S/O How many houses do you need to look at?

[Anonymous]

There's a lively discussion about seeing enough listings versus wasting everyone's time. Our dilemma is that for a high price range we would like updates, but for a lower price range we are willing to have updates put in ourselves (new kitchen, bathrooms). Targeted the area, so that part is easy. But it still means twice the work and changing gears between the two tracks and considering a variety of listings. Is this a poor way to pursue things or do we just need to keep on. I don't think our RE agent really understands, either.

[Anonymous]

OP, what you are doing is just fine.

[Anonymous]

We had a specific area -- as in, just a few blocks -- so we looked at 3.

[Anonymous]

What you're describing is hardly a "dilemma," but common sense. Use the internet and do drive-by's before you engage your agent on houses that truly interest you. Look at as many as you need to. You're spending a small fortune, to heck with what others may think.

[Anonymous]

I posted before, we've seen 8.

We were very specific about where we want to buy, but have only seen 3 homes in that area. The other 5 were in another part of the city, our agent was trying to convince us to broaden our horizons, so we spent one afternoon seeing 5 houses in the other area. After we tried doing the commute in rush hour, it was just an absolute non-starter, which we had thought from the beginning anyway. Not to mention, for a million bucks, several of the houses had major structural issues, which you couldn't tell until you got inside.

Of the 3 we saw in the area we actually want, 2 went under contract that day and one was a 2 bedroom with the 2nd bedroom not being able to fit a bed and crib, so the kids couldn't even share a room.

[Anonymous]

I think it's not uncommon to have your issues. We looked at almost a hundred houses, and still aren't that happy with what we ended up with!

[Anonymous]

we looked in two completely different cities (both would have worked, for different reasons) and the same as you, looked at turnkey higher end ones and fixer upper lower end ones.
we looked actively 2-4 houses every weekend, sometimes as many as 6 in one weekend, and it took 3 months.

[Anonymous]

I looked at quite a few because I was considered several neighborhoods and I wanted to get a feel for the areas and types of homes.

[Anonymous]

We had the same approach, OP. We looked at a dozen or so, made unsuccessful offers on two, and then this house came on which both needed upgrades and was already at the top of our overall range, but it is livable and the location is just unbeatable. So now we're in a livable home that needs a lot of upgrades in an awesome location with no money to spare. I'll check back in 10 years to let you know if this was a good idea or not. I'm pretty sure it will pay off.

[Anonymous]

Hey OP, we did the same thing. I think it’s fine and to be expected around here, because houses are often old and may or may not have been renovated. We actually ended up somewhat in the middle- the house needed “updating” in the kitchen and bathrooms but wasn’t a total fixer-uper.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We had a specific area -- as in, just a few blocks -- so we looked at 3.

+1 - we had a very small radius and very specific criteria. near metro, with parking, with yard, not a million bazillion dollars = not many options. we looked at maybe 5

[Anonymous]

As many as it takes. This is not buying a dress - this is a major investment.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:As many as it takes. This is not buying a dress - this is a major investment.

Agree. As long as you're serious, you should look at as many as you need.

[Anonymous]

I'm surprised your RE doesn't understand. It's not that unheard of really- we initially wanted everything updated but our RE actually suggested we see some that needed updating as well- I'm glad he did because we ended up going that route! Some updated places we saw were not done very well or used odd color choices

[Anonymous]

I don't even know how many houses we saw. A lot. We started looking pretty casually (ie going to open houses here and there) within our immediate neighborhood for about a year before we got more serious. I feel like if it were just about going to open houses and doing neighborhood drive-bys I would never have hired an agent.

We used an agent who I think is great--had worked with her before and felt like her strengths are just being really calm, patient, and realistic. Our price range was a definite--there was no consideration that we could go up by $100k or whatever for updates--so our agent basically said we should also look in x/y/z neighborhoods. This involved some leg work on our end (looking into schools, transit options, etc) but our agent helped with some of that as well, at least in terms of researching bus routes, school boundaries, and the like. I can't imagine working with an agent who made us feel rushed or like we were wasting her time when we were making the biggest purchase of our lives.