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Post by AR Scrapper on Jun 28, 2014 14:31:09 GMT
We just moved to Western NY from Iowa last summer and are currently in a rental house. We want to buy a house here next summer and I'm just wanting opinions on how long you looked before you found your home. We were going to buy this summer, but after looking around a little we decided to resign our lease and save another year so we can have a bigger down payment. On one hand I don't want to look right now and then find the perfect home but be stuck in our lease, but at the same time I don't want to wait too long and then be rushed to find a house at the end of our lease. What say the peas?
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Post by tinafb on Jun 28, 2014 14:35:18 GMT
It took us around 3 months. We looked at around 90 houses in that time. We have 4 kids and a small budget, so it was a difficult process that would probably be easier for a smaller family.
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Post by 2peafaithful on Jun 28, 2014 14:35:22 GMT
I think it was about 20 homes a 3-4 weeks of looking until we found the one. That wasn't bad as we weren't in a rush to buy. We were good with waiting until the right house came up and we knew when we found it that it was just what we wanted.
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Post by 1lear on Jun 28, 2014 14:38:31 GMT
It took us a couple of months. We're were going to buy the rental house we'd lived in for 2 years, but couldn't agree on a price.
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Post by AR Scrapper on Jun 28, 2014 14:42:18 GMT
It took us around 3 months. We looked at around 90 houses in that time. We have 4 kids and a small budget, so it was a difficult process that would probably be easier for a smaller family. We have 4 kids and a small budget also so this is our situation too. |
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Post by eebud on Jun 28, 2014 14:54:06 GMT
We were going to build. We casually looked at builders and homes for a while, maybe a year or so, checking out neighborhoods, etc. This is how we first decided to stay clues to where we were. Once we knew the area, we looked more seriously, narrowed it down to two and then worked the deal. But, we owned the home we were moving from and it was ok if we had to buy the new home before the old one sold, so we had flexibility.
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
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Post by pelirroja on Jun 28, 2014 15:05:30 GMT
It took us almost three months and we bid on several houses before we got this house. I live in the same area as Tina and around here, it's not unusual for bidders to agree to "escalation clauses" (they will beat the highest bidder's offer), agreeing to no contingencies (you could end up paying for your old and your new house while your old one is still up for sale) and foregoing home inspections. I wasn't willing to do any of those things so it took longer.
One of the things we were able to do is rent our old house back from the new owner (he had to wait for his lease to expire before he could move). We paid his mortgage for a few months and it gave us the leeway to find the right place. When we found the right house, we could close right away since the old house was already sold. It took a little juggling but it was worth it in the end.
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Post by alissa103 on Jun 28, 2014 15:25:28 GMT
It took us four months. I will say we were looking at a terrible time of year (January) due to a job transfer and moving to a hot market. Houses were flying off the market the day they were listed. We got our current house only because the original buyers had their financing fall through and our realtor knew it was coming back on the market. So we were the first family to look at it and put in offer on it an hour later.
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Post by JBeans on Jun 28, 2014 15:25:42 GMT
For this move (which is happening today!!!) one year. It was more location that we were hunting for a couple reasons.- we were building and it was from a distance.
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Post by scrapsuzy on Jun 28, 2014 19:01:12 GMT
Our first house, it was just a matter of days. I actually loved the first house we looked at, but then looked at another 14 or so. Took my dh back to look at 5 (he hadn't been with me the first time.) We bought the first house I had looked at, and lived there for 22 years.
This time, I have no idea. Dh isn't in a hurry.
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scrappinmama
Pearl Clutcher
Posts: 4,855
Jun 26, 2014 12:54:09 GMT
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Post by scrappinmama on Jun 28, 2014 19:09:56 GMT
For our first home, it took a month. We looked at a few homes every weekend, until we decided on one. It was a buyers market back then. When we relocated to Kansas, we only had a three day weekend to look. We looked at about 20 homes. We took photos, and made notes of each house that we liked. In the end, it was between 3 homes, and we did one last run through before deciding.
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Post by fiddlesticks on Jun 28, 2014 19:12:07 GMT
We looked for a couple of months one spring and didn't find anything we liked for the money we had. We worked hard for a year to pay more things off and save more money and then looked again the next spring. We looked for a month and a half and then found the house we have been in since!
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Dalai Mama
Drama Llama
La Pea Boheme
Posts: 6,985
Jun 26, 2014 0:31:31 GMT
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Post by Dalai Mama on Jun 28, 2014 19:38:51 GMT
Months, but only because every house we bid on (and there were a good number) had multiple offers.
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Post by KikiPea on Jun 28, 2014 19:43:10 GMT
A couple weeks, maybe 3. There was't much on the market at that time, so there wasn't a lot to look at. We were in a bit of a rush as we had already sold our house...in 1 day, but this house is perfect for us.  |
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Post by MichyM on Jun 28, 2014 19:49:31 GMT
Six years ago it took us 2 weeks to find our new home. We probably looked at 10-12. We didn't start looking until we had a contract on our old house.
When I moved a little over a year ago it took me about 2 weeks as well. I probably looked at 12-15.
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Post by kimnyy on Jun 28, 2014 19:51:22 GMT
For our last move, it took us about 3 months to find this house, another month or more of negotiating with the stupid relocation company and another 8 weeks until we actually closed. It was a nightmare!
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Post by stargazer on Jun 28, 2014 19:54:32 GMT
Selling took much, much longer than new house shopping but we had a number of "must-haves" (such as school catchment)which along with a very depressed housing market (2009) & the size of the house we required (we were moving my mum & dad in with us so we needed a bigger than average - for the UK - size home) meant that there were very very few that met our requirements. It was a miracle that we found the perfect candidate within about a month & meant that the following six months trying to finalise the sale through all the craziness the sellers put us through was actually worth it!
In your case I guess I'd start looking next Spring. Good luck with your search.
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Post by Patter on Jun 28, 2014 20:34:08 GMT
Our first move from SC to TX, our goal was to find a house in one day. We did that and made an offer by 6 p.m. that day. When we moved from TX to NC, our goal was to find a house during our house hunting trip. We looked for two days and made an offer by the third day. We always know what we want and research very well so we usually find what we want fast. We were in our house in TX for 14 years. This house we have been in for two years now and just purchased the land next to us last week. We LOVE it here. Have fun looking!
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PrettyInPeank
Pearl Clutcher
Posts: 4,691 
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Post by PrettyInPeank on Jun 28, 2014 20:35:24 GMT
About a month. We quickly realized we wanted to build instead, and switched from house-hunting to choosing custom options.
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Post by Belia on Jun 28, 2014 22:17:20 GMT
In 2007 for our current house, we bought the first (and only) one we saw.
We moved from one side of town to the other, though, and were very particular in what we wanted. But I didn't think we were seriously looking, either! Guess I was wrong about that!
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Chinagirl828
Drama Llama
Melbourne, Australia
Posts: 6,459
Jun 28, 2014 6:28:53 GMT
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Post by Chinagirl828 on Jun 28, 2014 22:23:34 GMT
It took me about 18 months. As a first home buyer in a market that was rapidly pricing out of my range it took a long time to find something suitable. I actually stopped looking for a while because I got so disheartened, but the weekend I decided to start the search again I found two houses. They both went to auction on the same day at the same time so I had to pick which one to fight for. The one I chose is the one I still live in. For me it was definitely worth the wait, it has everything on my must have list as well as a few things from my nice to have list. Good luck with your search.
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Post by cmpeter on Jun 28, 2014 22:31:31 GMT
A weekend. Our last move was a relocation from CA to WA for DH's job. Ds and I flew up and looked at about 30 houses over the course of a weekend and made an offer the following Monday.
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Post by ctpea on Jun 28, 2014 22:36:57 GMT
We've been looking for over a year and recently found something that we have put an offer on. It's a foreclosure (our first) and we have no idea how it works but the bank still hasn't let us know if they have accepted our offer. In the meantime we have put our house on the market. It has been a long process but we feel it's worth the wait if we can the house we put an offer on. We started looking way before we put our house on the market and didn't put it on until we found something that we really loved, in the towns that we loved, that we could afford and where we could see potential for the future ( we are thinking ahead in the event that our parents get older and may need to move in with us). Good luck with whatever you decide.
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Post by leannec on Jun 28, 2014 22:44:36 GMT
My dh is a realtor and he has clients who find their perfect house in a weekend (after seeing three or four) and others who take a year and see more than 50 listings before finding the right one ... We looked at about 10 houses before deciding on ours ... it took a couple of months ... it was the right decision because we're still here 16 years later Leanne |
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Post by chaosisapony on Jun 28, 2014 23:01:05 GMT
I wasn't looking for a place but I saw the sign up and called my realtor. We scheduled a showing for a couple of days from them. It was good enough and the only house I could afford. So I made an offer and that was that. Still here 6 years later. |
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Post by oktrae on Jun 28, 2014 23:13:01 GMT
About 6 months but only about 15 or so houses. Not many hit the market we were interested in and offers on the one we were selling kept falling through.
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Post by Sharon on Jun 28, 2014 23:46:50 GMT
We only looked for about a month.
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Post by AR Scrapper on Jun 29, 2014 2:04:05 GMT
Thanks for your input. I was thinking we would be fine if we started looking seriously in the spring, but some friends of ours here were saying we should keep looking now. Thankfully we sold our house before we moved here so our biggest worry is a lease.
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