3 months in DC, I feel very lucky because I still think the house I bought was the best of the 30 or so I looked at. Good luck.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We had to find the house we wanted before we even considered leaving our prior house, which meant it took a really, really long time. I actually do not remember when we started looking.

The reason I am chiming in is to emphasize that OP, you may think you want a certain neighborhood, that looks "perfect" on paper, but you really need to do homework on the non-tangibles. Do you know families who personally live there, first and foremost? Do you trust their opinions? Do you have much in common with them?

You do not want to think you are getting something great, when it is just horrible in reality.

Do your homework!

I'm no expert, but I think it's shortsighted to start evaluating the neighbors essentially based on looks and how that'll translate into what life on that block would be like.

Who wants to move right into their friends neighborhood?

To elaborate - NOT moving "right into their friends neighborhood" nor "judging neighbors (or neighborhoods) by their looks".

So many people are shortsighted in that they think they want a certain school/neighborhood, only to find that the school/neighborhood is completely opposite of what they expected.

Things are not always what they seem - this especially pertains to the not so obvious.

Anonymous wrote:We had to find the house we wanted before we even considered leaving our prior house, which meant it took a really, really long time. I actually do not remember when we started looking.

The reason I am chiming in is to emphasize that OP, you may think you want a certain neighborhood, that looks "perfect" on paper, but you really need to do homework on the non-tangibles. Do you know families who personally live there, first and foremost? Do you trust their opinions? Do you have much in common with them?

You do not want to think you are getting something great, when it is just horrible in reality.

Do your homework!

I'm no expert, but I think it's shortsighted to start evaluating the neighbors essentially based on looks and how that'll translate into what life on that block would be like.

Who wants to move right into their friends neighborhood?

We had to find the house we wanted before we even considered leaving our prior house, which meant it took a really, really long time. I actually do not remember when we started looking.

The reason I am chiming in is to emphasize that OP, you may think you want a certain neighborhood, that looks "perfect" on paper, but you really need to do homework on the non-tangibles. Do you know families who personally live there, first and foremost? Do you trust their opinions? Do you have much in common with them?

You do not want to think you are getting something great, when it is just horrible in reality.

Do your homework!

Is the 8-9% appreciation going to apply to incomes too? Didn't think so. They'll be fine waiting.

It took me maybe 3 months to find something that was good enough - big enough, floor plan I liked, some charming details, good schools, good neighborhood. I saw better houses with lesser schools and a few houses that were closer to metro, but in the end, I thought my house was the best I'd seen. (I ended up spending $10K more than my desired max, which isn't bad.)

If you're looking for years and not finding anything, your desires might not be realistic for your price point, or your tastes might be too narrow.

that said, a friend of mine was looking for months and I worried that his wants and price point weren't in sync. He ended up finding something great, in an area he liked, for less than he'd planned to spend, so it worked out well for him. (he didn't care about schools or Metro access, though.)

One weekend. Actually, one day. Had an idea of what was available from the listings, but the first house we walked into was perfect. We went to a few more just to pretend that we were seeing a range of options, but the first one was it. Was at the top of our budget, but we made the numbers work. Everything was just what we hoped for, and we never regretted our choice.

We thought we'd only be there a few years. More like 20, as it's turned out.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:going into our second year now ... have seen probably 3 that were almost "it" ... but for one reason or another we bailed. Usually the factor that drove us to pass was the neighborhood not being exactly what we want, which is teeming with families but also decent sized lots, a somewhat hard to find proposition.

you'll never buy. I hope you are saving or making 8-9% a year because that's the appreciation you are missing.

Haha! I highly doubt the people that take over a year to find the right house ever regret the patience ... whereas I wouldn't say the same on average for those that "need to buy" and pick the best of the litter over a 3-6 month span.

In any case, the $ that would have gone into a house is invested partly in stocks, which make the 8%-9% (an exaggerated figure already, try 4%-5%), look like chump change.

BTW, I already have bought multiple times, but the next one is going to last, so why rush?

1.5 years. We kept getting outbid.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:going into our second year now ... have seen probably 3 that were almost "it" ... but for one reason or another we bailed. Usually the factor that drove us to pass was the neighborhood not being exactly what we want, which is teeming with families but also decent sized lots, a somewhat hard to find proposition.

What is a decent sized lot? Isn't a quarter of an acre pretty standard?

Not in close-in Arlington or Fall Church City ... more like .15-.20, which really isn't much space with a 3000+ sq ft home on it.

3 or 4 months. We were first time buyers, who typically take longer. I think we went to 20 or so homes with our realtor, and another 20 open houses on our own. Ended up buying one of the open houses we went through.

Is it everything I wanted? No, absolutely not. Our budget did not allow for everything we wanted. Is it more than we need? Yes. It is in a great neighborhood, has plenty of space, and even if the backyard is an awkward sloping hill and the kitchen is from 1970, it ticks all the "necessity" boxes.

4 years!! Truthfully, two of those years were us going to open houses on our own and not working with an agent (and having 2 kids). When pregnant with our third, we had to get serious. We spent 2 more years looking and with our realtor. We LOVE our house, our lot, our neighborhood, and our location. It was worth the wait.

We spent more than initially desired in order to get this house. It is still within our budget, we just wanted to spend less (and we could have spent more). We were also looking in about a 5-6 mile radius, so that added to the time required to find THE house.

Hang in there -- and good luck.

Anonymous wrote:One month or less when we were looking for our condo 3 years ago. It was just DH and I. Now we are going on 6+ months looking for a house now that we have to consider our growing family and can't afford anything.

this is us exactly except 8 months. 550-600 price point

It took us 2.5 years to find in the exact school district we wanted. THe house has everything we want on a pretty street, except the kitchen needs a bit of updating. It was very discouraging looking during that time. We were outbid many times. This one, we had to bid again ourselves to get the place which was listed below market. Once we got over that, I think we ended up doing well despite the appreciation that has occurred over the last 2.5 years. Good luck out there....