My husband and I want to buy a house...

Hi trickylacey, theproperator gave you some great advice already and I will second the fact that it is a "buyers market" right now, so you can pick and choose among many homes and have a little edge in negotiating. You may want to consider the long-term value of the property you choose also...is there impeding development of that area, will the home retain its' value or increase in value, will you be able to resell it if you want...etc In my opinion, land is much more valuable than the house that sits on it, and the location is very important as well. As far as the home itself goes, anything cosmetic can be easily fixed or altered, but plumbing, electrical, structural problems can be extremely costly in the long run. I would want to know the costs to maintain the home as is with the appliances it has (are they draining energy, are there high winter heat bills because it has an old gas furnace, is it insulated well, is the water full of iron, the well or septic in need of replacement, etc). Be sure to check out the area property taxes too. Where I live now is just outside the city limits, but this same home INSIDE the city limits would cost thousands per year in taxes alone. I agree that you should have the property appraised, inspected, and ask for a warranty from the seller on covered items. Final note...don't be too quick to say yes to any house or deal offered, and streamline the process by getting "pre-qualified" first so that you know which price range you can be looking in. Good luck :)

I think our needs are probably pretty differnt as I don't have kids, but I did recently buy a condo as a frist time home boyer. I would suggest getting a book...I got one of those Dummies books for first time home buyers and it really helped me to understand the process better, especially around some of the vocabulary that people used. I had no idea what "escrow" meant before reading that book. That said, things you might want to think about.....will you be able to grow into the space as your kids grow? You don't want to outgrow the house too quickly. Also is there a good school district for your kids? Is it close to things like grocery stores, pharmacies, and anything else that might be important to you? There is also the gut test. Some places just feel like home, like you can imagine yourself hanging out there on Sunday morning...that was the test my boyfriend and I used to find out place. It is a long and tedious process with lots of emotional ups and downs. But you'll get through it. Best of Luck!

yes i can give some few websites. here they are: realtytrac.com,foreclosure.com,foreclosures.com, bargain.com, and realtystore.com. here are just a few that i know. usually you have to pay fees to know more about the environment of the house that you want. but if the house if house is near, you can go and check it out yourself.

the most important thing to have in buying a house is knowledge. you must do research on the internet. you could find a lot of stuff about house buying in the internet. i suggest you devote your time to research and talking to a real estate agent. even though i have not bought my own house, i know where to look information because i surf the internet a lot. everytime i have questions i could not answer, i would browse the internet. go to yahoo, section real estate. i think this is a great time to buy a house because of the market going down. you could find a lot of cheap houses around. i would like to buy my own house too. besides from the reason that a house is where you would live, a house can make you rich. i suggest you look into foreclosures also because you can find a lot of houses in this area.

I do not own a house, because enough money, if your funds Certainly you buy a house, it is nothing, Habitat will have its own house in order to have really family, I think so.

I think the first thing you should consider is the house place .If you drive to work,everywhere is ok,but if you go to work by bus,YOu should choose a place that the transpatation is convienent.

I haven't had to buy a house just yet (!) but my sister bought one very recently...though it was an apartment for herself in a city so her requirements are very different from what you need. I think if I were you I'd start by deciding on how many bedrooms I needed. I think having a spare room is a good idea, or a room where an extra bed can be set up so that it leaves a room free. In my house we also have 2 bathrooms (there used to be 6 of us under the one roof!) It's great cos you avoid the agro of queuing. Or even an extra toilet/ensuite would be good. Good garden space is also good, especially if your kids need somewhere to play. Well there the kind of things I'd be looking out for, but when you actually go house hunting you may be more concerned about location etc. Good luck! :)

My husband and I became first time home owners a little over a month ago and I would say my biggest piece of advice is to get something you love . Don't settle for something you have any doubts about as this is the place you are hoping to spend the next number of years living in and you don't want to regret a decision you made because you became frustrated looking for the right house and when you do find what you want , don't let anyone talk you out of it as many of our friends told us we were making the wrong choice but we went ahead with is as it was the house we knew we would love and we did get it and I don't regret what we did and most of these same people that had told us not to get the house have come back and now told us that they wish they could have got something like what we have and how we got it for a good deal which comes to my second piece of adivice . Just because the house you are looking at is asking a price you know you can't afford does not mean you can not get this house . We got our house for fifty thousand dollars off the asking price . We put in a bid everyone said would be refused even the real estate agent but they accepted us on our first offer . Offer a low bid and go up from there , you never know what you might get it for and it doesn't hurt to offer low just to find out what the reaction to your bid will be like , you can always go up when you put in an offer but you can never bid lower once you make the offer . Best of Luck !!