Possibly buying a house. Picture heavy

[iced_theater]

I wasn't really looking real hard for a house at the moment as I was going to save for about another year, but I came upon this house that seems to be a pretty decent deal in the market we are currently in. Here are a few details on the house.

2400 sq ft, 1200 top / 1200 basement
3 bedroom, 2 bath
unfinished basement
about 12,200 sq ft lot
2 car garage
built in 1975
$209,000

I got pre-approved for the loan for $205,000 as that is the limit for WCDA, which is an association that helps first time home buyers by lowering interest rates and dropping about $1000 or so off the closing costs.

So I put in my offer today and will hear one way or the other if they accept it by 5 pm tomorrow.

To put it in comparison, I saw one house with the following specs.

2500 sq ft, tri level
4 bedroom, 1 1/2 bath
about 9500 sq ft lot
1 car garage
built in 1963
$239,900

It needed work on everything, I don't believe there was a thing in there that didn't need work. While the one I put an offer on needs a little bit of work such as stretching the carpet, painting *ugly pink and blue rooms* and a couple other small things, it's in good condition for the most part.

So here are the pics of the house.

These first two are the living room

Shot with C765UZ at 2007-07-10

Shot with C765UZ at 2007-07-10

Dining room and back door

Shot with C765UZ at 2007-07-10

Kitchen

Shot with C765UZ at 2007-07-10

Bedrooms 1 & 2

Shot with C765UZ at 2007-07-10

Shot with C765UZ at 2007-07-10

Shot with C765UZ at 2007-07-10

Master bedroom & bathroom

Shot with C765UZ at 2007-07-10

Shot with C765UZ at 2007-07-10

Shot at 2007-07-10

Downstairs

Shot at 2007-07-10

Shot with C765UZ at 2007-07-10

Shot with C765UZ at 2007-07-10

Outside

Shot with C765UZ at 2007-07-10

Shot with C765UZ at 2007-07-10

Shot with C765UZ at 2007-07-10

Shot with C765UZ at 2007-07-10

Shot with C765UZ at 2007-07-10

Shot with C765UZ at 2007-07-10

 

[cy]

what you are describing is a 1,200 sf house with an unfinished 1,200 sf basement. it's not considered 2,400 sf until it's finished living area. including proper heat and air.

only someone local can tell you if that's a smoking deal or going price. what's the appraised value? ask how they arrived at sales price.. find a real estate agent that works that area. he/she will be able to give you comps of what similar houses have sold for recently.

 

[DUQ]

Nice house, just needs some love. You can really do alot with it.

 

[Flying Turtle]

There's a website called www.zillow.com where you can get an idea of prices paid in the area.

If there's only baseboard heating, that could get pretty expensive. Nice looking basement room. Lots of potential. If that's a school behind it I think that would be a good thing, except maybe at recess time.

Good luck

Geoff

 

[datiLED]

If you get serious about buying the house (or any house for that matter), hire a reputable home inspector. Do not go with the home inspector that your realtor uses unless you have some good references that indicate they are very thorough.

My wife and I have purchased three houses since being married, and we did well with the first two (great home inspections). The last house we bought had a lot of problems that our home inspector did not catch, or disclose. We would have passed on our current house, or offered $20,000 less if we had spent the extra money and hired our own home inspector. But, we trusted our realtor's home inspector. Three years later, and we are still paying for that mistake.

 

[Mad1]

Not a bad house it looks spaceous enough.

You just know you are gonna turn this room into a dedicated beam shot room.

 

[9volt]

2nd the home inspection. Be there when it happens and ask alot of questions. Make sure the guy goes on the roof, in the attic and in any crawlspace. Bring a flashlight so you can check stuff out too.

 

[iced_theater]

only someone local can tell you if that's a smoking deal or going price. what's the appraised value? ask how they arrived at sales price.. find a real estate agent that works that area. he/she will be able to give you comps of what similar houses have sold for recently.

I've been watching the market for a couple of years, just seeing what it's doing. Four years ago I would of been able to buy this house for maybe $90-100K, but since we are now in a boom everything has skyrocketed.

I checked out zillow and it doesn't have any information for my area.

The heating as said on the sheet is hot water gas.

I've asked real estate agents what a particular house sells for, and they always say the full price. I know that isn't true as I watch them fall from say $267K to 243K and still not sell.

 

[ernsanada]

Those prices sound very good when you live in Los Angeles California.

 

[greenlight]

is that a school next door? That might be noisy!!

 

[JackBlades]

Those prices sound very good when you live in Los Angeles California.

That's not even a down payment in Orange County! :sick2:

 

[iced_theater]

is that a school next door? That might be noisy!!

Used to be, it's now a child development center.

That price is good for here too now. I think the average house price is $245K or something like that. I have a sheet somewhere that showed. Any house under 200K is either a townhome or else extremely old.

 

[cy]

the most critical component of buying a house is to actually do it!
it's too easy to procrastinate and not actually close a deal. hindsight is 20/20. there is no perfect deal!

almost without exception... most folks would have been better off had they actually closed on house deals they looked at say 5 or 8 years ago. look at your example of prices 4-5 years ago. the main exception to that is if someone is going to move soon. (within 1-2 years)

never assume prices will always keep going up. lots of flat spells along the way.

don't sweat the minor fix-up that have low cost or sweat equity. do pay attention to major items like roof , A/C replacement and most importantly structural integrity of house.

location, location, location is valid anywhere...
if there's a major defect that would turn off buyers, come your turn to sell. pass and look for another house!

 

[skalomax]

That's not even a down payment in Orange County! :sick2:

So true!

Southern California Is Expensive!

Good luck with your Purchase Iced

 

[pathalogical]

Is that you in the pink room ? Don't bring anything in the house, that way you'll have more room for your lights !!! lol Speaking of lights, which one did you have on you ? Good luck with your purchase.

 

[iced_theater]

Well they accepted the offer on the house, and I am having the appraisal and inspection done shortly. I'll be closing on or before August 16th.

If I had my current job 4-5 years ago, I probably would of looked at getting a place, but I was just 19-20 four to five years ago

This is a good location where it's at, it's near the bigger newer houses. Also located on a quiet cul-de-sac which is nice.

That's my dad in the pink room. I was the one that was taking all of the pictures My mom was in the white, my fiancee in the yellow, and the real estate agent in the striped blue/white shirt.

 

[cy]

congrats!!!

24 is early for purchasing your first house. well done!

 

[Ken1022]

The house looks nice...good shape from what I can tell in the pic`s. I live in Florida so not familar with prices in your area.

But let me say one thing...you probably all ready have on your mind. Prices have not reached the bottom..."no where in sight" is what I here over and over. Things could drop much further. Someone on CNBC was saying...30% down from these levels could be a very realistic forcast. On a $200,000 home...$60,000 drop. If you wait, chances are you could buy a similar home for less money...perhaps $140,000 in two or three years.

Right now...here in Florida...you can rent for a whole lot less than buying. My mother had 4 homes...she just sold one. She couldn`t rent it...she tried for 4 months...and it sat on the market for many months with a for sale sign. Finally she sold it cheap as she had to compete with all the cheap forclosure homes in the area. She put the $180,000 she got for it in mutual funds and stocks and is recovering from her loss nicely.

She plans to sell one more home when the tenants leave.

Myself..I am keeping my home as it is almost payed off...and I don`t like the idea of packing every thing up and moving. But I regret not selling a few years back...and am expecting that in the big picture...Im going to regret not selling now...buying mutual funds and renting for a few years...then pulling out of the market and buying a much nicer home...cheap. I would be scared to buy right now...could end being a house of pain...for real.

Good luck if you decide to go through with the purchase...love that basement...lot of possibilities. Your area might fair much better in this downward slide than most areas in Florida as Florida really jumped up during the boom...and are considered overpriced by many.

 

[iced_theater]

The house looks nice...good shape from what I can tell in the pic`s. I live in Florida so not familar with prices in your area.

But let me say one thing...you probably all ready have on your mind. Prices have not reached the bottom..."no where in sight" is what I here over and over. Things could drop much further. Someone on CNBC was saying...30% down from these levels could be a very realistic forcast. On a $200,000 home...$60,000 drop. If you wait, chances are you could buy a similar home for less money...perhaps $140,000 in two or three years.

Right now...here in Florida...you can rent for a whole lot less than buying. My mother had 4 homes...she just sold one. She couldn`t rent it...she tried for 4 months...and it sat on the market for many months with a for sale sign. Finally she sold it cheap as she had to compete with all the cheap forclosure homes in the area. She put the $180,000 she got for it in mutual funds and stocks and is recovering from her loss nicely.

She plans to sell one more home when the tenants leave.

Myself..I am keeping my home as it is almost payed off...and I don`t like the idea of packing every thing up and moving. But I regret not selling a few years back...and am expecting that in the big picture...Im going to regret not selling now...buying mutual funds and renting for a few years...then pulling out of the market and buying a much nicer home...cheap. I would be scared to buy right now...could end being a house of pain...for real.

Good luck if you decide to go through with the purchase...love that basement...lot of possibilities. Your area might fair much better in this downward slide than most areas in Florida as Florida really jumped up during the boom...and are considered overpriced by many.

Well our prices in this area are just catching up to the national average or there about. It's a huge jump though when everything was much cheaper just a few years ago.

From what my dad's seen, the prices here jump during boom times and then just stay at around those prices even during bust times, then jump again during another boom. It's happened a few times that I know of.

My dad moved here when this area was booming back in the late 1970's early 1980's. Though the boom was quite a bit worse then. He stayed outside of a bank all night along with other people in hopes of being able to get a loan for a house, which he did get even though the interest rate was something like 13%. At that time, people were living in tents and campers just off of the highway as there was no open lots/apartments/houses.