Jan 03 2009
What to look for when buying a house?
Now that we are in the buying process of real estate; I always wonder what it is that other people look at in a house, what are they looking for and what are their opinions when they walk thru a house. I’ve never sold a house. I helped my parents sell their house last year and tried to “fix” it up so that it was presentable. It was always a fixer but something that was still move-in ready. The appliance where 15 years old, there was hard wood floors, but the walls probably needed new paint. It was priced right for the time and the area. There where a lot of things that could have been “fixed” or upgraded to make the price hight but they also wanted to sell right away and didn’t want to put the effort into upgrading things. The people who bought it where able to just move right in.
So when we go look at houses now, we kind of classify things as - fixer but need work right away, fixer but move in ready, work to be done as we live there, and total turn key - nothing needs to be done at all. Now I think most people want the latter, a total turn key that they don’t need to do a thing too. Sometimes I think I want that too. But in reality, what we like are the fixers. I know what we see when we look at a house, but I always wonder what other people see.
As the housing market slows down and there becomes an inventory for buyers too choose from. It’s evident that buyers are taking there time and really looking at homes more closely. Also, there are a lot of short sales and foreclosure/bank owned homes on the market. Now more then ever, there are homes that fall in the fixer categories. As buyers look at these fixers, the question for many as they walk thru is “is it even worth it to fix this house up?”. Now as an architect, we don’t look at some of the typical things most home buyers look at when walking thru a house the first time. From talking to many people, it seems that presentation, finishes, size and layout are the biggest things. If you watch a lot of HGTV, you know that presentation and staging are what hook a lot of buyers.
But we don’t look at those things when we walk a house. We look at the size, the layout, the roof, the walls, the neighborhood, and most importantly the “potential” the house has. We don’t really have must have list like most people. There are certain things we require - minimum 3 bedrooms, good layout, as big a lot as possible, good school district and most importantly PRICE. We don’t really look at the floor finish or the paint. If the kitchen is out of date, so much the better. All those things can be changed. The thing we look at, besides the price, are things you really can’t change. You can’t change the lot size. Land isn’t going to get cheaper. You can’t change the school district. You could probably add on another bedroom if you needed it but you would have to have the lot size to do it. You can’t change the layout of the house that much unless you want to totally knock it down. Price is negotiable now a days, more so then ever, but you can’t negotiate a million dollar home down to $500K. Carpet, paint, appliances, even the doors and windows can all be changed. You can do them right away or gradually.
The first house we bought was a fixer. It was move in condition but everything was still original to the house. It took us 8 years but we did eventually change most of the things in the house. The only thing left to do to it would be the windows and the guest bathroom - and even that would probably only require a new tub. As a home buyer in todays market, you shouldn’t feel turned off by some of these foreclosures that seem like “a lot of work.” The potential of a house is what is often over looked by many. If you can see the potential, there may be a lot more homes on your list then you think.
