Author Topic: Did you get a "good deal" the first time you bought a home?  (Read 5074 times)

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Did you get a "good deal" the first time you bought a home?
« on: August 23, 2018, 02:30:27 AM »

Offline KungPoweChicken

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1) how long did you stay?
2) did it appreciate/depreciate?
3) would would you have done differently knowing what you know now?
4) did you like it?

Re: Did you get a "good deal" the first time you bought a home?
« Reply #1 on: August 23, 2018, 06:41:38 AM »

Offline saltlover

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1) Still here 4.5 years later, see no reason to move as long as we stay in the area.
2) Value is up near 20% since purchase
3) My one regret was not having done research on a home inspector in advance.  We were short on time when we started looking for one, and the one we found wasn’t that great.  He missed a few things we would have liked to have known — nothing so critical that would have cancelled the deal, and nothing worth going after him about post-sale, but certainly a few things we think he should have seen.
4) I love my house, and don’t want to move.  I also in general liked the experience of buying a house (looking at places, negotiating, and ultimately getting the house that my wife and I had walked past every day from our apartment and knew we wanted from Day 1 of the process) and have entertained the thought of becoming a buyers-side real estate agent if I had the time.
« Last Edit: August 23, 2018, 08:17:43 AM by saltlover »

Re: Did you get a "good deal" the first time you bought a home?
« Reply #2 on: August 23, 2018, 06:49:34 AM »

Offline Somebody

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Any property deal in America is a good deal for HKers lol
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Re: Did you get a "good deal" the first time you bought a home?
« Reply #3 on: August 23, 2018, 07:12:10 AM »

Offline greece66

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Any property deal in America is a good deal for HKers lol

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Re: Did you get a "good deal" the first time you bought a home?
« Reply #4 on: August 23, 2018, 07:16:27 AM »

Offline smokeablount

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1) I bought my home 3 years ago.

2) It has appreciated 35% in that time, I bought in right before my area skyrocketed.

3) i think I did things pretty well and I love where I ended up, but maybe I don’t waste time looking at Cambridge which was an absolutely insane market. Everything in Cambridge that I looked at went 10% over asking price and 100% down, all cash, no escrow. No way for me to compete.

4) Did I like the process? Not really, for 2 months I was basically working 12-16 hours a day 5 days a week, from 9am-1am or later- teaching myself real estate valuation skills, finding places, etc.  There was a ton of urgency since my rent was being raised 40% and a lot of suspense and then rejection from looking in Cambridge. I ended up in Davis Square and other than needing to build a balcony, I couldn’t be happier.
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Re: Did you get a "good deal" the first time you bought a home?
« Reply #5 on: August 23, 2018, 08:02:42 AM »

Offline saltlover

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1) I bought my home 3 years ago.

2) It has appreciated 35% in that time, I bought in right before my area skyrocketed.

3) i think I did things pretty well and I love where I ended up, but maybe I don’t waste time looking at Cambridge which was an absolutely insane market. Everything in Cambridge that I looked at went 10% over asking price and 100% down, all cash, no escrow. No way for me to compete.

4) Did I like the process? Not really, for 2 months I was basically working 12-16 hours a day 5 days a week, from 9am-1am or later- teaching myself real estate valuation skills, finding places, etc.  There was a ton of urgency since my rent was being raised 40% and a lot of suspense and then rejection from looking in Cambridge. I ended up in Davis Square and other than needing to build a balcony, I couldn’t be happier.

Good on you for being able to swing Davis Square.  That/Cambridge was our preferred area if we stayed in Boston, and is where we’d look if we went back, but boy has it skyrocketed.  And the rents have too, as you pointed out.  The not-very-nice place we rented in North Cambridge was $1150/mo when we left 6 years ago next month, and is now $2500/mo.  I’m astonished.

Re: Did you get a "good deal" the first time you bought a home?
« Reply #6 on: August 23, 2018, 08:41:01 AM »

Offline DefenseWinsChamps

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Not sure if this is targeted for people in the Northeast.

I lucked into a home in Michigan for a good price. Seriously, my wife and I wanted a different home, but the one we got was a fall-back option. There were houses for sale everywhere, but very few nice family homes. We got a foreclosed ranch and put a good bit of work into it. By the time we sold it 4 years later, it had appreciated 55%. The difference allowed me and my wife to move into an area with much more expensive homes when I moved to Iowa.

My wife and I enjoyed working on the home, but I certainly would have fixed a few things differently. Generally speaking, I'm thrilled that we were able to buy and sell it so easily.

One thing I would have done differently is pay it off quicker. My wife and I only had one kid while we were in that home. We both worked a bit and we really had good financial flexibility. We did pay extra each month, but I think we could have done more. That investment would have been valuable.

Another thing I would have done differently is sell the house for more. Michigan is such a screwy market. There have been houses for sale for years, and my wife and I didn't have the financial flexibility when we moved to carry the mortgage for long. That said, the type of house we had was in high demand and the targeted subset of buyers had the money to spend. I think we could have gotten 10-20% more.
« Last Edit: August 23, 2018, 09:31:24 AM by DefenseWinsChamps »

Re: Did you get a "good deal" the first time you bought a home?
« Reply #7 on: August 23, 2018, 10:19:28 AM »

Offline Spilling Green Dye

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1) how long did you stay?
2) did it appreciate/depreciate?
3) would would you have done differently knowing what you know now?
4) did you like it?

At the time (2006) it felt like a pretty good deal, especially considering I had lived in DC prior and my sense of house value was completely skewed.  It was $160k for a condo near a major downtown Florida city.  Unfortunately by 2011 it was worth $50k or less.  Went through the painful foreclosure process and eventually bought a house in 2015 at a high interest rate.  Just managed to re-finance this year at 3.75% conventional, which isn't the norm since the foreclosure was finalized in 2015.

So to answer your questions - I definitely would have waited back in 2006.  It's easy to buy into the hype and excitement of home increases and people you know closing on homes.  I loved where I lived, and have great memories from there, so no regrets on the location.

But the home I bought in 2015 was a great decision, and I based it much more on solid data (area trends, comparative rent prices, value, etc.) as well as my experience in the area.  Love where I live, I've put good money into the home, and it's valued about 50% higher than what I originally paid.

Having said all of that, I can see some of the same urgency of home buyers that I saw in 2003-2006.  I suspect prices will go up for a bit longer, but in a year or so there will be a correction.  not as hard as 2006 b/c the primary negative factors aren't there (complete mortgage de-regulation, etc.). 

Re: Did you get a "good deal" the first time you bought a home?
« Reply #8 on: August 23, 2018, 10:33:08 AM »

Offline mef730

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1) how long did you stay?
2) did it appreciate/depreciate?
3) would would you have done differently knowing what you know now?
4) did you like it?

Define "home." We bought a condo in the city in 2005 and sold it at a loss in 2010. If you included what we put into the place and offset it by what we would have paid in rent, though, we just about broke even.

We used the proceeds from the sale to buy a house in 2010, which has appreciated significantly.

3) I should have bought a home warranty that would have covered expenses that went undiscovered in the inspection. We did the inspection in February but discovered that the A/C didn't work in June.

Also important: Purge (stuff, not people). Then purge more. Then more. As you pick up square footage, you will naturally accumulate stuff with which to fill that square footage. You want to minimize the pace at which you do so.

4) I hated it at first. Absolutely hated it. Moved from a condo in the city to a house in Brookline. While it's very city-like, it still felt like the suburbs to me. I hated that I was unfamiliar with the area and that, because the house was 100 years old, something always seemed to be breaking. Because nobody in Brookline has a lot of land, houses are built vertically, not horizontally, and I felt like there were too many floors and too much space. I was overwhelmed.

Over time, I have grown to appreciate the house. It's easier to entertain, our kids can make noise without worrying about neighbors and there is a place to escape to without having to leave the house.

Having said that, we're still looking forward to the time when we can sell the house and move back into the city. We're really city people.

Mike

Re: Did you get a "good deal" the first time you bought a home?
« Reply #9 on: August 23, 2018, 11:39:36 AM »

Offline Csfan1984

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1. Still there 7 years in
2. It's up 26%
3. Like another poster mentioned I too wish I'd have gotten a better inspector. He missed stuff that costed me a few grand to fix 2 and 3 years down the line.
4. I enjoy the home but wish it was in a better location.

Re: Did you get a "good deal" the first time you bought a home?
« Reply #10 on: August 23, 2018, 12:09:30 PM »

Offline blink

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1) Still here, bought our house in 2008 so 10 years
2) Value went down in 2009 (recession), but overall we are up about 36-38%
3) We bought the worst condition house in our neighborhood, but haven't been able to do all the renovation projects we want.  We have made it nice, just not perfect.  The enthusiasm to do hands on work is hard to maintain.  After a while you get tired of spending all your free time fixing the house.
4) We like it, but it is expensive.  But we live in orange county (southern california) so pretty much every thing is expensive here.

Re: Did you get a "good deal" the first time you bought a home?
« Reply #11 on: August 23, 2018, 12:29:40 PM »

Offline fairweatherfan

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1. Still here, about to hit the 5 year mark.
2. I have no idea because we have no plans to move, but we bought direct from a motivated seller so we definitely got it under market value initially
3. Not much. Our inspector was so thorough he was known around town as "the deal breaker" so we found every structural issue. The A/C and furnace broke earlier than we'd like but we knew that was a possibility.
4. We like it a lot. It's an old layout (originally built in the 20s) that was added to over the years so how we'll rearrange it if we have another kid is a tough question, but location is great, I can walk to work, and it's old enough that the plot is very large by current standards.
« Last Edit: August 23, 2018, 12:36:15 PM by fairweatherfan »

Re: Did you get a "good deal" the first time you bought a home?
« Reply #12 on: August 23, 2018, 12:45:10 PM »

Offline BringToughnessBack

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My first home was in Wine country, Santa Rosa at the top of a beautiful hill. I did not get a good deal as I bought in 2004 when everyone could get a mortgage(they never even ran a credit check or asked for salary stubs!). Home was close to 1M and it appreciated over a half million and then dropped 800K during the crash which is when I sold. I stayed in it 7 years and would have never moved if not for selling my previous company and relocating to Colorado for the acquiring company. By the way, unfortunately for my former neighbors, the entire hill and thousands of homes burned to the ground in last years horrible Tubbs fires. I would have lost everything and possibly my life if I had stayed. I heard some real horror stories of people who woke up to flames everywhere.

I would have sold when it was going up and my gut said to get out but wife did not want to leave paradise behind and who could blame her.

I did not let the crash deter me though so when I moved to Colorado I was determined to find an amazing deal. Found a short sale in amazing neighborhood and bought home with a low offer to the bank which they accepted. The current home has appreciated over 600K in the past few years so I am definitely happy with things so far. Once again, I am in a beautiful area but now instead of views of vineyards, I have views of mountains.

Things I do not enjoy about owning a home are insurance claims. Unfortunately we get a ton of hail storms that cause damage so constantly having to deal with contractors has been a nightmare. Having your own place is nice except for that issue of upkeep.

Target an area you love and try and wait for an amazing deal if you can.  Scope the homes on both sides of you if there are any- I would see if they have things like children, basketball nets, pools, loud dogs. Remember your neighbors can turn your paradise into a hell. Drive the neighborhood considering a few times during the morning, day and night and just listen....walk around it...get a feel for it...say hi to people and see how they respond. These things sound trivial but are important.

Also, if you are noise averse, make sure you cannot hear road traffic or if you can, that the windows are solid and quiet when closed. Also check the cladding around the windows and look for damage(hail bumps, etc...) Some insurance companies wont write a policy if there is visible storm damage.

Re: Did you get a "good deal" the first time you bought a home?
« Reply #13 on: August 23, 2018, 12:56:45 PM »

Offline byennie

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I managed to buy in Southern California in 2009 at the very bottom of the market. We were lucky enough to buy a short sale property with some flaws but nothing that couldn't be fixed with e.g. some new carpet, paint, cleaning etc. Put only 5% down and we're up roughly 100% in 9 years. Spent under $10k fixing it up to nothing fancy, but comfortable. We even got a full 10% below asking as our agent was savvy enough to see the bank was desperate. We made some smart moves, but were lucky to ever have that window of opportunity. All in all very fortunate.

Re: Did you get a "good deal" the first time you bought a home?
« Reply #14 on: August 23, 2018, 01:06:37 PM »

Offline blink

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I managed to buy in Southern California in 2009 at the very bottom of the market. We were lucky enough to buy a short sale property with some flaws but nothing that couldn't be fixed with e.g. some new carpet, paint, cleaning etc. Put only 5% down and we're up roughly 100% in 9 years. Spent under $10k fixing it up to nothing fancy, but comfortable. We even got a full 10% below asking as our agent was savvy enough to see the bank was desperate. We made some smart moves, but were lucky to ever have that window of opportunity. All in all very fortunate.

ok you win this thread.  that is awesome.  A neighbor of mine here in orange county bought in 2009 and paid 130k less that we did for basically the same house we got.  Those who got in during 2009 in so cal timed it just right.