When should we start house hunting?

We live in an apt and our lease is up in November 2008. I wanted to start looking this fall, DH says to wait until the beginning of next year.

Re: When should we start house hunting?

is it possible to break your lease if u find something earlier?

U never know, u can buy the first house u look at, or u can look at 80 until u find the right one.

dh and i looked for a a few months before we got married

and then on and off after we got married.

we wanted to have a good feel for the market and find something we really liked before we moved..

we moved 7 months after we were married.

Re: When should we start house hunting?

i would start attending open houses so you get a feel for what you get for the money. but i'd wait to seriously start looking until jan/feb. on average, it'll take 45-90 days to close, so you'll have jan-june to really look at everything and find your dream house! good luck!

Re: When should we start house hunting?

It's hard to say becuase these things could take time. My friend at work just signed contracts last week and they are actually planning to close in Novemebr with a move in date of 12/1...so

Re: When should we start house hunting?

Posted by angnick

is it possible to break your lease if u find something earlier?


I asked this when we signed the lease and they said if we break the lease we would have to pay out the rest of the lease.

Which I don't think makes sense b/c would that cause people to sub let?

I guess its never going to work out perfect where we close and move in right when our lease is up.

I would like to have a house by October 08 and have a few weeks to go in and paint etc - before we move in.

Message edited 8/7/2007 3:14:11 PM.

Re: When should we start house hunting?

maybe you could sublet if u find something.

i would say to just go to a few open houses and get a feel like the above poster said!

It could take months to find what u like.

do u know what area u want?

Re: When should we start house hunting?

Yes - I want to stay in the same area I am now. We started to look for houses this time last year and decided to wait and get an apt (we were still planning our wedding) So I kinda know what we can get for the money

I have been looking on MLS every now and then

Re: When should we start house hunting?

My wife and I new exactly what we wanted, until we started looking. You have to look for the perfect location and think of the future.... Where I live the taxes are crazy, but the area is perfect; great schools, nice, calm, clean neighborhood.
When looking I realized one very important thing, keep this in mind; if I ever move, what is this house going to be worth. We purchased a house that looked like 1975 on the inside and I have been remodeliing it over the past 7 months. I still have the kitchen to do, but, things are looking up.

We figured we would find a house in a few months (5-6) it took us 3 years to find a home.
We closed on December 14, 2006.

GOOD LUCK, AND HAVE FUN
http://picasaweb.google.com/tjlealand3/BeforePurchase