What are your must haves when looking for a house?

For those of you house hunting what is your criteria when considering it? I haven't started yet but so far I think I definetly want at least 1.5 baths a garage and a basement (might consider an attic if no basement).

Re: What are your must haves when looking for a house?

I was open to mostly anything. My only must-haves were 3 BR, at least 1.5 baths and a decide sized lot withought the neighbors being practically on top of us. We got all those things.

Re: What are your must haves when looking for a house?

-back yard to lay out
-eat in kitchen
-bright yard/less trees, to get sun


thats it! we narrowed our lists pretty quickly when we saw that if we fulfilled our must haves, we would be paying double....


previous must haves:

-new kitchen
-at least one new bathroom
-walk in closets

Re: What are your must haves when looking for a house?

We were open to anything pretty much. I did need either a garage or a basement and we got a basement thank goodness. Need a place to store my crap...lol.

Kim

Re: What are your must haves when looking for a house?

EIK
Gargage
Basement
3-bedrooms...

things that we wanted - 2-baths, Dining room, Pool, nice yard...

We are getting ALL of it....

Re: What are your must haves when looking for a house?

We just wanted a complete house with all of its parts (i.e., EIK, FDR, den , LR, 2 bathrooms, etc.). We saw so many houses that were missing a room that we decided we only wanted a house if it had everything. We compromised on other things like the size of the property.

Re: What are your must haves when looking for a house?

Our must haves were, a garage and/or basement, 3 bedrooms, separate Dining room and a nice size property.
We got a 3 bdr, 2 bath, garage, basement, attic, FDR, EIK, Den, LR, 80 x 100 lot, CAC and the house was almost completely updated. We got everything on our must have list, wish list and more! But we did sacrafice on other things, we are in Centereach, which I love now, but originally we didnt wantt o be this far east!

Re: What are your must haves when looking for a house?

Our Must Haves are:

Openess - We hate houses that are closed in

Eat in kitchen thats been updated

1.5 plus bathrooms that have been updated

Finished or unfinished Basement

Garage and Driveway

Fireplace Gas or wood burning. Gas is preferred

Nice size yard - So we can build a deck, and put in a hot tub.

Quiet Residental Street

Low taxes

Excellent School District

At least 3 bedrooms

Updated electric and Plumbing

Updated Exterior

We are in no rush to buy a house...So I dont care if I am asking for a lot. If I cannot find this right away then it is fine with me...but we dont want to settle for something we are not going to be happy with. When we buy a house, it will be the house we are going to raise our children in.

If the house needs to be painted on the interior, or needs carpet that is fine, because we would probably repaint anyway...and my brother in law does carpet so I get a good deal there....

Not sure about hard wood floors...I only like them in dining rooms...and possibly living rooms....and hallways. They make the house feel cold to me....

Scott

Re: What are your must haves when looking for a house?

Basement, garage, fireplace (or place we can have one put in), family room, min of 3 bedrooms, min of 1.5 baths, level lot, attic.

Windows...doors...ha ha

Re: What are your must haves when looking for a house?

Must-haves when we started looking...
Specific area
3+ bedrooms
1.5+ bathrooms
Formal dining room
Eat-in kitchen
basement/garage
front porch and/or back deck
Fireplace
Mudroom/laundry room
Hardwood floors

Must-haves at the end of our search...
Specific area
3+ bedrooms
1 bathroom, with the possibility of adding another
Formal dining room
basement/garage

We got about 90% of our wish-list!

Re: What are your must haves when looking for a house?

Our initial must-haves:
- big kitchen
- good closet space
- lots of windows
- front porch and back patio
- hardwood floors
- location: decent neighborhood within a 20 minute commute

Later we also added:
- bathrooms in which DH could actually stand up in the shower, and not touch his knees to the opposite wall when he sat on the pot (we had to turn down THREE otherwise nice homes because they didn't meet these simple requirements...)
- non-creepy basement

Re: What are your must haves when looking for a house?

definately a basement, decent yard size, 3 bedrooms....I've come down ALOT

Re: What are your must haves when looking for a house?

For me the MUST haves were:

a dining room (formal)

and a driveway with a garage.

Re: What are your must haves when looking for a house?

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Posted by IrishBride-05
Must-haves at the end of our search...
Specific area
3+ bedrooms
1 bathroom, with the possibility of adding another
Formal dining room
basement/garage

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this sounds like us with the big no-no's being:

NO double yellow line/busy street
NO in ground oil tank

we have yet to find something!

Re: What are your must haves when looking for a house?

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Posted by september2004

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Posted by IrishBride-05
Must-haves at the end of our search...
Specific area
3+ bedrooms
1 bathroom, with the possibility of adding another
Formal dining room
basement/garage

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this sounds like us with the big no-no's being:

NO double yellow line/busy street
NO in ground oil tank

we have yet to find something!

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You'll find it! Don't get disheartened. We made it our part-time job for a month or more

Re: What are your must haves when looking for a house?

-structurally sound
-property (.5 acre or more)
-basement
-no corner lots!
-nothing on a busy street (No homes on a street with a double yellow line)
-had to be in a specific zip code(s)
-walkable neighborhood/block(s)



What we initially looked for:
-Colonial
-4+ bedrooms, 2+bathrooms
-FDR, LR, Family Room/Great Room


We quickly learned that it was all about location for us and that as long as we had that, we could pretty much work with it.

Re: What are your must haves when looking for a house?

Basement
3 or more bedrooms
1.5-2 baths
Property large enough for deck, pool, shed, gardens & still some lawn left over.
No Mold or leaks on basment, no foundation cracks
Not on a busy street
'decent' school district.. w eknew we could afford the best but there were others we were avoiding

Re: What are your must haves when looking for a house?

3 bedrooms +
Basement
Attic
Nice Kitchen
Garage
And we were looking in a very specific area

A nice yard was a bonus