Ten Things I Learned About Buying a House
I loved my house; it made me happy. While I never thought I would buy a house, it turned out to be a good decision for me. And as a Learner, I of course picked up a few things along the way.
1. Get a (great) realtor you click with.
I asked a former colleague who had been a realtor herself for a recommendation for a good realtor. And man am I glad I did. My realtor was worth her weight in gold. She was so knowledgeable about the process, but took me step by step so I was never overwhelmed. She understood the urgency of acting quickly, but never made me feel like I was dragging on and on trying to find that perfect house. And while we never sat down to discuss "must-haves" and "can't-live-withouts" throughout the process she zeroed in on exactly what I was looking for.
2. You don't pay your realtor anything.
The seller actually pays your realtor's commission (typically 3% of the sale price). Hard to believe. Some of them still have a small fee (like Prudential...$200), but mine didn't (AllenTate). And with the time and gas they spend driving you around to look at houses, that makes that pretty hard earned money.
3. Get pre-qualified.
I had no idea about this. Apparently, pre-qualified buyers stand a better chance at having their offers accepted, because the sellers can be reasonably assured that your mortgage loan will come through. Lots of papers to fill out, but definitely a necessary step in the process.
4. It's about the masonite, the roof and the windows.
My realtor wouldn't even let me look at houses with masonite siding. And let me tell you, a LOT of cute houses have masonite siding. But, apparently it rots and I was not allowed to buy one. She could also spot a new roof and new windows from a mile away. And sure enough, mine had just recently been replaced. Roof older than 50 years? Can't get homeowners insurance.
5. Look at all the houses.
We must have looked at 50 properties. Old ones. New ones. Huge ones. Tiny ones. Ones that smelled. Ones that had slanted floors. Ones that had minuscule closets. Looking at all of these properties gave me a sense of the neighborhoods I wanted to live in. And a sense of what I wanted in my dream home (which my realtor promised we would find): hardwoods and tile throughout, fire place, updated kitchen and baths, fenced in yard, safe neighborhood, etc.).
6. Don't wait around.
In this market, good properties don't wait for you. There were some houses that were under contract before we could even set a time to see them. For the house I bought, I was the first showing. Here's how it went down. T: "We need to go see this house. When are you free?" - H: (just came back from a conference, and had a sick cat) "How about next week?" - T: "How about tomorrow?" - H: "Okayyy."
We look at the house, get back in the car and my realtor calls their realtor and says "I'm going to bring you an offer." Like, what?!? We drove straight from the house, to the office, wrote up the offer and I signed some papers. That was that.
7. Due Diligence
Just because the house is cute doesn't mean you're done. We had an inspection (and I recommend it...inspector found a loose live wire in the attic. How do you spell fire hazard again?), a termite inspection and we had a structural engineer come out and look at the foundation. Turns out one of the piers wasn't actually touching the floor joists. So what exactly was holding up that corner of the house? If the seller doesn't want to fix those things, then you can still back out of the purchase.
8. Haggle & Endear
I got the house below asking and with thousands of dollars toward closing. I have a hunch they may have had better offers. But my realtor wrote the sellers' realtor a letter explaining I was going through cancer treatment with Mollie and this was the best I could do. Well, they had two cats themselves, so I guess we tugged at their heart strings.
So at closing, you meet with an attorney and usually both realtors (my sellers were not there) and you sign a ream of papers. I kid you not. I told the attorney I was going to read every line and he promptly told me, "no you're not, because we would be here all day." This is probably true. Essentially, he would tell me what each document was and I signed and dated - at the end of the day, if you don't sign something, you don't get the house. Period.
10. Enjoy the ride.
If you are not under a lot of time pressure, I think you'll find the process to be quite enjoyable. I did. You get to dream and envision where you are going to make a home for yourself and your family. I am going to rent again while I'm in school, but I think once I'm settled with a job I will look at buying again. I really liked having a place to call my own, paint the walls, drill holes for curtain rods and plant some flowers.
Wishing you all the best in your search for a new home!
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