Nine years ago we bought our first house. It was supposed to be our 'starter' house. With three bedrooms and one bath it worked when the boys were little. We knew we weren't in a great area or in a good school district. But we planned to be be able to move in 4 or so years. And then the economy tanked. Our house is valued for less than we owe. We've come to learn how bad an area we are in and how bad of shape our house was actually in. The upside of this horrible housing market is for those who are still renting and looking to buy.
We have a few friends in this position and I have to admit I'm a little jealous sometimes. Although I have no real reason to be looking at houses, when they start talking about what's available and the prices right now, curiosity gets the better of me sometimes and I can get lost online for awhile checking out local listings.
I totally wish I could do it all over again knowing what I know now. I really THOUGHT I'd done my homework. But if you are a first time home buyer, there is so much to know. For us the two biggest changes I would have made is to first, spend more time researching the area. I thought the people on our block looked nice when we looked at the house and for the most part they really are, but its the areas immediately surrounding us that aren't too great. And second, I would have done more research to find a GOOD home inspector. Knowing very little about the process we simply used a realtor that a family member had used and then used the inspector and lawyer he recommended The lawyer, was fabulous! The home inspector was NOT. But we didn't really realize this until three years later when we attempted to sell and move (just before the pricing crash) when we had a home we bid on inspected. The inspection for the home we are in was less than half an hour and found no issues. The inspector we used the second time, took HOURS and found a long list of items to be addressed. Needless to say I can no longer count the issues that SHOULD have been found in the inspection of our current house.
But live and learn I guess.
While I don't ever plan to move very far from where we are now I had fun looking at this list of The Best Places to Raise Your Kids 2012. Where would YOU live if you could move anywhere?
We have a few friends in this position and I have to admit I'm a little jealous sometimes. Although I have no real reason to be looking at houses, when they start talking about what's available and the prices right now, curiosity gets the better of me sometimes and I can get lost online for awhile checking out local listings.
I totally wish I could do it all over again knowing what I know now. I really THOUGHT I'd done my homework. But if you are a first time home buyer, there is so much to know. For us the two biggest changes I would have made is to first, spend more time researching the area. I thought the people on our block looked nice when we looked at the house and for the most part they really are, but its the areas immediately surrounding us that aren't too great. And second, I would have done more research to find a GOOD home inspector. Knowing very little about the process we simply used a realtor that a family member had used and then used the inspector and lawyer he recommended The lawyer, was fabulous! The home inspector was NOT. But we didn't really realize this until three years later when we attempted to sell and move (just before the pricing crash) when we had a home we bid on inspected. The inspection for the home we are in was less than half an hour and found no issues. The inspector we used the second time, took HOURS and found a long list of items to be addressed. Needless to say I can no longer count the issues that SHOULD have been found in the inspection of our current house.
But live and learn I guess.
While I don't ever plan to move very far from where we are now I had fun looking at this list of The Best Places to Raise Your Kids 2012. Where would YOU live if you could move anywhere?
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I'd either move back to Florida or I'd go somewhere in the middle of the country with land such as Tennessee or Kentucky. It's been on my mind a lot lately.
ReplyDeleteIF (and that's a BIG if) I left the area I THINK I would go to the Denver area. Littleton, CO is on that list but there's just something about knowing what happened there, I don't think I could move there!
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