I've been house hunting today

[mp-seventythree]

There's a few good ones and a whole lot of shitty ones out there.

[ToucanSpam]

Remember, go for the best neighborhood!!! Not just price!

[mp-seventythree]

I'm looking for something that needs some work, but not major structural stuff. There is one that looks okay and it's only a 10 minute walk from my office which would be good.

[abcdefz]

House hunting. Whoa.

[mp-seventythree]

Originally Posted by abcdefz

House hunting. Whoa.

Yeah I know

[ToucanSpam]

If you plan on having kids, you should find a home thats not only close to your office, but close to the schools and such.


I dunno, Im just suggesting what my parents did....

[mp-seventythree]

If I do ever have kids (not planning on it) I will probably have moved on from this house anyway.
I'm planning on getting a house that needs some work, getting it how i like it and living in it for a couple of years, then moving on and finding another house that needs work.

Well that's the plan anyway...

[wanton wench]

i think you should look for a 1 bedroom house!

[ToucanSpam]

Better yet a one room house.

[mp-seventythree]

Originally Posted by wanton wench

i think you should look for a 1 bedroom house!

I like to have people to stay, so my minimum would be 2 bedrooms. Besides 1 bedroom houses are really hard to sell.

[mp-seventythree]

Off to see more agents and houses today. But my car is having bodywork done so I have to wait for my dad to come round with his car.

[Bitchamachacha]

Good luck finding that house, MP.

I know apartment hunting really blew when I was doing it, but I got very lucky.

[ms.peachy]

Originally Posted by mp-seventythree

If I do ever have kids (not planning on it) I will probably have moved on from this house anyway.
I'm planning on getting a house that needs some work, getting it how i like it and living in it for a couple of years, then moving on and finding another house that needs work.

Well that's the plan anyway...

It sounds like you have a good plan. When mr.p and I were buying our first house, the best piece of advice we got was "Remember, it doesn't have to be your dream house, it just has to be your first house." It gets you onto the property ladder.

Also I don't neccessarily agree that it has to be the 'best' neighbourhood, especially as you are not talking about raising a family there. If you're looking in a city area, look for areas that are 'up and coming', that have maybe a small community of artists, one or two decent places to grab a meal, etc. An area that is maybe a bit 'bohemian' and on the edge of a nicer area, that has potential to appeal to a young professional type buyer in the future, but that still has a bit of 'dirt under its nails'.

[TonsOfFun]

I wish I had a house. But they are just too expensive for me right now.

Good Luck!

[enree erzweglle]

The county where I live decided that it had been too long since they did property assessments, so they did them. They sent unqualified assessors around to examine only the exterior of the houses and, based on the floor plans that they had on file, they submitted reassessments.

Between when I bought the house and when they conducted their re-assessment, I did nothing to improve it except to plant several shade gardens and two sun ones. I also fixed anything that broke.

They raised the value of my house $70K more than what I paid for it 4 years before.

Which meant that my tax rates SOARED. And I know that I could never, ever sell the house for $70K more than what I paid for it.

To fight it, I had to hire contractors to assess damage (inside and out) and give formal estimates for repairs. Then I had to have a hearing, show the assessments and photos and hope that they reassessed at a lower rate (because you'd hear stories about how some hearings resulted in HIGHER assessments).

I did all of that and they wound up reassessing the house to only $25K above what I paid for it.

So now I keep the inside of my house in much better shape than I do the outside.

It's a chameleon house, really.

It looks a bit scary from the outside. I only do what's absolutely necessary to keep the exterior of it in working order. It doesn't look pretty, but that's okay. The property value is more in line with what I could get if I sold the house. And the taxes are more manageable.

[Rancid_Beasties]

Houses prices are rediculous in melbourne today. A 10% house deposit nowadays on a decent house is like 2 full years of decent pay. I mean seriously...its rediculous when you consider how much houses were worth in melbourne 10-15 years ago, in comparison to inflation rates, wage increases etc. I think the housing prices go up at around 2-3 times inflation. Its just rediculous.

A decent house in the suburbs 1990 would have cost around 150,000 $AUD, nowadays they are around 600,000 $AUD.

[Rock]

Its insane over here too. My parents got their 6 bedroom, 3.5 bath, on a little less than an acre house for almost half of what I paid for my 3 bedroom 2.5 bath townhouse with not even a quarter acre of land. Sure they got there house 20 years ago, but still.
In the 4 years I've been at my house, the market value more than doubled. And my house isn't big at all. I don't know how anyone can find a cheap starter home in this area anymore.