irvinehomeowner
Well-known member
I'm a chronic house hunter... even when we bought a home a few years back... we still looked at homes.
We took a break for a while because of the kids starting a new school but we've recently started looking seriously again.
While I have IrvineRealtor (Scott Gunther) and Redfin auto email alerts set up... my wife window shops Redfin like the mall (well... she actually buys stuff at those stores). Usually one of us will see something we like, email the other (I will usually find the floorplan (another IR2 perk)) and then we'll talk about it.
Before... we had only certain areas we wanted to look at, and really only newer homes. But now, the Mrs. has expressed a desire for a bigger home on a bigger (relative for Irvine) lot. So we've expanded our search to areas that we really weren't considering before. The homes are older... so unlike the newer floorplans, we are getting the living spaces we want but now we have to look past the dated or *classic* features and have to look at potential (not a major rebuild... just updating). The upside is we are avoiding Mello Roos and in some cases, HOAs.
But because of this, we are less familiar with the floorplans and layout so the pictures on the MLS aren't enough for us to decide as an in-person visit, so we kind of have to look at it before we discount it. If there is an open house or a broker preview, we'll go see it... if not, and if it's something that we are serious about and fits our criteria... we drive by the home to see how the neighborhood is, what it looks like on the outside and how the ambient noise is if it's close to roads. If we still want to see it, we'll ring the IR2 hotline. This is different from how we used to do it in the past. Before we used to look at EVERY single home that slightly piqued our interest, but we realized that not only was that too time consuming, but it could make the decision making process harder. And the internet does make things easier for our old looky-loo ways.
Once we see the home, we'll talk about it more. I like touring them with IR2 because he'll give us input on what he thinks about the house, any feedback he got from the seller's agent and general opinions about the area. So any of the ones that we see on our own via open house, if it's a *contender*, we'll see again with Scott (and if the kids haven't seen it... they get their chance).
We'll have a few more rounds of discussions and if the boss says "GO!"... I'll let IR2 know and an offer will be made. It's so high-tech now... before, you had to meet with the realtor and sign tons of paper (like how you see on HGTV), now you can do it electronically (at least for most offers... some, usually the short sales, want actual signatures).
What I find notable is that on the homes we did make offers on:
1. One my wife wanted, we offered list price on a short, it got delisted because it turned into a loan mod... and then later was listed again as a short sale but my wife wasn't interested anymore and it actually sold for our original offer. Considering she really was indifferent about that, it's a good thing they didn't accept our offer the first time around.
2. One that I really wanted, we offered, the counter came in higher but within my range, but we couldn't counter on it because our refi on our current home hadn't closed yet. It sold at what they countered at to another party and now over a year later... my wife is no longer interested in that type of home (it was a smaller detached condo... and she wants space). I could live with it because it's in one of my desired areas... but if she couldn't... well, we know how that goes.
Two houses that we strongly considered making offers on, both went into escrow and ended up selling for below what we thought and those are our "I wonder ifs".
We have a few contenders now, but I want one and she wants another... the one I want, I think we can get for our price range but it's in a 'hood she doesn't like. The one she really wants needs quite a few updates, has some areas that can't be changed but in a much nicer area and site location... but... although a similar list price to my favorite... probably won't go lower.
So how do you guys hunt for houses? I'm especially interested in Indie's story if he doesn't mind sharing because from what I presume, his experience will be different from us 99 percenters. I would also like to hear how IHS found his 4CG if he can keep the details anonymous.
We took a break for a while because of the kids starting a new school but we've recently started looking seriously again.
While I have IrvineRealtor (Scott Gunther) and Redfin auto email alerts set up... my wife window shops Redfin like the mall (well... she actually buys stuff at those stores). Usually one of us will see something we like, email the other (I will usually find the floorplan (another IR2 perk)) and then we'll talk about it.
Before... we had only certain areas we wanted to look at, and really only newer homes. But now, the Mrs. has expressed a desire for a bigger home on a bigger (relative for Irvine) lot. So we've expanded our search to areas that we really weren't considering before. The homes are older... so unlike the newer floorplans, we are getting the living spaces we want but now we have to look past the dated or *classic* features and have to look at potential (not a major rebuild... just updating). The upside is we are avoiding Mello Roos and in some cases, HOAs.
But because of this, we are less familiar with the floorplans and layout so the pictures on the MLS aren't enough for us to decide as an in-person visit, so we kind of have to look at it before we discount it. If there is an open house or a broker preview, we'll go see it... if not, and if it's something that we are serious about and fits our criteria... we drive by the home to see how the neighborhood is, what it looks like on the outside and how the ambient noise is if it's close to roads. If we still want to see it, we'll ring the IR2 hotline. This is different from how we used to do it in the past. Before we used to look at EVERY single home that slightly piqued our interest, but we realized that not only was that too time consuming, but it could make the decision making process harder. And the internet does make things easier for our old looky-loo ways.
Once we see the home, we'll talk about it more. I like touring them with IR2 because he'll give us input on what he thinks about the house, any feedback he got from the seller's agent and general opinions about the area. So any of the ones that we see on our own via open house, if it's a *contender*, we'll see again with Scott (and if the kids haven't seen it... they get their chance).
We'll have a few more rounds of discussions and if the boss says "GO!"... I'll let IR2 know and an offer will be made. It's so high-tech now... before, you had to meet with the realtor and sign tons of paper (like how you see on HGTV), now you can do it electronically (at least for most offers... some, usually the short sales, want actual signatures).
What I find notable is that on the homes we did make offers on:
1. One my wife wanted, we offered list price on a short, it got delisted because it turned into a loan mod... and then later was listed again as a short sale but my wife wasn't interested anymore and it actually sold for our original offer. Considering she really was indifferent about that, it's a good thing they didn't accept our offer the first time around.
2. One that I really wanted, we offered, the counter came in higher but within my range, but we couldn't counter on it because our refi on our current home hadn't closed yet. It sold at what they countered at to another party and now over a year later... my wife is no longer interested in that type of home (it was a smaller detached condo... and she wants space). I could live with it because it's in one of my desired areas... but if she couldn't... well, we know how that goes.
Two houses that we strongly considered making offers on, both went into escrow and ended up selling for below what we thought and those are our "I wonder ifs".
We have a few contenders now, but I want one and she wants another... the one I want, I think we can get for our price range but it's in a 'hood she doesn't like. The one she really wants needs quite a few updates, has some areas that can't be changed but in a much nicer area and site location... but... although a similar list price to my favorite... probably won't go lower.
So how do you guys hunt for houses? I'm especially interested in Indie's story if he doesn't mind sharing because from what I presume, his experience will be different from us 99 percenters. I would also like to hear how IHS found his 4CG if he can keep the details anonymous.
He will be back at the later phase when I have pretty much decided on 2/3 and make the final decision with me. I don't know if I should be sharing this, but at one point when I was throwing in offers to every other condo that we saw, I signed for him on all escrow papers. He was so tired of the whole 'low ball' offer. 
