house shopping roller coaster

[bammann45]

I am trying to buy my first home. My wife is due in May and my 22 month old little girl is climbing the walls of our apartment. Does anyone else think its completely bizarre that houses are essentially impulse buys? Once you find the community, schools and financing, you basically take the quick tour, check off your basic requirements then make an offer. Its all based on a max 1 hour impression.

Currently I am 0 for 2 on offers. SoCal real estate is still crazy in spite of the downturn. The first house we offered 20K under asking, another party went to asking, then we went to 10K over asking, to which they bid another 10K over us and waived termite, warranties and most inspections.

I suspect at this rate our new baby girl will be coming home to this apt.

 

[Bob W]

Does anyone else think its completely bizarre that houses are essentially impulse buys?

It certainly wasn't an impulse buy for us. We looked at dozens of different homes of all different sizes, ages, and styles over a period of months. Once we narrowed the choices and found a home we really liked, we visited it over and over again before making an offer. In fact we re-visited it so many times, the real estate agent gave us a key so we could check for ourselves every time we had a question about something. Then we visited the home multiple more times with each of the inspectors - carpenter, plumber, electrician...

The real problems were caused by an idiot appraiser who created dozens of hoops for us to jump through, each hoop creating a new delay and another visit to the house with some contractor...

The downside of visiting the house with the agent not present, we once locked ourselves into a 2nd floor room and couldn't get out.

Here's the sort of crapshack that $75,000 gets you in New Mexico:

Not much to look at now but it's coming along, and I wouldn't expect Xanadu for $24/square foot. And at 3180 square feet plus two outbuilding, the size makes up for some of the aesthetic deficiencies. This home has also been assigned as "Contributing" to the newly designated Historic District.

 

[bammann45]

That is a great looking house! In LA you settle on the are, go see it, if you like it, bid on the spot cause 5 other parties will. As a comparison 610K gets you 1700 square feet in LA Maybe we need to move...

 

[Bob W]

$610,000?!? For that much money here, you could buy the TWO nicest houses in town!

Check out this one - scroll down to 666 Cook Ave. The seller must be high to ask that much (greedy twit), but I've been inside and it's a really nice place. I also think it's much larger than the size listed in the pdf brocure.

http://www.homeassociatesinc.biz/

The one at 208 S 4th is a bit overpriced, but it's a nice place too, and located on the nicest block, in the nicest street, in the nicest neighborhood within 30 miles.

 

[bammann45]

Yep. The real devil is my job ties me to LA but then I am competition with industry people, family money and double income families. Then again I am going to be blessed with another little girl in May, so I can't complain