Author Topic: Did you get a "good deal" the first time you bought a home?  (Read 5075 times)

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Re: Did you get a "good deal" the first time you bought a home?
« Reply #15 on: August 23, 2018, 02:29:16 PM »

Offline slamtheking

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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?
first home
1) how long did you stay?   over 16 years
2) did it appreciate/depreciate?   appreciated from $99,000 to $162,000
3) what would you have done differently knowing what you know now? 
--Buying --> passed on the house for one that had the features we wanted rather than buy it to appease my wife who loved the bedrooms despite it not having a second bath or the other things on our 'must have' list
--Selling --> telling my real estate agent to cool her jets and not jump at the first offer (3 visits and 2 offers in the first 4 days on the market).  We lost money on the deal when we were signing papers 7 days after putting it on the market when someone made an offer that day that started higher than what we just accepted.  The house was completely paid off so we had time to wait for a better deal.
4) did you like it?  okay starter home that we put quite a bit of improvements into.  single bathroom drove my wife nuts and we had Edited.  Profanity and masked profanity are against forum rules and may result in discipline.bag neighbors on each side of us by the time we moved (one was there when we moved in) and was a prime incentive to move

second home
1) how long did you stay?  coming up on 6 years next month
2) did it appreciate/depreciate?   Estimates are it's appreciated $100,000 without the appraisers even knowing the improvements we've made.  With that info taken into account, wouldn't surprise me to find it increase another $25,000.
3) what would you have done differently knowing what you know now?  Get a better contractor to make the improvements we wanted.  A better contractor probably would have cost us less and definitely done a better job.
4) did you like it?  love the house and location.  only downside is that of the over 2 acres I have, about 1.5 is wetlands so while no one can build near me (if they could subdivide) I can't really do much with the land except enjoy nature.

Re: Did you get a "good deal" the first time you bought a home?
« Reply #16 on: August 23, 2018, 02:58:19 PM »

Offline saltlover

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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

Our house came with a home warranty (one reason we were a little lax on doing a good home inspector search, as noted above).  That industry was a pure racket.  We had a broken heat pump and air handler, both leaking coolant.  Their service technician came three times in three months, with a $100 deductible from us each visit, just putting in more coolant and saying nothing was wrong. Long story short the home warranty company obviously had no desire to actually replace a broken HVAC system to the tune of $5,000, so we had to take them to court, where we settled for about 70% of the cost.  But they were a pain, and I can’t disrecommend them enough.

Re: Did you get a "good deal" the first time you bought a home?
« Reply #17 on: August 24, 2018, 02:54:29 AM »

Offline KungPoweChicken

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Thanks for everyone sharing their stories! It’s really cool to hear. My story: I recently just bought a home. Even though this just literally happened, I know I made some serious “no-no’s.”

The cons:

1) I pretty much bought the most expensive property in the neighborhood
2) The neighborhood in general is not considered “good” and is showing little potential for growth/gentrification
3) I searched by myself for months. I did not use a realtor/agent
4) Even though I searched for months, when I found the home I liked, I was rather impatient
5) I bought at likely appraisal price when I should have walked away and likely been offered it anyway


That said: The pros:

1) The house had every single item from the long list on my criteria
2) The process was much easier than I ever would have imagined

The intermittent:

1) I did not like the vibe of most realtors I spoke with and had extensive conversations with in determining whether I would want his/her services. I’m sure there are great ones out there. But unfortunately for me most were too self-serving for my liking

Investment/home/or both

At the end of the day, I looked at my purchase much more as a home than as an investment - for family reasons. While I don’t plan to live here forever, I can see myself here for the next seven or eight years.  I don’t expect my property to go up in value. I just hope it doesn’t depreciate. I know both worlds can be found in one, but I did not have a ton of time to wait around for the perfect property, nor did I want to do any “extra work” or improvements.



Re: Did you get a "good deal" the first time you bought a home?
« Reply #18 on: August 24, 2018, 07:54:01 AM »

Offline Celtics4ever

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Quote
Our house came with a home warranty (one reason we were a little lax on doing a good home inspector search, as noted above).  That industry was a pure racket

Yeah, home warranties are a joke/ripoff.  My daughter bought a home with one and they would not pay for anything.  It is almost a sign that a house has some problems.

Re: Did you get a "good deal" the first time you bought a home?
« Reply #19 on: August 24, 2018, 09:19:54 AM »

Offline saltlover

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Quote
Our house came with a home warranty (one reason we were a little lax on doing a good home inspector search, as noted above).  That industry was a pure racket

Yeah, home warranties are a joke/ripoff.  My daughter bought a home with one and they would not pay for anything.  It is almost a sign that a house has some problems.

I’m not sure it’s a sign the house has problems, but it’s a racket.  The worthless one we had was paid for by the seller and the company partnered with the seller’s realtor, with the realtor’s own brochure and everything.  So I think most of them are a sign that a realtor pushed a client to buy something for $500, and got a piece of that pie too.