When you bought your house...

What thing(s) absolutely SOLD you for that house?

Anything negative you thought the positives outweighted?

Thanks

Re: When you bought your house...

We have to redo the entire interior, but we were sold on the neighborhood.

Re: When you bought your house...

our new house: the fireplace, front porch, and back deck...all things I wanted in a house. LOTS of property for DH

Re: When you bought your house...

sold: quiet street, great schools, big backyard, lots of potential inside, close to major parkways, close to both sets of parents, good neighborhood I cant wait to go to closing

Re: When you bought your house...

I'm a size snob- more than anything, I wanted a house that was bigger than the one I grew up in. Plus, this house just had an 'airy' feel. It's not huge but the family room has a cathedral ceiling and the upper floor hallway is sort of open and looks down onto the family room. Makes it seem bigger. I loved that part of it.

It also had a bath and a half and an attached garage, which wasn't something I wanted but one friend who has one mentioned how much she likes being able to get into the car when it's raining without getting wet! She sold me on that.

The living room window/front of the house has a view of a lake. And the kitchen has a wall over and the burners are next to it, built into the counter. Not something I wanted but I was glad to see it.

Negative- the back yard is not as big as I'd like but it's a quarter acre, with lots of room on the sides of the house. But since the house is sort of built into a hill, the back slopes up and we have a lot of privacy since we can't really see the person behind us.

Re: When you bought your house...

Size, neighborhood, school district.

Re: When you bought your house...

POSITIVES:

- neighborhood
- cul-de-sac
- walk to train in a pinch (no need for an immediate 2nd car)
- brick exterior = low maintenance
- structure is in good shape
- small but manageable
- interior excluding basement needs cosmetic TLC

NEGATIVES:

- water 'issues' (poor drainage in backyard, damp basement --> sump, and extra $$$ to mitigate)
- one bathroom (listed at 1.5 but the .5 is a toilet in the unfinished basement) will need to get creative to add another

** we are taking a risk but banking on location **

Re: When you bought your house...

Positives:
School district
Neighborhood
Bomb shelter-just a quirky aspect to the house!
2 car attached garage with entry into the house
Lots of potential-the owners added a room/breezeway between the house and the garage but never finished it. There is also room for 2 bedrooms upstairs-the owners insulated and put down hardwood floors but never finished that either.

Negatives:
Not a large yard
Outdated kitchen and bathroom
Very small kitchen

Re: When you bought your house...

We were sold on the location and property itself.

The house was irrelevant. We knew right off the bat that it needed a new septic & roof, besides the fact that the home hadn't been updated in a couple of decades (it was owned by an elderly couple.)

What sold us:
-Harborfields SD
-tree lined street/neighborhood
-flat useable acre
-surrounding homes on similar size properties
-close to Huntington Village
-close to Huntington Train Station
-reasonable drive to NYC and Airports



My DH literally walked right through the front door of the house into the backyard and was sold. We figured we could change the house to whatever we desired as long as the structure was good, which it was/is.

Re: When you bought your house...

mine was a crappy little house in a great neighborhood.

43 minutes from nyc via express train, and my backyard is adjacent to the best public golf course in the state.

the house itself needed alot of work and it will never be my dream home, but it has some nice features like a deck and central air, so i am looking at it as a stepping stone for bigger and better things.

after all of our $ we invested in the house cosmetically, i am hoping to make a nice lumpsum of cash on it when we sell and move farther north.

Re: When you bought your house...

Positives

Well built house
quiet street
great community and schools
huge backyard
well taken care of house
new windows and new front door
finished basement with a full bar

Negatives

not an eat in kitchen
very 'older' style interior decorating (pink, teal)
Older roof

I would love to live in our house forever, but we would need to put an addition on it to make it my dream house

Re: When you bought your house...

The open and airy florrplan and the bathroom~jacuzzi tub.

Re: When you bought your house...

Honestly, the only thing that really sold me was the price for the neighborhood. We got an incredible deal. We live in a nice neighborhood about 1/2 mile out of Huntington Village.

Other then that, there really isn't too much I like about the house.

Re: When you bought your house...

hubby bought the house before we got married, and he was sold on the property. He always wanted a BIG backyard, and we have it. We are on an acre of land, and LOVE it

Re: When you bought your house...

Inground pool, huge country kitchen, corner jacuzzi tub and nobody in back of us brand new heating system, siding, roof and windows.

Neg: needed some cosmetic work but i didn't care.

Re: When you bought your house...

POSITIVES
- location
- privacy
- cul-de-sac
- property size
- style/floor plan (CH col)
- shingles (DH hates vinyl siding)
- wood floors throughout
- character

we also loved the fact that the house has an ig pool, cac and a finished basement. of course this could have been added so we viewed these as bonuses.

NEGATIVE

price (as all homes on LI). however, our realtor keeps telling us that we got a GREAT deal. since we went to contract there have been other homes that have gone on the market in the area and they are either WAY more $$$ than ours (same style home, lot size) or equal price and in HORRIBLE condition. according to our realtor we could easily put our house on the marklet for 100k more than we paid and most likely would get close to that amount.

again, please remember than NO house is 100% perfect. sit down w/ your DH and make a list of must-haves. also, the more you house hunt the more you have to compare to. be patient and keep an oen mind.

GOOD LUCK.

Re: When you bought your house...

HMA fees
pool
screened in enclosure
school district
distance from my job.

Re: When you bought your house...

location, size, school district, price compared to similar houses in the area....also, property size, updates to exterior (new siding, roof, PVC fence all the way around, landscaping), skylights, fireplace, baths, room to make the changes we want, nice den, great basement, 1.5 car garage....just like when I met DH, I knew instantly it was the one!