Buying a House

ShesSoCold

Just out of curiosity, how many houses did you look at before you bought?

CharmedPam

I was going through this last spring and I can say  A LOT!  I'd estimate 50 or so... However, my realtor was an old family friend and found it be to be enjoyable to take me out and show me everything she could.  She'd text me ASKING me if we wanted to go out and look! LOL

I put bids on probably 6 or 7 houses before winning the one I got - and let me tell  you, after being bid out 7 times before, I wasn't expecting this one to be accepted by the sellers. LOL.  You just reminded me how fortunate I was.

teddygirl9

We wanted to build new. Looked at probably 300+ 'plans' but that is different. It took us a while to find the right area, builder and plan.

cupcait927

I think we looked at 10 total. There wasn't a whole lot on the market in our price range when we were looking so our options were limited. We put an offer in on one and that's the house we ended up with. I wish we had looked at more, but even with checking listings for the 8 months after we bought our house (I had buyer's remorse), we probably still would've ended up with the house we got because there wasn't a whole lot of selling going on for what we could afford.

sparklepants41

I would say we looked at about a dozen. We did "drive bys" of the house and neighborhood before visiting any of them - so we could veto the ones in undesirable locations and those that were in desperate need of repairs that "conveniently" did not show up in the realtors' listings.

lyndausvi

When I bought my condo, only 2.   To be fair, I had a limited budget and real estate prices where high.  So I didn't really have many options to look at anyway.

My parents have bought 90% of their homes withing a 2-3 day period.  Mostly in cities they never lived in.  They came, they saw, the conquered.    Realtors love to hate them.   They are the ones who reject a place based on the location.  They will refuse to even walked it.  They know what they want and HATE when realtors try and waste their time on "just looking".  The love side is it only takes 2-3 days so it's not all drawn out.

We hope to buy in 2016.  Like when I bought the condo, we lived in a high real estate area with a limited budget.  Our options will be limited.  I will be surprised if we see as many as 10 homes.  I bet it will be more like 4-5.

holyguacamole79

The first time I was looking to buy, I probably looked at 10-15.  I put a contract on that house and got screwed over (I filed a lawsuit and we settled out of court).  I waited several months and then started looking again.  Again, I looked at 10-15.  When we arrived at the house I'm in now, my realtor kept saying "this is too good to be true, this is so perfect".  We knew instantly that it's what I was looking for.

OliveOilsMom

We saw about 20 with our realtor.  We probably saw around 10 doing open houses prior to seriously shopping with our realtor.  Since there was 2 of us this time (compared to me buying solo), we wanted to go through houses in our desired area and price range to see what we could be getting for our money.  It also helped us to identify if houses were overpriced before we even stepped foot in the door.  We actually had it narrowed down to 2 houses, I won

littlemushroom

In person, probably around 15-20. We were looking in a small town in a very specific location.

julieanne912

I'm "in the business" with the agent access to the MLS, so I was able to "look" at a lot of houses online before we went in person.... I'm one of those awful people who will reject a house based on the pictures.  

But for this house, we ended up building.  We looked at 3 houses in person before deciding to build.  We also looked at about 4-5 different lots and met with 2 builders before deciding on our lot/builder.  

For my old condo in Chicago, I didn't look at any others, but again, was in the business so I was familiar with neighborhoods, buildings, etc.  I worked a lot of hours so I was also wanting move in ready/low maintenance without crazy assessments under 200k, and east of 90 and in 2006, that meant Rogers Park.

I shopped again after selling that condo, and looked at about 5 places before deciding not to buy again.

For my first house, we were looking more at the investment potential (my mom and I).  I don't remember how many we looked at but we had it narrowed it down to 2.  We picked the one we bought because of the street name (Robinson).  The 2nd choice was on a street called Vagedes (first three letters sounded just like vag in vagina) so we skipped it.  It was actually a cuter house too.  

Heffalump

Our first one, maybe about a dozen?  I had been transferred and DH was in the process of relocating down here, so I saw them first, and then shortlisted a few for him to see when he flew down for the weekend.  Of those, we both liked the same one best, and that's the one we bought.

For the second, I feel like we looked at so many.  SO MANY.  To the point where we had sold our house and were closing in less than a month, and we were starting to get concerned about finding The One.  And then we did. 

julieanne912 said:

I'm "in the business" with the agent access to the MLS, so I was able to "look" at a lot of houses online before we went in person.... I'm one of those awful people who will reject a house based on the pictures.  

I rejected the one we ended up buying based on the photos online.  I actually sent my best friend a few photos just to mock them--the previous owners had an astounding number of tchotchkes on display, and Bestie and I called it Creepy Tchotchke House.

A few weeks later, we were looking at two houses in the same neighborhood at Creepy Tchotchke and decided to look at CT, too.  In the interim, the previous owners had moved out, and in person, we loved it.  Before we even went upstairs, we knew it was The One. 

julieanne912

Heffalump said:

Our first one, maybe about a dozen?  I had been transferred and DH was in the process of relocating down here, so I saw them first, and then shortlisted a few for him to see when he flew down for the weekend.  Of those, we both liked the same one best, and that's the one we bought.

For the second, I feel like we looked at so many.  SO MANY.  To the point where we had sold our house and were closing in less than a month, and we were starting to get concerned about finding The One.  And then we did. 

julieanne912 said:

I'm "in the business" with the agent access to the MLS, so I was able to "look" at a lot of houses online before we went in person.... I'm one of those awful people who will reject a house based on the pictures.  

I rejected the one we ended up buying based on the photos online.  I actually sent my best friend a few photos just to mock them--the previous owners had an astounding number of tchotchkes on display, and Bestie and I called it Creepy Tchotchke House.

A few weeks later, we were looking at two houses in the same neighborhood at Creepy Tchotchke and decided to look at CT, too.  In the interim, the previous owners had moved out, and in person, we loved it.  Before we even went upstairs, we knew it was The One. 

Yeah my rejections had more to do with things like, if I saw 1990s oak trim/doors everywhere, or if I could tell that the kitchen wouldn't work for me, or if I could tell the floor plan was wacky, or if it was being advertised as "renovated" but it wasn't to my taste.  My first house was actually trashed, but it had a lot of great features that I could see from the pictures.

Also when you're in real estate in a more suburban area, you tend to see the same floor plans over and over, so I knew which ones I didn't like, sometimes by even seeing the outside of the house.  Here in CO split levels are very popular, and I refused to buy one of those.  

lyndausvi

julieanne912 said:

Heffalump said:

Our first one, maybe about a dozen?  I had been transferred and DH was in the process of relocating down here, so I saw them first, and then shortlisted a few for him to see when he flew down for the weekend.  Of those, we both liked the same one best, and that's the one we bought.

For the second, I feel like we looked at so many.  SO MANY.  To the point where we had sold our house and were closing in less than a month, and we were starting to get concerned about finding The One.  And then we did. 

julieanne912 said:

I'm "in the business" with the agent access to the MLS, so I was able to "look" at a lot of houses online before we went in person.... I'm one of those awful people who will reject a house based on the pictures.  

I rejected the one we ended up buying based on the photos online.  I actually sent my best friend a few photos just to mock them--the previous owners had an astounding number of tchotchkes on display, and Bestie and I called it Creepy Tchotchke House.

A few weeks later, we were looking at two houses in the same neighborhood at Creepy Tchotchke and decided to look at CT, too.  In the interim, the previous owners had moved out, and in person, we loved it.  Before we even went upstairs, we knew it was The One. 

Yeah my rejections had more to do with things like, if I saw 1990s oak trim/doors everywhere, or if I could tell that the kitchen wouldn't work for me, or if I could tell the floor plan was wacky, or if it was being advertised as "renovated" but it wasn't to my taste.  My first house was actually trashed, but it had a lot of great features that I could see from the pictures.

Also when you're in real estate in a more suburban area, you tend to see the same floor plans over and over, so I knew which ones I didn't like, sometimes by even seeing the outside of the house.  Here in CO split levels are very popular, and I refused to buy one of those.  

 I also reject some places from pictures.  

 I can look past wall colors, too crowded and/or outdated furniture.   It's easy to paint and the furniture isn't staying.    Ugly wall paper or deer heads on the walls are not a big deal if the flow and size are good.

     Major renovations, size and flow are things I look at in pictures.  If they are on the edge or I can't quite tell I'm willing to look at the place.  

 I rejected a place because I could tell my king size bed would not fit in the bedroom.    Having a king size bed is non-negotiable to me in the master.  Why bother looking at a place when I know it's not what I want?

ShesSoCold

We've rejected a lot from pictures too. I need more than a slice of a kitchen and we know we don't want to see 15 other backyards from our backyard. I don't like that "charm" people like in old houses but I can get passed it if the layout is good.

H and I are looking at houses 15 and 16 tonight and I'm getting anxious and just want to buy one so I was just curious how many others have looked at.

Jells2dot0

We just got back from looking at two homes. I did a lot of searching prior to moving to TX- I think we looked at 5 pre-existing homes and 5 builders. I've owned three homes prior to this and that was the most looking I've ever done. I really, really hate home shopping, but I think the first home we saw today might get an offer from us!!!

spockforprez

Online, dozens upon dozens, maybe hundreds. FH looked for six full months.

In person, six. We walked into the first house and knew it was ours. We went to the other five to be realistic, but put in an offer for the first one the same day.

In a series of events that will likely never, ever, ever be repeated, they accepted our first offer despite a competing offer, all our paperwork went through the first time with no delays in closing, and we closed three weeks later. I'm glossing over everything but seriously it was the smoothest and easiest process I've ever been through. Totally anxiety-inducing anyway, of course. My realtor kept shaking her head and saying, "I just want you guys to know this never happens!"

spockforprez

I want to add that our criteria were:

• 3 bedrooms
• 1.5 bathrooms
• dishwasher included (a relationship-saver)
• NO oil heat (a budget-saver)
• no short sales or foreclosures
• under $160k (we were approved for $260k but did not want to go that high)

That really limited our choices - even going up to $180k or $200k would have opened up dozens more homes - and I think that made the choice easier.

But honestly we really, REALLY love our house. Every few weeks we just look around and go, "Man! I am so glad we found this house!" It needed some work at first, I scraped wallpaper until my arms gave out and we repainted EVERY SINGLE ROOM. We ripped up all the carpet and there were hardwoods underneath except in one room. We paid big bucks to refinish those (slash install in the one room) but after the painting and the floors, it felt like home 100000%. 

We want to move to a different area of our state in 10-15 years so we can live in a rural area that makes us happier, but man I wish we could pick up this house, put it on a truck, and cart it out to a lot out there. That's how much we love it! 

lyndausvi

spockforprez said:

I want to add that our criteria were:

• 3 bedrooms
• 1.5 bathrooms
• dishwasher included (a relationship-saver)
• NO oil heat (a budget-saver)
• no short sales or foreclosures
• under $160k (we were approved for $260k but did not want to go that high)

That really limited our choices - even going up to $180k or $200k would have opened up dozens more homes - and I think that made the choice easier.

But honestly we really, REALLY love our house. Every few weeks we just look around and go, "Man! I am so glad we found this house!" It needed some work at first, I scraped wallpaper until my arms gave out and we repainted EVERY SINGLE ROOM. We ripped up all the carpet and there were hardwoods underneath except in one room. We paid big bucks to refinish those (slash install in the one room) but after the painting and the floors, it felt like home 100000%. 

We want to move to a different area of our state in 10-15 years so we can live in a rural area that makes us happier, but man I wish we could pick up this house, put it on a truck, and cart it out to a lot out there. That's how much we love it! 

I just did a search on Zillow.   I had to go out 30 miles in order to find a 2 bedroom that was under $200K ($199K to be exact - 900 sq ft condo).   There is also a 400 sq ft one bedroom for $150K 

Sucks living in a high real estate area.

 

CMGragain

I had our current house and neighborhood picked out on Realtor.com before I even saw it.  It took looking at ten houses that weren't right to convince DH that this was the one.  I told the agent to save it for last.
When he exited the car and saw the view of the Colorado National Monument, his jaw dropped.  The 3 car garage convinced him.  He really didn't care about anything else.



This is our third and last house.  The first one was different.  I picked out the neighborhood, and we bought the cheapest, most needy house there.  We put in a lot of sweat equity to make it livable.  It stank of dog urine, and the kids had grafittied the walls with black marker.  There were burn holes in some of the carpet.
When we sold, after 14 years, we made a bundle to buy our next house.  I would never recommend buying new.  You don't know how the neighborhood will turn out.  Our second house was in a new development that was supposed to be very upscale, but financial times changed and it was rezoned to include a Walmart and lots of high density housing.  Never again!

badbnagdway

We looked at probably 15 or so houses. We wanted to buy in a specific neighborhood and school zone that is only maybe 1.5 miles wide and 1.5 miles long. In that area there are a lot of these houses: near-mansions that are way above our price range (million + homes), ridiculously overpriced fixer-uppers (like the $490k home that had a giant crack in the foundation complete with slanted floors), and very small houses on very small lots (1,500 foot bungalows with 3 beds one baths are the most common house types).

We wanted something that was basically move-in ready with at least three bedrooms and two baths, and didn't want to spend more than $420k (we ended up at $390k). A garage was a requirement as well and many houses in the neighborhood do not have off-street parking. Our house was the only house we looked at that fit the bill even remotely. We still wish our yard was bigger and not mostly hilly mini-forest, and we also think our master bedroom is kind of a monstrosity that should have been two bedrooms, but generally we love our house. 

thefanciestbeckler

We looked at no more than 10 I'd say. But we were under a major time constraint because we had to be out of DH's old house by a certain date.

julieanne912

lyndausvi said:

spockforprez said:

I want to add that our criteria were:

• 3 bedrooms
• 1.5 bathrooms
• dishwasher included (a relationship-saver)
• NO oil heat (a budget-saver)
• no short sales or foreclosures
• under $160k (we were approved for $260k but did not want to go that high)

That really limited our choices - even going up to $180k or $200k would have opened up dozens more homes - and I think that made the choice easier.

But honestly we really, REALLY love our house. Every few weeks we just look around and go, "Man! I am so glad we found this house!" It needed some work at first, I scraped wallpaper until my arms gave out and we repainted EVERY SINGLE ROOM. We ripped up all the carpet and there were hardwoods underneath except in one room. We paid big bucks to refinish those (slash install in the one room) but after the painting and the floors, it felt like home 100000%. 

We want to move to a different area of our state in 10-15 years so we can live in a rural area that makes us happier, but man I wish we could pick up this house, put it on a truck, and cart it out to a lot out there. That's how much we love it! 

I just did a search on Zillow.   I had to go out 30 miles in order to find a 2 bedroom that was under $200K ($199K to be exact - 900 sq ft condo).   There is also a 400 sq ft one bedroom for $150K 

Sucks living in a high real estate area.

 

Same here... there's only one house listed under 200k in the nearest town (Brighton, CO), and it's teeny and needs lots of work, and then there's a couple townhomes and condos in the 175-199k range.  My folks want to move out here but will likely have to rent a 1 bedroom apartment because both rent and house prices are super high compared to where they live now.  

SP29

@CMGragain That is a beautiful view!! 

luckya23

I would estimate around 30-35. I almost rejected my house based on photos, because it really looked like a trailer at the angle they took the main photo.

JoanE2012

We looked at too many to count online.  In person - just 1.  We knew what we liked and what we didn't and were able to eliminate so many just on pictures or descriptions.  We also used google earth to eliminate ones (like those on busy streets or high tension wires).  Needless to say, we loved the one we saw in person and we put in a full price offer the same day.

Pinksatin91016

Online pictures, I don't even know how many.

In person, only 2 others that we actually liked enough from pictures and the drive-by enough to ask our realtor to show it to us. One was adorable but once we got inside, the basement was so moldy and the house was very slanted (foundation problems! ). The other we put an offer on, it was aDORable inside, but after the home inspection we found it had everything wrong with it from electrical to roof, to basement, etc. 

Also, if we liked some pictures online, we'd scope it out with a drive-by, probably less than 10 of those. 

My budget was tiny and I wanted to be close to downtown so it narrowed it down quite a bit. Hard to find anything that wasn't either a gut job or in the complete hood.

thisismynickname2

When I bought my condo in 2010 I had a small budget. In person, saw six and made a decision. It met all my requirements and I knew it wasn't worth looking for a unicorn, you know?
Don't get discouraged OP! I have several friends that claim they saw 30-40 before choosing.

huskypuppy14

We probably saw 15-20 in person and countless others online. The problem in our area is the market is so competitive that we had to see a house ASAP, because if it was a good house it would be gone. There were two houses we wanted to look at but never got the chance because they got snatched up.

After seeing a lot of houses and getting discouraged, we upped our budget (350K to 375K)  because we weren't going to find our house in our price range. As it happened, our house we ended up buying was in our original price range but we had to up our bid 20K in order to get it. So worth it though!

WinstonsGirl

Too many, maybe 20-ish??  A lot of them were similar, cos I liked the neighbourhood.  Others I could work with but DH didn't like, or he didn't want to do the updating renovations.  We ended up building (I've now built twice, it was his first time).  

Our realtor stopped by after we moved in and took a tour.  She agreed that we never saw anything close to this plan, even though it's in the same neighbourhood.  Our building had just come up with about 10 new plans to accommodate the City's lot plans, so they had quite a few new and innovative plans.  Hopefully, our next move will be into the old folks home.  

eatdrinkandgetlowe

We looked at 3... That being said I am a Realtor and went through a lot of the houses I would be interested with clients. If I wasn't interested I wouldnt bothering bringing my fiance through.