Quote:
Originally Posted by LIGuy1202
We spent two years looking for our current home.
The first time we didn't define our criteria very well which resulted in going to a lot of houses which clearly didn't meet our needs. One of the problems was that my wife and I hadn't communicated with each other very well about what we wanted and we ended-up never mutually liking or disliking any house we saw.
It was only after we had a few discussions about our expectations, and compromised with each other, were we able to clearly tell the real estate agent what our mutually agreed expectations were. Even then we decided to review and map-out each listing before going to the house. This preempted about 1/3 of the trips we would have otherwise taken during the second year.
During the second year we saw, perhaps, eight houses over a 3-month period (compared to about 25 the year before).
|
Wow! That absolutely describes exactly what I am going through. Last year, I saw a few dozen houses, and a handful of them turned out to be alongside a busy street (like Prospect Ave in E. Meadow) and one was next door to a gas station.
But this year, I'm much more selective in the houses I select as viewables. I now map out every house before I visit it. What's funny is that there is ton of inventory out there but I guess between my wife and I, we have distinct criterias:
Location:
We would like to be within Nassau but will consider the areas in the HHH SD. We don't want to be near the water (so we want to be well North of Sunrise Hwy). In term of Nassau, we like the areas that are East of the Meadowbrook Pkwy and West of Route 231 (Deer Park Ave). Good SD is important.
Style of House:
She does not want High Ranches or non-dormered Capes.
I don't care about the style as long as it is more than 1300 square feet and the lot size is at least 50x100
Property taxes under $10K
Amenities:
We both want a finished basement
I need a garage that is bigger than 200 square feet (which means most 1 car garages are out)
We need a minimum of 3 bedrooms and 2 baths
I guess that's why we've been have a tough time finding something. BTW, we did find a house to our liking, but in the end we got overbid. Thanks for responding.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
