Things you wish you knew before buying house?

Thank you all so much! I didn’t expect so many responses so quickly! I’ve formally put in an offer this morning and I am definitely freaking out!

Everybody has given me some good advice. I guess I’ll lay out where I am :)

1) my realtor is awesome and has a great reputation locally
2) the offer was for a house in the area I’ve lived for over a decade (omg, I can’t belueve it’s been that long!) so I know the neighborhood and area providers
3) House is about 13 years old so likely at the lifespan of the original HVAC and few other things. Will see what the inspections turn up
4) the layout is perfect for me.
5) I hate a lot of the colors. Everything here is brown/beige and I hate it! I plan to repaint to a more suitable color plus redo countertops and backsplash to be less brown. Ideally I’d also retile/new counter the master bathroom, but it all depends.
6) offer has both inspection and appraisal contingencies
7) It’s a bit more than I wanted to spend, but I’m making peace with it as there just isn’t anything in my neighborhood for my ideal price and I don’t want to move
8) don’t have kids but great school district for future resale (no doubt this contributes to home prices in the area)
9) There is an HOA and a CDD, the latter being rolled into taxes
 
Oh, your post reminded me...don't ever do a 'no contingencies' offer. Our realtor on this current townhome conned us into doing it and swore the appraisal would come back matching what we were paying (which was also over list price as he conned us into that too...and we wanted this house badly and didn't want to lose it). Appraisal came back $10K under what we were paying. Ugghhh!

OP, congrats on the offer. Keep us posted!!
 
If you are purchasing a new build be sure you have a budget for landscaping/sprinkler system/fencing. We had always done that ourselves but we purchased our current home in December and by spring when it was time to landscape my husband was deployed and I had to hire someone. My HOA had some restrictions on the type of and materials for fencing and some requirements for trees and bushes. Had to have a landscape architect translate my vision into a design and hire both a landscaper and a fencing contractor. Roughly 20K in expense right there.
 
Talk to the neighbors if possible. Bad neighbors can make even the perfect house miserable.

Lord, yes. When buying into a condo building, ask questions about the units above and next to you. The owners in this building are mostly elderly, which suited me fine, as I'm quiet and I like quiet. It didn't occur to me to ask if the unit above me was a rental. There have been a parade of horrific tenants in that unit.

The neighbors next door smoke cigars day and night. Did you know that cigar smoke goes right through drywall? I didn't. Sigh.
 


Lord, yes. When buying into a condo building, ask questions about the units above and next to you. The owners in this building are mostly elderly, which suited me fine, as I'm quiet and I like quiet. It didn't occur to me to ask if the unit above me was a rental. There have been a parade of horrific tenants in that unit.

The neighbors next door smoke cigars day and night. Did you know that cigar smoke goes right through drywall? I didn't. Sigh.
Yes, for a townhome too. We are the end unit but I can hear the 2 little girls running around next door...a lot. It's not a big thing for us as it's usually from like 7-9pm and then all is quiet. We can hear them cry in the night sometimes too though. But that's rare anymore now that they are 1 and 3. And can hear snoring and dresser drawers closing shut at like 6am. None of this is that bad and overall they are great neighbors. I dread who moves in next though (these folks are renters and I think leaving this year sometime). I can hear many neighbors pull up and slam car doors and some have loud music blaring and/or a revving type engine. That's probably my next biggest complaint about our current home (other mentioned up thread was parking). And along same lines is no privacy. I've had neighbors say 'we noticed you were away for a week...where did you go?'....'we noticed while you were away your 22 year old son was over with some friends'...'we noticed....'. I go out my door and someone is always walking by. Twice last week I opened door to find neighbor's labradoodle standing there on my porch, off leash as she lets her dogs out off leash. I kinda want to be in home where I hear no one and see no one...LOL. But I don't want to maintain yard and outside stuff and that is the BEST thing about this townhome (HOA hires landscapers that do it ALL). So have to decide which I want more quiet/privacy or outside maintenance.
 
You are at life expectancy of water heaters as well.

No matter how nice/good/recommended the realtor is, get your own inspection and appraisal personnel. The realtor probably knows people that they use all the time: that doesn't mean they necessarily have your best interests at heart. We bought our first house, an older house built in the 50s. Passed the first inspection ok with the inspectors the realtor regularly used. When we sold it about 9 years later, other inspector found foundation issues and discovered water/floor damage that had to have been there from when WE bought the house (since we didn't have a water disaster). Our insurance had to replace flooring and entirely redo both bathrooms 1 week before closing.
 
If your building new ( we have a few times ) go ahead and get the blinds the builder offers for a fee ... it’s always cheaper then doing decent blinds ( not the cheap kind ) after buying and then having to put them up , sounds silly at first but I am glad I did it that way . I also ask for a extra year of warranty instead of the one year and they will typically add the other year free . It takes longer then the first year sometimes to have them complete a punch list even if it is supposed to be done in 3 months .
 


No one has mentioned property taxes. Make sure you know what they will be (I moved houses within my neighborhood and because it was a new build vs an older home my property taxes more than doubled for a similar sized lot). Ensure that you can afford that payment monthly (in some states, like mine they can be over 1000 dollars a month) before selecting a town to live as well.
True a newer house can have higher property tax but not always.

I actually got very curious one year when I noticed that my neighbors home, which was built less than 2 years before mine, was larger than my home though he had 1 less bedroom and bathroom than we do, but had a finished basement, etc was assessed by the County considerably less than my home. The homes aren't drastically different in layout or finishes either. His lot is even bigger than ours (ours is 0.27 acres, his is 0.34).

Turns out his lot is considered a lot less desirable than ours. Some of the slight differences will play a role but the desirability of the lot I can see plays a large role. His is considered the lowest at "Typical Site" and while I don't know if ours is considered the highest it's considered a "Preferred Site". We have green space (so it's fully treed) in our backyard. His lot is still treed but it comes to a point in the back and is surrounded by 3 neighbors. We are surrounded by 2 neighbors and the third side leads to green space.

Good advice to look up the property tax. If the OP has public assess to the home in question's property tax information that might be good to look up and what variables are going into the valuation.
 
And another thing. Find out if there are any special assessments being planned for the area of the home. Cities don't just "come up with those" at the last minute. You can go down to City Hall, and ask....any big projects coming in that area? Road being rebuilt? Sewer being upgraded? Etc. I am on the City Council in my little town, and road work is assessed 60% to the homeowner, with the rest of the City through taxes assuming the remaining 40% of the cost. And, we plan 4-6 years in advance (e.g., there's a preliminary plan to redo MY street in 2024 that is already known). This can add anywhere from a few hundred to a few thousand per year to your property taxes. Now, the seller is obliged to disclose things they've been formally noticed about, but I would not rely on this. Check yourself, and check for plans. Again, if your budget can absorb this sort of thing, no worries. :-)
True. In our neighborhood there was a 15year special assessment placed on all homes in the neighborhood. That ran out a couple years ago. We were lucky as we only had to pay like 2 maybe 3 years worth.

Our special assessment is for sometime in the future the main road into the neighborhood would be widened to 2 lanes on each side rather than 1 lane on each time and potentially 2 roundabouts put in (ugh on the roundabout part). They have already put in a much needed right turn lane though when you're leaving the neighborhood though I don't know if the city took money out of the amount to be used to widen the road. The closer your home was to the main road the higher your special assessment was. We paid about $250 each year but there were people closer to the road paying $450-$500+ for the special assessment.

Since the OP is thinking about moving into a home with an HOA another good advice is to see if there are any plans the HOA has that might increase their dues, things like repairs to the pool if there is one, maintainence contracts with lawn care, heck even trees. Those things can pop up at any time but like you mentioned with special assessments they may have something already planned.
 
investigate if the school district is pursuing/has impending bond initiatives b/c they can increase your property taxes for several years.
Around here that wouldn't matter. All the school districts put up bonds for one reason or another. Heck for 2018 property tax amount my school district removed a bond but added another bond in its place. It's kinda a never ending cycle lol.

But it's something the person could look at to see if there presently is something.

utilities-you can ask a seller to provide a prior use printout from their providers to get an idea what the average monthly cost runs (and if the heating or cooling runs higher than seems the norm it can be an indicator of lacking insulation), if the house uses a propane or other tank-find out if it's owned by the homeowner or something you will be renting from a local company (kind of the norm where we live for larger tanks),
Good thing though to keep in mind.

There are many variables though to utility costs.

1) How many people live in the house

2) How much energy they use (either with electricity or with natural gas or some other form)

3) The efficiency of the home meaning are there any air leaks/drafts---you mentioned that. OP could have the home inspected and tested for that but I'm not sure I would rely on the utility costs/usage and make a determination of leaks only off of that because people don't all do the same things when it comes to heating, cooling, lights on in the home, water usage, etc. Our home may be an Energy Star rated home but we also keep the home cooler in the winter and warmer in the summer. If someone else lived in our exact same home they may not do the same thing and their costs may be different just for that reason.

4) What type of lawn care there is not only how 'nice' you want your yard to look but also individual land differences such as the soil, such as the type of grass, is there more shade or more sun, etc. All of that can lead to higher water usage for instance even if looking at a prior owner. We actually joke about this guy down the street from us. His lawn looks soooooo good. But we know his water usage is astronomical compared to ours. We want our lawn to look good but we're not going to go bankrupt trying to keep the grass award winning looking lol.

5), etc.
 
5) I hate a lot of the colors. Everything here is brown/beige and I hate it! I plan to repaint to a more suitable color plus redo countertops and backsplash to be less brown. Ideally I’d also retile/new counter the master bathroom, but it all depends.
If you are painting the outside of the house check with your HOA if there are colors/styles you need to adhere to. Last thing you want is to paint the outside of the house only for the HOA to tell you you need to repaint it.
 
Around here that wouldn't matter. All the school districts put up bonds for one reason or another. Heck for 2018 property tax amount my school district removed a bond but added another bond in its place. It's kinda a never ending cycle lol.

But it's something the person could look at to see if there presently is something.

Good thing though to keep in mind.

There are many variables though to utility costs.

1) How many people live in the house

2) How much energy they use (either with electricity or with natural gas or some other form)

3) The efficiency of the home meaning are there any air leaks/drafts---you mentioned that. OP could have the home inspected and tested for that but I'm not sure I would rely on the utility costs/usage and make a determination of leaks only off of that because people don't all do the same things when it comes to heating, cooling, lights on in the home, water usage, etc. Our home may be an Energy Star rated home but we also keep the home cooler in the winter and warmer in the summer. If someone else lived in our exact same home they may not do the same thing and their costs may be different just for that reason.

4) What type of lawn care there is not only how 'nice' you want your yard to look but also individual land differences such as the soil, such as the type of grass, is there more shade or more sun, etc. All of that can lead to higher water usage for instance even if looking at a prior owner. We actually joke about this guy down the street from us. His lawn looks soooooo good. But we know his water usage is astronomical compared to ours. We want our lawn to look good but we're not going to go bankrupt trying to keep the grass award winning looking lol.

5), etc.

There’s really only lawn in the very small back yard. I’m hoping to replace what’s currently back there with artificial grass.

If you are painting the outside of the house check with your HOA if there are colors/styles you need to adhere to. Last thing you want is to paint the outside of the house only for the HOA to tell you you need to repaint it.

Painting is inside. I’m a bit torn on the color of the outside of the house. Sometimes I like it and sometimes I don’t. Luckily the HOA only has issue if you want to go pepto pink or day glo yellow. I’ll likely leave the outside alone until it needs repainted anyway and then decide.
 
There’s really only lawn in the very small back yard. I’m hoping to replace what’s currently back there with artificial grass.
I gotcha.

In our neighborhood it would be against HOA to install artifical anything---plants or grass.

You might check on yours too, unless it's already been said artificial grass is ok. I can understand liking the virtually maintenance-free artificial grass!

Painting is inside. I’m a bit torn on the color of the outside of the house. Sometimes I like it and sometimes I don’t. Luckily the HOA only has issue if you want to go pepto pink or day glo yellow. I’ll likely leave the outside alone until it needs repainted anyway and then decide.
I hear ya! We didn't like brown, or taupe, or tan for us when we had our house built. I felt it was too common and often darkend up the house but it can be easy to mix and match styles of decor and give off a homey feel so I get why people do it.

Our inside main color is a light blue (called icelandic) which compliments the white (called rockcandy) on all the moldings and mantles. I personally feel it brightens up the house. The direction of our house means full sun hits the front (which is great for melting snow or ice on the driveway lol) but with only 1 main window area in the dining room for the front of the house the sunlight doesn't penetrate into the house as much. There's a bit more sun in our bumpout for the kitchen table but not enough to make a big difference. Thus the light blue reallly helps. We chose the bedrooms to be a green color (called silvermist) that has blue and grey undertones. It's not too dark though but gives a calming feeling in the bedrooms.

Picking colors and styles that match your tastes is fun IMO. In terms of costs if you're finding yourself tight on budget consider looking at what you can deal with for the moment and what you just can't stand. If the paint colors bother you the most do that first. If the countertops bother you the most do that first. I just mention that if you're getting tight on budget for interior changes you would do to the house you want.
 
I'm mostly happy with our house with one exception. The basement was mostly finished but there's no ceiling. It's painted black and it looks ok, kind of an industrial look. The problem is the noise from upstairs, it's like being in a drum when someone is upstairs. Our 7 pound cat runs through the living room and it sounds like a small pony galloping through the house. When the DGDs come over and they drop a toy or something on the floor upstairs it sounds like someone dropped a bowling ball. Also the noise isolation from the basement storage area where the heat/AC is located is not good. But that's only an issue on the 361 days per year when it's not cranking out heat or cold air.;) Did I mention that the basement is where I spend almost all my time?:(

The upside is that this is something fixable, but...$$$
 
The neighbors next door smoke cigars day and night. Did you know that cigar smoke goes right through drywall? I didn't. Sigh.

My sister had this problem in their last apartment. The people under her were HEAVY smokers, the whole apartment smelled terrible not to long after she moved in. Those people owned, and my sister was a renter. Her property management brought in air filters to try and help and it did nothing. The smell would actually come through the bathroom pipes....there was a heavy odor when you ran the shower or flushed the toilet, well there was a odor all the time but.... :crazy2: Luckily they were able to get out of there into their own townhome with no upstairs/downstairs neighbors.
 
Assume property taxes and other expenses will increase each year and make sure you can afford an increase. If they don’t consider it extra money in your pocket.The recommended savings is 1% of house price saved for repairs and 3-6 months living expenses for emergencies. How difficult will it take for you to save that when owning the home?

Read your mortgage carefully. Is there a prepayment penalty? What a lot of people will do if their mortgage company allows it is to either pay half the mortgage every two weeks or pay it every four weeks instead of monthly. At the end of the year you’re ahead and you make sure the extra goes toward the principal. If you manage it right you can save quite a bit in interest and have a buffer if you have an emergency and need to skip a payment.

If you are required to have an escrow account, the goal is to get to the point where you aren’t required to have one as soon as possible. We don’t have a mortgage so for property taxes we put money in short-term savings vehicles for it so that we get a little money back in interest on our property taxes and homeowners insurance money.
 
We've purchased 6 houses over the years, though 5 of them were new construction. To me, the biggest thing is making sure the "bones" of the house are solid and also functionally right for your needs. Cosmetics are easy...flooring, paint, non-structural walls, etc...and typically aren't expensive (relatively speaking) to update/upgrade/change. So if this is an existing home, make sure the layout will actually serve your needs and have it inspected to make sure the bones are good. Obviously the age of the house is important too. Is it old enough to have asbestos, lead paint, out of code wiring, how old is the roof, the HVAC system, etc...?

Yes, house buying can be overwhelming. Take a deep breath, look at things logically, make checklists.

Good luck!!!
Very good advice!
 
Around here that wouldn't matter. All the school districts put up bonds for one reason or another. Heck for 2018 property tax amount my school district removed a bond but added another bond in its place. It's kinda a never ending cycle lol.

But it's something the person could look at to see if there presently is something.

around here you could have people on one side of the street paying significantly more for THEIR district's bonds vs. their neighbor's district. our district is pretty small and their bonds have been fairly reasonable over the years while our neighbor's is HUMONGOUS and in a fevered pitch to put in new schools so their bonds have been larger and seem to jump by leaps and bounds. same goes for city vs. county taxes-we live just outside the city limits so we don't pay some of the homeowner fees our neighbor's do. so far as i can tell the only difference is they get a small ($5 or $10) break on city parks and rec services/classes (kid's summer camps, swimming lessons...) it in no way equals out to what they pay yearly.
 
Thanks once again for all the experiences and hindsight!

My offer was accepted late last evening!! I am officially under contract on a house. I’m very excited and very terrified. Next step is earnest money and getting the inspections scheduled ASAP.

I honestly don’t know if excitement or fear is the stronger emotion right now.
 
Thanks once again for all the experiences and hindsight!

My offer was accepted late last evening!! I am officially under contract on a house. I’m very excited and very terrified. Next step is earnest money and getting the inspections scheduled ASAP.

I honestly don’t know if excitement or fear is the stronger emotion right now.


CONGRATULATIONSparty:


start gathering boxes-if you have any connection to a bsns that has copy machines the boxes the paper comes in are great. packing up stuff is a great opportunity to weed stuff out.
 

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