House hunting - what one thing would you not compromise?

KeptInStitches

BF and I are actively house-hunting. We've been to look at 4 places so far (the market's a little tight in our area) and so far we've only seen one we like enough to want to go back again. I'm going to call my uncle this morning because he has a lot of experience looking at houses and remodeling, so he'll be able to tell us (brutally honestly) whether this one is actually worth it or not. We're kind of in trouble, though - both BF and I can see ourselves living there.

I've found myself compromising quite a bit already. I was really wanting to get something with an attached garage and storage space, but that doesn't seem possible in our price range. I'll take the storage space over the garage. If you were looking for a place to live, what one thing would you not compromise; that is, what one feature would the place you were buying have to have?

Peaseblossom55

When we were looking for a house last year we both wanted a house with stairs and levels we didn't want a ranch. 

There were many things we had on our must have list, our home wasn't perfect but it had so much potential, and still does, we're working on that. The only thing with our home that we compromised on that it didn't have that we wanted was a bigger kitchen and a jacuzzi tub in the master bathroom. 

tuarceatha

Hooray for new homes!

When I was house hunting I got kind of locked on two things, two car garages and new. Which meant I had to give up the idea of having a shorter commute. We bought a house far from work, but I loooves our house. I think that feeling out weighs the stupid commute. I love coming home, working from home, having people over, our neighborhood, .... and audiobooks.

Dignity100

When FI and I get our next house - these are the things that I will not compromise on (keep in mind we both already have houses, so I'll be a little bit more picky).

Most important - more than 1 baths (1.5 is fine).  I keep telling FI (jokingly) most marriages break up because of financial issues, ours will break up because of the bathroom situation.

Other things:
basement - preferably one that can be finished off
I want AT LEAST 1 acres 2-3 would be ideal.
Attached garage or at least a covered breezeway
No carpet (that can be fixed though if we buy an existing house)
Ranch - I don't want to move again when we age and 2 story houses are hard to cool in the summer.  I MIGHT consider a 2 story if the master bedroom is on the 1st floor.  (If I didn't want a full basement, I might consider a split level).
decent neighborhood with decent schools

20-30 minute drive to each of our parents houses and to our work locations also would be ideal.

[Deleted User]

@KeptinStitches- H and I are house hunting as well. We are planning on moving in June and renting for the first year since H's job situation may change and we will probably have to move again.

Anyways, having a garage and storage space is a must for us since that's the whole reason why we are moving from an apartment to a house. We need a place to put H's tools and all our storage boxes. I also won't compromise on two floors. I don't think a ranch home will be enough for us and I just want to have the separation from where the bedrooms are to where the kitchen, living room, etc are located. I also wont compromise on having a backyard, it may not have to be fenced but we are getting a puppy this summer as well so I would like to have some space for it to run around.

Some things that we can compromise would be having updated appliances and wood floors. I think we can work with having those amenities someday but we don't necessarily need them today. Other things we could compromise would be living in a tennis/pool community. H and I would love to live in a neighborhood like this but it does crank up the costs so if we find a home not in one of those neighborhoods then we would be ok.

Ollie08

I have to say that this is very subjective for each person. A home is a very personal decision. That being said, for me, the important things are things that cannot be changed or remodeled. So that would mean that we have to love our location and love the structure of the house, as-is. I prefer a split bedroom floor plan, one story only. We have stairs now, and only the girls' rooms are upstairs and it's such a PITA to monitor and keep clean. Not to mention the laundry situation is a pain. 

Must haves:

Good location 

Block Construction with a Slab

Decent sized kitchen

Master tub with a separate shower stall that's bigger than the size of a port-a-potty

Open floor plan

Love to have:

>3 Bedrooms or 3+ a Den/Office

Large gourmet kitchen with a double oven and cook top instead of a range

2+ full baths

> 2,000 sq ft

Split floor plan

One Story

labro

Things we refused to compromise on when we bought our house:

- Attached two car garage
- gas heat
- single family home - no duplexes, townhomes, etc. Also, the neighborhood had to be all single family homes.
- location in the county we wanted to live in. The location we ended up buying in has the top school system in the state, low property taxes, and rising home values.

Things we were willing to compromise on:

- upgraded appliances (we ended up with stainless steel appliances anyway)
- upgraded countertops and flooring (we ended up with this anyway)
- gas stove - really wanted one, but we ended up with a decent electric stovetop instead
- large lot (we got it anyway)
- living in a neighborhood with a HOA. FI doesn't like HOAs. They aren't my favorite but I think they have their benefits. The house we bought is in an older neighborhood, no HOA. It's mostly ok with the exception of a few of the neighbors.

ETA:

There are some things I would've done differently when we bought our house. I wish we had taken a little bit more time to look. I was feeling super stressed because when we started house hunting the second time around (we had looked about a year prior but decided to wait) the market had changed drastically. Houses were being snatched up hours after going on the market and were selling for more than the asking price. So when we both found a house we liked we jumped on it. I think if we had been able to hold out a little longer and take a few more weeks to look we would've been able to find a newer home with more of an actual basement (not the half basement/crawl space that we have now) and in a nicer neighborhood. I love our lot though. It's huge, around 3/4 of an acre, and the original homeowners did a ton of work making it really beautiful and landscaped. But there are some things we didn't get with this house that I wish we had held out on for a little bit longer.

CLoGreenEyes

Although I'm not to the point where I'm house-hunting yet and won't be for a while, I love this stuff! So I'll play.

Like others said, location is the big thing that can't be changed, so that's up there. Having a decently sized kitchen, master bedroom, and office/guest room would be important. At least two bathrooms, just for convenience and/or future resale value (not sure what elements help when it comes time to sell again?). Storage would also be important. Finally, thinking about the kind of heating/cooling systems the house has; there are advantages and disadvantages to each that I'm not well versed in yet but would want to investigate before buying anything.

While having a garage would be SUPER nice, especially after this winter of constant snow, it's not a necessity for me around this time in my life. I would love a split level (just what I grew up in, so I love them), but would also like a ranch, split foyer, or basically anything but a townhouse; I cannot stand being THISCLOSE to the neighbors and would like a slightly bigger yard than townhouses offer.

Things that wouldn't even factor into the decision include stuff like age of appliances, dated paint colors/carpets, etc. As long as I can get the place clean before I move in and everything works, I'll replace whatever I want to as I can afford it.

emmyg65

We're really handy, so there's a lot we can change about a given home. In fact, we'd prefer a fixer-upper where we could go nuts.

The things I won't compromise on are location, natural light in the home, and a home with character (preferably built before 1950). Also, we have a really small lot right now (6,000 SF) and I wouldn't go smaller than that.

Dignity100

@Imhollister reminded me of a few things

FI and I do not want to live in a development - absolutely no HOAs.  When he was a kid his parents lived in one and he HATED the restrictions that their neighborhood had. 

In all honesty, I think FI and I would like to build.  We are trying to avoid new development areas where all the houses are built around the same time (even if it is a 'bring-your-own-builder/No HOA' location).  We just like the 'look' of an already established community where trees/shrubs aren't perfectly placed. . .

doubleSS07

We are starting to look but probably won't be serious about it till next year at this time. We have a few things that we won't compromise on, the most important being location. We need at least 3 bedrooms, open layout in the living/kitchen area or the ability to make it that way (ie no load bearing walls that we can't tear out). We are pretty open to doing some work if the price is right but it's tricky to get in the right area, for the right price and have enough left over to actually do any remodeling. Our perfect home is in a great area, 2200-2500 sq ft open concept, 3 car garage, 3 bedrooms plus office and 2.5 bathrooms, bonus room and a nicely done yard with large covered porch for all the nice warm Texas evenings. Too bad all of these things will be 30-50K over our budget so we are of course compromising.

Blue & White

We need a yard...big enough to put a detached two car garage sized workshop in.  <--this is virtually impossible to find in all of FL, awesome.

We also need a fantastic neighborhood so that my kiddos can go to awesome schools.  The schools here are pretty decent, so I think we can find this.

I want a separate tub and shower in the master (this is easy, but I want it.)

We saw an awesome house the other day (online, we're not looking in person yet) that's on a river with manatees, but alas, it was priced at what we think our price range will be and needed at least 30k in repairs in the next 5 years.  We can totally do a fixer upper, but...it needs to be priced as one first.

minskat30

I'm both selling and looking to buy.  As far as buying, it must have:

-Great location and school district (even if we don't have kiddos, for resale value)

-2 bathrooms or 1 bathroom and the space to put in another

-Solid structure and decent lot size if the home needs remodeling so we have space to grow in it (aka, good bones)

-Lots of natural light

J&B0602

One thing we aren't willing to compromise on is land- we want a good chunk of land (50-100 acres). This is something we both want- both grew up out in the middle of nowhere and that's where we would like to one day raise kids. The ideal situation for us would be to find a nice chunk of land for a good price (mineral rights to the land would be nice but impossible to find in the area) and build our dream house. We've started looking and so far there is only currently one possibility- but we do have to start looking somewhere! 

Looking at the school systems is also something we weigh heavily!

CLoGreenEyes

Blue & White said:

We need a yard...big enough to put a detached two car garage sized workshop in.  <--this is virtually impossible to find in all of FL, awesome.

We also need a fantastic neighborhood so that my kiddos can go to awesome schools.  The schools here are pretty decent, so I think we can find this.

I want a separate tub and shower in the master (this is easy, but I want it.)

We saw an awesome house the other day (online, we're not looking in person yet) that's on a river with manatees, but alas, it was priced at what we think our price range will be and needed at least 30k in repairs in the next 5 years.  We can totally do a fixer upper, but...it needs to be priced as one first.

I can't believe I forgot this part! MUST HAVE!

I freakin' love manatees.

KeptInStitches

Good thoughts! I'm lucky that I don't have to worry about the schools in the area; the schools are all pretty darn good. The one we're looking at has 1.75 baths (full bath and half bath on main floor, shower only in the basement). The basement could definitely be extended to take a full bath, which is something we'd look at doing long-term. 

It's one of those places where every room needs a little something done to it. For example, the basement needs a non-load-bearing wall built to separate the finished part from the unfinished part. The kitchen has a drawer that won't open or close. The trim boards all need to be reinstalled. Every wall - interior and exterior - needs paint and wallpaper removal to bring it closer to colors we prefer. Overall, though, these things aren't scaring me away yet.

Pepperally

We've already started looking at houses/areas just to see what we can afford in our price range, we'll be buying early next year.  Many folks have already said what I would say about good location/school district.  I'm willing to pay the taxes if the schools are good. 

I have to have a dishwasher!  Small detail, but I've gone without one for way too long!

I want a space to sit and relax outside and to grill, somewhat private.  I really don't like porches that are on the sides of houses that you can see from the street. 

Definitely at least one car garage, as long as the driveway is wide enough that we can park side-by-side...we don't have that now and constantly have to move the order of our cars.  BF wants detached, but I have no preference.

I never really cared before, but I want a dining room.  I never entertain now and I hope to have a dining room to finally host holiday meals to take the burden off other family members.

Blue & White

@pepperally we have never eaten in our dining room at my parents' house in FL, haha.  We used to eat in the dining room in NJ all the time.  I'm not sure what happened!

lennonkdc

I'm sure some of these things will seem odd, but FI and I wanted more of a fixer upper so that we could put our own touch on things. The biggests must have for us were location & price. We loved the city we were renting in, and didn't want to leave it. We also knew what we wanted to pay a per month and worked backwards to find what amount that would be an a mortgage, then we went to the bank and when the offered to pre-approve us for more we said nope. I think they thought we were crazy! But our agent was wonderful and didn't try to 'push us' to go up in price, even though we could have. In the end we got a great deal on a short sale (though we did have to wait 9 months to close...) We were really lucky to live in an area where the housing market and  COL allowed us to be picky like that.

After price our next requirement was hardwood molding and trim that was unpainted. We live in an area with a ton of century homes and most people in the 70' and 80's 'modernized' the houses by either ripping out all the crown and floor molding or painting it. I didn't want to be spending the next few years stripping and refinishing woodwork lol. 

We were pretty flexible about almost everything else, 

Pepperally

I forgot one thing...central air conditioning!!! We only have window ac in the place we're renting now. I miss central ac dearly.

cu97tiger

Must-haves:
Safe location
Master bedroom big enough for a king sized bed
2 full baths (ended up with 1.75)

BreMR

We owned a home previously, but had to sell because we had a surprise baby and it ended up being quite the commute after we both got new jobs.  We are currently renting since we're in school and don't know where our degrees will take us but after owning a home I know what my must have list will include:

Jacuzzi tub in the bathroom

His & Her closets... this is mostly for my bf since I am a closet catastrophe, and turn it into a warzone.

Carpet (we have wood floors now and you can't even go a day without sweeping, at least with carpet you can't see the mess so easily and you can ignore it for more than a day)

2-3 levels (but not a split level, our last house was a split level and I just am not a fan)

Yard with trees and space for an in-ground pool if we so choose.

lmcooper86

BF and I have started tossing around the idea of buying a house (we would both rather I put money towards a mortgage than towards rent) and I think we're going to have a more in-depth talk about it today. We're still in the absolute earliest stages, but things we have discussed to far:

At least 3 bedrooms

Main floor or upstairs laundry

Close to at least one highway (he works construction management, so his work can be all over)

Partially finished basement for BF's drums and recording equipment