If you are house hunting...

What is the criteria you are looking for? If thats even the right word to use lol. We're going to be starting to look soon, I'm not sure if my list is too specific or not.

at least 3br
at least 2 bathrooms
full basement (finished or the potential to be finished)
big backyard (not sure what a good lot size would be?)
EIK
dining room
open concept layout (or the potential to have one)

is this a good enough starting point to tell the realtor?

Re: If you are house hunting...

Re: If you are house hunting...

We just put an offer in on a short sale. We are looking in NHP, Garden City South, Floral Park, Williston park. This house has:

3 bedrooms
Full finished attic
1 bathroom
Full unfinished basement
Dining room
detached garage
50x100

I really wanted two bathrooms but it pretty much has everything we are looking for. Keeping my fingers crossed!!

Re: If you are house hunting...

Posted by Belongs2DanBuckley

Posted by carissa1643

What is the criteria you are looking for? If thats even the right word to use lol. We're going to be starting to look soon, I'm not sure if my list is too specific or not.

at least 3br
at least 2 bathrooms
full basement (finished or the potential to be finished)
big backyard (not sure what a good lot size would be?)
EIK
dining room
open concept layout (or the potential to have one)

is this a good enough starting point to tell the realtor?

I think the only thing you're missing is a general area that you are looking in (i.e. south shore nassau, northeastern suffolk, etc.) Or even specific towns you're interested in.

Also, if you're partial to a specific style house you might want to let the agent know that as well.

We're looking from Merrick to Massapequa, primarily capes and colonials, with a min of 3 br, 1.5 baths, MIN 6000 sq ft lot, basement, garage and formal DR are all must haves but our "like to have" includes a larger lot, fireplace, a sunroom and/or porch and a double driveway.

1 bid in and rejected, we've seen over 70 houses at this point and STILL NOTHING

Re: If you are house hunting...

we have our must haves

3brs
at least 1.5 baths
finished basement
family room
We have a big back yard now and don't need to have it in the next house.

You should know what you HAVE to have and what you can compromise.

Re: If you are house hunting...

We are in contract now, but when we were looking our list was :

Location
Splanch, Split or Colonial
3 bedrooms
1.5 Bath
Garage
At least 60 x 100 lot size
Good bones/layout


Nice to have:
- Updated
- Basement
- Fire place
- Central air

We ended up with all our musts and of the nice to haves only one (basement) but the other 3 are all cosmetic and can be done over time.

Re: If you are house hunting...

Posted by carissa1643


Oh thats so frustrating!! I hope you find something soon!

Yeah I have an area and style home in mind also. South shore, farmingdale to west islip, Colonial or ranch.

Re: If you are house hunting...

We seriously just found a house on Friday and have an accepted offer but we started looking in February. We are hoping to close by July 1st bc sellers asked for 60 days. The process depends on how flexible you are with your criteria. We were not so flexible so it was long and frustrating but worth it in the end.


Our must haves:
LOCATION!!! We wanted Sachem SD.
3/+ bedrooms
1 1/2 bathrooms
Basement
Garage
1/4 acre or +
Colonial
EIK
Dining Room
Living Room
Den

Wants:
Pool
1/2 acre
Central AC
2 1/2 baths


We basically got everything on our wants list minus the 1/2 acre so we really lucked out.
I agree with PP about styles you like or don't like. I did not want a ranch or a cape so I was very specific about the style. If you register with listingbook.com you can set specific criteria. As for property size ask your realtor to show you various property sizes bc seeing them in person sometimes makes the decision for you. We saw a house that was less than 1/4 acre and DH immediately realized why I kept pushing for a 1/4acre or more. There was no backyard!! Seriously like 20 feet....not big enough for a pool or a swing set.

GL!!

Message edited 5/3/2011 1:42:12 PM.

Re: If you are house hunting...

I would just add that be sure to tell your agent not only what you need to have and hope to get, but also WHY you need/want those features in a home. To me, the "why" is very important. Sometimes, the perfect house for a buyer is not what they list out on paper, but it DOES meet all of their criteria and needs.

Crazy example -- A woman who was buying a home from someone in my office insisted she needed a 3 bedroom home (she was living alone). My colleague eventually asked her why she wanted a 3 bedroom. It turns out that she had 2 cats and wanted each cat to have its own room!!! (I am totally serious!). So she wound up buying a 2 bedroom home that was perfect for her in every other way, and one bedroom had a huge walk-in closet that served as her second cat's "room." It worked out great - and it was at a better price point for her - but both she and the agent would have dismissed the house (because it was lacking the third bedroom), if the agent had not understood what the true needs underlying her "must have" list were!

Also, it's great to have an idea of the style of home you want, but I would say, don't get TOO hung up on that or limit yourself too much when you first start your search. It can help to take a look at the other styles you think you don't want, just to rule them out. I know SO many people (myself included) who wound up buying the style of home they swore they didn't want, because the home had everything else they wanted and more!

And there is huge variations even within the same styles of homes. Ranches can be small bungalows or huge farm ranches. Colonials can be narrow saltbox style or large contemporaries or center hall or side hall. There are SO many different types of splits. So make sure you want to rule out all types of a certain style of home versus just ruling out some variation of a style.

Good luck and have fun! I truly believe house hunting is fun (or else I wouldn't have gone into real estate). I hope you enjoy the process.

Re: If you are house hunting...

Thanks everyone!

Re: If you are house hunting...

That was pretty much our list too-except we had a VERY specifc location. We got everything we wanted except the EIK , we compromised b/c the kitchen was actually still a nice size, and we ended up getting a master bath and a large walk-in master closet- two things we thought we would NEVER get in our neighborhood/price range.

And to think I thought about not looking at the house b/c it did not have a EIK!

Re: If you are house hunting...

Give your preferences but don't be to rigid. We thought we wanted a ranch but the agent listened to us as we were house hunting. We ended up buying a colonial which is larger than we anticipated we wanted. But we are so excited and can't wait to close.

Think about what you can't change like location. And what you can and cannot realistically change. We assume that my FIL will be moving in with us one day and we decided we'd need the additional living space to accomodate him. Converting a 0.5 bath into a full bath is easier and cheaper than doing a whole extension.

Re: If you are house hunting...

we were looking in 7 towns but now have it narrowed down to 4

3+ bedrooms
at least 1 1/2 bathrooms
Basement
Garage
at least 1/4 acre

Re: If you are house hunting...

one other part of location for us was "no double yellow line"