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

Forum Index » Real Estate

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

Subject:

Emoticons





More smilies

Text Color: Font: Close Marks

[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]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.[/quote]

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

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.[/quote]

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![/quote]

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 :)[/quote]

Options

	Disable HTML in this message
	Disable BB Code in this message
	Disable smilies in this message

Review message

Search Recent Topics Hottest Topics