Round #1: House Hunting

Yesterday evening we took our first trip out house hunting with our Realitor. Needless to say after visiting 8 houses we learned ALOT!

I want to preface the rest of this blog post by saying that we are avid HGTV people and love to watch shows like House Hunters, Get It Sold, My House is Worth What?, First Time Home Buyers, and any other buying/selling house show on that channel.

We are upgraded 'gu-rus' for Goodwill prices kind of people. There were 2 huge things that stuck out in my mind from our trip out: 1) When we went to some of the houses the only thing in my head was...'this is what our money can buy us?' (sadly). Even though the housing market is apparently good for buyers, it is not great for buyers! 2) House hunting is NOT as much fun as everyone leads on to believe!! (see huge thing #1). Now, if we had $300,000 it would be ALOT of fun in this area!

The first two homes that we toured were older 2 story homes built in the early 90's, which our realitor said were better built that the 'mass produced homes' today. That statement might have been true, but unlike us, the sellers had not watched one episode of Get It Sold! Let me explain. . .

We called on a for sale by owner house on Friday and set up a time on Saturday morning to see it-the seller requested not to bring our realitor (something about fees, etc) so we went and didnt bring our realitor... which ended up being OK. Its a huge sign that the house you are looking at isnt the one you want to buy when you walk in the front door and it smells like smoke..not cigarette smoke! I think he was trying to relax before we got there.

-House #1: nice layout, but the kitchen was too small, there was too much furniture (chunky furniture) in the living room which made it seem entirely too small, they decided not to paint the mint green walls and beat up scratched white walls. The master was apart of the master bathroom & there were no overhead lights (which apparently is a common thing in houses, not the one we will buy, but the ones we looked at). Ok, decent I give it a 5 for functionality. NEXT!

-House #2: nice sitting/formal living area right as you walk in, but was cluttered with 2 computer desks and a bunch of junk, small living room with, again, over sized furniture, horrible paint colors..and wait for it...THE PILSBURY DOUGHBOY muraled on the kitchen wall!!! What? You have to be kidding me, did no one tell you that neutral was a good way to go? Nope..the dining room was apple red with the most hidious* furniture ever & did I mention 3 types of hardwood/laminate/etc floors throughout the house and a very specificly built master bath (which from my HGTV experience) was pretty costly for the horribly digusting taste they put in it. Along with many other things...NEXT!

The rest of the houses were new or newer, we're talking past 3 years built. I would say 5/8 had kitchens that are smaller than our apartment (all of which were ugly cabinets) and the most frustrating feature of the houses...TBA at the end of the post, new construction on either both sides of the house and/or behind the house too (which is a huge no-no for resale & my sanity)! Each of those houses had their different and unique 'deal-breakers' for me like the fact that our living room furniture wouldnt fit in there or there was only a shower in the master or only 1 sink in the master-stuff like that and the whole kitchen-eesque stuff too.

Needless to say we did not find our first home and were only frustrated more with this process. A couple of the most frustrating things when house hunting:

1. EVERYTHING is an upgrade...oh you want space (upgrade), oh you want a door (upgrade), oh you don't want standard knobs on your bathroom sinks-the ones that look like crystal balls (upgrade), oh you want a sink that's actually deep enough to wash dishes in (the MOST frustrating thing EVER)...nope thats an upgrade too.

2. People who are selling their homes must not really want to sell as evidence by the nice brass light fixtures and crazy paint & decorations they still have in their houses..P.S. to the people trying to sell---no one wants a crazy persons house!

3. The sellers who showed us in a few houses (we were with our realitor) would act like their homes were so much better than everyone elses-nevermind they all look alike! One actually tried to tell me that the stove in this one house was an upgraded stove...he was taken back when it was the EXACT same one in our apartment & inserted his foot in his mouth when I told him and he said well, I doubt its the same one in your apt!! Well, how do you know?? You have never seen it! Wow..

The good thing is I can almost look at the outside and step into the front door and realize if I'm still interested in the house!

We will take Round #2 on Wednesday in Plainfield (of which I'm trying to be positive, but I've looked online and driving and havent seen much). On the positive note, if we dont find a house right now, thats OK! Because I like our kitchen/bathrooms/rooms better in the apartment we're in now than any of the houses we've seen so far. If you have a similiar experience share it-we'd love to laugh at it! More to come on our experience after our tours on Wednesday!

Side note: every time I used the word 'we' I really mean 'I'-Jake would be content with almost anything!