Ideas for New House Hunting

Well, from the brief list you gave of what is "wrong" with your current location, I would suggest that when you find a listing in your price range, that you drive by it several times at various times of the day and night to see who the neighbors are and where they park.

I am always curious about your posts and why almost every.single.one has some issue with illegal immigrants.
Have you gone to each one of their houses, knocked on their doors, and found out if every one of them is illegal? Have you taken their fingerprints and run background checks? Or do you just assume that since they are brown and speaking a different language that they MUST be illegal?
It kills me.

These are the things we looked at when house shopping (both times). Beyond the house itself we looked at...

1. school district and proximity to school (our current home is one block from elementary and within walking of middle school).
2. neighborhood - we judged this by taking time to walk and ride our bikes through neighborhoods before deciding on a house. You learn a lot by walking up and down the streets a few times at different times of the day.
3. nearby park for kids to go to. I love having a park close enough to walk to. it's huge for me.
4. a bus stop for my husband so he can get downtown without driving. this was also a big one for us - we lived her for 3 years with just one car because my husband could get downtown on a bus. Not something most suburbanites can say.

I didn't want a corner lot - I feel like I have less privacy when I'm all "exposed" on the corner. Our minimum square footage was not that important, more important was the right "space" - meaning livable space... number of bedrooms etc. I don't need a huge kitchen, I need a functional kitchen... Parking for guests was not something I thought much about - we have a driveway, and they can park there or on the street. I guess if I lived in a townhome or apartment that might be on m radar.

Good luck!

Will you be working with a realtor? If so, that's really all you need to do. I good realtor will sit down and have a conversation with you about what you like and what you dislike about your current home, what you are hoping to have in a future home, what concerns you have, how important is school district, etc.

I don't know about you, but when my husband and I were ready to buy, I knew I wanted to work with a realtor. The task of buying a house was so scary and overwhelming that there was no way I didn't want an expert in the field working for us with our best interests in mind.

Good luck! This is just so exciting!

Corner lot here =high property taxes. Keep that in mind.
Our rule has been mortgage and taxes don't exceed 25% of net monthly income and enough down payment to eliminate PMI. This has worked well for us.
Check out school districts, local tax rates, commute routes, etc.

I live on a corner lot. While it is nice to have a bigger yard, I HATE having to shovel all of the sidewalks. I don't know if you get snow where you are, but we get a lot. Another problem with our corner lot is the fact that we are not allowed to put up a privacy fence due to visibility issues for drivers. This is a city ordinance that only applies to corner lots.

Good luck!

Important things for me:
Enough rooms for everyone to have their own bedroom plus, ideally, one extra to use as an office and/or guest room
A dedicated playroom (in our house, we use the formal living room as a playroom and have a separate family room with couches, tv, etc)
Backyard big enough for a swingset (where we live, lots are only about 5000 square feet, so it's not a given)
Kitchen big enough to use and move around in
Two car garage (would have loved three but didn't get it)
Adequate street parking for visitors
Community pool
Good schools
Would have LOVED a laundry room but ended up with a place where the washer and dryer are in the garage. this is the only thing I truly dislike about my house
Not on or backing to a busy/loud street

My priorities and likes and dislikes would probably be a lot different than yours. For example, here in CT at this point in my life I would never even consider a townhouse or condo, as they are overpriced and I can purchase a small house for about the same and not have to worry about rules and management fees. However, I did live in a town house in FL in my early 20's, which was a great option for me at that time in my life.

First of all, make a list of what you like about your town house. Then make a list of the things you don't like.

Corner Lot - what do you get? Extra yard, that you need to maintain? Extra windows on the side of the unit rather than just front and back? Are the features worth the extra cost, keeping in mind property taxes. To me, probably a non-issue.

Sq. footage - it's really not about sq. ft. as much as layout. Does it work for your lifestyle?

Guest parking - how often do you have guests? How many at a time? Many complexes have a guest parking lot, but it may be a long walk to your unit, some just have on street parking.

If you find some place you like, visit it at different times of the day and on a weekend. You may find it quiet on a Wednesday evening when you view it, but on a Saturday afternoon it may be a completely different situation.

How old are your kids? What's important to you and them? Do you want them to have a space to play directly outside the kitchen window? Are they old enough to walk down the street to the playground without you? Check out the playground, is it full of moms and small kids, or a hang out for older kids?

For me having the middle and high school within walking distance is a must. I can't tell you how convenient it is when they have afterschool activites, or I need to do a pick up at 9:00 pm.

Everytime we have bought I was concerned about the school districts, price and size of the home. My tastes have changed with each home. First house I had to have the living room/dinning room and family room. Second house, I wanted the great room. I didn't need the living room and I wanted a bonus room. Next house was pool and large kitchen. Now, I would like an open concept. I think I'll just knock a wall down and make my own open concept.

You have to decide what your "have to haves" are and go from there. Working with a good realtor would be a very wise decision for you. Happy hunting!

Neighborhood is the biggest factor when we were looking. It is an old saying for a reason, "location, location, location"!

Then we made a checklist of what was important to us, everyone's list will be different though, so you need to make a list that suits you.

Ours was:
Great neighborhood
No busy streets
4BD/3BA
2 car garage
No power lines near by
Great kitchen
Separate laundry room
Separate room for a 'gun room' for husband
preferably 2 levels
Fireplace (wood burning NOT electric)

Like I said, everyone has their own priority list, make yours and give it to your relator.

When we look for a new home we first figure out our non negotiables. Price is obviously one of those factors, we refuse to be house poor. When we bought this house my hubby had to have a large yard and I had to have a great room. Other than that we were flexible.

When we buy a home, before the purchase we stop by at all times of the day and night to check out the situation before we get serious. A simple drive by at 7 p.m. can tell you a lot ( like if people fill the streets with cars). If an opportunity arises, we talk to neighbors to get some of the scoop on the area.