Bitter Sweet, Going to start house hunting

[dasfinc]

For starters, My Supercharger kit is forsale!!! GO BUY IT!

On that note, I have a bit of savings put aside, and was wondering who all has recently started house hunting and what resources you have used?

With the purchase of my mustang, I have to slow down my RBV Plans for a year at the least since I am hoping to buy my first home in the not too distant future...

 

[superdave1984]

See if you can get on HGTV.
But seriously, when my wife and I were looking we spend hours on http://www.realtor.com looking at houses. Good luck!

 

[triumphrider-1]

HGTV has a pretty good one. I also grabbed a local paper and hit all the websites for the ones listed in the classifieds.

Not sure if IL has a similar site, but MI has one called www.moveinmichigan.com that covers foreclosed, short sale, regular, etc. It doesn't have all that the realty sites themselves list, but still quite a few.

There was another National one a co-worker pointed me to, but I can't find the site (I try to get it tomorrow, if I remember).

 

[dasfinc]

I'm curious about resources like Loans, and property tax calculators, and what "Do I need" Type stuff, I'm a young blood, and my parents have all basically been "failures"... *Mother and Stepfather, both bankrupt and unemployed the house they live in was purchased by my Step Grandfather, and not them.... While I just got my Biological father (Professional Developer that never made much of his skill set) a job working at the company I work for, has also rented all his life....*

 

[Rolled Ranger]

I just bought my first house last year. A web site I like is zillow.com. you can see what most places are worth and what they sold for last and very importantly what the neighbors houses are worth.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I777 using Tapatalk

 

[straycat]

OOOOh,,,,get a garage and cable!!!!!! Cool and hope you get what you are looking for!!!!!

 

[shane96ranger]

I wouldn't go off of Zillow for home values. They are just ballpark. The tax value (and history of) is public knowledge at the County Courthouse, or at least here it is.

I'm not sure if you have/want children, but Utah also has as public knowledge a Sex Offender Registry - and ours is online. You put in an address and it gives you the registered offenders in the area, as well as their addresses.

Utah also has a site which every home listed with a realtor is posted. I would assume most states are like this as well. Ours is www.utahrealestate.com for comparisons sake.

Also, you absolutely must do a home inspection. They are between 300 and 500 dollars here, and worth every damn penny. In fact, some lenders actually require a home inspection.




EDIT: I would suggest you get a mold inspection as well, if it is not included in the home inspection. It's a pretty big deal around here as far as value is concerned. There is a house not too far from me that is getting gutted right now due to mold. It's is literally down to the frame all the way inside.

There is just one more thing that I wanted to add, and this is something I am adding to my checklist next time I buy a house. Recently there was a news story here about a couple who bought a house, and found that the previous owner had a meth lab operating inside. I'm not sure the exact details, but these guys could not move in until it was gutted. And they had just spent quite a bit of time and money remodeling the home. I'm going to look into testing for a meth lab on my next go around.

 

[adsm08]

http://www.realtor.com

That's what I was going to say.

Make sure you get an agent that listens and pay attention. You can switch agents at pretty much any time if you don't like the one you are dealing with too.

I made a point of saying directly to our agent several times "A garage is a big selling point for us". We looked at several properties with this woman that had little, no, or falling apart and unsafe garages and she would say "It's no big deal, it's just a garage". She did not listen or pay attention.

 

[triumphrider-1]

I'm curious about resources like Loans, and property tax calculators, and what "Do I need" Type stuff, I'm a young blood...

I talked with a lady at a local bank for loan info in October (hoping to be buying my first home as well within a year) and got answers to most my questions.

To get the best interest rate a down payment of 20% of total cost is best.

Going through the FHA (first-time home buyers assistance program) can get you an interest rate very close to putting 20% down, but only requires 3.5% down payment. The trade-off though is a higher loan and payment.

Paying points can be worth it, depending on how long you plan to be in the home.


You should be able to go to your counties website and do a parcel search for ones your interested in. That will give you the taxable values, if the seller is behind on taxes, assessments, etc. Some of the realty sites have the yearly tax for the house in the listing as well.

This too.

They are just ballpark. The tax value (and history of) is public knowledge at the County Courthouse, or at least here it is.

 

[jcd302]

The taxes will change as the previous selling point determines the value that MI bases taxes off, I think Illinois is the same. DO NOT live in city limits!! You'll save a ton on taxes. Our first house was in the limits and we are now in the country, new house, more land, but taxes were 1/2. Just got our winter tax bill. If we lived inside the limits we would have more than doubled.

I ditto the home inspection. Get the homeowner to pay for it. If they don't like your terms, there are plenty of other houses.
Agreed, Find an agent that listens but know what you want. You need to know what will make or break a listing. No garage = no deal! Only 3 bedrooms? we can live with. Only 1 bath... NOPE!
Be willing to overlook stuff that can be changed. I hate the idiots on HGTV that reject a house because the carpet is ugly. Just look at basic structure. You wouldn't believe the 1960's fiasco we bought. Slowly fixed it up and almost tripled our money in 11 years.