Things you wish you knew when you bought your first house

Maintenence.  Do not buy a log home. Really cool at first, complete drag and Uber expensive on upkeep 

The only issue that I had with my first home was the neighbor that was sort of ‘behind’ us. There were 3 of us on a sort of island in a housing development. The neighbors to my right were a fantastic couple that had emigrated from El Salvador many years before as political refugees. The husband was one of the best men I’ve ever known and his kids were absolutely stellar. The neighbor neighbors behind me were horrible, the father thought that he was going to be the next Tim McGraw (posters all over his garage of him) and his wife and kids were freaking scary. The young daughter was around 5 years old, and one morning we heard noises from downstairs and found that she’d come into the house around 5AM and was going through our cupboards looking for food because her parents had put her on a ‘diet’. 

Other than that, just familiarize yourself with any covenants and CCAs that may apply. Some of those can be crazy!!!!!

Yes maintenance,  budget for it. I've spent a lot more then I thought i would 

Almost every damn appliance has broke in the first ten years. Gravel, paint, sinks, water damaged floor.

Every day I look at my roof dreading the day my homeowners insurance tells me I have replace it.

Septic system too...well pump...etc. 

EDIT to say: Trees too. Are they growing into powerlines, hitting your house? Will they fall down? Are the roots growing into something, under something? Tree removal can get spendy. We spent $1500 to have a guy come in with a bucket truck to trim and thin our 2 big sycamores 8 years ago. 

Don't save a bunch of shit you dont need once you move it.

First off congratulations on your financial situation. Sounds like your relationship isn’t real solid. Were you planning on living with her? If not were you planning on having a roommate to help with the payment? Do you have money saved for a down payment? Do you have money set aside just incase you become unemployed for a time. Do you have any pets? 

Insurance companies are flying drones over houses to look at roofing. They won't insure you if the roof is in poor condition. If you can get a house with a new roof, or have it done as a condition of the sale, I would do that. Insurance has been really bad for everything lately, just beware. Anything "covered" by insurance causes your premium to go up if you use it for a major repair. I would never use insurance for a minor repair.

Great advice…💯👍🏻

Daughter's old colonial brick house

 ( walking distance to the train to  Chicago)

Settled / pitched back over time and the water / sewer wouldn't run down hill to the sewer anymore it actually was pitched back to the house now...

" Should have bought the home owner's Warranty " 

$ 18,000 to jackhammer the basement , driveway .....

Sounds like you’re already ahead of most people your age. When I bought my house it needed some work. But the house had tons of potential, has an attached 2 stall garage and a massive detached garage. It also sits on 4.5 acres and in a desirable area just outside my city. 

It needed a ton of renovating, which I did all myself (except the carpet). Since you’ve got a background in construction, I assume you’ll be able to do a lot of renovations/updates yourself which will save a TON. It took me about 2 years to renovate everything I wanted (while working full time and having 3 kids under the age of 7) but since you have no kids it’ll be much easier for you. 

One thing I did was worked at each project and paid cash for everything I was renovating. I didn’t use credit cards, line of credit or anything. I just picked at it for the 2 years and I saved a bunch of money doing most of it myself. When interest rates were super low a few years ago I refinanced and had to have the house re-appraised. It appraised for almost $150k more than what I paid for it. I probably only had about $15k into renovations. If I had paid someone to do all the work it probably would’ve been triple that. 

So long story short, do as much work yourself as possible. A couple of my buddies were always more than willing to come help as well, with pizza and beer used as bribes of course. I don’t have a background in construction, but learned a ton off of YouTube 😂

Any claim will likely end up with you losing any sort of ‘claim free discount’, but water claims are really bad. A lot of insurance companies won’t write you a policy if you’ve had a water claim in the past 3-5 years. 

In fact, you don’t even necessarily have to have a paid claim to fall into that category. If you call your insurance company and tell them about water damage, then they will probably flag you as having a ‘loss’ due to water and other insurance companies will treat that exactly like a claim if you are looking to switch insurance companies. 

Man oh man. You could do hours and hours of research on the advantages and disadvantages of ownership. When you are young and single, like you are, over all, renting is an advantage. It gives you flexibility. If you want to start a family, I think ownership is probably a better way to go. My opinion obviously. Many many reasons on both sides of the ledger. 

If you do decide to buy, learn how to fix shit. I know people who end up paying thousands of dollars to fix a leaky wax ring because they are clueless. I feel sorry for old people, especially women who absolutely get fucked over by contractors. Even if you are not able to do the work yourself, arm yourself with knowledge to keep from getting fucked over. 

Plan on living in the home for at least six years to really see a dent in the principal of your loan, otherwise the bank makes out and you profit little depending on your market if you sell before that. Rainy day fund for things that break. If you are planning to stay put a while, an extra house payment or two a year makes a good difference on the debt. Get an inspector you can trust and have the seller fix what needs fixing. Have the seller hook you up with a home warranty and renew it for the first few years. Some homes are trouble free, others can be one thing after another. Kind of a crapshoot. A good realtor would hopefully help you understand the build history. Good luck!

I get it. Just remember that for the first several years, your money is going to interest. Not equity. Be sure you want live there for awhile. Not all areas increase in value.

Pay real close attention to the things you can't change. Location, layout of the house, neighbors, HOA rules, etc..... some of it seems like small stuff or things you're willing to compromise on, but if it's a thing you have no ability to control or fix, it can make you miserable in a hurry. I've personally moved because of an intolerable HOA and I have a family member who moved because the neighbor was an angry drunk and always causing problems and there was nothing the police could or would do about it. 

Other thing I would say is maybe drag your feet a little on this. A little change in interest rate makes a huge difference in what you can afford. Reasonable to think rates will be better over the next year. Obviously a total guess. 

Don't think for a second a home warranty is going to protect you from major expenses. Most home warranties are total scams that are nearly impossible to get money out of. 

There is nothing I wish I knew before buying a house- just go buy one. No that big a deal really..

In the excitement of buying my first home, I neglected to call the electric company before closing.  Closed on a Friday afternoon, went to the house, and spent my first weekend with no electricity.  Pretty stupid seeing as I was an electrician at the time.  

If you’re questioning the decision, there is no question. Keep renting.  You need to be fully confident before diving into a commitment.  There are always homes available. 

Neighbor's,  9 out of 10 are f!@#$%^ holes.

If 9 out of 10 neighbors are f!@#$%^ holes, you may need to look in a mirror.

Ancient Chinese Proverb:  If there’s an asshole in your neighborhood, he’s an asshole. If there are multiple assholes in your neighborhood, you’re the asshole…

My advise would be to use the first time home buyers incentive to buy a multi family. A duplex or 4 plex with enough room in the back to build yourself a small work shop for your bikes and bike biz.  
Then someone else pays for most of something YOU own.  Hold it for 10 years and sell it to build your dream place with tons of equity.    Then your about mortgage free before your 40.   

 

If things need fixing. Assume everything will cost twice as much, and take twice as long to finish. 

I have a house in Wisconsin 

I knew nothing about well and septic

Within 1 year I knew everything about well and septic.

Baptism by fire !

When it comes to home purchases I think it varies on your skill level as far as maintenance is concerned. Electric, brick, siding, heating/cooling etc.  I was lucky and also worked construction so all projects I did myself and saved a ton of money.

Save money for the rainy days that inevitably come when things break down. Buy a home that has potential and not maxed out on property value. 

My son and daughter-in-law did something like this with their first purchase. Her father had put money into an account when she was first born and by the time they were married it was over $150K. Luckily her father is very involved in residential income properties and he had some good contacts in the Seattle area to help them find just the right opportunity. Even with the Covid restrictions (they got married in March 2021 and closed on the 4 plex in April) allowing one of the tenants to not pay rent for quite a while, the property was a small income producer from day one. Now that all 4 units are full rent, it’s a pretty big income producer relatively. 

The area that they bought in is being revitalized and they have gotten a couple of offers for the site that would net them a pretty decent profit but for now they are holding off. They may end up moving down to her home area (Huntington Beach) in the future and they’d probably sell it then but otherwise it’s been a cash cow that’s hard to justify selling. 

One other note when it comes to buying a house that I think is usually good advice is to try to buy a house on the lower end of the neighborhood price range. There’s usually a better chance of piggybacking on the value of the higher end homes to bring up the value of surrounding homes. The more expensive homes are more likely to be drug down by the neighborhood around them. 

Haahaa!

I’m the OG in my neighborhood, based on how long my wife and I have been here…over 39 years. Every house in our neighborhood has had at least 4 different families, most have had around 6 families or more. Over the years we’ve been pretty lucky with  these families, of course there have been some bad apples. My wife and I have always minded our own business. Never bothered with what others had going on, on their own property. Seems to have been a pretty good way to go over the years.💯

I did not research my first house like you are doing , which is a great idea. RV parking was a must. I just lucked out and the house that we bought with RV parking had a turned garage ( parallel to street ) and windows and yards that face to the north and south. The turned garage gives you the huge driveway plus your stuff is less visible from the street and the north south windows keep the pad a little cooler without the glare of a setting sun. Good luck with your search.