how many houses / how long did it take before you bought your new home

[Anonymous]

We looked at somewhere between 60-70 houses over 3 months. We were outbid on 3 other homes before we finally got our place. This was back in 2008.

[Anonymous]

1.5 years or so. We put a bid on one other house and lost. Went to an open house in an area we thought we'd crossed off our list and ended up loving it.....

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think it depends on your criteria and price range and neighborhood you're looking in. If you're looking for a $500k fully renovated SFH in Arlington, good luck finding any. If you're looking for a $500k updated house in Fairfax, there is a lot more inventory.

We looked at a total of 17 homes before making an offer on the house we are about to move in to. We had reasonable expectations for our price range, which was under $600 (I know, gasp!). We had limited criteria -- good schools, a private yard that the kids could play in without adult supervision, and at least 3 BR, 2Ba. We also wanted a fairly reasonable commute, but we realized that we were priced out of most of Falls Church and all of Arlington, where we now live. With that limited criteria there was plenty of inventory to choose from, and we were able to find a house we really liked after one day of looking. Granted, we looked at about 15 homes in that one day -- with 2 kids under 5, so it is possible for anyone. Have you ever watched Property Virgins? I think a lot of people go into the housebuying process with a similar attitude as many of those buyers, and yes, it will be impossible to find a house.

Where did you end up buying? This is basically exactly our criteria, we are renting in Arlington right now, too.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think it depends on your criteria and price range and neighborhood you're looking in. If you're looking for a $500k fully renovated SFH in Arlington, good luck finding any. If you're looking for a $500k updated house in Fairfax, there is a lot more inventory.

We looked at a total of 17 homes before making an offer on the house we are about to move in to. We had reasonable expectations for our price range, which was under $600 (I know, gasp!). We had limited criteria -- good schools, a private yard that the kids could play in without adult supervision, and at least 3 BR, 2Ba. We also wanted a fairly reasonable commute, but we realized that we were priced out of most of Falls Church and all of Arlington, where we now live. With that limited criteria there was plenty of inventory to choose from, and we were able to find a house we really liked after one day of looking. Granted, we looked at about 15 homes in that one day -- with 2 kids under 5, so it is possible for anyone. Have you ever watched Property Virgins? I think a lot of people go into the housebuying process with a similar attitude as many of those buyers, and yes, it will be impossible to find a house.

Where did you end up buying? This is basically exactly our criteria, we are renting in Arlington right now, too.

We ended up buying in the Kings Park neighborhood right off Braddock Rd., close to 495. We lost money on our condo, so we didn't have much of a downpayment. That really limited where we could buy, but we fell in love with the house and really liked the neighborhood. The public schools are excellent, and that was really our primary concern. I will miss Arlington, and I will definitely miss my short commute. But, not everyone can afford Arlington. We have a good HHI, but my DH and I are not big law partners. We just had to be honest about what we could afford and think of the kids, and they really want a yard they can play in. Because of the logistics, we had to take them to the home inspection. Watching them laugh and play in the yard while we walked around with the home inspector made my heart melt. It was very clear to me that we made the right decision.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think it depends on your criteria and price range and neighborhood you're looking in. If you're looking for a $500k fully renovated SFH in Arlington, good luck finding any. If you're looking for a $500k updated house in Fairfax, there is a lot more inventory.

We looked at a total of 17 homes before making an offer on the house we are about to move in to. We had reasonable expectations for our price range, which was under $600 (I know, gasp!). We had limited criteria -- good schools, a private yard that the kids could play in without adult supervision, and at least 3 BR, 2Ba. We also wanted a fairly reasonable commute, but we realized that we were priced out of most of Falls Church and all of Arlington, where we now live. With that limited criteria there was plenty of inventory to choose from, and we were able to find a house we really liked after one day of looking. Granted, we looked at about 15 homes in that one day -- with 2 kids under 5, so it is possible for anyone. Have you ever watched Property Virgins? I think a lot of people go into the housebuying process with a similar attitude as many of those buyers, and yes, it will be impossible to find a house.

Where did you end up buying? This is basically exactly our criteria, we are renting in Arlington right now, too.

I am moving from Dunn Loring Woods less than half a mile from the Dunn Loring Merrifield metro and planning to oust my 4br/3ba rambler for $599,000. Schools are great and the location can't be beat for >$600k!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Close to 100 homes for about 10 months. Lost 9 in a row with multiple bids on each home. Some homes were sold the same night we looked at it and didn't even count those. First home we bid under since it was overpriced. But the other 8 offered between 3-15% over ask while waiving contingencies and still lost to cash buyers, investors, and people with deep pockets. Finally got lucky number 10 by getting it before the open house. Learned a lot and got lucky. Could probably be a realtor after all this experience.

wow! what neighborhood?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think it depends on your criteria and price range and neighborhood you're looking in. If you're looking for a $500k fully renovated SFH in Arlington, good luck finding any. If you're looking for a $500k updated house in Fairfax, there is a lot more inventory.

We looked at a total of 17 homes before making an offer on the house we are about to move in to. We had reasonable expectations for our price range, which was under $600 (I know, gasp!). We had limited criteria -- good schools, a private yard that the kids could play in without adult supervision, and at least 3 BR, 2Ba. We also wanted a fairly reasonable commute, but we realized that we were priced out of most of Falls Church and all of Arlington, where we now live. With that limited criteria there was plenty of inventory to choose from, and we were able to find a house we really liked after one day of looking. Granted, we looked at about 15 homes in that one day -- with 2 kids under 5, so it is possible for anyone. Have you ever watched Property Virgins? I think a lot of people go into the housebuying process with a similar attitude as many of those buyers, and yes, it will be impossible to find a house.

Where did you end up buying? This is basically exactly our criteria, we are renting in Arlington right now, too.

We ended up buying in the Kings Park neighborhood right off Braddock Rd., close to 495. We lost money on our condo, so we didn't have much of a downpayment. That really limited where we could buy, but we fell in love with the house and really liked the neighborhood. The public schools are excellent, and that was really our primary concern. I will miss Arlington, and I will definitely miss my short commute. But, not everyone can afford Arlington. We have a good HHI, but my DH and I are not big law partners. We just had to be honest about what we could afford and think of the kids, and they really want a yard they can play in. Because of the logistics, we had to take them to the home inspection. Watching them laugh and play in the yard while we walked around with the home inspector made my heart melt. It was very clear to me that we made the right decision.

Sorry to see you didn't get to stay in Arlington but that area of fairfax is wonderful. I'm afraid your prior post gave the impression that you found a place under 600k with good schools in Arlington ("where we live now"), hence why I think so many of us were curious how you found such a unicorn!

[Anonymous]

Looked for more than a year, saw at least 100 houses.

Lost 2 bids on merely acceptable houses before finally persuading my husband to make an offer on The One, that I had seen some months previously and no one wanted because it was a fixer-upper.

Love at first sight. Finally he saw the light!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Close to 100 homes for about 10 months. Lost 9 in a row with multiple bids on each home. Some homes were sold the same night we looked at it and didn't even count those. First home we bid under since it was overpriced. But the other 8 offered between 3-15% over ask while waiving contingencies and still lost to cash buyers, investors, and people with deep pockets. Finally got lucky number 10 by getting it before the open house. Learned a lot and got lucky. Could probably be a realtor after all this experience.

Yes, I am sure you could after all of this experience. Would you have the patience to put up with clients like yourself? Think about that. The job requires A LOT OF PATIENCE.

[Anonymous]

First time, I looked at a few houses on my own, got an idea of what I could afford and wanted, and then went out with a realtor one day. Saw 7 places and bought one. Lived there 12 years.

Second time around, I was spending much more money, but in an even more expensive area. Saw 63 houses, some which were great but in school boundaries I wasn't crazy about, and some of which sucked but were in good school boundaries. Walked into one open house that had had a few price drops, made an offer that day, got it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think it depends on your criteria and price range and neighborhood you're looking in. If you're looking for a $500k fully renovated SFH in Arlington, good luck finding any. If you're looking for a $500k updated house in Fairfax, there is a lot more inventory.

We looked at a total of 17 homes before making an offer on the house we are about to move in to. We had reasonable expectations for our price range, which was under $600 (I know, gasp!). We had limited criteria -- good schools, a private yard that the kids could play in without adult supervision, and at least 3 BR, 2Ba. We also wanted a fairly reasonable commute, but we realized that we were priced out of most of Falls Church and all of Arlington, where we now live. With that limited criteria there was plenty of inventory to choose from, and we were able to find a house we really liked after one day of looking. Granted, we looked at about 15 homes in that one day -- with 2 kids under 5, so it is possible for anyone. Have you ever watched Property Virgins? I think a lot of people go into the housebuying process with a similar attitude as many of those buyers, and yes, it will be impossible to find a house.

Where did you end up buying? This is basically exactly our criteria, we are renting in Arlington right now, too.

We ended up buying in the Kings Park neighborhood right off Braddock Rd., close to 495. We lost money on our condo, so we didn't have much of a downpayment. That really limited where we could buy, but we fell in love with the house and really liked the neighborhood. The public schools are excellent, and that was really our primary concern. I will miss Arlington, and I will definitely miss my short commute. But, not everyone can afford Arlington. We have a good HHI, but my DH and I are not big law partners. We just had to be honest about what we could afford and think of the kids, and they really want a yard they can play in. Because of the logistics, we had to take them to the home inspection. Watching them laugh and play in the yard while we walked around with the home inspector made my heart melt. It was very clear to me that we made the right decision.

Sorry to see you didn't get to stay in Arlington but that area of fairfax is wonderful. I'm afraid your prior post gave the impression that you found a place under 600k with good schools in Arlington ("where we live now"), hence why I think so many of us were curious how you found such a unicorn!

I'm the person who asked, but I did NOT get that impression from the PP, I am not crazy enough to think something like that is feasible in Arlington

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Close to 100 homes for about 10 months. Lost 9 in a row with multiple bids on each home. Some homes were sold the same night we looked at it and didn't even count those. First home we bid under since it was overpriced. But the other 8 offered between 3-15% over ask while waiving contingencies and still lost to cash buyers, investors, and people with deep pockets. Finally got lucky number 10 by getting it before the open house. Learned a lot and got lucky. Could probably be a realtor after all this experience.

Yes, I am sure you could after all of this experience. Would you have the patience to put up with clients like yourself? Think about that. The job requires A LOT OF PATIENCE.

Not the PP but WTF? Patience with people that don't want to buy whatever crap their realtor forces on them? The ONLY thing realtors do is unlock doors. They can't even tell you what schools a house is zoned for! They are salespeople, even buyers agents. They just want to seal the deal ASAP and collect their paycheck. They don't care if their customers are happy or if they are overpaying.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Close to 100 homes for about 10 months. Lost 9 in a row with multiple bids on each home. Some homes were sold the same night we looked at it and didn't even count those. First home we bid under since it was overpriced. But the other 8 offered between 3-15% over ask while waiving contingencies and still lost to cash buyers, investors, and people with deep pockets. Finally got lucky number 10 by getting it before the open house. Learned a lot and got lucky. Could probably be a realtor after all this experience.

Yes, I am sure you could after all of this experience. Would you have the patience to put up with clients like yourself? Think about that. The job requires A LOT OF PATIENCE.

I am not sure what you mean by clients like us. No one is forcing you to work with us. You are also implying that we had the same Realtor the whole time which we did not for the entire search. When you are spending this type of money in the N Arlington market, there is a minimum expectation of the type knowledge clients expect such as schools, neighborhood boundaries, price per square foot, fair market value, Arlington setbacks, when the seller is taking offers, writing an offer against competitive situations etc. The Arlington market makes it so easy for homes to sell that I find it offensive that Realtors do not know the basics of their jobs besides opening the doors for us.

We knew what we wanted and let our Realtor know our criteria. If you think making 10 offers required patience, the only person to blame in this case would be yourself since we are using your guidance.

[Anonymous]

I'd say about 9 months from looking to having a house under contract. But over 1/2 of that was very casual looking online and an occasional open house to get a feel for and narrow down neighborhoods. Once we were serious I'd guess we saw about 25 houses with our agent and almost again as many on our own going to open houses. We made offers on two houses, lost the first (in retrospect, thank god!) and got the second. There were maybe two weeks between the times we actually made offers. This was all last year at this time FWIW.