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I sell real estate in a very affluent area of Fort Lauderdale. It shocks me to no end when people want a new, waterfront condo, walking distance to everything, completely updated for under $200,000.
I'm like you need to add about $400,000 on to your budget.
Ted Bear offered some excellent advice !! ... particularly since you have been looking for 5-months and admittedly haven't even picked-out a neighborhood. No offense intended, but, it sounds more like you are 'tire kicking' than house-hunting ... along with 2-3 others here who state that they looked for the right house for "years???"
If one is only looking for an affordable "wow factor," yet, has no sense of urgency to buy and/or no specific idea or rating system to identify and compare homes, then it sounds like 'house hunting' has become one's hobby. Also, IMO, "perfect homes" are not purchased, they are made by the people living in them. The 'perfect' size and configuration of the rooms, lighting, landscaping, etc. might be 'nice to have', but, are not essential needs.
Have you made any offers? --- Or do you simply expect sellers to 'wait', while you spend another several months making sure theirs is really your 'perfect home?'
To find "that house" we had pretty basic essential criteria - location, mature trees, house had to have character, pool. Everything else could be compromised. Our current home met all three, but didn't have a number of other "wish list" items. If we had to have nearly everything, we'd still be looking and we'd miss out on a good house.
Im looking at a lot of houses and nothing feels right . Sorry , someone was the grammar police in here . Yes we are looking at a lot of neighborhoods and we don't have a certain neighborhood picked out so that clears that up . Nothing feels right .
Then you should stop and re-evaluate what it is you think you want.
After five months of house hunting we still have not found anything that says "wow Im the house " because I need this house to say this is it because im not moving again . Im so over it . I m thinking I should take a break for awhile and stop looking . Have any of you ever felt this way ? I mean nothing Im seeing is of any interest to me .
I agree, the market is way over heated in some areas, and the stock is pretty poor too. Perhaps not the best time to buy.
In person , one cannot make an informed decision by the looks on internet . I think I have found it but don't want to say anymore because I don't want to nix it ...believe me this is the time to move ...
You can narrow down the list online so you don't have to look at many.
I drove out of my driveway, drove across country, went to an area I had never been to in my life, looked around 3 days and closed 20 days after I pulled out of my old driveway. I was able to do that because I searched as much as I could online and only had to look at a few in person.
Wow. It's the house hunter. I think your expectations are way way too high.
I have things I want in a house, its true. But I see a LOT of houses online that I would be happy in (barring hidden mold, electrical, plumbing, or termite problems and etc). A LOT.
Once I know WHEN I can move, it won't take me long to find a house to move TO. There are things I need in a house and things I don't care about one way or the other.
I need it to be sound. I need it to be in a safe neighborhood - and my idea of "safe" is pretty generous.
I need a yard large enough and with enough exposure to all-day sunlight for a garden. I need a usable basement - doesn't have to be finished, just not nasty - or workshop space for my pottery studio. I need room for my loom. I need a garage, preferably attached, as I am too decrepit to scrape ice and snow off every morning in the winter. And I need a practical kitchen.
I don't care about paint. A bad paint job can be painted over.
I don't care about carpet - most likely I will rip it up and replace it with wood (not laminate) flooring or tile.
I don't care about whether or not something is "dated". Most of that can also be fixed with paint and new flooring.
I want an open floor plan but if the kitchen is laid out practically I can live without that.
There are DOZENS of houses out there that are good enough and will suit my needs. Of course this makes buying easier for more reasons than one - and not just that I'm pretty easily satisfied. Locking yourself into one-the-PERFECT-home doesn't exactly give you bargaining clout. Being able to truthfully walk away and pick something else equally as satisfying DOES.
Again these things^^^^ are you and what you can live with and without ...see I don't need a workshop or a basement ...you do . House buying and hunting is very subjective in terms of what you want and what you need ...I could live without a basement and a workshop . I could also live without a garage my other half cant . I don't want dated plumbing and I imagine a home inspector will take care of that .yes I can paint . Im seriously not being picky but I know what I can live with right off the bat and what I cant . I was even looking at foreclosures and I cannot believe what folks do to those !!! believe me Im not asking for the world , Im really a basic person and could and can live in a basic house but it has to be laid out well and have enough room for us to move around in it , in other words I don't want my husband and I to have to go one at a time in the kitchen nor hall way nor bathroom does that make sense ?jeeze I cant believe some people on here are so judgemental .
If you want more space to move around in, perhaps a newer house might work for you. I've found older houses to typically have a different style of floor plan. The older floor plans seemed to value separate rooms and the ability to completely close them off. We just bought a '50's house and it had doors that could completely close off the kitchen from the rest of the house. The door ways are offset so you have to sort of weave and dance to go from room to room. Several folks who have visited have commented such as "it just keeps going and going" since you go from one area to the next. In actual square footage, it's not all that big, about 1,200 square feet, but it's got all sorts of nooks and crannies so it seems larger.
We didn't intend to buy this house, it was bought for it's location and because we were going to use it as a rental. But, it wasn't in good enough shape for a rental so we rented the other nicer house and are now living in this one and getting it renovated. (Oh frabjalous joy). However, the location is lovely and after it's renovated we will most likely end up staying here. After the floor plan is opened up a little, it may even be better than the last one which we'd thought was pretty good.
We'd searched for two and a half years to find the last house, although that was mostly because of the price we wanted to pay more so than the houses available. For the house prior to that, we'd searched for about two months before we bought that one. The houses before that one started as vacant land, so they probably don't count as house hunting. This current renovation house we weren't actually looking, my DH was just sort of browsing online and it popped up and before I really knew what was going on we had another house.
Take a short break from looking. When we were house hunting here in Pensacola 2 years ago I got to where all the houses started running together in my mind and I just didn't want to go look at another. Then after a few days off I felt better about looking and started looking again but limited it to only 3 houses any single day. It can really get overwhelming after a while
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