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This is our 5th house or is it six? Anyway...all the previous houses were just the best we could do for our budget in a specific area. We always seemed to buy in a sellers market so options were limited. We would look at a few houses and then make a decision.
This last house was the first time I ever had the feeling about a house being "the one". My husband took a job out of state. I stayed behind for a few months to settle things. I started looking at houses online and found this house. At that time it was 20k over budget. After I got settled in with my husband in a rental home I kept an eye on this place. I dunno what it was but this house spoke to me. 9 months later when we were ready to get serious about a house purchase I was stoked to see this house had been reduced 15k, making it only 5k above our budget. Due to the market I thought we could get the sellers to come down. We placed a bid and was shocked to get a flat out no, not even a counter offer. Our realtor was stunned and later found out the seller's realtor was pissed. The house had been on the market for some time.
So we moved on and we placed bids on other houses. We got turned down each time. I was shocked because we had never been rejected so many times before. We are fair buyers and it just seemed like we were running into a lot of idiot sellers. We about gave up on the whole thing was going to rent another year when the sellers of this house contacted my realtor asking if we were still interested. Almost 4 months had passed since our first offer. I guess they didn't get a showing after our offer and reality sunk in that no one is going to offer exact list price. So we got the house. It was like it was meant to be and in all of my home buying experiences, I never felt that way before. I looked at probably a 100 online and about 15 with drive bys and had our realtor show us about 8 houses in person.
I believe your story, because every thing has its fate, and if the house is for you, you feel relaxing, comfortable and something like relieved when you first step in. And even some difficulties from the beginning like your offer was rejected, someone offered the higher price than you and they got the contract etc ... but at the end, there's some issued so they're back out and the house is for you.
I guess I'm more of an impulse buyer, because I only look at a few, or sometimes I just see a house I like and then decide I want to buy a house. But I always do my research first, either visiting comps in the area or checking them out on-line. My current home is my first single (as opposed to condo or townhouse). Saw it on realtor.com last year, went to see it the next day, checked all the comps in the area and made an offer within a day or two. It had been on the market for 3 or 4 months; however, the price had just dropped 20K so I figured it might get snapped up if I didn't move on it. I got an additional $9K in closing costs. I've sunk a lot of money into it (updating, fencing the yard)....meanwhile, prices have dropped a bit further....but oh well, this will probably be my last house as I'm 61 and there's no money left to be buying/selling. My favorite thing is my deck and back yard and flowers....I'm so happy sitting out there and watching my little dogs play or just sit in the shade.
Hi all! How many homes did you look at before you found "the one" or put an offer in on a house you had seen previously? Also, when did you buy? Was it a buyer's/seller's market?
Where we live, it's never completely a buyer's market...turnover and inventory is usually low for the type of property and price range we were looking for...so it took us looking off and on for 4 years (probably saw at least 50-80 properties) before we just hiked up what we were willing to pay and bought our house. We did stalk a few houses but there were some bidding wars. A couple of our offers (made on the first day or two of a listing!) were beat out by faster offers. And we got into a couple of price negotiations that never went farther than that. We had some nuthead sellers who didn't realize the atmosphere and the people they were dealing with.
The home we got was the best of all worlds. It was better than all the rest we saw or negotiated on (of course, it was 200k more, too)...and the sellers took our first offer (because we said, "This is our first and only offer - take it or leave it.") and it was still very close to the asking price (94%). My realtor and my mother said it was bc they were smart enough to realize that your first offer is usually your best offer. They had it good, too, as their house was only on the market for a week and a half before they scored a contract.
I guess I'm more of an impulse buyer, because I only look at a few, or sometimes I just see a house I like and then decide I want to buy a house. But I always do my research first, either visiting comps in the area or checking them out on-line. My current home is my first single (as opposed to condo or townhouse). Saw it on realtor.com last year, went to see it the next day, checked all the comps in the area and made an offer within a day or two. It had been on the market for 3 or 4 months; however, the price had just dropped 20K so I figured it might get snapped up if I didn't move on it. I got an additional $9K in closing costs. I've sunk a lot of money into it (updating, fencing the yard)....meanwhile, prices have dropped a bit further....but oh well, this will probably be my last house as I'm 61 and there's no money left to be buying/selling. My favorite thing is my deck and back yard and flowers....I'm so happy sitting out there and watching my little dogs play or just sit in the shade.
It's priceless for your life, if we buy a house, I'd like large fenced yard for my dogs, too.
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Our realtor was stunned and later found out the seller's realtor was pissed. The house had been on the market for some time.
So we got the house. It was like it was meant to be and in all of my home buying experiences, I never felt that way before. I looked at probably a 100 online and about 15 with drive bys and had our realtor show us about 8 houses in person.
