House Hunting Blues

PirateLover;2467818 wrote: Right I'm not expecting to get something totally finished for cheap. But, we can't afford a total fixer upper. I need something in between. I can deal with wood paneling, and a slightly outdated kitchen. But if I need to do a full overhaul that's not very attractive to me right now.
Rita- we both work in Cherry Hill and are looking there as well as Marlton and Mount Laurel. Burlington County taxes are a little better on the whole, but it's further out from my mom who is our primary babysitter, but she is also needed by my dad on a daily basis so we want to stay relatively close to them (in Philly). We dabbled with Washington township but it really doesn't make sense for DH's work (Wegmans). There are no stores close by. Mile wise it isn't far but 42/295 can be brutal.

I understand and wasn't talking about you when I made the House Hunter comment. I just laugh every time I watch it and they say "The kitchen doesn't have granite counter tops or stainless steel appliances" or "the bathroom looks like it is from 1990". Do these people realize that not all people remodel their homes every 10 years.

The reason I ask you where you where looking because you can get a lot of house in my area, but it looks like it is too far for you. My sister lives Fox Chase and it take us about an hour and 15 mins to get there from my house. We are about 20- 25 mins from Washington Twp.

I wish you the best of luck. I agree that HGTV can give a false since of hope. Because of HGTV, I thought selling a house would be a piece of cake. It actually wasn't that difficult getting the house ready for show, but the stress involved once going on the market is never fully relayed on those shows.

As a side note, I LOVE Wegmans! We don't have them down here in the south where we live. My husband works in NJ and a couple of years ago I visited my first Wegmans and fell-in-love! Now, every time I travel with him to NJ, Wegmans in Woodbridge is one of my first stops.

TheVBs;2467534 wrote: Like others have said, don't get discouraged! If you have a good real estate agent, they'll keep bringing you good possibilities. If you don't feel your real estate agent is working hard enough for you, don't hesitate to switch. Good luck!

That is great advice! My house selling/buying process took longer than it should because my first realtor wasn't any good. I went with a well known but local realtor thinking that would be better and I like to support local business. However, when it comes to real estate, you really pays to work with the a large company. Once I switched to Weichert, my condo received many more showings because it was properly marketed. Also, my realtor would find out about places coming on the market and would get me in to see them quickly.

In comparing Marlton to Mount Laurel, both towns are very similar. I chose Mount Laurel because the taxes were about $1,500-$2,000 less in MT. Laurel for the same size house. Both schools systems are great, so I didn't see the reason to pay the extra taxes.

Don't give up!!!! You will find the "right" house.

We bought a cute starter home that we outgrew after 13 years and 2 kids, and I KNEW WHAT I WAS AND WAS NOT PUTTING UP WITH if we did do a move.

We put our house on the market, and it did take 6 months to sell, but in that time I looked at..... 53 houses. Yes, 53 of them.
Some with formica so old it had the gold swirl ingrained in it for the kitchen counter, some with mold smells so strong from the basement it gave me an instant headache. Some so hot because of no air what so ever, and electric so old, my hair dryer would blow a fuse...
Then...I found the perfect home for us, in a great neighborhood, and it had everything on our wish list, we bought it!!!
I never looked back!
Keep at it!!!
Just a side note...I live in Northern NJ, and housing is pricey. For my $500K budget I was not getting big open kitchens with granite and high end appliances, open floor plans and new bathrooms. That is my reality. My sturdy cape was built in 1959, and one of our bathrooms has original tile. Grey and pink baby!!! I updated the sink, and vanity, and new paint and accessories.

Julie:mickey:

BriarRose0708;2467151 wrote: I am in that boat with you, Maryanne! Our area is very similar. We rent from my DBF's parents who live next door and it's time to get out. But, we need something that is mostly move-in ready and in the same school district where the kids go. Unfortunately houses that have space for 3 bedrooms and somewhere for DBF to set up his work space (not necessarily a bedroom but room for a desk that's not in our room) is either in a shambles or way out of our range. The taxes here are outrageous as well, which puts even more stress on our meager budget.

Luckily, market prices tend to come down in the fall and winter. I hope you find something soon!

I DO NOT miss paying those Lansing taxes at all. We pay 1/3 of that now in GA.
Good luck with your house hunting!!

RedSoxFan;2468361 wrote: I DO NOT miss paying those Lansing taxes at all. We pay 1/3 of that now in GA.
Good luck with your house hunting!!

We are going to see 4 houses tonight, I am excited yet terrified!:mickey:

BriarRose0708;2468363 wrote: We are going to see 4 houses tonight, I am excited yet terrified!:mickey:

Good luck! Hope you find, at least, one that you like!!!

BriarRose0708;2468363 wrote: We are going to see 4 houses tonight, I am excited yet terrified!:mickey:

Good luck. Exciting and terrifying at the same time. Hope you guys find one you like soon.

How's it going, Maryanne? Any updates on your search?

BriarRose0708;2469333 wrote: How's it going, Maryanne? Any updates on your search?

We have been at a bit of a standstill. We were finally going to look at 4 or 5 homes yesterday, but our realtor was hit with a nasty sinus infection. :ill::(
I'm feeling pretty discouraged about the whole process, honestly. How about you? Did you like any of the ones you looked at?

PirateLover;2469449 wrote: We have been at a bit of a standstill. We were finally going to look at 4 or 5 homes yesterday, but our realtor was hit with a nasty sinus infection. :ill::(
I'm feeling pretty discouraged about the whole process, honestly. How about you? Did you like any of the ones you looked at?

The sickness has been going around, I'm sorry you hit a delay with your realtor, I hope she gets better soon!

We put in an offer on a place and the structural was last week. We hit another delay because the seller hadn't closed the windows in the house so the inspector couldn't do the radon test. Our deadline for it is tomorrow so we have to get an extension and hope the seller's agent made sure the windows were closed last night! The ridiculous details and hoops we have to jump through are really overwhelming. We're trying not to get too attached to the place in case something falls through.

I am on the other side of things right now, my house is on the market and I have had very few showings. People like my home not my neighborhood :( I live in an area hit pretty hard with foreclosures and my area is mixed with summer cottages and year round homes so the prices range from very low 28k to higher lakefront 200k homes. I am in the middle 145k. We already purchased our next house in South Carolina. We have it rented ( thank goodness) so our mortgage is covered. I just wish we could sell this one so we can make our move. Would love to be out before the winter, just cant take another cold snowy winter here :freeze:

Well guys, almost a year exactly after I first made this post, we are set to close on house in a little over a week!!! It is a house that was owned by an in-law looking to downsize, in a great neighborhood, and we got it for a good price. Needs updating but I really can't complain. It was a loooooong process to get us here, but I guess things really do happen for a reason. I was ready to settle on so many "starter" homes that had a lot of quirky things I could "live with" but eventually ended up stumbling into a great situation with a home that gives us room to grow in a great school district. It's been really stressful, because we ended up doing it all without realtors to save $$$, but in the end it's also so exciting! Wish us luck!

Glad to hear you've finally found a home that fits you!! Good luck with your move!!

I am so happy for you. How wonderful that this search is coming to an end. We also fell into our first home completely by chance and stayed there for 25 years and raised our the kids in it. Best wishes with becoming a first time homeowner.