By Procopia Skoran
I remember buying my first home. It was scary and exciting; that grand mix of stress and adrenaline. My husband and I had been driving around looking at houses and neighborhoods for a very long time. Looking back, I guess that’s because when we started looking, we probably couldn’t afford anything we were likely to want to buy. Still, there was almost always a string of real estate agents willing to spend their Saturday driving around with us in tow. And why was that? It was because we had jobs. They weren’t necessarily the greatest jobs, but my husband and I were both employed at large corporations that were unlikely to fail anytime soon. So these folks figured that if we didn’t buy on this tour, we probably would sometime in the future.
We learned a lot riding around. Of course, that was before any gas crisis that I can remember. We found neighborhoods and schools, grocery and retail stores. We wanted country, but had to be able to get to work in reasonable time. What was traffic like on this road during rush hour? Were the roads plowed in the winter? We lived in Connecticut back then. We noticed that house prices were different based on relationships to the city, to work, to industrial zones. In our case, we were willing to drive a ways to get some country and pay a little less for our home. Still we didn’t buy.
Well, to be honest, we didn’t have a down payment stashed away yet. We wanted to have 20 percent of the price of the house to put towards the purchase, and we planned to get a mortgage from the bank for the other 80 percent. That’s that 80-to-20 loan-to-value ratio you sometimes hear about. We found out that was the ratio the bank needed to give you a loan. More than anything, the reason for that was the bank wanted you to have “skin in the game.” They wanted you to own enough of the house that you cared about its upkeep and you cared about making your mortgage payment because you sure didn’t want to lose the hard earned money you put down on it. The last few years, credit was easier to get, but today, things are back to about where they were. Most banks still believe in the 80-to-20 theory.
So even though we weren’t really ready, we kept looking and we started putting money away so that someday we could buy a house. Maybe not the house of our dreams, but a good sturdy house that we could live in comfortably and pay for comfortably. That was the goal, but we looked at many houses before we actually found the one that would become our home.
We looked at a house with a gurgling brook next to it. Oh, and the brook ran through the basement too. It was the cutest! It had lots of personality. And for two young people, the imagined ambience of that feisty waterway was such an attraction, that we almost forgot how impractical the water-up-to-your-knees basement was. In another house, my husband couldn’t even stand up in the living room. And he’s no giant at 6 feet. The stories of house-buying nightmares are true.
Well time goes on, hubby and I get promotions, we make a little more money and we save some of it. We get a bonus and it goes into the house fund. We get a tax refund and it goes into the house fund. Well we tried to do that, but realistically, it wasn’t always possible. Still, we did it when we could. We had parents that we knew would help us in a crisis, but they weren’t in a position to help us buy our first house. So it was up to us.
As they teach in every real estate course, location is the most important thing to think about when you are buying a home. It has to work for you in terms of travel time, the quality and location of schools if you have kids, availability of parking or transportation, and neighborhood amenities. So there, we were, two young married people, and every weekend my husband would say, “Where do you want to go?” And I would say, “Columbia.” And he’d say, “There are other places besides Columbia.” For me, though, and I can’t really explain why, the small Connecticut town of Columbia became my place to find a house. It was the breakfast place on the corner and the local market where you could stop at for milk when you didn’t want to go to the big grocery store. I knew Columbia wasn’t the only place, and we might never find a house there, but it was where I wanted to look, and look.
Then, one weekend a friend calls to tell us there is a house for sale in her neighborhood. It has beautiful window boxes and it reminds her of us. There’s an open-house for interested people to look and we should come. This house is not in my coveted town, Columbia. It’s a few towns away, but we’re excited and we go anyway. We don’t like the house, but we meet a real estate agent there. Of all the agents we’d worked with, in our opinion, this guy’s approach was the best. He asked what we liked about the house we had visited and what we didn’t like and we told him. We gave him contact information when he said he would only call us if he found a house that fit what we described. We said we were willing to do cosmetic work on a house. And it would be great if he could find a house for us -- in Columbia.
While location is at the top of the list, you also have to think about the house itself. Is it well made and sturdy? How much money will you have to put into it to fix it and keep it up? What materials is it made of? If it’s wood construction, will it be prone to destruction by bugs in your area, such as termites? Does it have termites now? Is your roof safe for hurricanes and will you have shutters if you live in hurricane alley? Is there a basement or in-ground shelter if you live where there are tornadoes? What is the shape of the roof if you’re in a windy area and will it need to be replaced in the near future? If it’s a flat roof, does it hold water and has it leaked in the past? Check for mold, too. What kind of water will you have; city or well? Is the city good about maintaining the water and how would you be notified if chemicals or bacteria exceeded OK levels? What is the cost of city water and when will you be billed? If you have a well for water, you want to check quality by bringing a sample to a lab for testing. And, hah, check the quantity too. Our second house had a well, we thought the washer was old and that’s why it took so long to fill with water, but no, the well had collapsed. We needed a new well for $1,000 just one month into the house, and I guarantee you, we won’t make that mistake again.
When we sold our first home, the buyers checked for radon, an underground gas. We were nervous because we hadn’t known to check for that when we bought the house. We could have been living with radon all along. So most important, make sure you get the house inspected by a professional that is licensed in your state and county as a housing engineer or housing inspector. You should ask to walk around with the inspector too so you can see what they see. Are there enough wall sockets and are they in logical places? Feel free to flush toilets to see how they empty and fill. Check every bathroom. You’d rather have them backup now before you buy. And, even though you are not a professional house inspector, you are the buyer and you may see something the inspector hasn’t. Do not hesitate to ask as you’re walking around. After all, this is one of the most expensive and important purchases of your life and no one will look after your interests as well as you.
Two weeks later, the real estate agent from the open house calls. He has 3 houses for us to look at that he thinks might fit our needs and desires. We are skeptical, but interested, so we go. We visit each house and each one is closer to our needs than the last, but still not perfect. We had said we would do cosmetic work to fix a house, but the last house had an unfinished upstairs and that was just more than we anticipated. We shared our sentiments about each house. We told him he was close, and if he could find that special house – in Columbia – we’d be sold.
Another two weeks, and he calls again. He’s found the house for us. He says if we are really interested in buying a house, this is the one for us. Oh, and the house is in Columbia. So, we’re still skeptical, but interested so off we go. We get to the house and we like the outside. We like the area. And as we walk through the house we are looking for flaws. No flaws. Can this be the house for us? We walk around some more. The living room carpet matches our furniture. There are two fireplaces. The bedrooms are a nice size. We’re sold, but can we agree on a price with the sellers?
We make an offer lower than the asking price. The real estate agent submits our offer to the sellers and they respond with a counter offer; lower than their original asking price, but still higher than our offer. We are only a few thousand dollars apart. They offer to leave the wood stove. We want the house. We accept the stove and agree on a price. Oh, dear, we really are buying this house. So, were happy and nervous all at the same time.
The sellers offer to give us a tour before the sale closing date. Here is where the well is, here is where the outside hose bibs are and so forth. For months we have been driving to Columbia and my husband has teased. Look over there he would say: hazelnuts, they're in season ya know. And I looked every time. And we laughed every time. There weren’t any hazelnut bushes and there was no basis for the tease – it was just funny and we kidded about it. So, here we are at the end of the grand tour of our (almost our) new yard. Standing right at the front of the house, the owner says, oh, this is a hazelnut bush: they're in season ya know. My husband and I practically fall over. There’s a hazelnut bush in front of the house and the owner has used almost the exact words of our tease. We realize it’s a sign! We really were meant for this house. We feel ever so much better as we proceed toward purchase. Our fear is gone. We buy the house. We love the house. Life is good.
