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If you confine your search too narrowly, it could take years. Frankly, it's just not realistic. The market is in flux all the time - a wise buyer will assess the inventory available. Try to remember, you are not buying the only house you will ever own - perfection is not possible.
I tell my buyers, houses are like men - find a good one but understand it's not going to be perfect and it will need work.
Best wishes.
If it makes you feel better or worse, the next 3-4 months should be very busy with a lot of buyers hitting the market. Many areas the selection may be limited.
If you see something you like you need to move quickly.
1.) Burbank has a very limited amount of properties on the market.
2.) Your tax credit is a ridiculously low amount of the total cost of the house. In an area of $500K+ homes like Burbank, it really shouldn't even be a consideration. Its like having a 95 cent store instead of a 99 cent store.
3.) Without going into it too much, that area is rampant with mortgage and RE fraud regarding the short sales process. If they have no problem cheating the government in the form of food stamps, they definitely have no problem cheating the banks.
Give it some time. Sign a new lease for less than your current one. Sell off your additional crap you have in your storage unit and save some money up for downpayment. You'll have no problem finding a place you like in a few years.
Well maybe I am an oddity but I found a house within one week of starting to look. I was afraid it would take us forever to find one because we were looking for a very specific house. My parents will be living with us so it had to have full in-law-suite. First day we looked at six such houses. Some were gorgeous but far from action and no public utilities or too expensive. We end up offering for first house we looked at. Bilevel with in law suite, huge backyard, nice family location, public utilities, 4 bd -3 bh house within our budget. Drawback? It needs updated floors and kitchen. Nothing a little elbow grease would not fix. Being a first time buyer I keep going back and forth in my feelings of panic that I am making a mistake and should have look some more and relief that I virtually got everything in my list and you should move when you see what you want. We had our inspection and now waiting for appraisal. Hopefully, I will not regret moving this fast.
Well maybe I am an oddity but I found a house within one week of starting to look. I was afraid it would take us forever to find one because we were looking for a very specific house. My parents will be living with us so it had to have full in-law-suite. First day we looked at six such houses. Some were gorgeous but far from action and no public utilities or too expensive. We end up offering for first house we looked at. Bilevel with in law suite, huge backyard, nice family location, public utilities, 4 bd -3 bh house within our budget. Drawback? It needs updated floors and kitchen. Nothing a little elbow grease would not fix. Being a first time buyer I keep going back and forth in my feelings of panic that I am making a mistake and should have look some more and relief that I virtually got everything in my list and you should move when you see what you want. We had our inspection and now waiting for appraisal. Hopefully, I will not regret moving this fast.
I have had a few clients find a house on our first outing. None of them regret their decision. Homes tend to "speak" to you. If it speaks...listen.
One of those buyers walked into the first house on the list and said "this is it." We canceled the rest of the showings and wrote up the offer. She still loves the house.
Last edited by Silverfall; 02-03-2010 at 06:57 PM..
Reason: typo
Speaks? I prefer to think that the overall features, the price, the decorating choices all "click" when people are ready to make an offer, but yes when that happens the rest of day can be spent hoping that that no one else had the same reaction AND a better offer...
As for the OP and their inability to find something "on the right streets" I would really want to know just how big a town they are looking in. I mean if is something like Chicago where there are few thousand miles of streets narrowing things down is necessity, while if it like the small suburb that I live in (with about just few thousand residents) it would be silly to completely rule out any street.
If the OP truly means what they say about "no wood frame" I suspect that alone will rule out the majority of homes. I know concrete block construction has become common in parts of the SE where insects are a problem, but CA has a tremendous number of traditional balloon framed homes...
We looked off and on for a year and a half while living across the country. The first house we made an offer for had some great pluses (historic, large yard, pool, guest-house), but was in a rural area with lousy schools and quite far from my office. It ended up falling through after the appraisal came in low, and the inspection revealed some high-dollar issues the owners were not willing to negotiate. Made an offer on a short sale with a dishonest listing agent, who wanted cash up-front for the privilege of making an offer on his (we learned) termite-infested money pit.
We just kept looking...found some other nice houses, but nothing that checked all the boxes. Expanded our search area to a town in which the lowest-priced houses were at the very top of our budget. The houses we could afford were simply too depressing to contemplate, and we didn't look at several because they were over our budget. We knew the town and its quirks very well, so when the sellers of a house that was beyond our means reduced their asking price by 30%, we jumped. Made an offer, sight unseen, the same day, with inspection and mortgage contingencies.
Several months later, we are happily ensconced in our amazing house in the perfect town. And our real estate agent likes to hold us up as examples of the perfect clients.
I can't find a house. it's been 8 months. everything is either priced too high or in terrible shape. Nothing is going for sale on the streets I want. Have other buyers gone through this? Time is running out on my lease, on the tax credit and on my storage unit and there is nothing on the horizon. I am totally desperate. Someone please tell me I will find it soon!
This may be unconventional, but I would have your realtor send a letter to the homes that in the area you want to buy asking if anyone would like a free market analysis on their home.. many people think now is a terrible time to sell so they aren't going to put their home on the market, but they just might be in distress or need to move or whatever.. your letter might just tip them to go ahead and try to sell and you'll have first dibs.
OP, I know your pain. Sort of, we've been looking for 5 weeks now. We would reeeeeally like to take advantage of the $6500 tax rebate and low interest rates. I keep praying that people will be realizing Spring is a good time to sell and some more choices open up.
This may be unconventional, but I would have your realtor send a letter to the homes that in the area you want to buy asking if anyone would like a free market analysis on their home.. many people think now is a terrible time to sell so they aren't going to put their home on the market, but they just might be in distress or need to move or whatever.. your letter might just tip them to go ahead and try to sell and you'll have first dibs.
I bet you are a very sucessful realtor!
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