Not trying to hate, just a "different strokes for different folks" situation, but everything you like about your house is stuff I didn't want in my house...

Character, quaint, quirky, traditional, charm, colonial...all words I wanted nothing to do with. Looks like it'd be a really cool place to visit though. Can I come for vacation?

Just different tastes. I'm a kitchen person. My house NEEDED a big kitchen, and I actually wanted it to be even darker color-schemed than what we ended up with, but again, my tastes are just for like a dark mocca colored cabinet. Still this kitchen was big enough:

and at least it didn't have white cabinets.

[Inferior Rodan]

Thats a nice kitchen BTW

Not that i`am an expert on house buying but i feel you did good with this one. It looks good on the outside and if the inside is more like this then go you.

Makes me look forward to buying my own house in the future even though i`am more of a condo guy myself.

[canofhumdingers]

[king_ghidorah]