Re: What were your not willing to compromise on when looking at houses?

- Open floor plan
- 3 BRs
- Good property size
- Good Schools
- Quite & Nice neighborhood

Re: What were your not willing to compromise on when looking at houses?

We narrowed it down to one town so it was really all about location....but the house had to have

- at least 3 bedrooms
- at least 2 bathrooms, one in the master
- finished basement
- garage
- CAC

Re: What were your not willing to compromise on when looking at houses?

Good Property Size
Good School District

Re: What were your not willing to compromise on when looking at houses?

Our original list was:

1- to live somewhere close to the LIRR so I could get to NYC for work
2- near a highway so DH could get to work in Queens
3- not too far from the ocean
4- big yard
5- garage
6- basement
7- sidewalks so we can walk the neighborhood without walking in the street (it's a strange request I know)
8- a good neighborhood in our price range

So we did a lot of research on different areas and found a three town radius that we concentrated our search on.

We got everything on our list except for a basement.....we couldn't have all the above and still afford the mortgage so something had to go.....and surprisingly we haven't missed having a basement yet !

Re: What were your not willing to compromise on when looking at houses?

Our biggest must was a specific town, after that it was basement and 3+ bedrooms.

Re: What were your not willing to compromise on when looking at houses?

-3 bedrooms
-Central AC
-And an apartment to rent.
-Good schools

Message edited 10/31/2007 11:36:08 AM.

Re: What were your not willing to compromise on when looking at houses?

- Location...we only looked in the town of Huntington.

- Minimum 3 BR, 2 BA...though we wound up buying a house with just 1 BA, it has the potential for another 1.5 BA.

- Garage/basement...house had to have either/or - both would be bonus and that's what we wound up with plus an attic.

- Property...we saw a lot of .12 lots and wanted at least .25. Wound up with .37ac and are very happy.

Re: What were your not willing to compromise on when looking at houses?

We were able to limit our search down to one area based on each of our requirements (I wanted to be close to the train and he wanted to be in a certain town because of the public golf course so there was only one village that met both of these requirements).

For the house itself we wanted:

At least three brs (we got 4)
At least 1.5 baths (we got 2)
A quiet street
At least .25 acre (we got .3)
Room to expand eventually

We bought the first house we found that met all of these requirements that was on the low end of our price range - since we were looking in one area, we had an idea of what was out there and what we could afford.

Re: What were your not willing to compromise on when looking at houses?

We have a list of non-neg. and then a list of would love it if we could find it. On the non-neg list is....

Good school system
Not on a busy road
decent backyard
decent counter space in the kitchen
must have restroom on any floor with main rooms. I'm not walking downstairs to take my shower and I'm not walking upstairs to potty from the kitchen/LR/DR etc.

Re: What were your not willing to compromise on when looking at houses?

Good town-good school
Not a busy street
A garage
A basement
At least at 80 x150 yard (hard to find)
At least 3 bedrooms -which can't be too small.


Haven't found anything yet we like.

Re: What were your not willing to compromise on when looking at houses?

We limited our search to one town.

My number one must have - fireplace
DH's number one must have - 2 baths
Our other must have - basement

We ended up with:

dead end street location
3 bedrooms
2.5 baths
eat in kitchen
formal dining room
tudor home (our favorite)
finished basement
finished attic
deck off kitchen

we have quite possibly the ugliest kitchen in the world - but we'll take it!

Re: What were your not willing to compromise on when looking at houses?

great school district
2 bathrooms
dining room
finished basement
garage
open floor plan
not on a main road

Message edited 10/31/2007 7:37:12 PM.

Re: What were your not willing to compromise on when looking at houses?

location. We were pretty flexible with everything else. We bought a house that we could sell if we wanted to, but with the potential to expand if we wanted to stay. We'll probably stay!

Re: What were your not willing to compromise on when looking at houses?

well, we're no longer house hunting.... it was too and we thought our careers would suffer since mainly fixer-uppers were in our town / price range. Since house hunting, we're more honest about our needs.... here they are:

1) location- close to a 'main st'... where people walk around and get ice cream...

2) a reasonably large kitchen, with lots of cabinets, a large gas stove, and a dishwasher... even better: all the hook-ups, and a total gut job... so I can plan my own mod kitchen

3) at least 2 bedrooms.... 3 would be even better

4) a SMALL yard.... can't handle paying tons for maintenance, and don't want to become a garden slave 8 months out of the year.

Message edited 10/31/2007 9:16:28 PM.

Re: What were your not willing to compromise on when looking at houses?

A basement is a must for us
eat in kitchen
garage
nice size property
master bedroom with bathroom
CAC
formal dining room

Re: What were your not willing to compromise on when looking at houses?

2 baths, 3 bedrooms, decent yard, good location, eat in kitchen.

But I would say location was the biggest thing for us. We did not want to be near the train or near a school or on a main road. Those things we would not have compromised on.

Re: What were your not willing to compromise on when looking at houses?

We wanted at least one particular town, 3 BR, 2 baths, basement and a nice sized yard, plus the room to expand if we wanted to.

We ended up with 4 BR, 1 bath, yard and basement in the town we wanted. We also have the ability to expand - which we hope to do next year.

Re: What were your not willing to compromise on when looking at houses?

School district/area

Garage (preferrably 2 car)

Basement (that DH could stand in...many he couldn't)

3 BRs

DR (we made one)

Non main road (or too close to main rd)

Those were our MUST HAVES of course there were may WANT to have that I didn't get

Re: What were your not willing to compromise on when looking at houses?

location/school district and selling potential


now that we are ready to look when the market comes back around we will have:

location/school district (hopefully to keep children with their friends)
min 4 BR 2.5 BATH
waterview
2 car garage
large lot
basement
large family room
kitchen potential (since I will want to redo it my own way)


we are willing to compromise if we can add to the house going up (not out)

Re: What were your not willing to compromise on when looking at houses?

basement

Re: What were your not willing to compromise on when looking at houses?

We will be looking of course in a good school district but for me the house HAS to have a porch! I just love porches and DH wants a basement to put his "Bar".