Home buying newbie - advice? (Raleigh: real estate, apartment, to rent)
Raleigh, Durham, Chapel Hill, CaryThe Triangle Area
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.
My husband and 9 month old recently moved to the Triangle. We're total newbies to buying a home (we've always rented). We're still getting to know the different areas to see what suits our budget and lifestyle. We're looking for single family homes with 4 bedrooms in the $450k range and we'd like to try to stay within a 20 minute (up to 30 minute) commute to research triangle park if possible.
We're interested in new construction primarily but would consider resales if the house and location suit us. Ideally we're looking to stay in this house for at least 5 years and then possibly look into moving to a bigger home. Considering this I'm not sure if school districts are of dire importance but would definitely be great in case we decide to stay longer. New construction appeals to us for a few reasons: obviously we get to decide some of the things we would like in the house, everything is new so we have some time before things start to break down and require fixing (hopefully) and based on our friends and family's feedback- we'd get to meet new people in our neighborhood who are likely young couples with children. We know that the quality of new construction homes aren't that great anymore and our budget is modest, but we'd like to see what our options are along with resales.
Considering this, how would you suggest we start? Find a realtor first or approach new construction builders on our own? As mentioned- we're total newbies so any advice will be helpful to home buying in general and specifics to the area.
I've only owned one house so I don't know if my thoughts are common, but they may be -
Buy the smallest house you like (EDIT: changed that from "can tolerate") in the best location for resale and use the extra money for other things.
Don't look to spend what calculators tell you the most you can afford is based on income - especially since you're looking to move in five years to something bigger. Your budget seems REALLY high to me for that situation - you've got a while until you need to worry about schools, so now seems the time to buy that starter home rather than something expensive?
Others will tell you about neighborhoods - I chose mine because I used to rent in it and walk my dog through it so I knew it well, but I also chose to buy in mine because I knew resale would be very easy someday (proximity to Duke, nice neighborhood).
Seems like you have a lot of options - do you need to travel to see family? Budget for that. Don't take such a high mortgage that you give that up. Also try and max retirement savings and college savings if you can - another reason for less expensive house. Maybe a three bedroom home? Under 250K? Dare I say under 200K?
I've only owned one house so I don't know if my thoughts are common, but they may be -
Buy the smallest house you like (EDIT: changed that from "can tolerate") in the best location for resale and use the extra money for other things.
Don't look to spend what calculators tell you the most you can afford is based on income - especially since you're looking to move in five years to something bigger. Your budget seems REALLY high to me for that situation - you've got a while until you need to worry about schools, so now seems the time to buy that starter home rather than something expensive?
Others will tell you about neighborhoods - I chose mine because I used to rent in it and walk my dog through it so I knew it well, but I also chose to buy in mine because I knew resale would be very easy someday (proximity to Duke, nice neighborhood).
Seems like you have a lot of options - do you need to travel to see family? Budget for that. Don't take such a high mortgage that you give that up. Also try and max retirement savings and college savings if you can - another reason for less expensive house. Maybe a three bedroom home? Under 250K? Dare I say under 200K?
Good luck!
Thank you! We would LOVE to go lower than $450 if we can, that's just kind of the max range we can afford. We're shooting for 4 bedrooms because we are planning to expand our family in the next 2 years and we have grandparents coming to visit pretty frequently. After years of making do with no space we'd really love to give visitors a separate room to stay in and if we do have another kid we'd like for him/her to have a separate room as well! And absolutely our goal is to get a starter home with good resale value!
Congrats on making the step towards your first home purchase. That's a big step. The sixth or seventh purchase will get easier, I promise :-)
My answer to your question on where to start to is to find a great Realtor, not an average one, or even worse a part-time one. The barriers to entry in the Realtor world seem pretty low, so in my opinion, you end up with a very large range of skillsets. Get a great one, if you think you found a dud, find another one.
MikeJ has a great post that you should be able to find with a search that give's his advice on what to ask for when you meet with potential realtors.
My strongly opinionated advice (copied from an earlier post) on finding a realtor is below:
1. I don't need to be "friends" with my Realtor. They are a professional service no different than my dentist or my financial advisor, etc. I search for a realtor based upon their qualifications, not on me wanting to have dinner with them. Just like those other professions, I want someone I can relate to professionally, who listens to and understands my needs but I'm not looking to be life-long friends with them. Trust is important, friendship is not in business.
2. Ignore any realtor recommendations that start with, my friend, cousin, wife, etc is a part-time realtor. This is one industry full of people who think of it is a hobby in my opinion and not a full time job / career. I wouldn't go to a part-time Dentist, I'm not going to use a part-time Realtor.
3. Don't sign a buyers agreement with the first realtor you meet. If it's not a fit, and it shouldn't take more than 1 or 2 meetings / showings to know, go find another one. If they want you to sign a Buyers Agreement before they will invest a couple of hours for a first showing, go find another one. Don't string them along for months wasting their time, because you are scared to hurt their feelings. Don't mix friendship with business (See Point #1)
4. Luckily, real estate is a statistically driven business. Any top notch realtor, can tell you how many houses they were involved with last year from both a listing agent, and buyers agent perspective. Find one at or near the top of the pack. You are paying (one way or another) for their service, why purposely use someone in the bottom half of their chosen field.
5. We want an aggressive / responsive Realtor. If one of my clients (I don't work in real state) calls / texts me in the evening / weekend, there is a 99% chance I'll get back to them within the hour. Successful people see it as a career, not a 9-5 job.
6. Find out how many houses they bought / sold last year in your price point. You don't want a realtor who did 90% of their transactions below $200k last year, if you are looking for a $600k house. It goes the other way as well.
My experience is that successful realtors (in all markets) know other successful realtors. They generally know who the go-to people are for certain neighborhoods, areas, and know who has listings about to hit the market, etc.
2. Five years goes by REAL FAST. By a home you can see yourself in for good, just in case that happens. To that end, keep in mind the old adage about real estate "location, location, location". EVERYTHING else can be changed.
I would also make sure to research the builder and reviews of homes they have built. I only looked at a couple of newer construction homes, but the finish seemed sloppy. I also lived in a brand new apartment building that seemed amazing, but seems to be quickly disintegrating after only a year. If I had actually bought it, I would be livid.
We opted to buy an older home in a neighborhood with established schools and mature trees.
One thing I would recommend is spend well below budget. The extra savings can be rolled into retirement and brokerage investments. I feel this is a much smarter play then buying a nicer home where your money gets burned in interest in the first decade of ownership and gives you the option to retire much earlier in life.
How would you all recommend I go about finding a solid realtor? would reading online reviews be a good start? We don't know many people in the area so it's hard to come by referrals and I would gladly love to get recommendations from city-data or other forums but want to make sure it's a legitimate recommendation vs. someone's friend etc.
i was kind of in your boat. The mortgage lender at my bank recommended a couple that he had worked with, but I hired a realtor that seemed to specialize in the area I was looking at. I found him, because he listed another house in the neighborhood I was interested in. I had three phone conversations and two in person meetings before deciding on someone I was comfortable with. Since I was sure which neighborhood I wanted to live in, I eliminated people who didn't live in Raleigh or seemed to do this part-time. The market moves so quickly in Raleigh, I wanted someone who could show me a house as soon as it went on the market without issue.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
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.
