how long were you looking for your house before you bought it?

MrsTC Posted: Mar 06, 2004 06:42 PM

how long were you looking for your house before you bought it?

today was our 1st day looking and we actually saw a house we really liked...but i'm hesitant bc after all, it is only our 1st day

thoughts?

junebride04 Posted: Mar 06, 2004 06:43 PM

Re: how long were you looking for your house before you bought it?

we started looking as soon as we got engaged and finally found 'the one' a year and a half later!

Teri Posted: Mar 06, 2004 07:06 PM

Re: how long were you looking for your house before you bought it?

we've been educating ourselves in different towns for about 2 yrs now and just recently have felt comfortable about where to buy and how much to pay!

Kathy116 Posted: Mar 06, 2004 07:23 PM

Re: how long were you looking for your house before you bought it?

We've been in our house for about 4 years (I think, don't hold me to it).

We probably only looked at 6 houses with serious intent...but we were checking out the real estate magazine's in the supermarkets for about 6 months prior to finding our house.

The funny thing that a realtor told us when we were looking a little over 4 years ago...we looked at a waterfront house on the beach in Miller Place and the realtor told us to offer 60K less, she didn't think the house was worth the asking price. Well, the house sold for over 25K of asking price, and it certaintly wasn't us who offered over asking price.

She then told us to wait a year before we looked again, because THE MARKET WAS GOING TO COME DOWN!

I'm glad we didn't get that house because it was too small, and we found something even better....however, I guess the moral is...don't listen to your realtors...do what's in your gut!
Another realtor told us that we'd never find the house that we were looking for...later that day we found it, without that realtor!

Just keep your eyes open! We would drive around neigborhoods for hours, looking for any for sale signs, especially the private sale, or for sale by owners.

yabbobay Posted: Mar 06, 2004 09:17 PM

Re: how long were you looking for your house before you bought it?

we were just about to put a bid the second day we looked...but a bid was just accepted...so we kept looking...

the next 2 bids came about 1-2 weeks later...one countered and then we countered back...but not accepted...the other took weeks to find out about

another week or 2? later we put a bid on the place we are moving into...

Crisco718 Posted: Mar 06, 2004 09:32 PM

Re: how long were you looking for your house before you bought it?

We did lots of research about neighborhoods for about 6 months and we actually went out looking for 3 weeks before we found something we love.

sam Posted: Mar 06, 2004 11:12 PM

Re: how long were you looking for your house before you bought it?

We looked for a year and a half. We had two close calls- one where we wouldn't buy the house after inspection ( long story there) and another where we were outbid. We finally found the 'one' just as we were losing hope. Your house is out there- you'll know it when you find it! Good luck!

TogetherForever Posted: Mar 06, 2004 11:15 PM

Re: how long were you looking for your house before you bought it?

Believe it or not, we bought the first house we looked at....very unusual!

LIPrincess00 Posted: Mar 06, 2004 11:21 PM

Re: how long were you looking for your house before you bought it?

We are actually in contract with a house we found in about 1month. We switched RE agents and she showed us this one the day it came available, fell in love and can be renovated the way we want. We hadnt planned finding a house this soon we thought with this mkt it would take a while, this just shows you anything can happen.

Kelly9904 Posted: Mar 07, 2004 01:35 AM

Re: how long were you looking for your house before you bought it?

We were looking for 6+ months.
But we were picky, we didnt want to have to do alot of work to the house and we were apparently in a popular price range 300-350K. A few houses we were interested in sold before we could even really think abou it.

I will say that I am happy that we didnt go for the first house we liked, simply because our desires changed alittle bit. Unless this is the perfect house, I would suggest looking at a few before making a decision.

HeatherandNick Posted: Mar 07, 2004 09:05 AM

Re: how long were you looking for your house before you bought it?

we did A LOT of looking online and going to open houses on our own for about 6 months prior to buying.

Once we were settled on which RE agent we were using, we actually bought the first house she took us to. We saw it and our bid was accepted 3 hours later

MrsTC Posted: Mar 07, 2004 12:06 PM

Re: how long were you looking for your house before you bought it?

thanks guys thats what my parents told me - you will know it when you see it!

question - how do you know your real estate agent is good? The lady we are working with is ok , she is a 'buyer's agent' - but when I said things I did not like about a house or 2 that we saw, she said 'Well, i don't know what you expect in your price range- some people just don't get it' Isn't that her job? Helping us to look for the ideal house for us within our budget?