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I am a 2nd year MBA student at the University of Illinois conducting research on those looking to/have purchased a new home in the last few years I would be extraordinarily grateful if you could answer these questions!!!
1) Where did you spend your time looking when beginning your search for purchasing a new home (ie, if online, where? If not online, where? Did you go to a home show?). Please be specific!
2) Did you use a real-estate agent when looking to purchase/build your new home....or did you just contact the builder directly?
3) How many years did it take between determining you wanted a newly built home, and actually buying/building it? (ie. 3 months, 6 months, 1 year, etc)
4) What was the most useful resource when buying/building a new home?
5) Who did you consult with between each stage? (ie Realtor, Broker, Friends, etc)
I am a 2nd year MBA student at the University of Illinois conducting research on those looking to/have purchased a new home in the last few years I would be extraordinarily grateful if you could answer these questions!!!
1) Where did you spend your time looking when beginning your search for purchasing a new home (ie, if online, where? If not online, where? Did you go to a home show?). Please be specific!
2) Did you use a real-estate agent when looking to purchase/build your new home....or did you just contact the builder directly?
3) How many years did it take between determining you wanted a newly built home, and actually buying/building it? (ie. 3 months, 6 months, 1 year, etc)
4) What was the most useful resource when buying/building a new home?
5) Who did you consult with between each stage? (ie Realtor, Broker, Friends, etc)
Thank you all so very very much!!!!!!!!!!
Jeremy
1) Online. Primarily used Zillow and Trulia, but also used my local MLS site's search function.
2) Built new home, used a realtor (his realtor that advertised the listing, was a dual-agent)
3) 2-3 months. We wanted to buy our first home, but did not really want to build. When we couldn't find the house we wanted in the area we wanted, we decided to build.
4) Probably the realtor, then the builder, then the lawyer.
I've owned 3 homes now, and each situation is different, so I will try to be general
1) Where did you spend your time looking when beginning your search for purchasing a new home (ie, if online, where? If not online, where? Did you go to a home show?). 1st & 2nd time driving around, newspaper, RE ads, 3rd time - online, MLS, driving through neighborhoods at different times & days of the week- VERY important!
2) Did you use a real-estate agent when looking to purchase/build your new home....or did you just contact the builder directly? for new construction did not use agent, for used homes did
3) How many years did it take between determining you wanted a newly built home, and actually buying/building it? (ie. 3 months, 6 months, 1 year, etc) - this is really dependent on each situation, but in my most recent purchase, once I got an agent, I was in my home within 4 months
4) What was the most useful resource when buying/building a new home? - these days the internet MLS search seems to be the most resourceful. The 3rd time, I was able to see homes hit the general market before the listing showed up on my agent's website (like the night before), so I was able to see them the next day which was really helpful in a market with very few active listings. Some MLS or agent-based websites are more search-friendly and informative than others, you just need to see which one you prefer. I did not find Trulia to be very accurate in my community....lots of outdated listings.
5) Who did you consult with between each stage? family, friends, agent
I am not sure if this will be helpful to oyu since we ended up with a not new home, but if you are interested in what we did when looking for a home we can tell you.
1) Where did you spend your time looking when beginning your search for purchasing a new home (ie, if online, where? If not online, where? Did you go to a home show?). Please be specific!
We started by trying to select a town. We mostly used the internet and sites like Citydata and Great schools.com, and other simlar infomration sites. Then we went to the individual town's websites. We drove around and visited shops and talked to everyone we coudl find, visited schools etc. Once we selected towns, we contacted local realtors, but also drove and walked around lookng for for sale signs.
2) Did you use a real-estate agent when looking to purchase/build your new home....or did you just contact the builder directly?
Deponed on which deal. Sometimes we had a realtor, sometime we bid at a foreclosure auction, sometimes we walked up to the owner and said how much for your house? The deal we ended up with a realtor handled the purchase of the property. We bought the house for $1 and moved it o the property. My brother found the house advertised in Old House Journal and convinced me to go look at it.
3) How many years did it take between determining you wanted a newly built home, and actually buying/building it? (ie. 3 months, 6 months, 1 year, etc)
Well here is where we are not helpful. I would not want a newly built home 99% of them are garbage.
We spent two years selecting acceptable towns. Then we bid on or made offers on various homes as they came up. All in all it was about four years from the time we decided to move to the time we acutally bought property. However we offered/bid on a couple of other houses prior to that, we just did not get them.
4) What was the most useful resource when buying/building a new home?
My feet and my mouth. My brother. He is the one who found the house we ended up buying. A potential employer suggested the town we ended up in. The internet was crucial. Realtors showed us about a dozen different houses in different towns.
5) Who did you consult with between each stage? (ie Realtor, Broker, Friends, etc)
My wife was first, then our kids. Otherwise extended family mostly. Sometimes friends and sometimes realtors. Also bankers and an appraiser.
I just want to add....., I much prefer purchasing brand new. I'm not a DIY'er. My most recent purchase was a 10 year old home that "looked" very clean & presentable. The house was a rental for the majority of time, so there was very poor upkeep of maintenance, other than surface/immediate issues. I bought a year ago, but the seller refused to take care of issues found on the home inspection, which if they did, would've been covered by the manufacturer's lifetime warranty....since they were too lazy to do so, now I get to pay full replacement price.
Thankfully the builder is fairly reputable, not that he will fix anything in a "used" house, but I'm in a very desirable community. Just know that buying "used", either you will be doing the work, or you will be paying someone else to do it. In my experience, buying new typically puts off this type of work....it does happen though...and that's why you really need to research the builder before you buy.
1) Where did you spend your time looking when beginning your search for purchasing a new home (ie, if online, where? If not online, where? Did you go to a home show?). Please be specific!
Since 2004, I've bought 3 homes and sold 2. Every time I bought the house I looked in the neighborhood I wanted to live in and then looked online after inputting the address. The first one I contacted the seller's agent since it was in a private apartment/condo complex. The second 2 were houses and I searched them online through Zillow & Redfin.
2) Did you use a real-estate agent when looking to purchase/build your new home....or did you just contact the builder directly?
I used a real estate agent the first and third time. The second house was an all cash transaction and after we checked the entire house out thoroughly and had 2 home inspections we bought the house without an agent, saving the hassle.
3) How many years did it take between determining you wanted a newly built home, and actually buying/building it? (ie. 3 months, 6 months, 1 year, etc)
N/A since all 3 houses had previous owners! The SO and I never wanted a new build house because most are crappy builds or were way overpriced. My dad was in construction and he said older homes are usually the better buy. He went round with us looking at new build homes and he said the workmanship would most likely leave us with a crap home. The houses are made out of cardboard! LoL...
4) What was the most useful resource when buying/building a new home?
N/A again but the most useful resource would of been my father and other family who are in the industry who understand how cheap these new builders are!
5) Who did you consult with between each stage? (ie Realtor, Broker, Friends, etc)
I consulted with the SO, parents, broker and then a realtor before buying all 3 homes to make sure all my bases were covered.
Last edited by fancykatya; 12-08-2012 at 05:14 AM..
Reason: i deleted swear word
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